Express Detailing Extra profit center made easy By Anthony Analetto President - SONNY'S The Car Wash Factory Equipment Division Originally published in Professional Carwashing & Detailing magazine WATCH NOW - Carriage Car Wash Case Study

I’ve seen 4 bay express detailing centers generate over 50K per month in additional revenues. I’ve also seen haphazard implementations that actually cannibalized from high end wash packages. When done right, it is more than marketing. It is more than signage. Successful express detailing demands absolute employee buy-in, and systematized delivery. I hope this article gives you the down and dirty concept and a solid platform from which you can build your business.

Professional detailing requires extensive training. Express detailing does not. In fact many of the chemical manufacturers now offer free training to get you started in only a couple of days. Whatever you do, do not confuse express detailing with professional detailing; either for yourself or your customers. You should be prepared to turn business away to professional detailing outfits in you area with whom you have an established relationship. If a car has carpet staining more severe than can be cleaned in 20 minutes with the equipment you have, be honest with the customer and tell them so. If a car is too heavily oxidized to be shiny with only a spray-n-shine wax and orbital buff, recommend a professional detailer. The majority of your customers will be prime candidates for an express wax, express interior cleaning, or carpet shampoo. Whereas professional detailing often involves restoring vehicle appearance, express detailing is more often about preventative maintenance – something everyone needs – provided you help them realize it.

AUTOMATING TRUST
Unlike a conveyorized wash, express detailing services are delivered by people. Very often, a customer’s perception of the competence and professionalism of the attendants working on their vehicle is equally important to the actual service they are performing. So how do you standardize service and build customer trust with a labor pool
subject to frequent turnover? There are three tools available to do what I like to think of as automating trust. First, automate production with a limited and highly controlled service offering. Second, automate communication with clear signage that eliminates
any potential confusion between customers and attendants. Third, automate employee management by setting clear expectations and incentive programs that adjust to changing conditions such as weather and address many variables that increase turnover.

AUTOMATING PRODUCTION
When starting an express detailing center, throw out your ideas about detailing and think more along the lines of creating a fast food restaurant. Your goal is not to be all things to everyone. Rather, your goal is to provide a consistent product at a great value with little potential for variation. To do this you must create a work cell that is intuitive, well labeled, and always stocked with every supply used in the services you offer. Whether it is one of your seasoned attendants, or temporary staff, there can never be a question as to where something is. This does not necessitate expensive equipment, often careful planning is the most valuable instrument for success. One idea I have seen used very effectively in detail service bays are simple laminated letter size signs indicating each step of a detail package, the supplies used, approximate time to complete, and a photograph of someone that is performing the task. Other inexpensive production aids are color coded supply containers and wall mounted timers that count down the expected service time. If you are looking for other ideas, examine one of your local fast food restaurants. You will be taking a major step towards eliminating ambiguity and automating production.

AUTOMATING COMMUNICATION
The greeter is one of the single most valuable assets at a successful full serve with express detail center. Later an entire section will be devoted to both their management and compensation. Here I want to address the importance of automating their communication with your customers. What I mean by automation is two-fold, first to standardize the message they deliver, second to reduce the importance of how the greeter delivers it. This is accomplished with two mechanisms, signage, and verbiage. When designing the titles of your express detailing packages the customer should know exactly what they are getting without explanation. This does not mean that creative titles that fit with a themed car wash can not be used with great results, but if you’re not sure, keep it simple. If you’re offering an express wax package, call it EXPRESS WAX rather than something like SUPER EXTERIOR SERVICE. Additionally, if your wash serves a large base of bilingual customers, make sure the titles are easy to understand or include subtitles on all your signage and greeter cards. It seems simple but carefully crafting your packages to be self explanatory can go far with facilitating communication with your customers. The second component, signage, should be equally self explanatory. If your detailing package is an express wax, then there should be a picture of a car getting an express wax. In a nutshell, a customer should be able to understand and select the extra services they want with nothing more than a finger point, even if English is not their native language. I have included a sample for a laminated greeter menu card in this article. If you are interested in receiving a copy that you can modify and print for your wash just send me an email and I would be happy to send it to you.

AUTOMATING MANAGEMENT
As I wrote in the beginning, setting up an express detailing center requires little investment but demands systematized delivery and absolute employee buy-in. I’ve already touched upon systematized delivery and now want to turn to management aspects of running an express detail center at your car wash. I want to make clear that this is a format that I have used successfully at numerous car washes. That does not mean it is the only method or even the best for that matter. I have seen many formats designed by creative operators across the country that have produced astounding results. Below is one plan based on express detailing dollars per day or E.D.D. with some ideas you may be able to incorporate.

STEP 1: MARCHING TO THE BEAT OF EXPRESS DETAILING DOLLARS PER DAY…E.D.D…E.D.D…
Critical to the success of your detailing center is to galvanize every employee at your wash to the importance of getting customers to buy express detailing packages. Vagary doesn’t work – you must publish very specific and realistic expectations – for each and every day. Whether you post it above the cashier or at a time clock, if asked, every person who works at your car wash should know from the top of their head the exact express detailing dollars per day (E.D.D) that must be sold each day. Why E.D.D? It separates the expectation for express detailing sales per day and compensation from up-selling online wash packages while maintaining a relationship between the two. Later I’ll highlight how it can develop into an easy to understand compensation package that complements a greeter’s salary for online wash packages while changing less than ideal weather days into an opportunity to maximize potential express detailing revenue. Now – a rough guide to calculating your posted E.D.D. When calculating E.D.D. the more detailed the better. If you have historical information available by week or day you should use it. If not, just knowing your annual car count is a sufficient place to start. Simply divide your annual car count by the number of days you’re open and multiply it by the days per week you operate to calculate your average daily and weekly car counts. Then establish a target amount of express detailing revenue you plan to make per car. This number will vary across markets but a good rule of thumb to start with is to target express detailing revenue per car at half of the price of your base full serve wash. Now you simply have to take your average weekly car count, weighted and distributed per day of the week and multiply by your targeted express detailing revenue per car and voila – you have you’re target E.D.D. for the day. It really isn’t as complicated as it seems, once you write out the numbers it will start to make a lot of sense.

STEP 2: VERY SHINY – VERY DULL – THE WIN-WIN PROPOSITION.
Have you ever stopped to think when and how the average consumer learned that their oil must be changed every 3 months or 3,000 miles? For those of us who can still remember when manufacturers recommended 7,000 mile oil changes – did you ever stop and think how did customers learn to embrace the 3,000 mile “preventive maintenance” oil change to such an extent that it is now the rule rather than the exception? The reason was that it was an honest recommendation and an inexpensive way to protect their vehicle. Express detailing services are very much like a quick lube – except the customer hasn’t yet learned the necessity or the frequency that they need the services. It’s your job to teach them without alienating them from coming to your wash with an intrusive or hard selling approach. As I said before, express detailing is not professional detailing, it is preventative maintenance that when presented correctly – essentially, every customer needs.

Everything starts and ends with your greeter, who if set loose with improper training and a commission program per car can potentially alienate as many customers as they convert. Before we go into the selling approaches, there are three items that every greeter should have in their hands or pockets every second they are working; a bottle of spay-nshine wax, a laminated menu card, and windshield reminder stickers, the same ones used to remind customers of their next scheduled oil change. With those items in hand, your greeter is ready to observe customers cars and their needs, teach them about the importance of preventive maintenance, and explain the services you offer. It may seem like common sense, but above all else, your greeter must be presentable and professional. I’ve gone so far as to keep disposable razors and other toiletries on hand and have sent many greeters home who didn’t look the part of a professional consultant. The approach in express detailing is casual, nonthreatening, and focused on the exterior of thevehicle. An interior of a car can be a very personal space and nothing will be misconstrued more quickly than a greeter trying to stare down between customer’s legs to see if their carpets are stained. The greeter should be presenting opportunities rather than identifying problems. If a customer’s car has a nice finish they will complement them on it and recommend an express wax to help preserve it, it only takes 20 minutes.

If a customer’s car has a dull finish they will ask when the last time it was waxed. If unknown or more than three months they will recommend an express wax. The pitfall to avoid is trying to sell every customer everything – nothing can erode trust in your detailing center faster than telling a customer who got an express wax the week before that their car doesn’t look shiny. Many pages could be written on the finer points of greeter selling approaches but before I move on I want to make sure I mention one of the most powerful and often overlooked approaches – a product demonstration. If a customer appears interested in an express wax, ask them for permission to apply a small amount of wax on the hood of their car so they can see what they will get. Also it goes without saying that once a car is turned over for express detailing, this is the opportunity to inspect and identify other interior services that the customer needs. The fact that many customers do not fully understand the importance of preventative maintenance of their cars appearance is a great opportunity to develop a consistent revenue stream for your wash. Unfortunately, unlike with an oil change, there is no odometer indicating when service is required. One method I’ve seen to address this borrows from the quick lube industry and utilizes small window stickers that recommend preventative waxing every three months and have a space to write in the date of last service. This is a great way to increase repeat business and I’ve even seen some greeters apply them to regular full serve customers with three months from the current date on slow days.

STEP 3: RETAINING GOOD GREETERS – AND INCREASING YOUR BOTTOM LINE
I hope I’ve established the vital importance of your greeter’s presentation, support signage, and training. Now I want to address the reality that good greeters are often ambitious and talented people. Nothing is more frustrating than cultivating and training the cream of the crop – only to have them move on during an extended period of inclement weather. Retaining quality greeters with a consistent salary – in a business that is inherently inconsistent – with compensation that is not so excessive as to destroy the profit incentive - is tricky. Next, I am going to outline a commission program that is based on E.D.D. that I have used very effectively. This is only one plan and may not work for your exact situation. As with any advice, take the parts that make sense to you and leave the rest.

The premise of the compensation program is that it is purely in addition to the compensation a greeter receives from selling online services above the base wash package. The plan is structured so that on high volume days the incentive for the greeter shifts towards selling online services, thus maximizing your revenue per vehicle while avoiding an unmanageable flood of vehicles to your express detailing center. On poor weather days, the greeter has an incentive not only to show up for work, but to maximize every customer encounter and truly sell express detailing services. Talented greeters have the opportunity to earn excellent compensation across changing weather, holidays, and days of the week. The program works similarly to the popular dollars over base (D.O.B) programs often used to increase online service revenue. The amount of revenue for each express detailing service over the established base wash a greeter sells goes into the total E.D.D. tally. At the end of the week the amount of E.D.D. is divided by the number of cars that went through the wash to calculate the express dollars per car (E.D.C). That amount is added to the greeter’s hourly base pay. In the example above there was a target E.D.C. of $5 per car. In this scenario, if the greeter met each daily E.D.D. exactly, every day of the week, the amount added to their hourly salary would equal the target E.D.C. of $5. Simply put, if a greeter’s base salary was $6 and they met the E.D.D. target exactly, every day, their hourly wage would be $11. That amount does not include commissions related to selling online wash services.

It would be difficult to describe how the program works under different scenarios in a short magazine article, but that basic description is hopefully enough for you to get started with drafting a compensation program that helps automate management at your express detailing center. Some other useful rules of thumb that might help you get planning are that your actual detailing labor will normally consume 1 man hour per $30 in detailing. That would represent 23% cost of labor at a $7 hourly wage. When designing your express detailing packages you will need to adjust the level of service in relation to regional wages and chemical expenses to preserve that 23% cost of labor. Another useful rule of thumb for planning is that you would want to schedule 1 greeter per every 30 cars per hour volume anticipated for a given day. That ratio provides adequate time for a greeter to represent your services to your full serve customers while working at an efficient pace.

SUMMARY
Although certainly more involved than putting up a sign and handing an attendant a bottle of spray wax, if you have even the smallest amount of additional space, adding an express detail center can add tremendous profit to your car wash with a minimal investment. There is no denying that coordinating the additional management, training, and marketing can be a challenge – but there is nothing more exhilarating in this business than finishing off a beautiful sunny day with over $5,000 of express detailing revenue in your pocket.

Anthony Analetto has over 26 years experience in the car wash business and is the President of SONNY'S The Car Wash Factory's Equipment Division. Before coming to SONNY'S Anthony was the director of operations for a 74 location national car wash chain. Anthony can be reached at 800-327-8723 x 104 or at aanaletto@sonnysdirect.com