Is your washbay a drain on your profits? Paint & Panel surveyed repairers asking them to estimate how much they spend on washing cars and found the results varied wildly.
You don’t get paid for cleaning cars but, of course you, do it. Handing the car back clean is in your contract with the insurance companies and you have your pride and business reputation to think of. Given the costs involved though, how clean does the car really have to be? This article looks at different opinions on cleanliness, encourages you to examine your own costs to see if they can be reduced, and to explore detailing as a viable profit stream.
Washing cars is a surprisingly emotive subject. Many shop owners will swear that a proper detailing impresses customers and generates not only repeat business but word of mouth recommendation. Five years ago there would have been no argument. However, given that the average Australian has an accident once every seven years, will they remember you gave their car back to them in showroom condition? Add to that, it’s almost a given that they will go to the shop their insurer directs them to when it comes to the next car crunch.
According to Wikipedia the definition of Auto Detailing is 'the performance of thorough cleaning, restoration, and finishing of an automobile, both inside and out, to produce a show-quality level of detail'.
Now don’t get us wrong - we’re not suggesting that you just give the car a quick cat’s lick clean, it should be properly washed and vacuumed. If it’s a heavy hit then not only will the car need detailing because of the dust accumulated during the repair process but getting the car back ‘as new’ is important psychologically for the customer. If it's a smaller repair job though, are you wasting money by 'detailing' rather than cleaning thoroughly? If you are going to detail the car why not actually make some money while you are about it?
Our survey says...
We asked shops to tell us how many cars they fixed per month, how much they spent on consumables, how much they paid their detailing staff and how much they spent on water and electricity in the wash bay. It’s probably not a stretch to assume that apart from the detailers’ wages many respondents were guessing at the other costs. Talking to some of the people who provide business improvement services in paint companies and workshop management software companies, tracking car washing costs simply isn't on the radar of the majority of shops owners. However, with shrinking profit margins it seems sensible to put every aspect of the business under the microscope to see if costs can be lowered or tasks performed more efficiently. Do you measure consumables usage? Do you have a standard time for different sized vehicles that your detailers stick to for maximum efficiency?
Repairers come clean
We talked to a number of panel shop owners both prestige and mum and dad shops, large and small to find out about their approach to cleaning. We’ll keep the names and shops anonymous but share some interesting and diverse approaches. Firstly, have a look at how many of you try to upsell a detail while you have a customer who generally isn’t paying for the repair and could be quite happy to splash out on a detail that they don’t have to book in, then sit and wait for - as their car is off the road anyway (pie chart above).
The last question we asked on the survey was ‘Do you offer a detailing service to customers.’ Only 7.5% of you offer this to all your customers.
Shop A
A large shop specialising in heavy hits and 4x4s. This shop owner asks his customers to bring their car in clean for two reasons. Firstly so that staff can get a feel for what the owner considers clean and make sure they get it back to their own standards of clean (not dropping below a minimum standard). Secondly, its much easier to to see other non-accident related damage on a clean car which give you the opportunity to upsell repairs of scratches and dings at ‘I might actually make some profit’ rates that you don’t have to negotiate.
Shop B
Genius? This large shop which mixes prestige with mum and dad, as well as rapid repair offers all its customers a wash at $30 - cheaper than most roadside car washes. If they say no they get their car washed anyway of course, but 80 percent say yes. It might not quite cover the cleaning cost but it's a decent contribution and a great bottom line booster.
Shop C
This is a large, high volume (400 a month), contracted, drivable repair facility. This owner knows the costs of every aspect of the business. How much do they spend on car cleaning? He didn’t even have to look it up, $32.50 per car. He also factors in square meter-age of the workshop to his costs as well as those we asked in the survey and reckons that each car costs around 70c in water per car - around $300 per month. Most respondents ‘guesstimated’ around $100 per month for water and electricity, if you don’t use recycled water then you could be paying a lot more than that.
Shop D
This is a small, extremely clean and efficient shop. They don’t miss a trick for upselling and try to get $35 from each client for an exterior clean, vacuum and tyre shine. They also offer a hand glaze for shine and protection for $88 and to shampoo the interior from $132. Finally there’s a cut and polish hand glaze from $220. Like shop B if the client doesn’t take up the $35 offer, they still get their car back clean. This shop also includes a brochure offering detailing with its warranty folder. Take up is around 30 percent when they have the client in the shop, they haven’t had much independent or repeat business from the detailing brochure.
Dirty minded?
Are your staff dirty minded? Is every car filthy by the time it gets to the wash bay? Axalta’s Robin Taylor says that keeping it clean, keeps costs lean. Make sure doors and windows are kept shut wherever possible and dustless sanding equipment is a must. Seat covers and floor covers will also save time. If the workshop is clean then the car shouldn’t take as long to clean when it arrives at the detailing station.
Checks and balances
A lot of shops use the wash bay as a final check of the paintwork. Detailers are cheaper than spray painters so this might be an economical point to de-nib. Ideally, though, these checks should happen in the paint shop and the detailers should focus on cleaning.
Clean up
Professional detailers charge between $300 and $1,000 depending on the time needed to complete the work. Services you can offer are interior restoration, steam cleaning of upholstery, protective services for trim and leather, and paint protection.
What do you have to lose?
It's already working in other shops who are earning extra money to pay for overheads that are on the books regardless. Why not ask every customer if they would like their car detailed before collection and have two or three packages ranging from $40 to $300?