For body shops looking to boost revenues, offering retail detailing services can be highly lucrative. Detailing can provide a steady revenue stream with a high profit margin, and keep existing collision customers coming in on a regular basis.
But very few shops have been willing or able to move into the detailing market. Starting a detailing business requires space, training, and an investment in equipment and staff. There is also plenty of competition from professional detailers, car washes and do-it-yourselfers.
Body shops willing to take the plunge have some clear advantages over the competition, though: the experience and equipment to provide paintless dent repair and touch-up services (which are increasingly offered by pro detailers) and a good working knowledge of sophisticated paint finishes. Body shops also usually have the available space, a lot of the necessary equipment and are doing at least some detailing for collision repair customers.
Successful shops offer value-added services above and beyond the traditional interior/exterior detail, such as engine and undercarriage cleaning, stain removal, upholstery or convertible top repair, and even air cleaning services. Other companies offer mobile detailing services performed at the customer’s home.
Dale Huber, owner of Collision Plus Autobody in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, added a retail component to the detailing operation at his 7,500-sq.-ft. shop in 1997. Collision Plus services 50 to 75 detail customers per month using two full-time detailers. The company offers interior and exterior detail, undercoating, engine cleaning, paint sealing and fabric guarding, and has added upholstery and vinyl repair services through two outside sub-contractors. “We were doing so much detail work anyway, I figured why not do retail?” Huber says. “We do enough that it’s a profit center now.”
For shops that aren’t interested in making the investment in infrastructure, there’s always outsourcing. Custom Detailing & Autobody in East Brunswick, N.J., has contracted with an outside detailer for both collision and retail customers. “Every detail shop you go to, you can find somebody that’s already trained,” says Owner/Operator Tony Lucciola. “A lot of times, you’re better off just hiring a guy like that. The guy I use brings all his own chemicals and equipment.”
Other shops have developed referral relationships with detailers that are looking for reliable body shops to handle paint and dent repair. “There’s definitely some growth in that area, and it’s something that’s got a lot of potential for both detailer and body shops,” says Jim Hammill, executive director of the Professional Detailing Technician’s Association.
There’s no point in starting a detail operation unless you expect to make money. According to Andrew Klink, owner of Anchor Auto Body Repairing and Detailing in Burlingame, Calif., gross profit on detail work can be as high as 80 percent (compared to 50 percent to 60 percent on body work). “The cost on a $275 detail is right around $50, so you have a great return on investment,” says Klink. “But you have to keep the volume up to do it.”
Anchor Auto Body actually started out as a mobile boat detailing business that Klink and his wife ran out of a car. They expanded to auto detailing, then started doing body work after having some bad experiences referring customers to other body shops. Klink says his business started out with a 50-50 revenue split between the collision and detailing businesses. Now detailing accounts for around one-third of his $1.5 million in annual revenue.
Custom Detailing & Auto Body does a lower volume in straight detail work (only around 15 cars per month) but still shows a nice profit. According to Lucciola, he charges $125 to $175 for a detail and pays his outside detailer $50 to $75 per car.
Plan for success
Even if your body shop is doing well, that’s no guarantee that detailing will pay off without the right business plan.
Some detail shops have wholesale arrangements with local car dealerships, which can be a source of steady revenue. These wholesale arrangements come with their own headaches, though. Huber at Collision Plus has avoided working with dealerships because “there’s no money in it.” Klink has one dealership client, but has ended most of his other wholesale contracts because they weren’t profitable.
Location will be much more important for a retail detailing business than for a body shop because of the amount of walk-in business needed to sustain most detailers—so evaluate your shop’s accessibility and signage.
Layout also plays a role. If there’s not space for a dedicated detailing bay, you may have to re-arrange your shop, add on, or even revamp your ventilation system to prevent chemicals from damaging your paint jobs.
“Any guy who has a body shop that doesn’t have a separate area where he can do the detailing, it’s not going to work for him,” says Lucciola.
“In the old days, everybody had silicon-based products in the detail chemicals,” Klink adds. “When we first started, every job that came out was like fish-eye city. It looked like the craters of the moon.” Klink changed his shop layout so that the detailing bay and paint booth were as far away from each other as possible. He also put up curtains to separate the different areas of the shop, and switched to new chemicals that didn’t contain silicon.
At Collision Plus, Huber sealed off his detail bay from the body shop, and each part of the building has its own air system. “We don’t draw any air out of the shop or push air back into the shop,” Huber says. “You just never know if a chemical is going to have a reaction, and I don’t take any chances.”
Klink also cautions shop owners to educate themselves on local environmental regulations. Being based in California, Anchor is subject to some of the strictest environmental regulations in the country, and compliance can add significant operating cost to a detailing shop. These regulations can be especially problematic for mobile detailers, depending on where they’re located.
“Getting into it, know the regulations, know what EPA issues are, find out about water separation rules. It’s different state to state,” Klink says. “That will break you. In the Bay Area, most body shops have gone out of business because they can’t keep up with the California regulations. It almost did it to me. I had to get loans to when I first started. That’s biggest pitfall.”
Sales and marketing
A successful detail operation relies as much on salesmanship and marketing as it does on technical skill, so whoever is managing the detailing side of your business should know how to sell additional services, and how to keep existing customers happy.
“Everybody that comes in for a detail needs some sort of body work. Everybody that comes in for body work needs a detail. It’s a perfect match,” says Klink. “That’s how you survive. It has to be a sales-driven operation. Sales and customer service all the way. If people know that you’re good, they’re going to talk to their friends about you. The best form of advertising is doing a great job.”
Detailers should develop seasonal marketing plans to keep existing customers coming in as often as possible. Most shops will offer discounts and referral deals via direct mail, and send out reminder coupons to customers every few months.
Klink (whose background was originally in sales and marketing) tried advertising in the Yellow Pages, but found he was getting only a handful of leads from a $1,400 monthly ad. His best return has been from direct mailing his existing client base. “It’s amazing,” Klink says. “They get a card in the mail for that detail special, and also see that you do body work. You can get a $4,000 job off a 23-cent card. It’s the most simplistic and most profitable form of advertising.”
Collision Plus offers free cleaning (a $40 gift) through the local Welcome Wagon organization, which can bring in as many as 35 new customers a month. “Even doing those for free, we’re still making a profit,” says Huber. “Everybody who moves into this area, they see our cards. We gain so many new customers from that, it’s not even funny.”
Once customers come in for an initial cleaning, Huber often signs them up for a yearly contract (at $400 annually). “Then they’re coming in every month instead of every three or four years for collision work.” Huber says he has between 40 and 50 customers currently on monthly packages, and gains at least one or two more per month.
The right equipment
While some detailers still operate under the brush-and-bucket model, bringing in high-end, repeat customers with money to spend will require more modern detailing equipment. Huber estimates the total cost of a high-end detail operation can be as high as $20,000. (That figure could be higher or lower, depending on what your existing facility looks like.)
What type of equipment you buy will depend on how much volume you expect, and the clientele you’re catering to. “You can go out and spend $300 or $400 on one of those turbo vacuums that are real quiet, or you can go spend $60 at Home Depot,” Lucciola says. “If you know what you’re doing, it really doesn’t make a difference.”
Most shops will already have most of the buffers and polishers needed for detail work. Other equipment could include carpet extractors (between $1,000 and $3,000), pressure washers (up to several thousand dollars), portable pressure washers (approximately $500), wet-dry vacs (up to $500), and portable work carts or dispensing stations (which can run from several hundred to several thousand dollars). Huber also recommends having a good pump system, which can cost between $6,000 and $9,000.
Some shops have switched from traditional carpet cleaners to vapor steamers. Cheap steamers have given this technology a bad name, but professional-grade equipment is efficient and doesn’t saturate the carpet. According to Huber, steamed carpet can be dry within two and a half hours.
Another piece of equipment that high-volume detail shops keep on hand is an industrial-strength washing machine for rags and towels. You can purchase this equipment outright, or lease it from equipment vendors. The latter can provide regular maintenance and service plans.
There are dozens of chemical manufacturers, so material costs can vary. Selecting chemicals will depend on what state you’re in, local environmental regulations, and personal preference. “A lot of them are the same,” says Hammill. “Many detailers make the mistake of spending months deciding which chemicals to use, when in essence the chemicals are all the same.”
The people factor
Any body shop owner knows that finding good employees and keeping them trained is the key to a successful business, and the same holds true for detailing.
Although there are some training programs for detailing, most shops rely on chemical suppliers to keep their employees up-to-date on how to use their products.
“Training is the key,” says Hammill. “Anybody can pick up a buffer or a polisher and take it to the paint finish. But as you understand the chemicals you’re working with, you learn what they can do and what they can do to damage the paint rather than restore it.”
Both Huber and Klink said their detailers receive supplier training at least three or four times a year.
The biggest factor in running a successful detailing operation is still doing quality work, says Huber. “People are picky. You really have to know what you’re doing, and ask them the right questions about what they want,” Huber says. “If you’re not detailing properly, then don’t detail at all.”
