Indeed, I guess it goes without saying that your best customers are your regular customers, those people that come into your store each week, and always buy something. Yes, it's nice to get the big orders once in a while, and that sure helps pay the bills too, but it is those steady regular customers that keep your small business going. Now then, to illustrate this point, let's discuss a mobile auto service business, a mobile car wash business for instance.
There are many things you need to avoid when running this type of business. Let me give you an example. Often you will get a call from a very good detailing client, who wants you to come detail their car right now! You know that you can make $150 for a very easy job in less than an hour. Sure you could drop what you are doing and go detail that car, but don't forget you will have a minimum of 15 minutes each way plus that hour, so it's really an hour and a half for $150 or $50.00 per hour. Is that worth alienating your regular mobile car washing customers on your route?
Another issue is trying to up-sell all of your customers on certain types of services that may add a few dollars to their total bill, but will take you a lot more time to complete. Many mobile auto washers will try to up-sell everyone on a vacuum and interior cleaning - I'd advise not to push those services. If you are going to push extra add-on services, push quick-waxes or express details for $45.00 (wash, wax, vacuum, tires) or exterior wash and wax for $28 to $35.
If you are going to up-sell or suggestive-sell additional services, they should be services that are of a high profit margin, not just busy work. Now then, when it is a cloudy or rainy day a mobile car wash operator on his route may up-sell people for interior and vacuum services due to the weather. That makes sense, because anyone getting a carwash that day will realize that if they drive through the puddles of the rain their car will get all dirty again, but at least the interior will be clean.
And it's better to clean the interior than have no work at all. Thus, in that case it makes sense to give them a discount on the carwash, and charge them the regular price per the interior with a few extras. Perhaps even offer a deal on carpet shampoo, leather conditioning, or Rain-X for the window, which will keep their windshield from fogging up when they are driving in poor weather. I hope you will please consider all this because these are tips that I have learned over a 20 year period working in the industry.
Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, http://www.carwashguys.com/ and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,222 articles by July 22, 2011 at 2:22 PM is going to be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..
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