Increase the effectiveness, efficiency & consistency of your detailing operation

by Prentice St. Clair

Running a car wash is a lot of work. For the hands-on owner or the onsite manager, the day is filled with equipment maintenance and breakdowns, customer interface, and employee management. Now, add to this a separate business—the detail center—with its own set of challenges and management issues. As a result, sometimes the car wash’s detail center, whether it be performing express, full service, or both, can become neglected over time.

A common area of neglect is the training of the detailing technicians. This is unfortunate because these are the exact people upon whom we rely to produce the results that will “wow” the customer. The goal of this article is to encourage wash owners and managers to consider the issue of training for their detailing technicians.

Do I Really Need to Train Them?

Most trades require extensive training and some even require formal certification or licensure before the technician can perform billed services. Most companies who hire such skilled professionals, like plumbers, construction contractors or mechanics, wouldn’t dream of allowing personnel to perform work on behalf of the company without proper training and education. Some trades require weeks or months of classroom and hands-on training to achieve certification. Somehow, in our industry, the detailing technician does not generally receive the same scrutiny.

Perhaps this is because detailing seems like it’s a simple proposition. Some car wash owners make the same mistake that the wanna-be detail business owner makes—just go clean up cars with some rags, a spray bottle of some random cleaning chemical, and a bottle of wax. Yet, for truly exceptional results that command top dollar, the detail job must be performed in a systematic fashion with proven techniques that utilize professional-grade chemicals and equipment.

If your detailers are learning their trade by experimenting on customer’s vehicles, they are doing those customers a disservice by providing results that are inadequate and perhaps even damaging. That is not to say that experience is unimportant—quite the contrary. Experience is a very important learning tool and is far more powerful if it is built upon a foundation of formal training. 

Another major disadvantage of learning detailing by experience only is the impact it has on your customer’s level of satisfaction with the final result. If the customer is not absolutely thrilled with the work provided by your detailing crew, he or she is less likely to return. The customer is also less likely to “trust” any other new program of additional services that you might roll out. In the worst case scenario, the customer might simply move on to another car wash altogether, leaving you with one less wash customer.

A high-quality formal training event can replace months and years of day-to-day experience. The choice is yours: get your crew up-to-speed in a few days of training or spend years guessing. Another critical problem is that lack of knowledge usually leads to a lack of confidence which, in a service industry, usually leads to a lack of pricing confidence. Thus, the employer of untrained detailers tends to charge far less than the market will bear because he knows that the results that his crew can provide are only so-so.

Quality training will also help create a detailing system that increases efficiency and effectiveness. With increased efficiency, the job gets done faster. Think about it … are your detail jobs taking too long? Lack of training may be a big cause of that. With increased effectiveness, the jobs come out looking much better. Again, think about it … do your customers express happiness or elation with the work produced by your detailing center? Do you get a lot of complaints and “go-backs?” With increased effectiveness, you can expect to hear comments such as, “Wow, the car hasn’t looked that good since we bought it!”

Don’t be fooled by the relative “simplicity” of express detailing. It requires the same process-orientation as does full-service detailing. In fact, I believe that express detailing is actually more process-intense because of the time constraints inherent in a service for which the customer waits. Every movement must be choreographed to ensure maximum efficiency without any loss of quality and thoroughness.

Training Options

There are several options for training that are available to the car wash owner. You can send your detailing technicians to one of the many fine detailing schools across the country. This can be an expensive proposition when considering travel expenses. On the other hand, it gets the employees out of the daily routine, thus removing distractions.

Another option is to pick up a video training package. This is a less expensive proposition than sending several employees to a training school. A disadvantage is that the program is already written; what you get will be the same every time it is viewed, with no customization. An advantage of a video program is that it can be shown anytime as a “refresher.” Additionally, it can be shown to new hires as an introduction to the world of detailing.

 I believe that an excellent training option is one that takes place at the car wash location. In this situation, the training consultant comes to your location, analyzes several factors, including the type of customer coming into your car wash, the detailing menus, the sales staff knowledge, the facilities, the equipment and chemicals in use, and the goals of the management for the detail center. With this analysis, the consultant can construct a training program that best fits your particular situation.

To ensure consistency for years to come, the car wash owner is encouraged to allow for the creation of an in-house training program. This might be championed by the detail manager or perhaps created as part of an onsite training package provided by an outside consultant.

Well-rounded detail training will include assistance with the development of a detailing menu, the establishment of quality standards for each menu item, the documentation of standard operating procedures for each standard, and advice on chemicals, equipment and techniques to be used during the procedures. The goal of this extensive work is to create a detailing system that produces consistently high-quality results in the most efficient manner possible. Once this system is implemented and fine-tuned, it can be easily taught to new hires.

Of course, the best detailing operation in the world is worthless if there are no customers. So, a good onsite training program will also include analysis and instruction on the detailing sales and marketing strategy. After establishing menu items that fit the needs of the car wash customers, the training consultant can work with the service advisors. The sales staff is the critical link between the customer and the detail center’s productivity. It is critical that the service advisors be educated about the meaning of each menu item, the capability of the detail centers, the proper diagnosis of vehicle condition, and the assessment of customer’s desires.

The onsite trainer can assist in the creation of sales scripts for common situations. Additionally, the sales staff can be observed in action with actual customers and assist with adjustments in the scripts.

Technical Training Elements

A quality training experience will also include technical training on several elements. The training program should have an appropriate balance of classroom lecture, hands-on activities, and written resource materials. Classroom lecture and discussion familiarizes the trainee with some detailing basics and allows some question-and-answer exchanges. Hands-on activities should be performed on actual vehicles whenever possible, as this closely simulates the actual detailing experience. Hands-on training allows the detailing trainee to experience, first-hand, the impact that each chemical and piece of equipment has on the vehicle surfaces. The written resource materials should be a written documentation of almost everything that is covered in class so that the trainee, upon returning home, can have a comprehensive resource guide.

The detailing trainee should be taught the appropriate chemicals, equipment, and techniques to clean and protect each surface on the vehicle. Formal detailing training should include instruction in the following general areas:

• the prep wash,
• engine compartment detailing,
• interior detailing, and
• exterior detailing.

The Prep Wash

You should expect to learn how to properly prepare the vehicle for detailing. Expect a discussion of the appropriate chemicals to use to clean the wheels, wheel wells, front grill area, and the painted panels. It is also important to understand the necessary and optional equipment involved, including pressure washers, water tanks, and water reclamation devices. Additionally, there should be a discussion of special topics like water treatment and acid washing.

Engine Compartment Detailing

You should expect to learn how to degrease and beautify the engine compartment. This starts with a discussion about the benefits and risks of working in this area. You should be shown how to clean the engine compartment without causing any mechanical damage. Then you need to understand the types of chemicals that are safe to use under the hood. And then, you need to know what to do if something goes wrong.

Interior Detailing

You should learn how to clean and protect each of the interior surfaces, including the headliner, windows, leather seats, vinyl and plastic panels, and carpeting and mats. Topics of additional discussion or demonstration might include deodorization and special problems like red stain removal. You should learn how to use a carpet extractor, professional vacuum, and perhaps a steamer and odor eliminating machines.

Exterior Detailing

Education in this area will be heavy in the reconditioning and protection of the painted surfaces. You should expect to learn about paint technology, common paint problems and their remedies, chemicals for paint rejuvenation an protection, and polisher choices. You also need to understand how to care for other surfaces like rubber, vinyl, glass, chrome and aluminum. Additional discussions will cover wet-sanding, high-speed polishing and wheel polishing.

For the detailing trainee who owns or plans to start a business, additional topics should include: business basics; marketing, promotion, and salesmanship; and pricing and packaging. The importance of these topics cannot be overstated. You can be the best technician in the world, but if you don’t know how to run the business, your technical skills are almost worthless.

An important sign of an excellent training facility is one that offers a guarantee of some sort. Additionally, the facility ideally provides ongoing technical support, which most trainees will undoubtedly need at some point during the few months following training.

I strongly recommend that you do whatever it takes to find the time and money to receive formal education and training in detailing. This relatively small investment can potentially reap huge rewards in the near and distant future. Should your situation absolutely preclude attendance at a formal training event, at least consider purchasing some type of written or video-taped training, review of which is still better than no training at all.

What about New Employees?

Unfortunately, in the car wash industry a common approach for finding detailing employees is to seek someone with “detailing experience.” The trouble is that you don’t really know the specifics of that experience. What were the standards of detailing excellence at the previous places of employment? What chemicals and equipment were being used? Did the employee receive any formal training at the previous place of employment? Or did he/she learn from the previous person, who learned from the previous person, and so on?

It is not uncommon for an “experienced” detailer to enter a new work situation and stir up a lot of trouble by questioning the practices, equipment or chemicals used at the new location. Although it is interesting to hear someone else’s opinions of the “right” way to detail a car, it can also be disruptive. My recommendation for those who insist on hiring experienced detail technicians is that you insist that the new hire learn your way of detailing and become proficient at it, and, after a certain period of proficiency (perhaps a month), you can welcome suggestions for process improvement.

Instead of hiring based on experience, I suggest hiring on attitude. Find someone who has a good amount of energy (as detailing is labor intensive), and someone who is willing to learn your system. Assuming you have a solid detailing system in place, with a training procedure for new hires, you can create virtual carbon copies of your detailing technicians out of the new hires, who learn your system from scratch and do not have to undo previous methodologies.

Summary

When the car wash owner has to rely solely on the experience of the detailing technicians, the detail center is limited by that experience, which can limit the bottom line and the level of customer satisfaction. Formal training, which will increase the effectiveness, efficiency and consistency of the operation, is an essential foundation to developing a profitable and effective detail center.

Prentice St. Clair is the president of San Diego-based Detail in Progress Inc. which offers consulting and training in the automotive detailing and reconditioning industries. He can be reached directly at 619.701.1100 or by e-mail at prentice@detailinprogress.com.