Pricing is a very difficult challenge in high-end auto detailing services. If you charge too little, people will think it must not be good enough to get a higher price, but if you charge too much, most people can’t afford it, therefore you are competing for the top 1% of the market. Well everyone else too, and therein lies the rub, which I guess opens the door for “quick detail” services at the car wash or from a mobile car wash that comes to someone’s office or home. Now, let’s discuss this further.

You see, there was an interesting article in Robert Keppel’s Detailer’s Digest in the September-October issue titled; “Survey of American Detailing Shops: Retail Detailing Prices” which indicated that price ranges for complete detailing were $100 to $399 with an average of $215.00 for retail detailing on a 4-door sedan midsize car. The author was also very wise to remind all auto detailers to return every phone call, email, or contact.

Everyone wants to get a good deal, so sometimes it’s best to charge a high price up front and explain exactly how you’re going to clean your car, what it’s going to do, and what it will look like when it’s finished. As long as you do what you say you’re going to do, you’re going to get a lot of referrals, even though you have one of the highest prices. This is not to say that you should forget about your customer or deny that we are in a recession. It’s also not a carte blanche comment that tells you it’s favorable to just go for the top 1% of the market and leave the rest.

The reality is that “if you want to live with the classes, you must sell to the masses”, or someone once said, which I agree with and agree, is also relevant advice here. While it’s important to keep your team busy and everyone on your auto detailing team in gainful employment, you shouldn’t sell your services too short and demand what they’re worth. Every consumer, customer, and client will be looking for a great deal, if you can drop the price by 10 or 20% and fully explain what you’re doing, you could easily start at the higher end of the price chart, and only go back a bit to make the sale

In fact, I wish you much success in your auto detailing venture, and I sincerely hope you will consider all of this and think about it.