Want to outsource your car detailing?

All organizations must assess their core competencies. As a car dealer, selling, servicing and repairing cars is definitely your main focus. What about car washing and detailing?

Conversations with general managers, sales managers, and service managers indicate that managing the detail department is frustrating:

• Fixed cost for a variable service
• High turnover, less professional worker.
• Artistic Personality: Visual thinkers do not fit in with the technical workforce of a dealership.
• Control of chemicals and equipment is time consuming and distracting
• Performance is critical to overall CSI score

Outsourcing to a professional company with standards, processes, and ethics can be a great way to simplify a basic process and, if done correctly, turn it into a strategic partnership: a car detailing service that works.

Variable cost structure.By negotiating a price per car for each type of service, you take a fixed cost and make it variable. Plus, by pricing sales preparation and delivery services at one price, you know exactly how much investment you’ll have in a vehicle.

No more personnel problems.Find an outsourcing company that provides on-site management as well as area management and marketing support. You end up with a great experience and support at no additional cost. The cost of hiring, including advertisements, interviews, background checks, and motor vehicle reports, is passed through to the outside partner.

Reduce the cost of damage.Part of the car detailing and washing business is that accidents will happen. When using an outsourced company, the cost of damage associated with the details is the responsibility of the organization causing the damage. This should lower your out-of-pocket deductible costs and lower your insurance premiums.

Invest in a partnership instead of buying a commodity.The real opportunity to outsource the detailed process is in selecting a “professional company” as a partner, rather than just a car wash company.

Our sources indicate that with a clear focus and performance goals and an outsourced company you can help improve CSI scores by providing new and used cars for customer delivery that meet customer expectations. The most common reason for a low survey score is that the car was not clean and presentable, from the perspective of the car owner.

A partner realizes that they are working in the “dealer’s house”. Although they recognize that they are guests on your property (using your bays, water, and electricity), they understand that they need to understand your business as a member of the dealership team.

A partner will offer services that the dealer can augment and earn additional income: touch up paint, odor removal, stripping, tin removal, headlight restoration, etc.

Overall, by outsourcing the car detailing function to a dealership and selecting the right strategic partner, a car dealership should be able to get the best out of a car detailing service:

• Go from a fixed to a variable cost
• Simplify staff-related headaches
• Add services to expand customer offerings and profit
• Improve consistency of detail quality.