Portable Wash!!

[JARogersWV]

I apologize if this is in the wrong section, I wasn’t sure where to post this. I bought a piece of property that had a two bay garage and an older four bay self serve car wash several years back, everything still worked even though all of the equipment was older. I decided not to reopen it and turned it into a hand wash business. I ended taking everything out of it and installed just a high pressure spray system in all four bays. I have several fleet contracts with various companies and agencies around the area and drive in customers, I also offer different packages that lets you customize the level of service you can get and these are offered to the drive in customers or by appointment. We focus on getting your vehicle cleaned at a high level in the quickest possible time. My company doesn’t offer some of the services you can receive from companies that focus on car detailing and I personally didn’t want to get into that but I felt like I needed too so i started renting out the two bay garage to my buddy who does the detailing. I was approached the other day by a gentleman who asked if we could travel to the customer and wash the car. I initially said that we don’t offer mobile detailing, but I have looked into and we may consider offering that in the future. He then said I’m not talking about mobile detailing, he then explained that he saw a company that will go to the customers house wash the car and clean the interior and that’s it. Now I have never personally heard of anything like this I would think that a mobile detailer would be able to offer this. Has anyone ever heard or done this type of service? If so, I would like to hear a quick overview of how that works. I couldn’t imagine that I would be able to get enough business around my area to offer something like this. I would venture to say that it’s probably a mobile detailer,but I would like to hear your opinion on this!!

 

[Waxman]

first off let me say that I have run both a full service detailing shop where I hand washed cars and a self-serve car wash where the customer does it themselves and I much prefer the car wash model that is more typical where customers pay , spray then go away.

Secondly, what you're describing is Mobile detailing. I'm sure there's some good ones out there but considering the low barriers to entry with this type of business I think there are a lot of fly-by-night operations that may do an OK job for a decent price but do they have insurance? Do they offer satisfaction guaranteed or your money back? Do they have properly trained staff? Do they use professional chemicals and tools or stuff they bought at Walmart? Do they contain and properly dispose of their effluent wash water in the sanitary sewer system per federal regulations or do they let it run into the storm drain which, despite varying opinions , is definitely federally illegal???

 

[edredtop]

"...where customers pay, spray then go away."