How to Manage a Successful Mobile Detailing Business

Understanding How to Manage a Successful Mobile Detailing Business

What is mobile fleet detailing and why is it vital for businesses with vehicle fleets?

What is mobile fleet detailing, and why is it vital for businesses with vehicle fleets? Mobile detailing, what it entails, is going to companies or individual homes and detailing their vehicle on the spot, right in their yard. And, um, what’s important about that is really the convenience.

So, think about this: you have a commercial vehicle that needs detailing, and I’ve actually talked to some companies. That’s what they do—they’ll take their vehicle, they’ll pay a driver or one of their employees to drive it somewhere to get it detailed and bring it back. So, not only are they paying their detail work, they’re also paying the person their time to drive a vehicle and sit and wait a few hours.

So, it’s way more affordable, I guess you could say, and it’ll save the company money for us to go to them and do it there on their property. Now, obviously the issue with going to a company and doing it on their property is liability. And so it’s important for us to have all our insurances. We have four insurances that cover us: we have liability, we obviously have the vehicle, we have the garage insurance that covers their vehicle that we’re working on, and of course we have WCB. So those four insurances have to be in place for us to be able to even step foot in their yard.

What are the most significant benefits that businesses experience from regular fleet detailing?

Most companies lease their vehicles, and I’m not just talking about trucks but even their machinery. Not 100%, but many do. And so, by keeping up on the maintenance—a lot of people think it’s just mechanical—but obviously the inside is important. Because if they’re going to be bringing back the leased vehicle, or if they do own it and they decide to send it to auction (which happens quite regularly on time, so they might use it two years, goes to auction, three, four years, goes to auction), well, they’re going to get a lot more money back on their initial purchase if the inside looks great.

We can’t “detail out” damage of a vehicle, so if it’s neglected, if it’s not detailed regularly, the sand and mud and grease just deteriorate and eat up the plastics, the vinyls, and the rubbers. So, if they do it regularly—and we’re not saying every month, but at least once or twice a year—it’ll help preserve the value of their equipment.

How does the appearance of a company’s fleet impact its brand image and customer perceptions?

Appearance is everything, right? We judge by appearance. Would you hire somebody that pulls up in a beat-up truck to your house to do work inside your house? You’d probably be wondering why he can’t afford to have a decent-looking vehicle, right? Something’s off, something’s not right.

So, I think the importance of having a vehicle that looks good means that you’re a successful person, a successful company. That means you’re doing something right, that you’re trustworthy. So, I think appearance is crucial for any type of business.

Could you imagine somebody showing up in a nice, clean-looking vehicle, and as soon as they open the door, garbage starts to spew out? I think that would be a facade, right? You still wouldn’t be able to trust them because they’re kind of trying to allude to professionalism, but they’re not really professional.

Can you share some examples of how regular detailing has directly improved a business’s operations or customer service?

We benefited by it, and I’ll tell you an example. When I purchased the business, we had some older vans, and the graphics on the vans were appealing—and they weren’t even that great of a design. I don’t think we had those vans for six months from the time we bought the business, and I don’t remember ever getting a phone call from somebody saying, “You know, I just saw your vans, I would like to come and detail some of our units or detail my car.”

But the moment we decided to rebrand, get some new vans, get some nice graphics, all the phone calls would start coming in, saying, “Hey, yeah, I just saw you drive by,” or “I just saw you next door, and so I’d like a price.” So obviously, appearance is important. Keeping your vehicle in top shape helps businesses, for sure. It helped us.

What are the long-term financial implications of regular fleet maintenance and detailing?

Well, I think I talked about that a few questions ago—about preserving the value of your vehicle, especially for those that lease their vehicles. If they bring back a vehicle that really shows signs of neglect, they get charged. You can call it a fine or whatever you want to call it, but they get charged for premature wear and tear, and that’s usually caused by lack of upkeep on the inside of your vehicle.

How does environmental exposure affect fleet vehicles, and how does detailing help mitigate this problem?

So, the outside of the vehicle—most companies have wash bays. They have a wash bay attendant; they clean the outside, there’s no doubt about that. They understand the importance of image, and so they want their vehicles that have their name on it clean. And so when they go to jobs or they go do deliveries, whatever they have, they have the image that they want.

But the inside gets neglected. That, I think, is where companies need to step up on the inside of their detailing. I’m going to be straight with you—I wish they detailed it more often, and not just because it gives us more work, but it makes our work easier when the surfaces aren’t damaged.

So, when the plastics are damaged and the rubbers—what happens is it just clings onto the dirt more strongly, and we have to use harsher chemicals or be more aggressive in our cleaning. It just promotes deterioration even quicker. By doing a regular detail, it just preserves the vehicle, and it keeps it looking cleaner and smelling better longer.

What are some common misconceptions about fleet detailing that you encounter?

I think the biggest misconception is that it’s easy and that it can be done quickly. I think the biggest advances in detailing would be probably on the exterior of the vehicle with the different polishes, and that’s probably the biggest advance. The interior, obviously, the chemicals—stronger chemicals that are not necessarily harsh, excuse me, on the detailer themselves.

It’s hard to go in and detail a vehicle with full masks and full gear, like biohazard suits. Really, that’s hard to do, especially since most detailing takes two to three hours, sometimes four hours. So having chemicals that are not harsh on our health helps, and obviously it helps the environment in general.

How has the approach to fleet detailing evolved with advances in technology and environmental awareness?

Our vans are equipped with professional equipment. We’re not talking about something that you can buy at Canadian Tire. It’s stuff that’s probably five to six times more costly. They’re more effective; they do a better job, but they also last longer.

We get the ones that are reduced in size for our mobile vans. So, if you get a full-size extractor for carpet cleaning, those tend to weigh about 120 lbs. We use a reduced size, so it still has the heating of the water, still has the vacuum and the pressure for the water, but the machines weigh around, I think it’s 65 lbs. So it’s a lot easier to haul in and out of the vans.

Same thing with our generators and our vacuums—everything is reduced in size, but it still packs a punch when it comes to power, and obviously those are more costly.

How is a typical fleet detailing session carried out, and what special considerations are taken for different types of vehicles?

So, the process basically when we start to do a detailing: first thing we do is take pictures. We take before and after pictures, and it’s not just for advertising to use on social media, but it protects us and it protects the customer, so that if there is any damage, then we can take responsibility for what we’ve done if we’ve done something to damage a vehicle.

But it also protects us in case somebody wants to blame some damage on us that we haven’t done.

After that, we do a vacuum, and then after that, we clean all the plastics, and then we go on to fabrics, and then we end with the floor. In the end, we clean the windows, and we shine up the plastics to make them look more appealing.

What is the detailing process for heavy equipment?

That’s pretty well the same process. I think if it’s not really in-depth cleaning, then obviously we don’t use the extractor; we just rely on the vacuum. But everything else is the same.

To clean, there’s no shortcuts in cleaning, although we can use the vapor. So if we want to do a little more extensive cleaning where there’s dirt and grime that’s really embedded, then we’ll combine agitation with chemicals, and then we’ll also add heat through vapor. When we have those three combined, that pretty well takes out most things.

Looking forward, how do you envision the mobile fleet detailing industry evolving in the next 5 to 10 years?

I think mobile is getting more and more popular. The only problem with mobile is that the ones that are filling in the need are unprofessionals. So it’s important to have professionals in the industry, and there are some organizations like the IDA—International Detailers Association. They’re international, and they’re really making a big effort to try to regulate the industry, to get rid of the incompetence in the industry, because that’s really what hurts the industry.

So, I think as time goes on, if the industry becomes recognized, especially by the governments—in other words, it’s being taught in colleges—then I think it will help greatly the industry, because there is a need. I mean, there are more and more cars on the road, and the need for convenience has also greatly increased because of COVID. People are now used to having services come to them.

So the industry will definitely grow, but the challenge is: grow in a positive way, right? We want the industry to have a positive connotation. We don’t like right now the negative connotation of “Facebook detailer.” If you’re being called a “Facebook detailer,” that’s not a compliment. Why? Because it’s just saturated with scams and also with people that don’t really know what they’re doing, and that hurts the industry.

So hopefully, as the industry grows, that will change. And I think going into the franchise business, that’s what we’re trying to do—expand so that we can bring professionalism across Canada, not just here in Edmonton.