6 Reasons Why Mobile Detailing Is Better Than A Detail Shop In Westminster

When it comes to auto detailing, there are two common forms of providing service for clients. There is what everyone is familiar with, the traditional brick and mortar detail shop, but another business structure that is growing in popularity is mobile detailing services. 

A mobile detail service is exactly what it sounds like, instead of bringing your car to a detail shop to get it cleaned, a detailer comes to you with all of the tools and products needed to complete the job and cleans your vehicle at your home or anywhere else that is convenient for you. Many detailers are now choosing to do mobile services for their customers’ convenience and because of lower startup costs.

There are pros and cons to both of these business models, however, I will be discussing the benefits of mobile detailing and why I have chosen this as the primary form of doing business with my company Eminent Auto Detailing.

The first reason that I believe that mobile detailing is better than shop-based detailing is that the experience is overall a lot simpler and easier for the customer. The process of dropping your car off at a detail shop can be more complicated than it sounds. It usually requires getting a friend or family member to give you a ride in a separate car or getting an Uber.

As the owner of a business, I try to make everything as easy as possible for my customers so they will be more inclined to get their car detailed. Having to drop off a car can be enough of a hassle for a customer to change their mind about how they decide to get their car cleaned.

To continue with the point that mobile detailing is more convenient for customers, another advantage is that the services can be performed anywhere. Whether you want your car cleaned at your home address, office building, or anywhere else that fits into your lifestyle, mobile detailing provides a solution.

A lot of the customers that I have are very busy people that don’t have time in the day to drop off their car at a detail shop. Instead, they can have their car cleaned while they work at their home or office building.

I’ve even cleaned vehicles at houses when no one is home and I don't even see the customer in person. They just leave their car unlocked or let me know of a way to unlock it and pay me online before I leave.

When you drop your car off at a detail shop, you have no idea what is happening to your car while it’s there. I like to think that most detailers are pretty knowledgeable on how to treat vehicles, but I’ve definitely seen my fair share of questionable things that go on in lower-end detail shops after working at a car wash and detail shop in high school.

If you’re having your car detailed at your house, it gives you the ability to occasionally check on the person doing the services and make sure that nothing sketchy is going on. As a detailer, I’ve also noticed that a lot of customers have more respect for the services we offer after seeing firsthand all of the equipment, tools, and hard work that goes into it.

Before hiring a detailer you should always check their online reviews to make sure they do good work, but mobile detailing offers an extra step of transparency for the customer.

Most detail shops that I’ve seen have a much slower work pace than mobile detailers because they usually don’t have a set time they need to finish a vehicle. Mobile detailers work a lot faster because they typically have another detail scheduled they have to drive to and they can only work while the sun is up.

On top of this, mobile detailing takes out all the time that would be spent dropping off a car and picking it up. Even as a detailer it takes up less of my time because I'm not having to wait for customers to pick up their car at the end of the day. When I finish a vehicle I can get paid and leave immediately after.

This isn’t true all the time; some detailers charge more for mobile detailing because of the convenience it provides to the customer. But while you may think that mobile detailing is always more expensive than shop-based detailing, a lot of times mobile detailers will actually charge less because the startup costs are a lot cheaper for mobile detailers.

The monthly cost of renting a space is a lot more than the cost of leasing or purchasing a vehicle. For my business, I detail out of my personal vehicle so the only costs that I incurred starting my business were from my products and equipment.

Most people see detailing businesses as relatively expensive to start, but I started my business with only $400 and used my customers' power and water starting out. Now that the business has grown, I have invested well over $400 into the business, however, my monthly expenses are still not anywhere close to what it would be renting a shop.

My point with this is that mobile detailing costs a lot less and allows me to charge lower prices for my details. If I had to pay an extra $2,000/month to rent a shop I would have no choice but to raise my prices to remain profitable.

Most of the time when I’m working on a car in a neighborhood or at an office building, I get at least one person that will come up to me and ask for a business card. This is beneficial for me because in a way mobile detailing is a form of advertising since I’m always in different locations and get seen by a lot of people.

This is also a benefit to potential customers because they get to see the results of their neighbor’s car and ask them about their opinion on the service before scheduling an appointment with us.

At the end of the day, there is a long list of pros and cons for both mobile detailing and shop-based detailing. In this post, I mostly touched on the positive aspects of mobile detailing but there are still some cons to it.

For example, I am a little limited on what services I can offer since I am always outside and usually in direct sunlight. I would love to get more into paint corrections and long-term ceramic coatings, but I would only offer those services if I had a shop where I can be outside of the weather and have consistent high-quality lighting.

I think in the future I would like to have a shop for the more intensive services that take longer periods of time and then also have a couple of vehicles that I can have employees use for the smaller jobs or interior based details.

If you want to know more about my company Eminent Auto Detailing check out our website and social media pages. We offer detailing services in Westminster, CO and surrounding area