Fixed Ops Journal - April 2018 - F18

Detailers, from left, Aaron
Vanausdall, Reece Peters and
Mat Bennett work on a 1960
Chevrolet Corvette at
Dellenbach Motors in Fort
Collins, Colo.

 Detailing is an often overlooked ----

but critical ---- element of reconditioning

SWEATING THE DETAILS

JENNY KING

foj@autonews.com

econditioners attend to the mechanics and appearance of a car or
truck. Detailers give the vehicle a
healthy glow, inside and out.
Effective detailing routinely requires hours of
hard work. Yet used-vehicle customers often
spend just a few seconds inspecting a detailer's
work before they decide whether to buy.
Still, says Butch Hollister, a consultant to the
National Automobile Dealers Association
and a former dealer: "Good detailing makes a
big difference in those seconds."
Joe Lamm, director of reconditioning at the
Manheim auto auction company, estimates
that a full detailing job to prepare a vehicle
for sale on a dealership's used-car lot takes
between 2½ and 3 hours.
That includes, he notes, everything from
simple tasks such as trash removal to work
that includes interior stain pretreatment, decal stripping, exterior waxing, paint sealant
application, scuff removal and cleaning of the
engine, tires, molding and wheel wells.
Hiring, training and keeping dependable employees to do the time-pressed and often unpleasant work of detailing can be hard for dealerships.
"Finding folks who want to work" is a challenge,

PAGE 18

APRIL 2018

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How dealerships are improving their
detailing operations
 Keeping most or all detailing
in-house
 Hiring and training workers
specifically for detailing
 Providing economic incentives for
fast and high-quality work
 Rewarding thrifty use of supplies
 Recruiting/borrowing dealership staff
during busiest times
 Giving detailers opportunities for
advancement

says John Dellenbach, sales manager at Dellenbach Motors in Fort Collins, Colo. The dealership sells Chevrolet, Cadillac and Subaru vehicles.

Bonuses for detailers
"The job can be physically demanding and
at times monotonous, but I look for candidates who have an artistic quality about
them," Dellenbach told Fixed Ops Journal.
"The neat thing about detailing is it's as simple as touching every square inch of the car

with the appropriate tool."
Each of the store's four detailers averages
four hours per full detailing, or two vehicles a
day. Although many dealerships pay detailers
a flat rate, Dellenbach prefers an hourly rate.
Production bonuses can add as much as $2.50
an hour to a detailer's rate, which is based on
volume goals, when a team of three or four detailers completes 45 vehicles a week. Buffing
and on-the-spot paint correction also can
earn a detailer bonuses, he adds.
Dellenbach says the dealership has promoted numerous detailers to other jobs in its service department. "We look for someone who
has pride in work done," he says.

In the house
Rick Wegley, an instructor at NCM Institute,
part of the dealership consultancy NCM Associates in Kansas City, Mo., says his dealership
experience as a fixed operations director
made him an advocate of keeping detailing
work in-house and making it a profit center
instead of outsourcing it.
"Anytime I could eliminate an outside vendor, I did," Wegley says.
Wegley brought paintless dent repair to his
see DETAIL, Page 19

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - April 2018