Pittsburgh, PA. – October 15, 2007 - Before detailing a vehicle, evaluating it with the owner is important to do. There are a few reasons for this. First, you want to make sure that you document or bring to the attention of the owner, any existing damage on the vehicle before you start working on it. If you walk around the vehicle with the owner and point out any imperfections (dents, dings, rust, scuffs, scratches, etc.) you will be covering yourself so that the vehicle owner cannot blame you for something that was previously damaged or that they did not even know was damaged. It is sometimes even necessary to wash the vehicle prior to evaluating or giving a price in the case of an extremely dirty vehicle.

Sometimes the vehicle owner will not always be present when you do your "Walk-Around" evaluation prior to detailing. In this case, still go around the vehicle and look for any dents, scratches, cracks in plastic, etc. Then you want to call the owner if you come across anything and confirm that they know about it before detailing. Also, if you come across something while you are in the middle of detailing that you were unable to see before, call the customer right away to let them know. You don't want to tell the owner after you are done with the entire detail that there was a dent, ding, scratch, or crack because this can sound like you are being deceitful and if they really did not know it was there they might try to blame you for the damage.

Another reason for the "Walk-Around" evaluation before detailing, is to help you determine what the vehicle needs, which will help you to price the job and determine how long it will take you to complete the detail. It is good to have a list of things to look for and check for both the interior and the exterior of the vehicle. Here are some things to look for in your evaluation:

The "Walk-Around" evaluation will also give your customer options of what you can do for them. If you have a customer who does not want to pay the price for your detailing services that you quote them after seeing the vehicle, you can ask them which detailing services/items on the list they might not want to get done so that you can help them reach the price that they are willing to pay. This will be beneficial to you as well as them because if they decide not get everything done and knock a few detail services off the list, then you do not have to work as hard or as long. Also they will not have to pay for services that they are not as concerned about. This is much better than just dropping your price to accommodate what they want to pay. If you drop some services as opposed to just dropping your price, then you are still getting what your work is worth.