Are You Really A Professional? A Real Detailer!

We have our own unique operation, but are we congruent?  If you are so determined to attack or post another business, do your actions align with your beliefs?

‘Only do full correction, or don’t touch it!  No wash clay and seals!  No ceramic coating without removing swirls, maybe even sanding.  No coating without polishing!  No coating without one step of enhancement paint correction!  No coating without a single stage polish (pretending it’s not a two stage without refinement)!  Only use professional coatings and the one you use is the only real coating!’

Obviously I have personal standards that align with MY business.  But there is more to unpack here.  There is this dogma amongst likely struggling business owners that ‘if you are NOT EXACTLY LIKE ME then somehow you are not a real detailer!’  More specifically, we delve deeper.  ‘If your standards are not aligned with what I am particular about, then YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED to run a detailing business!’

For one, can you imagine grown adults in a business, trying to shame and tell other grown adults in a business how to operate.  Ethics is one thing.  The problem is what is often framed as ethics is merely preference, that the complaining troll does not understand himself/herself.  It is often hiding jealousy of another business selling their services better.

Here is the irony!  Many times, I have seen someone post and brag about a week of worth of paint correction and at times generate an appropriate invoice for the service.  When someone mentions or questions the possibility of someone scratching all of that up, there is a response that ranges from apathetic to happiness.  They will frame it as job security, while proclaiming ethical superiority over people that leave any swirls.  Professionalism starts and ends beyond the detail.  The loudest voices about what a car should look like on social media with a coating, seem to be the ones least interested in realizing that.

A 21 year old young adult who bought a used Toyota Sentra, a mom of four kids who has a grocery vehicle, or the client you gush about with his every day beater car, they are not allowed to have a car that is presentable?  All or nothing?  It is not about your stance with your business, but your attitude about others providing a service.

What makes this worse is the apathy at best with AFTERCARE MAINTENANCE by many people who have such high standards, but shame others for not being like them.  You are so excited to be indoctrinated by your coating company, that after you marketed for them on Instagram you forgot to add real value and managed expectations to the clients.

It also sets poor expectations and results, as detailers scramble to incorporate a 2 part polishing process into one step.  Often the person is unwilling to pay for what they want, expect the quality of multiple step polishing.  They often do not get the correction they think they are entitled to and neither get the properly refined paint, as the detailer is doing more for less.  Nobody wins trying to match fictional standards, honestly set by coating companies so you can market their bottle with your work.