Customer Service Issues and Do You Own a Business or Job? Episode #959
Pints and Polishing Auto Detailing Podcast
Customer Service Issues and Do You Own a Business or Job? Episode #959
Pints and Polishing Auto Detailing Podcast · Jun 23, 2026
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67:56
Term
recall
A recall is when a car maker says, “We found a problem—bring the car in so we can fix it.” It’s usually required, and it can mean you have to deal with the dealer for the repair.
Term
do not wash tag
A “do not wash” tag is basically a note that tells the service department not to wash your car. People use it because washing can mess up a freshly detailed finish or coating.
Car
Bentley
They bring up a Bentley to show this isn’t just about cheap cars—dealers can still wash or mishandle the car even when it’s a luxury vehicle. And the customer may end up paying to fix the result.
Concept
only voting you get to do is with your wallet
They’re saying the most effective way to “send a message” is through your money. If a business messes up, you may decide not to go back or not to use them again.
Car
Ford F-150 Lightning
The Ford F-150 Lightning is a pickup truck that runs on electricity instead of gasoline. It’s built for people who want the size and usefulness of a truck, but with an electric motor. The “Lightning” name is used for this electric version of the F-150.
Concept
deferred maintenance
Deferred maintenance is when you put off fixing or servicing something that should be done. The idea is that waiting can turn a small problem into a bigger, more expensive one later.
Term
road paint
Road paint is paint that gets transferred onto your car from the street. The host is saying you should deal with it quickly and use the right methods so it doesn’t damage the paint.
Term
lacquer thinner
Lacquer thinner is a very strong chemical solvent. The host is cautioning that using harsh chemicals on car paint can backfire and cause damage, so you shouldn’t just try anything.
Term
paint thinner
Paint thinner is a chemical used to work with paint. The host is basically saying it’s risky to use on a car’s finish without knowing what it will do to the paint.
Term
citrus solvent
A citrus solvent is a cleaner made from citrus-based chemicals. The important thing is that some cleaners can damage plastic trim, making it look bad or feel different.
Term
fender liners
Fender liners are the plastic or composite panels inside the wheel well that help protect the fender area from road spray, debris, and moisture. They’re often replaceable, but removing and reinstalling them can be labor-intensive, and solvents can damage them.
Term
headlight restoration
Headlight restoration is how you fix cloudy or yellow headlights so they look clear again. It can take a lot of time, so the host is saying to think about whether repair is worth it compared to replacing parts.
Concept
body shop
A body shop is where cars go for damage repairs to the body and panels. They often know exactly what parts to order, while detailing can involve more judgment calls depending on the materials involved.
Concept
dealers
Dealers are franchised retailers/manufacturers’ service channels that can look up OEM parts and provide pricing. The segment emphasizes calling the dealer to identify plastic pieces and get accurate costs before committing to labor-heavy work.
Term
cowlings
Cowlings are the panels at the bottom of the windshield. If they’re damaged, you can’t just wipe them clean—you may need repainting and prep, which makes the job more expensive.
Concept
customer service
Customer service here means how the shop explains what’s going on and what it will cost. The idea is that if you do the research ahead of time, you can give clearer answers and make the customer feel less stressed.
Part
front fender
The front fender is the metal/plastic panel over the front wheel. If it’s damaged, it may need repair or replacement and then repainting so it matches the rest of the car.
Part
mud flap
A mud flap is the piece that hangs near the tires to help keep dirt and rocks from getting kicked up. If it’s broken, it’s usually a straightforward replacement.
Term
scratch repair
Scratch repair is when a shop tries to remove or hide a scratch on your car’s paint. The important point here is that the area might not look exactly the same as the rest of the panel, even if it’s improved.
Concept
100% absolute truth
The host is saying the best way to earn trust is to be completely honest with customers about what the work can realistically achieve. That includes explaining any limits—like why a repaired scratch might still look different.
Term
coatings
In detailing, “coatings” usually refers to protective surface treatments (often ceramic or similar products) applied to paint to improve gloss and make it easier to clean. The host’s key point is that coatings can’t be marketed as instant perfection—customers need realistic expectations about what they will and won’t do.
Term
paint protection film
Paint protection film is a clear sheet that you apply to parts of a car to help protect the paint from chips and scratches. The host’s point is that it helps, but it won’t make everything perfect or prevent every kind of damage.
Term
plastic bumpers
Plastic bumpers are bumpers made from plastic instead of metal. They can fade and look rough over time, and if they’re damaged enough, you may end up replacing them instead of restoring them.
Term
Sahara version edition
“Sahara” is a Jeep trim level that often includes different exterior styling and equipment compared with other trims. Here, the host connects the Sahara choice to having fewer plastic exterior parts (like plastic bumpers), which matters because plastic trim is harder to restore than painted surfaces.
Concept
deferred the plastics
“Deferred the plastics” means putting off fixing the faded plastic trim. The longer you wait, the more damaged it can get—so eventually you might not be able to restore it and may have to replace parts.
Term
trim die
A “trim die” is a dye/restorer you use to bring back the dark color on faded black plastic trim. The key is using enough product so it actually soaks in, not just a thin wipe-on layer.
Term
baked piece of plastic
A “baked piece of plastic” means the plastic has been cooked by sun and heat over time. The host is saying the dye has to be applied enough to actually re-color that worn-out surface.
Term
ceramic infused
“Ceramic infused” means the product has ceramic ingredients mixed in. The host is saying it may help the finish last, but you still have to apply it correctly and the plastic has to be in restorable condition.
Concept
full replacement
“Full replacement” means you can’t fix the plastic trim with products anymore. If it’s too far damaged, the only real solution is replacing the parts.
Term
light oxidation
Light oxidation means the plastic trim has started to fade and get a chalky surface from sun exposure. If it’s still early, the right cleaner/restore product can bring it back better.
Term
trim dye
A trim dye is a product used to darken and restore faded plastic trim so it looks more even again. It’s applied and allowed to soak in before you wipe/level it.
Term
re die territory
They’re saying there’s a point where the trim is so faded that you can’t just clean it and protect it—you may need to re-dye it to bring back the color.
Term
trim coating
Trim coating is a protective layer you put on the car’s black plastic trim. It helps it look darker and cleaner for longer, especially after you’ve cleaned off grime and oxidation.
Term
trim cleaner
Trim cleaner is a product made to clean the car’s black plastic trim. It helps remove the dull, dirty look so the next step (like a trim coating) can work better.
Brand
hyper clean store dot com
They mention Hyper Clean Store dot com as where you can find the trim cleaner and trim coating they recommend. It’s the product source for the steps they’re describing.
LIVE
Welcome to the pints and polishing podcast. The most influential and listen to podcast in auto detailing. Welcome to the community.
All right, as business owners, we love to send out messages and get feedback from our customers, right? Especially after we've done a service, right? If you got somebody new, you know, it's a good thing to send, you know, hey, how was your service? How was everything performed, right?
You understand what I'm saying, right? We all know this moment. You probably have one that whatever, you know, service you like to use, everybody has a way, right?
Now, I was on the other end of being the customer getting that message. Have you ever been that guy? Like, you know, use a service for somebody and then you get them.
I normally won't really respond. I normally just kind of like, cool. Well, somebody got me in a certain situation, Nick. We call it that tea kettle moment. You know, when you got enough buzzing around you that you just got to let some steam off.
Well, the steam happened to be from a recall on our rogue, right? So we had to take it into the dealership. Go figure three cylinders on a car just doesn't quite seem to always work out, right? So getting an engine recall on our rogue.
I use what everybody should do. Nick did a great job putting these in the hyper clean website. It's a do not wash tag. Who all has those, right? Who all has got do not wash that we know big O from Atlanta gets them like every time he orders a coding.
He orders tags, right? They're there for a reason. I even then asked the service writer not to wash it, right? Make a special note. So when I got that message about, hey, how is everything? I ignored it like I normally do until I got another one.
I couldn't ignore it then, right? How to let him know. Hey, my guy, Zach, sure would love not to have our rogue washed because I know how little soap is used. How to take my jab, right? All of us detailers we know there's a chance to go take a jab. We're all going to take a jab.
Is there professionalism online though? Will we talk about not taking jabs and doing things? Sure. But this guy messaged me. I'm a customer. I'm going to take my jab. So I say, Hey, man, you know, don't do this. I'll remind you again, please don't do it.
He says, Hey, you know, I'll go back to my manager and talk to him. I just bring it up to go. Hey, we're, we're, we'd love to send things out as as businesses. But if we're the customer, and we're somebody that feels like they've been wronged.
What's your, you know, what do you have that kettle moment to do? You have a go to, you know, do you have a playbook in a sense that you always, you know, do?
My playbook is, I just don't use them anymore. You know, I mean, if it becomes an issue, I'm just, I'm not, it'd probably been a lot different 10 or 15 years ago.
I realized that the, you know, businesses are going to do what they're going to do. And, you know, was this a mistake that they washed your car? I mean, it's just habit.
I mean, that's what they do because it, you know, if you go into the dealership and you pick up a clean car, you might not hear the clunks and the clanks of the other stuff in your car.
It's just a mind thing that they do. They shouldn't do it. I mean, we all understand that. But, you know, we're dealing with a Bentley situation right now that we have to handle tomorrow same exact story.
I mean, and this customer is going to be on the hook to fix it. I mean, and that's, that's a Bentley. I mean, you can, you can argue had a conversation today with, with the guys at Bentley.
I go, dude, this guy's not happy. Well, you know, we did, we didn't wash it. Come on, guy. Come on. Like, you watched it. We can see the run marks. Like, you watched it.
It's not, nobody's yelling at you. My, my whole thing as a, as a consumer today is I just don't go back. I mean, and, and like you said, I mean, you're in a bad spot because you have a recall.
Yeah, kind of have to.
You got to do what you got to do. But at every turn, I think now is more than ever. I realized the only voting you get to do is with your wallet. I mean, that's it.
Nobody's going to fix it because I mean, I'm guessing they didn't say, Hey, we're, we're offering to pay you to fix our mistake.
Well, or they didn't even write, there's going to be the next question. I'm so glad you brought that up. We'll take it on the flip of the coin back to the business side. You get a bad, you know, somebody customer saying, Hey, you know, not so happy.
What's the number one thing that you should do? How can I help resolve this?
Yeah, well, it was never in your exact situation that they know the only way to resolve it is money. So you weren't going to get that offer like that.
At first, I would have loved to say, Hey, you know, if you could bring it back in, you would, I just, I would have thought naturally they would have gone, we've got a really great detail team.
Right, they could have, I don't know, but I guess they don't never even came across their mind of, Hey, bring it in. Let me fix it. Cause I told him, I said, Listen, I'm going to be spending, which I did.
We'll get into my father's day Sunday was to go spend my day removing water spots and scratches. You know, so I let him know that he didn't even offer to get it back in so that I had to do that.
I actually think that's more normal now than ever before. Yeah, you're right. I'm not even saying out of dealerships. I think people that follow us would love to hear the bashing of dealerships or car washes.
I think it's just more everywhere now. Like, I'll give you an example. When you used to go to someplace like a restaurant, they would make a mistake.
They would usually go above and beyond to like bring extras stuff to the table, whatever that is, appetizer, desserts, whatever.
We went out on Father's Day. And I can tell you it's luckily we went to a place where we've taken very good care of everybody there.
The rest of the restaurant didn't have the same experience because of Father's Day and the busyness and maybe they weren't prepared that, you know, didn't have enough chefs back there didn't have enough things maybe just didn't guess this would be a big holiday for them, which I could see why they would think that.
But I could tell you I was looking around and it was very noticeable that like they just weren't going to make it right.
We didn't we didn't get that treatment because of our relationship there.
But I could see table to table. I'm like, you know, we got here after them. We already got all of our stuff. And, you know, there's the real reason to take care of people like that because, you know, we had a great experience.
But when you look around, they weren't going to really make it right because they were just going to say, Hey, this is what it is. We did bring your food. It was good. We did do a great job.
But there would be times like if you waited an extra 10 minutes on your entree, they would like bring you a dessert for free or they would do.
I just think that's largely out of customer service now altogether, which is why I think you probably didn't receive that message of hey, our bad, bring it back in.
We'll have our detailers do it or, you know, we'll give you free this whatever on your account.
Go ahead and fix it like you say you're going to give you a couple hundred bucks to use towards the shop or whatever.
I just think that's out of a lot of customer service now.
Yeah, absolutely. But here we are. We're now June of 26. You see nonstop inside of groups. I screenshotted one where the same guy posted into multiple different, you know, detailing groups, pretty much the exact same thing.
Right. He just and it even says now on when somebody put it says how many different groups. I was like, Wow, you know, this is even more information than we ever thought we would write.
You said it where people we can see it. Now they're publicly showing it like and people are still doing guys posted it in three groups. How do I get customers?
Right. So if you're wondering how do I get the number one way is to take care of the ones you have.
Yeah, well, that's not that's not a that's just not a thought for a lot of people. And I don't think it's unique to our industry.
Right. That's that's kind of like what I've said since I've been on here is that I just think a lot of people have gotten a lot of customers and they don't realize why a lot of customers aren't coming back.
Maybe it's you charge too much for the work they got. Maybe you didn't follow up with them. Maybe you whatever the reason may be.
We see a lot of the same questions. But like I said, I mean, I watched it at a restaurant yesterday on Father's Day and I'm like, you know, I, I do remember a time and this wasn't 20 years ago, where if the service was this delayed for whatever reason just because
you got overwhelmed, you would have seen a lot of general manager at people's tables saying, Hey, we'll take care of you. We're going to do this. We're going to do that. That conversation wasn't being had.
And I think it's the same thing with your dealership story. But also it's just the same with all business now. It's like, well, we don't have to do that. So we're not going to.
Well, so there I was like Wesley and my neighbor across the street. We were all out there on Father's Day washing, trying to take care of some cars. I love that my neighbor was out. He was even doing the door jams I saw.
I was like, that's pretty cool, my guy, you know, but we'll get into the that Titan that Wesley bought. It was pretty cool. But you know, I got to do both of the cars got to is.
Well, did I did I enjoy being in the garage and having some of my time on Father's Day? You bet you I did. But I also had to take care of both because we're doing that in and out right now with the Jeep.
I don't have the doors on and rains coming like every other day, right? You remember those right? You got to you got to move this one in got to move that one out this morning I got woke up to the thunder and lightning at 3am and I went crap.
So I had to go in the rain get my Jeep put in the garage and get the Nissan put out and I had just washed it right so any of you that don't have jeeps or ever been through that is a thing that has car people that love jeeps.
That's what we go through. She hear me tag myself as a car person. Yeah, I don't I don't know that Jeep. I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't either. I wouldn't tag myself as a car person.
My dad definitely was though he was a guy that we would drive around and he would actually know the cars by the year could tell us you know you you're the guy that says the Jeep with the circle.
No Jeep with the square headlights. You know he would know well in in 57 they changed from a vertical to a horizontal right he would be the guy listening to clutch culture with you you know and listening to all the stuff you say that was him.
You know he loved all that stuff and so while I'm sitting there cleaning the cars I'm trying to have one of those moments you know what did what did I teach my kids about you know washing we talked about I sent them some juice.
You know then I start going well what did I learn from my dad I learned from my dad deferred maintenance.
That's what I learned.
I never saw my dad hand washing a car you know I never never saw him take care I did you know I think the reason why I love car washes and still love foam and I think I'm still enamored just by putting you know foam cannon and spraying foam all over a car is because the first memory I have with my dad was
washing going through a car wash at a gas station. I mean that's what he did he had a Thunderbird and that's what he did you know he was that guy.
Whatever you know even as a detailer when I might he never had me detail is his cars never was never was in his his world you know he loved to be there working on cars had those big old books.
Yeah you know and I always wondered if did he defer because I remember every weekend him always working on the cars like you probably have to keep deferring it.
I we've seen some posts and let's get into deferring there's multiple things that people defer. Let's get into it and we'll hang our hat on that word for a second.
We've done it before and let's do it again. Have a little dance. There was a post inside of the specialist group and this is always interesting if you run over road paint.
How long do you defer how long do you wait before you attempt yourself to get it off or call a professional. I know people always searching you know professional car detailing services near me.
When do I get it. What do you think road paint ASAP.
ASAP there's no there's no waiting. There's a lot of different stuff you know I saw some people say Citroen 266 and there's all kinds of different thing that used to be automatic for me.
You know lacquer thinner paint thinner you know things like that which you know you obviously can't massively tell people that kind of stuff because they'll think that means they can do whatever they want.
They'll leave it on there and have all kinds of adverse reaction but yeah I mean road paints one of those things it's got to be ASAP.
So inside the group was the client. It was a 1500 GMC that was red and you can see that yellow you know and it's we all know it right.
It's those dots around the side but then down by the tire and up under the fender there's just this solid solid yellow.
So we've got paint that we're working on paint and then we got paint that we're working on plastic. Walk us through what we need to do and we're going you know on paint and then how do we need to be careful with you know the plastics.
Yeah I mean look plastics are going to be one of these things. The paint is simple you know choose your weapon of choice and obviously don't you know go crazy use it responsibly.
But plastics can be a different thing. I mean a citrus solvent any type of solvent can have an adverse reaction on plastics.
That's why I always tell people price out the plastics price them out because if you're going to spend two hours then you're going to have to re die and all this other kind of stuff.
You might have just been cheaper to just buy the plastic pieces you know individually pop them off and put new plastics on.
So don't go crazy. And I'd say the same thing for fender liners price them out. You know I'm not saying they're going to be cheaper. I'm saying price them out.
Just like we talk about with headlight restoration. There's some of these headlights again exotics you know more expensive cars I understand.
But the real thing to put your head around is you could be hours into this stuff. You know if brand new costs 250 bucks and your time costs 300 bucks you could have just popped the plastic off and popped it back in and called it a day.
But you do have to worry. I mean if you start using any type of solvent around plastics you're going to have a problem.
Let's go over that situation you just talked about one from both aspects like if I'm the customer looking for a professional detail or take care of it. You know they should you know as a customer.
I don't know if how many of us actually do that.
I'd say very few right because I mean detailers are very different than a body shop right the body shop is going to look at it and go we can order that plastic call it a day have codes for it all and have this system where they look it up and
they're going to be ready to go. It's going to take a detailer much more work if somebody's bringing it to you as a detailer you can venture that they want you to get it off of there sometimes just better to go.
Hey man we'll call up GM will find out what these plastic pieces are we'll get the stuff off your paint while we're getting the stuff off your paint you know hopefully the dealership will get back to us and we'll hear what these pieces cost and
but I don't think hardly anybody does it because and rightfully so we all just feel like everything's going to be astronomically priced.
You know and that's probably the right way to look at it when it comes to some of these quick you know bust out plastic pieces it may not be the case all the time.
Especially on trucks and SUVs that are sort of middle of the road price wise so it's worth a conversation.
You see that a lot like on the cowling of the windshield where it's all burn up you'd have to repaint it you'd have to hang it up dry it you know do all that kind of stuff.
And you go with the cowlings like a hundred bucks you just spent like $400 and man hours plus the prep plus the paint plus all this stuff.
So there's just times and plastic pieces are one of those things that you better be really honest like hey man I start using some real solvent to get this off it may never be the same.
So I'm glad you said that too.
I'm going to keep piggybacking I guess the things you say because you're teeing up right into my what I was going to go into next is you seem to spell this out for your customers so those of us that are detailers that you know whether we say struggle or we
You do it a little bit of homework but that homework can really help the moment the anxiety for the customer right customer service which we mentioned earlier as well as it gives you a chance to do the actual sale.
If you're somebody that wants to do the work maybe you need the work you know it is a way of helping justify you getting the price you want.
Hey you got to spend sir to get ma'am whoever you are you know you've got this red GMC.
Look you've got this plastic piece up at the front fender.
We got this railing down here you got this black piece and there's you got this mud flap.
This part here I'm going to be able to give but you know and then you could price out hey this is getting from GM.
This is see this is get this price this is this price you could go get it replaced for $1200 $800 whatever you know whatever the number is or I could get it to dot dot dot whatever you feel comfortable saying and then maybe that would help you get a sale at you know $500 $600.
A lot of those pieces you can say hey look I'll go pick them up we'll install them I mean it's just a couple clips.
The way you know and I say this pretty regularly but also because we do talk to so many people as I think a lot of people are scared to tell the whole truth to the customer for some reason.
Like if you say to them like I really we see this a lot with scratch repair you know that I see online.
Not people that I know obviously I'm not taking shots at anybody but there's a lot of scratch repair being done by detailers that I go.
Did you really tell them that's going to look different than the rest of the panel now that you sanded that one spot and the answer you and I've been around long enough to go.
They're never going to tell that person the whole truth of this whole door scratch in the middle of the panel and now it's going to look like three separate panels you're going to have the top you're going to have this whole middle
part that you quote unquote fixed now the textures all different it looks all different because you sanded it and added paint.
Then you got the bottom part that's not going to match the middle part so it's going to look different it's going to look like your doors in three sections.
And did you provide a service the answer is yes you did provide a service but did you tell them what the outcome was going to be and if you did good on you.
As a person that has had a lot of people call me about failed scratch repair.
I've actually looked at scratch repair that people have stopped by my shop or I went and looked at and I go well they fixed the scratch.
Yeah but they didn't tell me everything was going to look different and I go yeah that that was a mistake I mean this is this is how they had to fix it because how deep it was.
But I think a lot of people there's only one way to instill confidence when you're working on someone's car if you're a mechanic body shop if you're a detail or an aftermarket shop of any kind.
You better get very comfortable with the 100% absolute truth.
This is why people struggle to sell coatings.
Because same thing it's why people struggle to sell paint protection film because they're scared to tell people the truth it's like dude it's it's not a magic wand.
It is great you know coding your car is great but here's why you have so many people that complain about coding applications is because somebody oversold them and told them something that just wasn't the truth.
And so again when you're talking about repairing something like road paint or you're talking about repairing someone's car in any way your best friend is the truth.
It just it just is what it is so I never want anybody to leave any conversation as a customer and feel like I just didn't tell him how it all worked.
Because I wouldn't like that as a customer so that that's why I do it that way it's not because I you know read some book or somebody like got through to me it's like I just wouldn't like to be treated that way.
It's like man just give it to me straight I'm good we'll figure it out.
So my lack of car knowledge you know I did do something right when I did purchase my Jeep that was getting the four doors instead of two that was the first one.
No let me get away with that.
The second was getting the Sahara version edition because it didn't have the plastic bumpers right I knew not to do that right.
We know just because all of us know if you're in the industry you know right you're like don't get plastic.
So I didn't but not everybody does right there's plenty of people driving around with those plastic fenders inside of the group.
Eric posted that he was he was working on one and it you could see the the cow as you had mentioned you could see the bumpers you can pretty much see every part of this Jeep.
The plastics had began to be messed up.
So you know if somebody has deferred the plastics maybe they start looking and they start changing it but they're kind of I don't know what to do.
I'm not sure I don't know they might they might wonder well what products do I use to restore the black plastic trim like that's a great question to ask.
What do I use to restore if I've got trim and bumpers on a Jeep or other off-road vehicles.
A lot have them is what do I start doing with this.
Yeah you you basically use a what's called a trim die.
There's lots of companies out there that sell trim die.
You die the plastic one of the things you can't do is cheap out on how much you use I load up the plastics.
Remember you're trying to reintroduce die back into basically a baked piece of plastic.
So I see people do two things not use enough so you want to die the plastic you want to be careful using some of these ceramic infused.
You know we got die and you know ceramic infused if it's trying to do two in one.
Yeah it's not that I think those products are necessarily bad but here's here's the caveat.
If you don't put enough on and or your plastics are too far gone and you need more die than what's in that bottle that has a mixture.
You can't read die the plastic again.
Yeah because that protections are protections now and I've seen that a lot actually and now you're in full replacement.
There is no other option.
You can't magically get that off.
There's no way to get it off.
There's no way to get it out of that plastic.
It is not going to reject anything.
You just say you know do like what we say say it out loud right a two in one on a bumper where you're trying to die and protect you just go.
Man that's a lot going on right now.
You have to die first.
Yeah if you have light oxidation and there's not that much going on that stuff can work great.
That's not when most people start thinking about their burnt plastic.
They're usually they're pretty far gone.
We have a video on on YouTube where I did a Jeep and you know I always say that you can't always do the best plan.
You know especially as a professional but the best plan is to me what I have found load up every piece of plastic with as much die as you can get on the surface.
Now you don't want it running off. Don't get me wrong but you want to go pretty heavy.
So when you go pretty heavy the one thing I like to do is let the things sit overnight.
Just let it let it hang out.
You know don't don't go back with a towel and level it. Don't do any of that.
Let it soak into the plastic.
Then the next day when you come back is when you need to go over it with the towel because you'll have some high spots and some stuff that didn't soak in.
You just want to make sure all that stuff is even.
You'll even feel it's kind of sticky because remember you're kind of putting a what's in.
I mean we call it a dye but just think of it like a paint.
You know it's basically like a wet paint at some point.
You could also spray your plastics but most people aren't going to do that.
So we're going to use a trim dye that's on an applicator.
You want to go over all the plastic with a towel and just level it so it all looks uniform.
And then it's real simple.
Load up our trim coating and lay it on probably as heavily as you've laid anything on and do not level the coating.
Don't go over it with a towel.
Nothing.
Let that sit for a couple hours.
If you can let it sit another overnight.
Great.
If not let it sit for as long as you can then go back and see if you have any high areas.
You most likely won't.
Right because this is a pretty beat up plastic so it's going to accept a ton of product and then you're done.
And now you're going to learn the lesson that you didn't learn when the plastic got damaged.
If you don't maintain your plastic there is this is going to happen at some point again.
I don't know when that is.
I'm not saying it's going to be tomorrow.
I'm not saying it's going to be in six months but it is going to happen again.
Yeah it will.
It will.
It definitely will.
It always does.
So you know if if how do I know right it's going to be the question I think a lot of us go how do I know if I've got to put dye.
Or listen Sean inside of our group he put trim cleaner helping make this factory tunnel cover from 2018.
Right.
So you're you're talking what eight years now.
Right.
We're 2026 so eight years ago there's plenty of oxidation on this.
We all definitely think any of us that aren't used to working with plastics maybe I'm trying to add it into a service or up my service offerings to customers.
Maybe I'm somebody that is starting to wonder hey should I get my plastics fixed.
They might they might start looking around wondering when do I use the cleaner.
When do I die.
You know how do I judge that back and forth.
Yeah I mean if you if you have plastic that's supposed to be black and you're seeing a lot of white.
You're at you're at the point of dying it.
Right.
Like that's just plain and simple.
If you start seeing like a real white some gray but a lot of white you're in re die territory but if you're just like hey my trim doesn't look great then absolutely use a trim coating or trim cleaner then go into our trim coating and you'll be fine.
If you go into our group you can see where Sean.
Trim was in bad shape it needed cleaned.
He cleaned up all that oxidation off there because it was light oxidation then went ahead with trim coating and it worked perfectly.
I would say even before you re die if you want to use trim cleaner just to clean up the plastic and make it you know accept the trim die better.
That that's exactly what I did.
It's just not something that most people are going to do so it's really important in my opinion to kind of be able to look at it and go hey my plastic is just looking a little rough get trim cleaner out a little bit elbow grease.
Don't just wipe it in give it a little elbow grease you want to get some of that that dirt and grime off of there and then go in with trim coating.
If if I'm somebody that's wanting to know and I'm just I think it's it's always one of the best questions that we do have kids on hyper clean store dot com but people want to know right best detailing kids.
I would say that our trim cleaner and our trim coating is top three.
When you're thinking kids it's a top three kid of must have.
It wasn't necessarily just the Sean but was a great you go that's a that's a eight year old I think we said eight year old tunnel cover you go right into then the trim treatment on this.
Was it a Lamborghini Diada.
Was that was it a mercy logo.
I don't know.
I don't I don't know either but it was I don't remember the post I was just going off of the the.
What is what was written as the captions from whoever you know right like so that's what it said and there was this treatment and you do great you go.
Best detailing kids the trim cleaner and trim coating kid that we have.
I would say it's one of your top three kids of must have because you can use it in multiple situations right like you're right if you're seeing why to that gray.
But but looking at this one is not great.
You can see it's starting to go and you go listen that's a top kid.
It definitely is getting the cleaner and then coating over the cleaner with the trim.
Yeah and I think one of the things for me is like we now have a DIY kit where it's just full of our whole lineup to take care of your car.
You know makes it easy for people that want to try stuff.
You know we have a wheel entire kit.
We do really basic kits for certain portions of the car and like you said there's nothing better than the trim cleaner and trim coating.
I mean that's that's that's a great kit but we have a DIY kit that now has everything in it if you just want to try everything out.
But yeah we have several kits on the site and it makes it real easy to kind of choose things that fit you.
And even if we're a pro that has been listening because I know there's plenty of pros that listen that don't always hop in and buy hyper clean.
So if you're listening and you're a pro listen a DIY kid doesn't necessarily mean you can't buy it.
You want to try things out it's a great way to try 16 ounce bottles are perfect avenue into going hey I like this this works for me.
Listen I get it.
I don't think you're not the same right we we don't ever believe that we would fill up somebody's entire cabinet.
Well why because we don't have everything.
We don't.
We haven't developed everything yet.
So we understand you're going to use some other stuff but come in and grab what you you got some spots for you're going to find those kids to be very very good for you.
Agreed.
All right so let's get into sort of the last I got a couple two more things but one of the last things that some people have started to ask and I just want to know your thoughts and want to know some people's thoughts.
I love these as community questions like how far do you go.
Right.
When when you've got a customer and maybe these aren't so money for you Nick so I get it your your clientele might not be this way.
But you might get a call from somebody and suddenly take a job and that job's got a little excess stuff in that car.
How far do you go.
Right.
Cleaning because this guy there was a post and he goes you know always have to have a laugh but then has you know you've got all this crap whether it's in the trunk whether it's in the cubby holes of the door.
Right.
That's that's an interesting one.
How much do you take out and do you have a person that person's bag.
Right.
We used to do that.
We would you could even go as far as having it logoed.
Right.
That would be a good if people think of like what are some things I can leave behind.
Well if you logo your bag and then put their personal effects into the bag.
Should you clean out that door.
I mean they paid you for a full detail.
Yeah I'm not I'm not a huge fan of touching people's stuff.
It's you get into some and you and I have seen this you get into some very shaky stuff.
Right.
Where somebody says something was in my car.
Where'd you put it.
Did you take it.
I think the policy you know this would be the reason to have you know sort of a text message you send out if you're doing business with a lot of new customers all the time.
Here are the things to get the most out of your detail.
We don't touch personal facts.
We don't you know we don't move things because you know we don't want things to get lost or misplaced.
And so I think you get into this real situation where.
Let me let pick your brain real quick based on what we talked about earlier about that like sensitivity of texting and back and forth.
Yeah.
What do you say you know like if it shows up and you're like I mean is that a text you go listen.
I don't know.
I got to be honest.
I mean we find stuff.
I mean my my thing was when we use and sometimes we run into things like that somebody leaves a watch behind somebody leaves you know a wallet in the car.
We're big on here's a photo of the wallet we found and then that gets sent to them.
Here's where we put it those types of things.
I think you just got to be very careful.
The picture you showed was a lot of stuff.
You know when you're talking about a lot of stuff.
I think you're really talking about getting yourself into a lot of trouble.
Right.
But like like an average if I just think of my my wife I just was a came on mind like he's like I open up that car door when I'm cleaning it.
I see you know this squirt bottle sanitizer.
I see some other stuff you know I go over to the console area and it's it's tough.
Right.
Right.
But to your point if I'm the pro detailer I don't know what that is until I start picking it up.
Yeah.
But then I'm how do I.
So one of the things we don't do is like you know how you can lift up center consoles.
I don't do that.
Never.
Never.
So a lot of those consoles though if it's if it's empty and then I would do it.
But if I open up a center console and it's all you know sunglasses and I'm not doing that.
Okay.
But like like some consoles though right like they have that little button or whatever you
press to open it has a little crevice in there.
You got to clean that but you start cleaning that then you got to clean all the other parts around you go.
I just got to open.
Yeah.
There's a whole bunch of stuff in there man.
I'm not doing that.
Like I think you're getting into very very touchy territory when you touch people stuff in their car.
I agree.
And the number one thing that I want to avoid is accusations or this happened or that happened.
You know a lot of people running into this normally are mobile guys more than usually
if somebody's dropping a car at your shop they've already gone through that work.
I'm not saying all the time but they run into this a little bit less.
I think one of the things to be mindful I probably give a knock on that door.
Hey there's a lot of stuff in the car.
We're not going to take this stuff out of your car because it's your stuff.
We don't want anything lost or misplaced.
Would you like to remove this?
Do you want to come out?
Yeah that's a great idea.
I'm not going to.
I'm very always been this way too.
Take a lot of pictures if we find stuff.
Here's where we put it.
We put it on your seat.
I don't hide stuff like if I find something under the seats I put it out.
I don't put it back under the seat.
I put it on the passenger seat or whatever and take a picture and send it to him and say hey you know we found these two things under your seat.
You know you got to understand we put it here.
Here's the photo.
Here's what we found.
Stuff in the car is a very touchy subject.
I mean it's just not something I'm going to get very deep into.
Alright so what are your thoughts?
This just kind of came to me while you were talking.
It's like what do you think if we do like that FAA style and like put a security thing.
You're like we did not open this or hey we opened it and we did a secure like hey listen we checked this area and you put a little tag there.
A little piece of thing that says maybe with your logo.
I just think in 2026 it'd be better to just take a picture and send a text.
You know that way that there's you know there's record of it.
Everybody knows what's happened.
But you see a lot of these things turn south.
I can tell you that you can see a lot of stuff.
A lot of things based around somebody's stuff has way more opportunity to go wrong than it has to go right.
You know I would even venture to say like I would just knock on the door.
Hey there's a lot of stuff in here.
You make the call or we'll do whatever you want if you want to take the five minutes to get this stuff out of there.
But we don't want to touch your personal belongings.
Alright last segment we get into because I did take some time right like we went out and visited my dad's you know memorials place.
You know we did some stuff with my mom you know it was we took some moment.
You enjoyed a great meal right you had a good time did you.
Yeah we won't do our normal attack Father's Day will we.
I don't know I mean it's just what it is.
It is what it is right like I I might have done a little pushback on some text messages when people wished me happy Father's Day.
Screw you Wesley screw you other people who wish me happy Father's Day.
No I'm joking but I'm not.
Listen I did sit there for a thing I think we should all do that right I think it's a natural thing if you take a time to go.
Well what did I learn from my father.
A lot of our lives happen and sort of like the processes of our lives happen off of things we learn from our father.
I mean that is what our father's there to do it's what we're supposed to do for our kids.
What when I think of which I'll always say it's why I have the wagon here still here maybe one day you know one day which Nick Nick has already
damned it Nick already said you'll never get it done he's already said it so but one day maybe I will you know my memory of my dad and the big reason
why I have the wagon here is because about my age about 48 he quit his job and he started a financial aid service you know Edward Jones
is who we went to go work for well in Edward Jones you go through these testings so he would sit at my football practice and read
and learn and study and then during the day a lot of what Edward Jones people had to do is they had to go door to door.
Could you imagine going door to door knocking on people's door and trying to sell them anything.
Right I mean get a little own financial aid services like it not financial as it gets financial advice right like you know not aid but advising somebody on their finances.
You know I bring this up because I saw a post I wanted to you know kind of end on and it was a post I know there's a lot of people in these moments that are searching for help.
I definitely could understand I got people have reached out you got people reached out you can see it nonstop on social media people wanting to know you know which we said how to get customers
but there's also people starting to go hey join my programmer join this because you'll learn something.
I saw this from one that it said that most detailers never fail because they are bad at detailing.
Right so let's think about that for a second you and I would probably agree with that statement right when they say fail they mean fail at business.
Yeah right they don't fail because of what not well I don't know there's plenty of you've seen bad work we saw that Mildren you know defended all the stuff in the specialist group with that car.
Right I mean we do see which we can't just we can't jump over that I guess actually we got to go away actually there are people that do fail because they're terrible they just don't know how to do it.
Yeah that is true we've seen it so let's let's go hey maybe there are some that fail because they're not bad at it.
But this person's opinion is they don't fail because they're bad at it they fail because eventually the business starts owning them.
Wait a second what yeah that's an interesting moment right this it kind of goes back to that work life balance wonderful question that Nick and I hate so much right like if I think of what I've learned if you've any of us think of anything
what you've learned growing up or growing in business and want to teach doesn't make you say it all the time I say it all then we say it nonstop it is the work.
Yeah.
Yeah I think I take these types of things which are largely true what what what this post says which is.
You know most detailers are solo operators you know I could show you a wrap shop it's not doing well here in my business park it's the operators are there nobody else is there they don't have team members or anything like that so that's
that's how most film shops tint shops detailers we all start out you know by ourselves and try to grow.
I think one of the hardest things to do in service based businesses could be plumbing could be what we do is getting to that first and you know team member and the second team member and a third team member and statistically most people are never going to get there.
And so when you hear things like burnout or this or that or this this thing or whatever it's largely from a single operator that's tired of doing all the work, meaning the actual physical labor of whatever they're doing.
So I tend to think that that's true I don't.
You know, do we see bad work.
Yeah.
Do I also think most people can do a wash and a vacuum.
Yeah, do I think people over promise and then that's when they get into bad work and they're trying to run a rotary when they don't know how and trying to wet sand when they don't know how and yeah that stuff comes up.
But the main reason people struggle in business is they can't grow.
They just aren't going to take the steps to grow out of, you know, being trapped in their business and then they start using terminology like burnout and things like that.
That's, that's not really what's happening.
What's happening is you're not burnt out you just haven't grown.
Right.
Like, you can be burned out from.
Hey man, I don't want to work on.
I don't want to be a mechanic anymore.
Right.
Like it's beating up my body.
A lot of solo mechanics are trapped because they never hired.
Why'd they never hire?
There's a whole list of reasons why that would happen.
But yeah, I mean, most people are owned by their business.
Right.
And I call it when you're a solo operator, which I've been and you've been, you own a job.
That's what you own.
You got to say that again.
Most people don't.
Yeah.
I mean, when I was a solo, I'm not saying this towards anybody.
When I was a solo operator, when you were a solo operator, I owned a job.
Because if I didn't get up in the morning, I didn't get paid.
Same at your job, except most jobs have sick time, leave time, things like that.
When you own a company, you don't get any of that.
Right.
When you're a solo operator.
So, you know, this idea that, and I would say for myself that I was a business owner.
I mean, technically on paper, that was true.
The fact is I just had a job.
Right.
I had to do certain things or I was not going to get paid.
So, nobody else is going to do the work.
And that's where most detailers start and end their career.
Like that's just statistically factual.
Just like we have to say outright, most detailing business owners make less than $30,000 a year.
And if you worked a 40 hour week, that means you're making $15 an hour.
That's, that's what a $30,000 job looks like.
Like if you went and got a job making $30,000 a year, you'd be paying $15 an hour, basically,
you know, roundabout.
So, when you see a lot of things get set online, I charge this, I charge that.
I always say, does that mean you're doing 40, 50, 60 hours worth of work, making 100,
150, 200 bucks an hour, or you did one job and then you sat at home the rest of the week.
And now you worked for eight hours, but you got a 40 hour, 50 hour work week, you made zero.
So, what'd you actually make over 40 or 50 hours?
So, I tend to agree with the post that you read, which is most people just end up owning,
being owned by their business, but I would just call it, they just own their job.
Hmm, yeah, great point.
Because most of us probably, you're right, probably just work from a eight to 58 to six
type mentality of, hey, you know, this is, this is what I'm supposed to do, right?
This is, this is what is society, right?
This is what, you know, is normal.
Well, as I've had somebody recently local to me say, you know, like they never imagined this
many years, you know, four or five years in the business, never imagined how much they
were supposed to learn, how much more they were supposed to do.
Right?
I got to do something that I wanted to do on Father's Day.
Hopefully you did.
Hopefully other fathers did.
I bought the second Mortal Kombat 2 movie.
There you go.
You're not a movie guy, but you should have been a Mortal Kombat guy back in the day.
Absolutely.
I wanted to watch it.
Well, what interesting, I got to see the get over here, right?
I got to always see that.
But, but there's part of that story of where a guy's like, hey, you sent me to hell, but
then I basically made hell my bitch, right?
I took over hell.
I kind of thought of that into this circumstance of there's so many of us that get into business
and then they realize it's almost like hell and in their own mindset of whatever they venture
it is, they didn't realize how much they were supposed, how much you talk about finances.
This one was how much they were supposed to learn.
We just talked about work, how much they were supposed to work after five o'clock.
Right?
Like how much instead of 40 hours is supposed to be 70.
Right?
Like there's a there's a thing for those of us that are wanting to grow in business wanting
to especially if we're in 2026 during these moments like it could be a survival moment
for some of us, right?
Like how do I get through?
How do I do this?
Well, there's that part of like, well, what is enough?
And then there's some of us that just don't even think of enough and we just like, okay,
well, I'm going to make this mine.
So I'm going to get it.
I'm going to do it.
And that's a flip, right?
There's there's differences in that.
And I think this is where you would say for those of us that listen and we go, hey, listen,
40 is good or hey, you know, I've got to go spend my time doing this other stuff after
the 45.
Okay.
You you're the you're the get a job guy.
I would say I see a growth and I started my business because I wanted to live my life
the way that I wanted to.
Right.
You see that.
That's like a growing thing.
And then something happens in life and life gets expensive and you don't have the money.
Right.
You know, had somebody share a damage took place, a very affordable piece of damage got
happened, happened to somebody who shared me the story, not to them, to someone else.
And they damaged the piece on a guy's car.
And they looked at the guy and said, I don't have the money to fix it.
And I mean, it was like a $50 piece yet you can see this guy all over the internet act
and like, he knows about detailing act like he knows about detailing business and you
go, guys, I've seen in my whole career, you have, especially, you know, now as the internet's
gotten bigger, where people try to, you know, act like experts and you go, you don't have
50 bucks to replace a piece that you damaged, like you damaged it, man.
It doesn't make you a bad person.
I mean, we all damaged stuff.
You all, you know, stuff breaks or, you know, you pressure wash something and something happens.
You got to fix it for a customer.
It is what it is.
But you don't have 50 bucks to do it.
And you look at that and you go, stuff's going to happen.
Stuff's going to happen in life.
So this barely getting by has a price.
It has a price.
You just don't know what it is or you've accepted what it is and you think that that's normal.
Right.
So I always tell people to me, I didn't get to a legitimate business for myself until
I could pay myself a salary until I could cover insurance until I could save for retirement
because guess what?
I can go get a job that does all those things.
Right.
I can go get a job that pays me a salary, gives me insurance, has that, you know, gives me
a 401k, by the way, with a match where the employer would match my 401k contributions
to a certain point.
That's a legitimate business in the world of business, not in my world made up or your
world made up or someone else's world made up.
You can go get a job at Costco and get all those things.
People probably don't know this statistically the fastest way to become a millionaire in
America is to work for somebody.
That's, that's a statistical fact.
Most people can't become a millionaire as a business owner.
What I hate about what's happened, not only in our industry, but around business ownership
is we've made it, we've glorified it to the point that we've stopped telling people the
truth.
Right.
And so then they don't tell themselves the truth.
And I think that's just a recipe for failure that I don't, I want to see everybody succeed.
You're the same way as me.
It's like, I think it's great when people succeed.
I'm like, man, that's awesome that you made it and you did this and you did.
I don't care if it's a detail or a plumber or a carpenter.
I don't really care.
I think it's cool when people succeed.
Less than 10% of business owners will ever make $100,000 a year.
10%.
You know how many jobs start out at like 25, 26 bucks an hour?
You're halfway there.
You're halfway there.
That's starting.
Yeah.
If you just stuck with it, you're almost on a path to be guaranteed.
Within four to five years stuck with it.
Not like 10 years stuck with it.
You're on the path.
And I always tell people this, dude, in and out managers make $160,000 a year.
They started out flipping burgers.
Like we just, so to be owned by your business, which by the way, I have been,
you have been in that situation where working nights, taking any job you can,
trying to, you know, make ends meet, you know, eating ramen noodles and spaghetti
because money's not coming in.
I think the thing that I tell people is, I know a lot of guys 67 years in
and there's no way out.
Owned though.
I mean, you just said it owned.
Like you really felt that if you go back in that time, like, I loved it.
Well, here's the deal.
It doesn't matter if you liked it.
I didn't think it is.
But you're just splitting hairs.
I mean, you had to wake up and do the work or otherwise you aren't going to be paid.
You were in some way she performed owned by your business and owned the job.
I see what you mean.
I took it the other way.
It's like the mental thought process because I guess because I've talked to people that
that feel that way.
Right.
They can never be done.
They can never clock out.
They're always on.
And by the way, I'm that way today.
I don't know any business owner that's not always on.
And I've always, I've tried to say it on this podcast.
The mistake is you think you're going to get to a certain level and it's going to be this
thing.
You're 100% wrong.
You will always be 100% wrong because and let's take it to content creation.
Okay.
Probably want probably the biggest or one of the biggest content creators in the world
is Mr. Beast.
Okay.
Everybody's familiar with that.
When you hear other content creators talk about spending a week at Mr. Beast or around
him, they go, he works 24 seven.
So you're trying to be a content creator and detailing or whatever.
The biggest content created in the world is having other content creators go.
He works 24 seven.
So you think you're going to be a content creator and get to this level.
Mr. Beast or below.
And you're going to do that by doing like an hour a day.
He does it 24 seven.
And by the way, not his words.
This is the words of people.
They're like, you know, other big content creators like I went and spent a week with
them.
I had no idea what was happening and they're already spending 12 16 hours a day.
They're like, he hardly sleeps and then they'll go, what do you mean by hardly seems like
two hours.
He's at the top of the top and I don't know how many people will hear this message.
There is no next level where everything just gets easy.
It's just another level of headaches, things to solve another level of
things to do.
You're responsible for more.
And oh, by the way, when you hire more, there's more families you're responsible for.
Everybody that works with me has a family.
I mean, at HQ at VR, everybody has a family.
If I screwed this thing up, I'm not just messing it up for my family now.
I got a whole bunch of other families that are getting messed up.
So you, you know, when you think about all of this, like, I think people take business
ownership too lightly.
I've always thought that as I got in deeper into this.
I'm like, I just don't think this is a game the way people think.
Like there is real stakes and there's a lot of guys live in detailed job to detailed job
and you go, man, you've been at this six years live in detailed job to detailed job.
You know how many people are hiring?
Don't listen to the narrative that nobody's hiring.
I have never met a single business owner in my life that wasn't hiring at all times.
Have you?
And you and I went through 89 and 10.
Yeah.
They were still hiring.
Yeah.
Right.
So I want to, I want to say this to people like, I take this post as take some stock in
what's going on in your business.
If things aren't going well, guess what?
I've had that too.
You've had it.
You can have that at any point, no matter how little or big you are, but lie into yourself.
I think is the thing that gets you trapped because you go, well, this is going to turn around
while you said not working anymore, not changing anything, not learning how to hire, not learning
what kind of money you have to have to hire.
You know, you and I shared a post recently of somebody who's struggled to hire for as
long as we've known, and then we saw the starting pay and we go, right?
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
It was like, damn.
And you go, I know for a fact, he has to know better.
Yeah.
I mean, just because we know that that has been a topic of conversation.
So if you are working by yourself, which I have been there and you've been there, you
can absolutely be owned or owning your job.
That's what it is.
Until you start to grow into team members, man, it is tough to operate a solo operation.
No matter how many people want to act online, like it's not, it absolutely is.
So is that where you say, like, listen, I just knew what it was going into it where
most people don't, right?
I just gave those people the locally that kind of said, like, I had no idea, right?
Like, that no idea.
But yet they did.
I, I think that was to me was going, you know, I definitely didn't know, but I knew one thing.
I knew one thing that my dad passed down to me that, that my kids know from me, right?
As a divorced father, the one thing that caused my first divorce was I worked too much.
What do my kids know?
Dad worked too much.
Yep.
What do they do?
They work a lot.
Yep.
They brag to me about how much they work and that, hey, when, when they work, they learned
it from me that when they work, success happens.
Yep.
Great.
At the end of the day as a father, I much more care about the legacy that my kids know about
me than what a partner or an ex-partner might have thought, right?
100%.
As a man, I care much more about what I teach my kids and if my kids learn that they need
to work and that working will bring you success, I'm in.
And I'm so thankful that my kids now know that.
Yeah.
No, I'm in the same boat.
Like my, I mean, my kids are young and they already know it.
Like they, I mean, they say it about me.
I'm not trying to say that to be a flex, but, you know, I'm not going to sit on the couch.
They don't get dad goes to work.
Yeah.
You know, like to me, if you take it back to any time in history, you know, you were
supposed to go out of the cave and hunt.
That's what you're supposed to do.
You know, that's, we're just doing that in the modern way, right?
And I spend a lot of time with my kids, but I spend it very, very in sync with getting
my job done, right?
Because they aren't going to have the things they need.
If I'm hanging out at the house and I get it, there's a balancing act, right?
You don't want to be some animal that goes just work all the time so your kids don't
see it.
That's not.
The balance.
One thing that you've done very well that I want people to understand is there is a balance
and then how you construct your day with your, you know, spouse and if it can other of then
what you do at the evening when you get home, right?
Like if we're a man that's we've been gone for a long period of time, of course we understand
that relationship has to be kind of worked around with the person that's there taking
care of the kids, whatever that role is for the either I'm a man or I'm a woman.
Listen to this, right?
The other spouse.
You understand that, right?
If I'm a woman that's been working and then the man's, you know, coming home and taking
care of the kids more than the woman, right?
We can understand that but but if I if I'm a man that's coming home and I've got a wife
or I've got a spouse and I guess somebody that that is thinking I work too much.
I think like you've said one of the best things to always talk about is how much more beneficial
the kids will be if there's more money in the bank because we work now.
The caveat is right.
We got to be producing.
Oh yeah.
We got to be doing work that's beneficial.
Not fucking jacking off doing whatever we think we.
Yeah, no, it's look, it doesn't matter what any of us want to believe.
And I'm like you when I got into business, I had no idea what I was in store for.
I just didn't.
I mean, to say that anybody really knows, I think that's you don't know till you're
in the fire.
I just caught on pretty quickly to certain things.
Definitely not everything because I made a lot of mistakes.
But one of the things that I would say is when it comes to life and it doesn't matter
what country you live in.
So there's a lot of people that want to say, well, that's America and that money is the
only thing that provides options.
Period.
You can't pay for groceries with with love and IOUs and that's not how the game works.
It'd be great if that's how the game work.
It'd give us all a lot more free time.
But the big thing that I've always I have not looked at money as buying stuff as you
know about me and we've talked in here before.
I just want my kids to have options, whatever that option may be, because I'll tell you
when you have kids and you have more responsibilities.
I know there's a lot of younger people that listen to us.
They're probably thinking about starting a family.
You know, what if your kid has health problems?
You know, what if your kid has things come up?
You know, what if your kid gets hurt?
You know, we've had instances, you know, with my five year old and my three year old.
If we didn't have money, there would be real problems.
Okay.
I don't want the world to work that way, but I'm accepting of how the world works.
And I think that's where a lot of people, like you say, they want to say, well, you
don't need all this money.
I hear you to a point.
But if there's money there, you can provide options.
And it's the same in your business, by the way.
When your business is strapped, you can't pay the new hire what you need to pay them
to keep them around.
So I think the thing that gets you trapped is not understanding that money is the
oxygen to everything.
Okay.
In a business, if you don't have enough money, you underpay your hire.
Guess what happens?
They quit.
If you can pay the top of the market, you're going to have some people that don't last,
but you're going to be able to get people to stick around because the exchange of money
is going to be what they see is fair.
Then you can build culture and you can build all of those things.
But when people talk about hiring, the number one reason small business struggles to
hire is they don't pay enough.
Plain and simple.
So how do you pay more?
You save more money.
You put more money aside.
So when you start to hire, you're ready to take on the responsibility of hiring, right?
And you should have three to six months ready to go to pay your staff.
Well, guess what?
You're only going to get that one way.
Like you said, more work, more sacrifice, more everything.
And, and, you know, we have these types of conversations because I wish somebody would
have told me.
I mean, I learned a lot of lessons by just not knowing how it all worked.
Yeah, I didn't do well with that.
What time I came home and having the mouth start to run.
That's not my thing.
Yeah, it's tough.
Yeah.
And here's the thing.
And I will say this, like, I have some patented go to lines that I go, you know, if the credit
card always swipes, you know, it swipes for a reason.
I don't have a money tree out back, you know.
So look, man, you're going to make sacrifice.
And I feel you're going to make sacrifice one way or another.
Either you're going to sacrifice time and effort and have the money, or you're going
to make all the sacrifices of the things you have to miss out on in life because you can't
afford to do it.
You're going to make a sacrifice one way or another.
And I'm not saying which one's right.
You know, I just know which one I'm going to make.
And the extra benefit of your plan and the way if we think about this is then when we
come home and when we have scheduled time with our kids, what are we going to do?
We're going to pour into our kids.
Oh, yeah.
We're going to love that hour, that hour and a half, that two hours, whatever it is
per day that we get to spend with our kids and really dive into them.
So it is probably the best way to live as a man in 2026.
You know, trying to handle business and life.
I tell you, man, it's anybody telling you business is easy.
I think the quicker you get out of that mindset, the quicker you can get to fixing whatever
is wrong in your business because I got news for you.
The stuff we deal with today, it's not easy.
Okay, it's never going to be easy.
But I think a lot of people have this mindset of like, it's easy.
I'm going to do what I want.
I don't do 90% of what I want.
Like, I just don't because there's things that have to be done.
And look, you just don't get to do a lot of shit you love to do.
I mean, I know many people will not tell that truth, but I got news for you, man.
I'm pretty far in my career.
I've done fairly well for myself.
I still do a lot of stuff I hate doing and conversations I don't want to have and
meetings I don't want to be in and things you and I deal with it hyper clean.
Pure work I had to do last week.
I was like, yeah, yeah.
And I just think the more you accept, you know, it's like an old Mike Tyson things like do
the stuff you hate like you love it.
That's really where all the gold is at.
Right.
And I just don't think a lot of people want to do that, which is why I've always said,
I don't think businesses for a lot of people business ownership.
I think we've sold it to a lot of people.
That doesn't mean that everybody is the right fit for them.
And also, I think when it's not the right fit for you, it's okay to admit that you didn't
fail at anything all that bad.
You just go, man, it's not for me.
I wish more people would just be like, Hey, man, it wasn't for me.
All right.
So if you're somebody that is thinking like Mike Tyson, then hey, listen, you should go
over to the hyper clean specialist group.
Right.
You should because you should go interact there.
If you're in that same mindset, why?
Well, we're not so great at, you know, Hey, show us your before and afters.
It's a recent post that not too many interacted with.
It's not that type of group, but it's more of like the group of Hey, like Wesley, and
then we showed those paint problems and wasn't there's all kinds of car tags and fun stuff
to be a part of.
So we'll see everybody over there in the hyper clean specialist group.
All right, guys.
Thank you.
About this episode
Customer service frustrations kick things off, from dealership recalls and a “do not wash” tag being ignored to the broader idea that fixing mistakes often comes down to money. The hosts then pivot to how detailing shops should treat existing customers, handle belongings carefully, and document found items with photos/text. Later, they tackle business reality: solo operators feel trapped, growth is hard, and “burnout” is often really a lack of growth. The episode also covers practical trim/solvent safety and honest expectations for scratch repair and paint protection.
Original notes
In this episode, Marshall and Nick delve into the nuances of customer interactions, the importance of honesty, and how to navigate common challenges in the auto detailing industry. They emphasize the value of clear communication, transparency, and strategic business growth to foster loyalty and avoid pitfalls.
Key Topics
- Understanding customer reactions to service feedback and feedback management
- The role of honesty and transparency in building trust
- Handling service mistakes, recalls, and customer complaints effectively
- Importance of follow-up and showing professionalism after service
- Strategies for upselling parts and repair services with honesty
- Addressing common deferred maintenance issues, especially on plastics and trims
- The impact of business owner burnout and the importance of team growth
- Financial foundational wellness for sustainability and growth
- The pitfalls of owning a job versus owning a business
- The significance of work-life balance and legacy as a parent and business owner
Timestamps
00:00 - Customer feedback and the importance of response management
02:20 - The significance of kettle moments in customer service
04:26 - Handling recalls and the importance of doing right by customers
09:12 - The decline of customer service expectations in modern businesses
13:47 - Dealing with road paint and plastic repairs effectively
17:35 - The importance of homework and transparency in upselling
21:40 - Truthfulness in service quality and managing customer expectations
26:46 - Restoring plastic trim and cosmetic parts properly
33:05 - Guidelines for handling and photographing personal effects in cars
36:00 - Protecting customer belongings and avoiding liability
41:26 - The challenge of growing a solo operation into a team-based business
48:16 - The importance of balancing work and family, leaving a legacy
52:14 - How most business owners are owned by their business — facts and fears
58:35 - The mindset shift from ownership to servitude and business ownership realities
65:01 - The value of sacrifice, intentional working hours, and building future options
70:00 - Final thoughts on industry truths, success, and community support
Pints and Polishing Auto Detailing Podcast
Nick Walters and Marshall Hill
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67:56