Living Social has contacted me in hopes of using my Auto Detailing service for one of their daily deals. Now there is no money up front (which I like). They pick 2 price points for some of my details ($120 for a car wash/wax, $150 for a truck wash/wax) and run the deal. They capped my coupons at 200 details sold, so to avoid problems with *too* many details overwhelming my small one man operation.

Fine print is present in the add consisting of weather permitting problems, details may be scheduled months in advance, must be done at my location etc. All the bases seem to be covered for me to be safe in not getting overwhelmed, or having to work outside my normal comfort level. They take 1/2 the money at the end, but its business I wouldnt have had without them so its hard to be too ill about that.

What I wonder is though, the only thing negative from business owners I have found on the net is the fear of too many customers at once. Other than that, it seems like a great option to increase business for a little while. Any of you guys heard of problems from the small business side that I should be considering? I have time to revise the contract (havent even recieved it yet) but want to make sure I'm 100% clear in what I'm getting myself into.

9/21/2011 10:17:26 AM

Maybe put in the fine print about appointment preferred, and that appointments come first. That way if you have people that pull up, they'll have to wait. I got one for a restaurant and it said that reservations were required.

9/21/2011 10:21:07 AM

Dibs on helping you if you need someone. I don't mind being your water hose-bitch.

































I'm totally serious man. Let me know if you need help. Afterwards we can shoot some stuff and enjoy cold beers, though I prefer ciders myself.

[Edited on September 21, 2011 at 10:23 AM. Reason : .]

9/21/2011 10:22:59 AM

^Seriously, she was like "do you have extra help, often times our parters have to hire more people to work". Of course, cider beer is in stock at the house as well, so we may have to work something out.

^^Yeah they buy the detail, but it says in fine print "appointments must be made in advance".

9/21/2011 10:38:41 AM

I think it's a great idea, but make sure you have a good way of setting appointments. My biggest complaint with some of the Living Social deals I have purchased is that they either 1) Don't have voicemail/never answer the phone or 2) Don't have an email address to set up appointments. I know one place I called time and time again, and never got a call back.

I would also make sure you have business cards to hand out to your new customers. Also, maybe you can throw in a discount as well. So, on your business card it says "bring this back in for 10% off your next service." The key is to get return customers, instead of just one and done.

I know you do a lot of traveling to your customers, or at least you have in the past, is that something you are offering with this deal?

9/21/2011 10:49:09 AM

^ this is good, maybe set up a gmail account for this, where you can make it public when people email you and they can see what's available. Also a way to guarantee appointments would be to get their living social number for the appointment, and if they are a no show, then it uses their ticket.

9/21/2011 10:55:08 AM

http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/05/served-the-restaurant-coupon-invasion.html

It's not quite the same business, but a friend had posted this a while back and it seems relevant.

9/21/2011 11:03:27 AM

Isn't it typically ~50% off? So the customer only pays $75 (for a $150 service), of which you only get half? Or were you planning on saying the service is worth $200 so the customer pays Living Social $100? How do you see all that working, and how much do you expect to make off each detail? $30-$40?

Also say 20% of the people who bought them don't use the coupons. Do you get to keep the 50% of whatever they pay, or does living social keep that money, and you only get paid when someone uses the certificate.

9/21/2011 11:37:21 AM

I worked for a restaurant that did these 50% of dealies. The main issues we had were a rush of people using them right when they bought them, a rush of people the last weekend it was valid, and idiots who tried to use the things 6 months after they expired. But if you are requiring appointments that should help out some with the rush of people at the end of the deal at least. Though I could see people calling up the Friday before it expires going, "Yo give me an appointment tomorrow morning WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE BOOKED FOR THE ENTIRE WEEKEND?! RAWR RAWR RAWR." But I mean, you really can't win with those sorts of people no matter what you do.

9/21/2011 12:12:46 PM

One of the house cleaning deals I have purchased had an expiration date of September, 2011, which most people waited until the last minute to book. So, they of course ran out of slots open to clean. They changed their policy to include all appointments BOOKED by the end of September. So, even if you booked it for the second week of November, because you scheduled it by then, you're golden. That's another idea.

I do think it's important for you to sit and go through all of these caveats. Are you going to offer a lesser service than you offer full priced customers? Are you going to travel? Will you have to hire an assistant? And ultimately, decide what your profit margin would be on a per-voucher basis. If you're going to operate for little profit, but get customers long term, I think it's a good idea. But if you're going to lose money on this deal, then additional customers may not be worth it. You may just do a half off special on your own, and advertise via word of mouth and TWW and facebook (because it sounds like that would give you more money coming in).

9/21/2011 12:59:51 PM

Quote :

"You may just do a half off special on your own, and advertise via word of mouth and TWW and facebook (because it sounds like that would give you more money coming in)."

I like that...but I assume his percentage of new customers would be lower (eg I'd be getting one or two of his half price details. he does great work!)

9/21/2011 1:29:50 PM

Yeah they take 50% of the profit of whats sold, and thats already 50% off what it normally costs. For the details I'm doing, the normal price is around $240 for a car, and $300 for a truck (I wanted to do some upper level detailing for this so I dont have 400 vouchers sold for a $60 detail). So 1/2 of that is $120 for a car and $150 for a truck and then living social gets half of that. Now $60 for the car and $75 for the trucks/suv's still puts me making money (although not as much as I normally make per car) but its all due to customers I wouldnt have had without this deal, so I make up in volume what I normally make for my higher prices.

The fine print sets the limits as it must be redeemed at my location (no mobiles for this deal) and it may take several months to schedule a detail. I'm hoping that without the cost of going to the customer, and the fact that they already understand that it may be a while before they can redeem their coupon limits how many is sold and prepares the customer for what may happen.

I also have some help lined up for the first month which is going to be busy should the need arise. I'm hoping this wont put me in over my head. Even with the 75% reduction in price I still make money and make it by volume, so it *should* be worth it.

9/21/2011 4:02:09 PM

plus you're likely (hopefully) to gain repeat customers who might not have been exposed to you otherwise.

9/21/2011 4:04:25 PM

the market where these living social sites do well, is people who have skilled trade and no costs to absorb. Where like you said, without these people you're essentially not working, good luck!

9/21/2011 4:12:41 PM

I think its a great move for your business, and I hope you do really well with it.

Hopefully this generates a lot of repeat customers for you. I know if I lived in Raleigh, I would use you all the time.

9/21/2011 4:17:59 PM

i assume you only get paid for the deals that are redeemed as well? so they pocket $$ for people that don't show up / forget

9/22/2011 4:19:58 AM

Paging that giunusxxboy pizza shop owner.

9/22/2011 4:36:48 AM

Do you have employees or are you doing all the work yourself?


If you are doing all the work yourself, I don't recommend doing Living social. You'll be doing twice the workload for half or less the normal profit. You'll have to turn down full price paying customers in order to fulfill your contract obligations for living social.

90% of the people that buy the coupons would probably never use your service without a coupon, therefore repeat business is slim. What it means is.. for every 100 cars you detail, you MIGHT keep 7 or 9 of them as customers.

Quote :

"($120 for a car wash/wax, $150 for a truck"

What do you do that car spa can't do for $60?

9/22/2011 6:01:48 AM

^Not scratch the shit out of your paint, not leave wax in all corners, not leave a greasy mess in the interior....

9/22/2011 8:44:41 AM

If my car wasn't a total piece of junk I'd be tempted to do this. But if you shine up a 1999 Subaru, it still looks like a 1999 Subaru I wonder if getting my car detailed would get rid of the bizarre French fry smell that's in the interior. It just started recently and I've never eaten fries in the car

9/22/2011 8:54:19 AM

Quote :

"What do you do that car spa can't do for $60?"

Granted, I've never used his service, but if the pictures on his website are for real, then I've never been to a car spa that's given that level of attention to detail for $60.

9/22/2011 8:58:18 AM

Quote :

"What do you do that car spa can't do for $60?"

haha, wow.

le stupid

9/22/2011 9:26:58 AM

I hope it goes without saying, but never, ever take business advice from GeniuSxBoY.

9/22/2011 9:31:06 AM

^Truth.

Although, I am nervous about the amount of customers. I already have 10 or so customers a week, and I have spots for 4-6 more a week.

Either way, it should be good for business.

9/22/2011 9:55:11 AM

^ so if you sell 200 deals, it'll take you up to 40 weeks to have time to detail all those cars?

FYI, I looked over the past groupons/living socials/twongos/etc for details and the price points for the consumer is usually $30-$60 for a "full" detail. Granted I'm sure your details are of a higher quality than theirs, but you're going to have to find a way to get them to express that in your promotion if the price is going to be $120-$150. I forwarded the old deals to your email...

9/22/2011 10:16:00 AM

How about I just pay you $85 to detail my Lexus IS300? Instead of buying a Living Social coupon for $150 and you netting $75, you make an extra $10 and I save $Texas.

9/22/2011 10:28:06 AM

Quote :

"What do you do that car spa can't do for $60?"

What do you do that cici's can't do for $4.99?

[Edited on September 22, 2011 at 10:30 AM. Reason : .]

9/22/2011 10:29:08 AM

the coupon company's 50% cut seems ridiculous to me. they get 50% for not doing a whole lot; and they get all of the no show money (assuming this). they have virtually no risk in the transaction, not much service to provide (stick it on their website). if it was <=25% then I think it's not a bad deal... but 50%?

9/22/2011 10:30:28 AM

they have to pay for those commercials somehow.

9/22/2011 10:31:16 AM

Quote :

"and they get all of the no show money (assuming this)"

I'm curious about this as well. Brandon1, did they tell you that you still get your 50% from unused vouchers?

9/22/2011 10:41:01 AM

Nah, I keep the no-show money. They cut me a check the day after the deal runs, if there is someone that does not show up, tough shit for them.

I agree 50% is a little much, but its hard to turn down an estimated $12k (granted with an assload of work) that I wouldnt have had without living social.

Synapse - Saw the deals, yeah I made sure they knew to pump up my details and show that they were of higher quality to make it at that price point. Honestly both the agent and I agreed that a higher price point would limit customers, which is what I want. The last detailer that did this in the Raleigh area sold 350 $80-$100 details, something I simply cant handle. Even 200 may be a stretch, but we will see.

[Edited on September 22, 2011 at 10:44 AM. Reason : .]

9/22/2011 10:42:07 AM

Yeah I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with limiting your customer base with the price point. You don't want complete misers walking in the door when you provide a higher quality service. Let the people who think your discounted prices are still too high go to Bunkey's

9/22/2011 10:51:19 AM

Good luck with this Brandon.


And as an aside, anyone that really cares about their car never takes it to an Autobell type place for a good cleaning/detailing. You either do it yourself or pay someone else to do it by hand.

9/22/2011 11:22:30 AM

^Yep. When people tell me that Autobell/Bunky's can do service "x" for $60, I tell them to go ahead and go for it. They arent my type of customer and wont appreciate my level of detail and def wont like the bill at the end of the service if they think $60 is all they need.

9/22/2011 3:19:41 PM

So somewhat off-topic but do you normally tip when you get your car detailed with a service like yours or is the price inclusive?

[Edited on September 22, 2011 at 4:04 PM. Reason : gram]

9/22/2011 4:00:29 PM

Quote :

"yeah I made sure they knew to pump up my details and show that they were of higher quality to make it at that price point. "

higher quality than autobell? It takes $80 for you to accomplish a higher quality than autobell?

I don't understand. You're not telling me who you are comparing your quality to?

It's like Ci-Ci pizza

Quote :

"You gotta go to CiCi's, the endless buffet of fresh salads, savory pasta, delicious desserts and fresh-from-the-oven pizzas. Our dough is made from scratch everyday, our sauce is a blend of vine-ripened tomatoes and spices, our signature salads are hand tossed with the freshest ingredients and our desserts are simply delicious."

freshest ingredients? ... the heck??
simply delicious? ... the fuck??

to who's standards?


You suggesting you have better quality is ambiguous and a lot of ghetto auto detailers advertise quality also.


Bling Clean (http://www.blingcleaninc.com/) is a successful business because it knows they have a market.

Quote :

"Bling Clean Inc. was started by John and Beth Evans in the winter of 2004 when John found out getting your car washed is not easy, especially after a Hampton Roads snow storm. The long wait and not-very-good job convinced John there was a service to be provided. Our first van (Big Bling) started washing cars at customers’ homes and businesses in Chesapeake, and Virginia Beach. Demand quickly increased and now we have four auto detailing vans on the road."

You are not offering speed and by booking 300 wash jobs, you'll make a lot of money, but some people are going to have to wait WEEKS to get their car washed. How many wash jobs can you handle a day? 4 or 5 including travel time? How much energy do you have? Energy is like money, you only have so much to spend before you're worn out.


A lot of people read what I write and get offended because it's not sugarcoated. I hope you take the most of what I wrote despite my assholish delivery. It's not intended to be assholish at all. It's intended to be helpful.

9/22/2011 4:07:49 PM

^haha. wow.

no one wants sugar coated... but that's not the issue. your issue is that you can't differentiate between 3 different types of services.

let's see...

hand wash vs some crappy drive through
someone who actually cares about their job and quality vs some punk kid with a summer job
complete detail, including every nook and cranny vs a slob job
use of high quality products vs generic bulk products
inspecting each blemish and removing all that can be removed vs a quick rub down
use of clean, non-soiled, high quality cloths vs reused towels
quality vs quantity
spending the time it takes to do the job vs a car washing mill

have you ever taken your vehicle to one of these high volumes places?
have you ever taken your vehicle to a cheap washer?
have you ever taken your vehicle to a detailer?

I've done all three and i can tell you, the quality of service is miles apart for all 3. and they're each pretty much worth the price you pay; and you get what you pay for.

\/ exactly. I can spend 5-8 hours detailing mine. Or Brandon can do what I do (actually better) in a much smaller time frame.

[Edited on September 22, 2011 at 4:22 PM. Reason : .]

9/22/2011 4:17:54 PM

^^when I give my car a very thorough cleaning it takes me around 5 hours.

[Edited on September 22, 2011 at 4:22 PM. Reason : a 10oz bottle of the detergent I use is $10. Quality costs money.]

9/22/2011 4:21:26 PM

Quote :

" I've done all three and i can tell you, the quality of service is miles apart for all 3."

Have you ever had your car worked on by


-the dealer
-a private shop
-a personal friend
-a personal friend who owns a shop

Which one gives the best quality?
Which one gives a shit about you and your car?

Do you know the quality of these people before you use them?

By the price point?
Fuck and No.

[Edited on September 22, 2011 at 4:34 PM. Reason : .]

9/22/2011 4:34:07 PM

yes, actually.

9/22/2011 4:37:17 PM

no, reality.

9/22/2011 4:40:13 PM

so you're saying that I've never:

called such places and received quotes
research such places via word of mouth and the internet
never used these places and can compare their service and price?

9/22/2011 4:41:30 PM

No, I'm saying you can't judge someone's quality by the price they charge.

You added all the other bullshit.

[Edited on September 22, 2011 at 4:42 PM. Reason : .]

9/22/2011 4:42:31 PM

who said you could judge quality by price?

not that you can't though. it doesn't always hold true, but often enough, high price = high quality; low price = low quality.

[Edited on September 22, 2011 at 4:44 PM. Reason : .]

9/22/2011 4:43:15 PM

Quote :

""yeah I made sure they knew to pump up my details and show that they were of higher quality to make it at that price point. " -Brandon1"

9/22/2011 4:44:33 PM

Yeah *normally* if you see a detailer offering $69.99 for a "full service detail" vs. someone offering their "full service detail" for $200+ you would assume the latter would do a better job. Or instead of assuming, you could do research on the company and their reputation.

I see what you are saying, and your right its straight up advice, I get that. However you arent grasping the concept that I'm a higher level detailer than Autobell.

^And that quote was meant to show that Living Social was going to FULLY explain why I am charging so much more than the average guy, and why my level of service is of a much higher quality.

[Edited on September 22, 2011 at 4:47 PM. Reason : .]

9/22/2011 4:45:03 PM

uhh, he's not saying the price confirms the quality. he's stating that details to his coupon should be added so that it is clear that the quality matches the price...

[Edited on September 22, 2011 at 4:46 PM. Reason : .]

9/22/2011 4:45:20 PM

Quote :

"higher quality than autobell? It takes $80 for you to accomplish a higher quality than autobell?"

autobell is not a detailing service. it's a basic, inexpensive, relatively quick car wash and that's it. comparing autobell to a real detailing service is like comparing mcdonald's to a five star restaurant.

9/22/2011 7:03:25 PM

There's no way I'd do a one day mega coupon promotion if I was a one man operation. You'll end up pissing off more people with weeks of waiting time than getting new customers.

9/22/2011 8:39:13 PM

I'd opt not to do it as well, but it's all about how much work you think you can handle. I have a few friends who own restaurants that have done it, and it's a hassle even with a full staff. If you're dealing with people who might not normally be your customers, the wait time associated with an elevated workload and a one man operation might be even more of a turn off.

Also, please read the link that modlin posted. I like saving money as much as the next person, but obsessive coupon clippers are the absolute worst when it comes to these deals.

9/22/2011 8:55:34 PM