I get asked all the time if Auto Detail Doctor is a franchise. The short answer is no.
So many people think that this particular mobile car detailing business is a franchise because it has the looks, with our mobile unit van sporting the bright Auto Detail Doctor colors, the T-shirts, jackets, sweatshirts, banners, stickers, you name it. It sure looks like we are a franchise, but in fact, “we” are not. There is only one employee, myself, Clint Allerton. There is only one mobile detailing unit. As the owner and operator of the business, I choose not to be a franchise for a number of reasons.
The main reason is that I do not and cannot have the work quality go down. People expect the very best with this auto detailing service and I am afraid that if I expand and have multiple vans out there with multiple employees, that it will open a big can of worms. I feel that one will never get the same quality out of an employee as they would from the owner himself. I take great pride in my work and I take it personally, and if the customer ever has any issues, I take it personally enough that I want to resolve the issue sooner than later. Immediately, in fact.
Being in other work situations in the past, before Auto Detail Doctor was created, I noticed that many employees I worked with simply didn’t care. Sometimes I was even at fault for that. One can’t blame an employee for sometimes being burned out, tired, and feeling less important than the day they started. In my past work situations, the employees were there for the paycheck. That is understandable, but in my case, I own Auto Detail Doctor, and it’s not all about the profit, it’s about doing a great job for the customer, so they will refer and/or call me back another day.
As I just stated, my ultimate goal is to have the customer call me back another day for another job. I want to be the BEST Car and Auto Detailer in the world, and at this point, I am afraid to expand because I do not want to lose focus on being the best. I feel that the franchises out there, with employees calling themselves “specialists” or “technicians,” are basically a joke. The owner of the business is sometimes nowhere to be found, and the employees are looking for that paycheck as first priority. Don’t get me wrong, I too need a paycheck, but the difference with Auto Detail Doctor is that I know that if I don’t do a great job, then I don’t get paid.
Another thing that is different from Auto Detail Doctor is that I will not leave the customer’s driveway or business until the customer is 100 percent happy with the results. I can’t spend the night at their home or work location, so I better get it right the first time! If a detailing “specialist” or “technician” is working on your car, do they really care if the customer is 100 percent happy with the results? I’m not so sure. The good news is that I am so very happy with the direction Auto Detail Doctor is going. The service has grown so much other the past couple of years. Things are going so great that I often have to remind myself how fortunate and blessed that I am. We can never give Him enough Glory!
-Clint Allerton
