As a mobile detailer, you make your client’s car look like it just rolled off the sales floor. It’s a point of pride for you to give your clients clean and beautiful vehicles.
Running a Mobile Detailing business means you have a lot of things to think about like pricing, scheduling, and organizing your products and that’s before you even get to your real job of detailing But all your detailing jobs will go smoother if you have the right business systems in place.
One of the most important things to have in place is contracts. When you start taking on clients, it is pivotal to have contracts in place between you and your clients in order to assure that everyone is legally protected and terms of your services are clearly laid out in black and white. Contracts also lower the risk of disputes, late cancellations and no-shows by making your expectations clear from the start.
Why Do Mobile Detailers Need Client Contracts
The first reason a mobile detailer needs contracts in place with every client is security. Every business needs to have client contracts just in case, because you never know when you will run into someone who decides they don’t like the services you rendered and think they can either blast you online or, even worse, take you to court. After all, you practice your craft on very expensive vehicles so it’s important to explicitly state in a contract what you are and are not responsible for.Having a contract in place will protect you from legal ramifications and will, as stated earlier, lay out all expectations for the client in black and white.
While it is rare that you will be sued as a detailer, it is possible. You are dealing with people’s vehicles, probably one of the most expensive possessions that they own, and it is up to you to protect yourself and your livelihood.
The second reason to have contracts and waivers in place is business. A contract is a great place to lay out the terms of your cancellation policy and what a client owes you if they don’t show up for their appointment or cancel at the last minute. Fewer no-shows will save you both time and money.
When Would a Mobile Detailer Need a Contract?
As a mobile detailer, you will be providing a range of services that help people get their vehicles sparkling clean. You are responsible for the exterior and interior of their vehicles. People tend to get very possessive of their vehicles, and for good reason. They are high value items owned by the client, and they want to make sure that nothing goes wrong. You also want to make sure that their personal property is properly taken care of, so having a contract in place is essential to protect everyone involved.
Contracts and liability waivers are extremely important in your line of business. Let’s take this hypothetical example for instance:
You show up to do a full detail on a client’s vehicle. They told you everything was ready for you so you get started. When you are done, they seem thrilled with the results and you go on your way. A week later, you receive a nasty social media post about how you “ruined their car” because of some “negligence” on your part and now they want compensation. The exterior is scratched now, but you don’t remember seeing that at all when you were detailing the vehicle.
You have no idea how what you did could have possibly damaged their car! You rack your brain but nothing is coming. You couldn’t have damaged the vehicle, but there is no contract or waiver in place that protects you from legal ramifications.
While everyone would love to think that their clients would never do such a thing and that everyone would be honest, sadly that isn’t the case. Situations like the one above happen all too often, and that is why it is important that you protect yourself and your business.
Along with having a contract and liability waiver in place, it is also important to take those before and after photos. You can even write into your contract that this is something you do with each and every detail. Not only would these photos give you excellent advertisement material, it also can come in handy if someone says that you damaged their car when it is clear in the photos that it was NOT you who did this.
How to Set Up Mobile Detailing Client Contracts
We know you aren’t a legal expert, and you don’t have to be! We recommend having an attorney set up your client contracts and waivers for you. You can pay one fee and have them write up a generic contract that you can send to each and every client when they book with you.
Here at PocketSuite, we want to not only make it easy to run your mobile detailing business, but also protect our pros and their businesses. That’s why we have a contract integration feature where you can easily send a contract to your clients when they book with you.
Within the PocketSuite app, you can add any contract or waiver that you want to use. It will automatically send your contract to your new clients to sign so you know you always have contracts and waivers in place when someone new books you.
Contracts within the PocketSuite app also have the option to include dynamic fields. This means that all of these fields will update with specific client and transaction information for each and every unique client contract.
They can be delivered by email or text message, depending on what you and your client prefer, and they will be formatted into a signable PDF. Clients can sign easily with their fingertip right from their smartphone! Making it easy on them and convenient for you.
PocketSuite Makes Mobile Detailing Contracts Easy
No matter if you run a multi person detailing empire or you are a solopreneur running your mobile detailing business on your own, PocketSuite is here to help you run the best business possible. Along with all of our other personalized features for mobile detailers, we know that our contract feature will help you really take your business to the next level.
If you are ready to try out PocketSuit for your mobile detailing business, you can try our 30 day risk free trial today, you don’t even have to enter a credit card number to get all the amazing features. Our customer service team is here to help you every step of the way. From setting up your booking page to importing your existing contracts, they will give you personalized one on one support with everything you need to make your business run smoothly so you can focus on giving people the clean and beautiful vehicles they deserve.
