Big enough to deliver, small enough to care. 

Have you heard that saying before? This saying is so important to how we like to work. To us, this means that we can handle truly large projects, whilst retaining the personal touch that adds the ‘wow’ factor. There is a happy medium in terms of size when you’re picking a valet team to work with. 

 

One common priority is knowing that your contract valeting company can handle any sudden increases in your vehicle stock. This becomes especially important around new plate time, when new cars and the part exchanges both need to be in tip-top condition, ready for sale. 

 

A good valeting team needs to be able to deal with the ebb and flow of capacity. As the Manager of a Dealership, what you want is for everything to be kept up to a high standard, regardless of the ultimate quantity that is on your forecourt at any given time. 

 

There’s usually this tug between whether or not you should go for a national contract valeting company or a small local company, where you know that you matter to them. Our professional recommendation is that you should start with a contract valeting company that you know values your business. Following that, make sure that they have the right processes in place to be able to handle what you want from them. 

 

Tip One: Ask how many other accounts your Account Manager handles

 

It’s worth asking your account manager how many other contracts they have to manage on a daily and monthly basis. 

 

Some account managers are given huge amounts of contracts to deal with, potentially 50 or 60 at any one time. And bless them, with the best will in the world that is a very big job for one person to handle. 

 

Each dealership in itself is a big undertaking. Because not only are they in charge of keeping you happy, they’re also in charge of:

• Handling each team that at each site  
• Paying your valeting team 
• Quality control checks
• Coaching
• Checking the team wears the correct uniform 

 

Too many other accounts to manage is a common cause of why standards slip at a site. It’s not the valet team’s fault, it’s the fact that the Account Manager doesn’t have the time to keep them on the same road that they need to. 

 

You need to have a valeting company that will dedicate the proper time to keeping standards high, during busy periods and quiet periods.  

 

 

Tip Two: Ask about sickness cover & how they manage quality

 

Valeting can be a high turnover job. In a relatively small company, One absence or one sick member of staff can have a massive impact on their capacity. As such, it’s vital to know that they have the proper coverage in place to produce output and actually keep things up and running. 

 

A great way to do this is to ask about how they handle cover. What happens if a team member calls in sick? Is there a deadline time per day that they must do so? If this did happen, what would that mean for your vehicles and your scheduled cleans that day?

 

In addition, there’s likely a less systematic approach in place and best practice. This may not sound like a big thing, but I’m sure that there is a very particular way that you like to do things and the current Valet team knows about this. Do they share knowledge just in case someone calls in sick?  Ask where they write down cleaning schedules and share with team members. 

 

Big enough to cope, small enough to care. By working with a regional company, they’ve got the consistency and systems in place but you still represent a big enough chunk of their income for them to really want to look after you

 

Tip Three: Interview potential Valeting companies with these questions

 

Here’s a list which we bring to every new clean. We want to make sure that you have all the information you need to be confident that you’ve made the right choice in Valeters. Our recommendation is to conduct interviews with each potential contract valeting company against these key questions.

 

Whoever you go with, make sure that they have these things covered:

• • Checklists daily weekly monthly Managers that have a detailed checklist so they can go through the fleet on a weekly/monthly basis to check that everything is done to the standard expected
  • Who’s in charge of your account? What can your Account Manager do to get things done?
  • How responsive? How quickly can you expect a response from them? Would you get a same-day response?
  • How do they handle attendance? What do they do when somebody doesn’t turn up? What do they do when somebody doesn’t wear a uniform?
  • How do they check quality? How do they know a good job is good?
  • Maintaining quality? somebody’s hired and performing to the right standard, how are they continued to be trained and developed?
  • Who’s looking after the valet team’s interests as well? Are they being paid on time? Do they pay Living Wage?
  • Updates – Are you told when things go well like somebody consistently completes the checklists in a great time? What do they do when something goes wrong?
  • What about hidden costs? Are materials and cleaning products included in the price? If not that’s not a deal-breaker, but you need to factor it in

 

 

We hope you found this useful 

 

This list is based on our years of experience. We like to think that we are big enough to handle anything that comes our way, yet small enough to care about each individual client. We work right across the M5 and M4 corridor, covering a huge amount of whales and England. 

 

Your Account Manager has the power to exceed your expectations. Each Account Manager is given plenty of time to focus on each individual client to make sure each job is done consistently week in, week out.

 

• One-Stop Shop – We can supply all chemicals and ancillary products, as well as supply and maintain machinery.
• Available 24/7/365 – We have an easy to use paperless booking system (GPS) and 24 -hour support, 365 days a year.
• An eye for detail – Our team of expert vehicle detailers are available on request.

 

We’d love to hear more about your Dealership. If you have any questions about our contract valeting company, we’d be happy to answer them. Our friendly team is available 24/7 via webchat. Why not say Hello?

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