Specialty Cleaning Services

When you are out looking for work as a detailer, creativity is your friend. If you only focus on cars, then your job will morph into a full-time salesperson that occasionally details cars. Nobody wants that. So step back, take a deep breath, and think outside the box for a minute.

I’ve already covered many types of specialty cleaning services in other areas of AutoDetailGuide.com. From commercial fleets, to heavy equipment cleaning, pressure washing, and more.

But that’s not the type of specialized cleaning I’m talking about now. This is about cleaning something that other people don’t think about. Sometimes not even the people that own what you want to clean for them.

Playground Equipment

One of these specialty items that I made a great deal of money cleaning is something you see every day. Playground equipment.

Most communities today have a local playground. They’ve been around for a long time. In the United States, the first ‘playground’ was built in Salem, Massachusetts in 1821. Back then they called it an outdoor gymnasium. It wasn’t until 1837 that the name playground was used in any official capacity.

Now your first instinct will be to approach local municipalities like townships, boroughs, and similar towns. Most will have parks with playgrounds. But that would be a mistake.

Baggage, Idiocy, and Incompetence

Outdoor parks with playground equipment are clearly everywhere. But I want to dive a bit deeper here and find an even better market than the public side of cleaning playground equipment. Don’t misunderstand, there is potential with business from local governments and municipalities. But anyone who has ever dealt with local municipalities will attest to the ridiculous level of baggage, idiocy, and incompetence that comes along with it.

So work on local governments if you want, but spend more of your time on the more profitable and less complicated potential profits found in local businesses that have playgrounds.

Indoor Playgrounds

I’m talking about indoor playgrounds too.

Think McDonald’s, Burger King, and Chic-Fil-A, with the big glass-enclosed playgrounds in the front of their restaurants.

Regardless of where they’re located, they need to be cleaned. Look at what playground equipment is made of. It’s all plastic, fiberglass, and steel. Or plastic, wood, and steel. Or all four.

And who better to clean something made of metal, plastic, and fiberglass, than a professional detailer. It’s a no brainer. My sales pitch to managers of fast-food restaurants was simple. I made up a one-page flyer with pictures of beautiful, shiny, Corvette’s, boats, and other cars that I had detailed. Between the pictures was the following:

Your playground equipment needs to be cleaned. Fortunately, it’s made of the same materials that I’m an expert at washing, buffing, waxing, and polishing. So now you have a choice. You can choose to be the restaurant that just sprays its dull plastic playground with a hose. Like everyone else.

Or you can be the place parents talk to their friends about. You know that restaurant that cares about its customers. The one with the playground that shines like a newly polished Corvette on a sunny afternoon.

The cost is affordable. The reaction by your customers is priceless. And if you schedule this week, I will include sidewalk pressure cleaning at no additional cost ($149 value). Call, click, or tap to schedule today.

Specialty Cleaning Service

This specialty cleaning service will keep you busy with clients that truly appreciate your cleaning skills. I had many of our local fastfood restaurants on a monthly retainer. So that consistent monthly income helped when my regular detailing business slowed down around the holidays.

When I said no-brainer above, I meant it. These playgrounds are climbing areas, catwalks, and giant slides for children. And they are made of metal, fiberglass, and plastic. The same materials any detailer is an expert at cleaning. Kind of like a car. Or a boat.

And who knows how to clean vehicle exteriors better than a professional detailer?

It’s not that difficult to get these jobs either. I hadn’t ever thought about how they cleaned those indoor playgrounds until I was there with my son, who at the time was 4-years-old.

As my son was climbing up one side of the indoor playground equipment, it occurred to me that the heavier traffic areas near the big slide appeared dull and dirty.

Ask How They Clean It

When I noticed the manager walking by, I mentioned to him how a section looked dull and asked how they cleaned it.

I happened to be wearing one of my car detailing golf shirts with my logo. So he looked at it and said, “oh, at first I thought it was a weird question. But, wait, do you clean these things? Please say yes because we can’t find anyone to replace the guy who just retired after 15-years.”

So, of course I said yes.

You’ve seen the plastic multi-color slides and playground pieces that I’m talking about. McDonald’s is very careful to keep them in perfect shape and to clean them often.

Most of the time it’s one of their employees spraying it down with a hose.

That is until you approach the manager about actually detailing or utilizing your specialty cleaning services on these valuable play areas.

Doing What You Are Already Doing

Think about it. Specialty cleaning services are doing what you are already doing. You detail cars with the same exact materials as these playground units.

Like I mentioned above, what’s a Corvette made of? How about a boat? They are both made out of the same materials as indoor playgrounds.

So it’s a matter of scrubbing and power washing the playground pieces. Then you buff wax the pieces to shine them up. They look great and the kids love them because the slides are so much faster when they are clean and waxed.

Polish the Slide with a Nanoceramic Polymer Coating

Here’s a pro tip for you to think about. If you want to impress your customer through all the positive feedback they will receive, buff and coat the slide with wax. But if you want it crazy fast, polish the slide with a nanoceramic polymer coating. Use that instead of wax on the big slide.

One of the managers at a larger location with multiple slides asked me if we used something different on the slide. He said all the kids loved it, but they were having problems keeping the big kids off the slide because of how fast it was.

When I told him what we used, he politely asked me to switch back to regular wax because the kids were flying down the slides too fast.

The other items you can offer through your specialty cleaning services are cleaning the outdoor carpets of those indoor playgrounds along with the many other businesses that have outdoor carpets. High-end steam cleaning equipment for vehicles is great for outdoor carpets.

Cleaning Outdoor Carpet on 36 holes of Mini Golf

One customer that my team and I always enjoyed visiting was a huge mini-golf business. The place had 36 holes and each one had an outdoor carpet. They were closed Monday, so we would show up early and spend the entire day cleaning and detailing everything.

Most people don’t realize this but outdoor carpet will turn black with mold and mildew. The only truly effective way to clean it is to lightly powerwash the carpeting and then remove the remaining mold and mildew through heated carpet extraction.

It cleans-up perfect and looks great. Most power washing businesses don’t have the ability to do that level of specialty cleaning services.  So you need to make everybody aware of the fact that you can do this.

Those mini-golf businesses can’t keep their stuff clean. It’s constantly being walked on and it looks horrible every month they are open.

So you offer to do a monthly cleaning of the entire mini-golf area and shine their statues along with it.  The great thing about this is that nobody cleans these places and the mini-golf people don’t even consider the idea that you will do it for them because nobody has ever offered.

Your competition also doesn’t do it because they don’t think of these kinds of things either. They are too busy out trying to close dealerships for whatever low-ball bid they are going to lose money at.

Highly Profitable Niche Markets

Specialty cleaning services work because they are highly profitable niche markets that you can exploit by being one of the first in your area to market and service.

They are highly profitable jobs because nobody else is doing it so where else are your customers going to go? Plus, you’ll pick-up the business of the management and owners of the place simply because you develop that level of trust with them by doing their other business.

Try adding specialty cleaning services to your detailing business and you’ll be impressed with how much more profit you make by adding them to your service listing.