There are three ways to run the detail department at a franchise dealership: do it yourself, hire a crew, or bring in an operator. We run detail departments for a living, so you know where we land. But each option genuinely works for some stores, and the right answer depends on yours. Here’s a fair look at all three.
Option 1: Run it in-house
You hire the detailers, train them, schedule them and supervise them. You cover call-outs. You buy the chemicals, the equipment and the supplies. You carry the liability. And somebody on your management team gives it attention every single day.
When it works: you have a strong detail manager who knows the work, wants to stay, and has the authority to run the department like a department. Your volume justifies a dedicated leader.
When it breaks: that person leaves, gets promoted, or burns out. The department doesn’t stop, it just quietly lands on a used car manager or a service manager who already has a full-time job. Turnover, training and coverage become their problem, one week at a time.
The honest cost: payroll is the number everyone sees. The cost nobody tracks is management time, and the deliveries and frontline days that slip when detail has nobody watching it.
Option 2: Hire a detail crew
A vendor sends people who can clean cars. They do the work they’re pointed at. The pointing is up to you.
When it works: lower volume, simple needs, and someone at your store with the time and patience to direct the crew every day.
When it breaks: priorities change mid-day, someone calls out, or quality starts to depend on who showed up. Without a leader of their own on site, the crew looks to your managers for every decision. You’ve outsourced the labor, but kept the management.
The honest cost: usually the lowest price on paper. The difference shows up in your managers’ day, not on the invoice.
Option 3: Bring in an operator
An operator runs the department, not just the labor. That means a manager on site whose whole job is detail, a trained team behind them, someone above that manager checking in regularly, and leadership you can call when something needs a decision.
When it works: you want the department run, not just staffed, and you want your managers back on selling and servicing cars.
What it asks of you: a couple of minutes each morning to set priorities, a covered place to work, and the basics like compressed air. Everything else, from hiring and coverage to quality and supplies, is the operator’s job.
The honest cost: usually more than a crew. The question is what you’re comparing it to. Measured against the management time, the redos and the late deliveries a crew leaves behind, many stores find it costs less overall.
How to decide
Ask one question: who is accountable for the detail department when nobody from your store is looking? If the answer is a strong manager of your own, in-house may be right for you. If the answer is “one of our managers, when they have time,” you’re paying for that time whether you see the bill or not.
A department isn’t truly outsourced if your managers still have to manage it.
Prime One operates the detail department inside franchise dealerships: a Prime One manager on site every day, a trained team, and an Operations Manager in your store every week.