Slim's Detailing - An Introduction

Hey guys and girls.

I'm Matt from Slim's Detailing, we're delighted to be fully fledged sponsors here on the forum. We are a reseller of detailing and car care products based in Enfield, with a further shop that's just opened in Portsmouth. Stocking over 35 brands, including Autoglym, Meguiars, Auto Finesse, Dodo Juice, Gtechniq, Swissvax, Chemical Guys & more. We're part of the Morelli Group, who some may have heard of - which is a family owned and run distribution company to the automotive aftermarket in the UK. We've been about a while, starting up in 1957 - although Slim's (named after the Morelli founder) only launched in September of last year.

Personally I'm an Audi driver myself, very much on the entry level with my A1 at the moment, but with an S1 arriving at the end of this month I'm literally going out of my mind with excitement to get some Quattro action (sat at a standstill on the M25) in my life.

Anyway - why are we here? As part of our launch into what is a very crowded marketplace we felt there was an opportunity for someone to come along and offer 'more' in terms of education on products. Rather than just setting up a carbon copy web shop (we could call it cleany cleany cleany - if that hasn't already been taken ), we have gone down a different route. As well as a the growing detailing scene, we wanted to share the knowledge to all car enthusiasts.

What we are creating with our website (still an ongoing labour of love!) is what we hope a good value proposition for folks like yourselves. Good quality product images, informative descriptions, how to blogs & video guides. Perhaps most importantly we also want to give you guys a bit back for those that like to buy regularly, so we created Slim's Rewards (http://www.slimsdetailing.co.uk/slims_rewards/) which gives you credit in your account after every order, something you can build with reviews, recommendations etc.

I'll run through a few things we're hoping to do on the forum:

• Updated guides. We're putting together some basics guides for those who are looking to get started.
• Videos. We have begun planning some videos we want to produce this year, but would love your input on this. So far we have done some quite product and brand specific guides (https://www.youtube.com/user/SlimsDetailingRocks), which certainly appeal to detailers but we would like to know what you guys want to see to. Answers on a postcard please (or just post below of course).
• Product advice. Are you looking for a certain product for a job, ask us and we can point you in the right direction. We're not here to hijack conversation with sales recommendations, we'll offer opinion like everyone else - which as well all know is subjective. We enjoy a good debate though
• Technical expertise - All of our staff will have undergone an ATA accredited course in detailing by the end of May. So if you're having sealant application issues, machine polishing questions or anything else, we can (hopefully!) get you back on the right track.
• Sales offers - We really aren't here to post endless sales promotions. If you want some of that action, follow our social channels or keep in touch with our bi weekly newsletter for the latest info. We appreciate this a forum for enthusiasts and we don't see bombarding you with discount codes a great way to build a relationship. We will post every now and then a seasonal promotion (such as the Easter campaign we have now) and Audi-Sport dedicated competitions as well, which we hope is fair with you guys.
• Our Slim's Rewards offering hopefully negates the need to shop for discount codes all the time, there is a promotional code 'myfirstorder' as an introduction for 10% off, then your points and credit should build up from there should you order with us!

My colleague Jon will also be joining us on the forum. Feel free to ask either of us anything you want (car related!) and we will happily help. We look forward to joining in on the conversations and debates on here and hope we can add a valued contribution to your community

To kick us off - what videos guides would you like to see us do this summer? We have in mind a 'back to basics' set of videos in mind (why two bucket method, wash mitt not sponge, drying towel not chamois), or is that too basic. Your thoughts?

Cheers all!

Matt.
Slim's Detailing

Pulp84 said:

Welcome to the forum

I was going to order a few bits from you this afternoon but unfortunately you were missing some things from particular manufacturers ranges I needed (3M wheel brush and CarPro Trix).

Otherwise, really like the site and the Slims rewards. I buy probably circa £100 a month in car detailing product (some stuff great, some terrible), but don't really share that on competitor sites with reviews as I can not be bothered. With your approach however, I'd happily share my thoughts to help your customers and build up product ratings.

As a suggestion and this might sound a bit fussy - it was a pain to go through two or three pages of product in one section. Some of your competitors put as many products on the page as possible (60 on one site) with the rest following on a second page and so on. Some also default in alphabetical order which can be helpful. I know you have the option to do this with your site, but from an ease of use POV - it would be great if it defaulted this way. When you navigate away from your site these settings are lost.

Hopefully my comments will be taken in the spirit of helpful feedback!

Don't worry - will be ordering soon. On holiday at the moment and just realised I might need more than I was preparing to order (need to check my supplies once home!)

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Hi Pulp!

Which 3M wheel brush were you looking for - we may well have it in the Morelli catalogue. As for CarPro Trix, we should have that available to buy hopefully later this week. We're expanding our CarPro range - just waiting on another pallet from **** now

That's what we wanted from Slim's Rewards, to facilitate a community of sharing. Reviews are such a big factor now in product buying, it's great seeing what everyone thinks and how they use certain items & if you can earn a bit off a following order it all helps really. We intensely dislike the drive for discount codes within the market, it's so short term and sees so many resellers come and go - we hope with a genuinely rewarding loyalty scheme that our customers get more from their buying experience. (That sounds really cheesy reading that back , but true)

Thanks for your points on the website - it's an ongoing work in progress. I agree with points on number of products per page, I prefer to see them all straight away rather than clicking around. It's something we'll play with, with Google now changing their algorithms for mobile optimised sites we need to find a happy medium between desktop and mobile without compromising loading times (geeky stuff!)

Good call on the alphabetical order though - will see what we can do there too!

All in all - thanks for your comments folks and your kind welcome. We're hoping to get some content moving on here later this week! Feel free to drop me a line with any questions at all!

Matt.

Hey!

We picked up some e-mail addresses from the ashes of Shinearama - we used to be a major supplier to them. When they went 'pop' we thought there might be a better way of doing it, so started to sell direct. Hence the birth of Slim's. On the first e-mails we sent this was included on the e-mail - so anyone who didn't want to know had the option of opting out. We only ever had e-mails address. Nothing else

Yes, we use Interlink/DPD - wouldn't be without them. So very many bad couriers out there! They are a refreshing change from most, with their accurate delivery slots as well & great parcel notification process. Wouldn't go near a Yodel - which normally appears to be delivered by a local in an old estate car full of parcels bunged in the back!

Let me know if there is anything we can help with. I've also got a bit of a tip, hold off on any order (bizzarre to say that I know!), until tomorrow. We're launching something a little bit special for the May bank holiday

Matt.

DTYME83 said:

Welcome Matt
DTYME83

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We should stop meeting like this! haha Thanks for the welcome bud.