I manage a 12 vehicle fleet consisting of mostly new Cadillac limousines and hearses for a local…read morefuneral home. We have a full time porter who tends to the vehicles' appearance and maintenance. He recently told me it was time to have the black set (1 hearse & 2 limousines) as well as the white set (also 1 hearse & 2 limousines) waxed/polished. The white fleet has a light colored interior and he mentioned the carpets on those family cars should be shampooed while they are in for the wax jobs. I told him I would ask around to see who had the skill; talent, and infrastructure ( facility, insurance, experience, staffing, reputation, etc) to take on this job of 6 vehicles in less than a week.
I asked my Facebook friends. Without exaggeration, anyone who provided me with input said "Greg King".
Here is an actual responses I got:
"Riverfront Detail. They treat your car like it's theirs and the owner, I think his name is Gary, will tell you to take care of his car as you pull off the lot. I think he is serious about that, to. Just don't let him catch that car dirty after they run it through their shop! Seriously Miles, he will say something."
Turned out the recommendations for Greg King and his crew were spot on. My concern was primarily the safety policies he had in place so I could assure my boss the vehicles would be well cared for since the work would be performed offsite with a 3rd party vendor. We can't and will not send out different color cars on a respective funeral, so one dent or mishap with the hearse, for example, renders the entire color set of vehicles out of service. Having 2 different color sets of our fleet being off site and out of our control, to us, is a big deal requiring a great deal of trust, planning, and approval from the top. I shared my concern with Greg and instead of giving me some canned answer, he took me, step by step, through the internal safety policies that he has in place with his staff, which included who on his staff has the ability to approve a vehicle's movement as well as the requirements he has in place pertaining to the actual movement of a customer's vehicle. Very impressed.
Pricing: in terms of being competitive, I honestly don't know because I didn't shop around. I will say we had zero issues with the final bill for 6 vehicles. We felt as though we were treated very fairly when it came time to settle up. After getting so many recommendations for Riverfront, witnessing 1st hand how his facility is run, and seeing how clean the facility is kept, it was clear the this was one of those great examples of you get what you pay for. Knowing he wasn't some pop up shop, the fact he has his own established brick and mortar facility, proof of his insurance, and the stellar reputation that follows Greg, that was enough for me.
As I mentioned earlier, one will quickly see that Riverfront Detail does great work, but for our organization, there were two primary deciding factors that let us know we had come to the right place:
The ability to deal directly with the owner
Riverfront's behind-the-scenes operational attention to detail
Those 2 factors were very important because we were trusting someone outside of our organization with a large portion of our operational assets; in the funeral business, trying to operate without a hearse or family cars is a great way to guarantee you won't be in the funeral business.
Completed Product: I've attached some pictures so anyone reading this can see for themselves. The Black fleet looks like it is dripping wet. It is difficult to describe exactly how much of the black color they brought out in those vehicles. It is stunning.
The White fleet had unexpected results as well. It is difficult to pull a deep glossy shine out of a white car. Apparently at Riverfront Detail, that's just another day at work. We knew they would be very clean when we got them back, we just did not expect the deep shine that came along with them. Again, absolutely stunning.
To sum things up, yes, we were very satisfied with the entire scope of work completed, their internal safety policies, the fact that they could adhere to a tight timetable mutually agreed upon, as well as the fact that we felt as though they treated our vehicles as their own.
If you're looking for a car wash with a bunch of high school kids running around tossing some water on your car, taking a bucket of dish washing soap to it, then charging you a few bucks, well, this is not that place.
On the other hand, if you're looking for a full service detail shop with professionals seeing to every aspect of your vehicle, then I can tell you 1st hand that this is that place.
Greg told me he has worked too hard for too many years building the reputation he has and he simply was unwilling to throw it away by cutting a few corners; after experiencing this project with him and his business, there is no doubt he means that.
Miles Reed
Ruffin and Jarrett Funeral Home
