We’ll get to the title, but first, more Latin:
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
No, it’s not that random infill text you sometimes get on half-finished websites. It’s Latin. – Conjugate the verb, and all that.
I don’t speak Latin, but it’s a phrase used in a Terry Pratchett book, so it makes me feel smart trotting out the occasional phrase once every now and then, pretending I’m fluent in a dead language – which I’m not, per se.
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes” means “who guards the guards”, and it’s relevant to this blog as there is often the question asked in detailing:
“Who trains the trainers?”
It’s not an irrelevant question in an ungoverned and unregulated industry either. With so many companies out there offering their services, it can be difficult to identify those who are able to pass on relevant, understandable and useful knowledge, against those who will just use you as free labour cleaning a customer’s car in the guise of “shadow learning”.
Who can assess me then?
First things first. There is NO government qualification in detailing. We go into that in another blog, but that’s really important to understand when people wave certificates and pieces of paper at you. It doesn’t (currently) exist.
In the UK, there are two independent trade bodies dedicated to the assessment and accreditation of detailers and valeters.
The first is PVD – the Professional Valeters and Detailers Association – a UK Based not-for-profit whose aim is to promote higher standards and assured features such as insurance and customer service amongst its members.
The other is the IDA – the International Detailing Association. The IDA started life in the USA, backed by some pretty well-known names, and have since set up chapters in India, Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Belgium, France, the UK, and a few other countries, to standardise detailing knowledge and processes globally, exchange information and skills, and promote the industry to the public.
As both trainers and professionals, we’re always on the lookout for ways to improve and expand our knowledge base – there’s no such thing as “finished” when learning to detail, as there’s development happening all the time. Unfortunately for us, we couldn’t do the PVD exam, as we wrote and developed it – it seemed a bit of a cheat, really.
However, when the opportunity arose to book a date with the IDA to be assessed and accredited, we signed up, completed our online CD (Certified Detailer) theory exams, and a few weeks later headed up to one of the few RTs (Registered Trainers) in the country at Gtechniq Works to complete our SV (Skills Validated) assessment with Adam. We covered chemical knowledge, exterior washing, interior care, product knowledge, machine polishing and general detailing knowledge in a two-hour, one-to-one assessment.
We passed!
The next step for us was to progress to RTs ourselves.
Which we did!
In fact, since doing the exams, not only are we RITs, we are the ONLY Recognised Training Centre (RTC) in the UK, able to deliver exams for car, motorbike, RV and watercraft assessments. We’re even helping write the new ones.
So why doesn’t everyone do this?
The detailing “community” – and by that, we mean a fairly small but vocal group – seem to have an issue with people assessing and passing judgment on their skills.
We’ve read comments on various threads over the years, ranging from “what gives them the right to assess me” (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes, again) to “a badge won’t get me more customers…”
On the same page, sometimes even in the same thread, these same people complain about there being no regulation in the industry, and about the bloke down the road charging a tenner for a full machine polish.
This seems like a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem.
Some may not have the confidence for assessment – Imposter syndrome is rife in our industry, with experienced detailers and valeters sometimes not realising the value of the skills and knowledge they have acquired over time; to those, we would say – try!
You’ll either pass, and have your well-earned confidence boosted, or you won’t, and you’ll find advice on ways you can improve your own business!
There’s no shame in failing whilst learning, that’s how you learn! And if you do learn from it and come out better on the other side, that’s a win for you, your customers, and the industry as a whole!
The only people who will know you fail are the assessor and yourself, and frankly, if you’ve been doing the job long enough, your only struggle will likely be thinking in more basic terms again, because the exams are not about proving you’re the best, they’re about proving you’re competent.
Dare to Know!
As for those who think they are “too accomplished” for assessment: Perhaps, if everyone swallowed their pride slightly and supported the organisations that are trying to improve standards across the board, maybe the recognition of these badges would improve and they would gain more custom and work as a result.
Maybe it would gain them cheaper insurance due to their professional approach, or maybe it would serve to improve their efficiency by adapting to new techniques, and ultimately earn more money.
There is a saying in the hospitality industry “Every satisfied customer will tell 3 people, every dissatisfied customer will tell ten”.
If a dissatisfied detailing customer warns ten people off the unapproved and uninsured hack, tells three of them who they went to in order to fix it, and for their friends to look out for X badge they hold in future, that brings new understanding to a small section of the public.
They then tell three friends too, and from there, if this happens to hundreds of professionals, it snowballs and maybe, just maybe, things will just click in public perception, and these organisations can start to act as the grit guard in the detailing industry bucket, with the chaff trapped at the bottom whilst the approved float happily in the suds…
“Sapere aude” – “Dare to know”.
It’s good advice to live by.
