[Elite (Ben)]

 
My leafleters came across a rival companies leafleters today, they are offering to clean a lounge for £21 (14x12ft). By my calcs thats around £1.40 per sqm.
The offer for upholstery is down from £68 to £58 for a 3 piece suite!!.
they have operated in my area for years now and these prices are similar to another company who charge £55 for a 3 piece. personally i do not charge less than 2.20 /sqm and a three piece would be at least £100.
Should i be worried, should i compete, any advice would be gratefully accepted.

ben

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

I also have the same sort of thing where i live i expect everybody does. The £10-£15 a room lot.

The way I look at it is this:

There is cheap and value for money, If they want cheap they can get cheap and cheap results to go with it. If the want value for money then they will pick a company like mine, one that will move the furniture, leave carpets barely damp and use top quality cleaning solutions.

So you see, you are not competing with them they are competing with you as you are better value for money.

Cheers Goron

[mark_roberts]

Depends upon the areas your leaflets are going into and how professional the rival company is.

If the rivals are good cleaners with good marketing then its difficult to compete using flyers or any medium for that matter.  The rival is just doing himself a dis-service selling quality for cheap.

If your flyers are going into areas where the customers are not quality concious then theyre going to choose the rivals no matter.

Why dont you just move onto another area for the next few weeks and then come back.

Mark

[Ian Gourlay]

I think it depends on your personal circumstances. Are you sitting at home waiting for a job?

Are you going round and doing in house qoute.

[Martin S]

Ben,

Are you targeting your market?

You can't be all things to all people 

Person 1 living in a council house on benefits

Person 2 living in a nice 'mortgaged' semi/average income

Person 3 dual income/detached/BMW/kids at private school.

Who are you aiming at?

Regards

[David_Annable]

You will think i'm taking the p, but the best way to compete against this is to increase your prices.

Always move up market.

Dave

[nick p]

hi


did  a qoute the other day for £160 got phone call day before can i cancel she said asked why
i have found some one who will do it for £90 she said
so i told her again that she will get a quality clean and went over the process of cleaning again with her asked if over company told her there process no she said.
after i finished the job the next day she told me she was glad she had chosen me in the end
so i never worry about cheaper companys.

thanks nick p

[Doug Holloway]

Ben,

If you decide to compete on this price , what happens when the one roon for £12 brigade turn up .

Do you do it for a tenner.

No of course you do not.

I find with YP quotes over the phone that the price seems almost irrelevant.

The price shoppers will always find someone cheaper or hire a machine and do a DIY job.

Others seem to have decided to use me whatever I quote.

I have always found it best to work out what I am happy with and stick to it.

Cheers,

Doug

[neil 47]

Ben
 If you can,t beat them why not join them .
think of all the work you will get.

Imagine this you do 2 carpets ,don’t Hoover, don’t prey spray, don’t turbo dry.
just extract and go  £42 up should only take 1 hour at most = £42 per hour.

but what about service  I hear you scream well you are giving them what they want .
A cleaner carpet at a small price plus the benefit is it will resoil within a few months and who will they call a cleaner that charges £90 or you at £42
so you are gaining fast repeat business.
I know someone doing this, and they are booked up for 6 weeks a.

Neil
ps always uder cut but do the job faster

[Chris Bailey]

Ben, when I am quiet I drop my prices a bit just to fill the diary  more, but not by much, just enough to ensure closeure and certainly not below £3 sqm.

Don't go down the road of competing on price, Martin has got it right, look at the market you are targeting and you will be surprised how many people will book you even though you are not the cheapest.

Your competitors.... if they are like some of mine, do they also clean gutters, patios, driveway, windows.... oh and ovens! if so then this is the way to rip them to bits.

Chris

[John_Flynn]

My compitition Charge 49.00 for a suite and any 2 carpets!!

I laugh and charge 125.00 for a suite and 50.00 for each carpet AND GET IT!!

GO OUT AND SELL YOUR SERVICES instead of worrying about others!!

[Elite (Ben)]

Thanks for your replies guys,

I am maintaining my prices, even though work is slow as i am new to the area. I would rather do 2 jobs a day for £200+ than 5 for £100-150.

Worthing is a funny area for targeting, its an affluent area but has pockets of poor areas spread throughout. Today i delivered some leaflets myself and within 1 street found houses converted into 10+ bedsits and 5 bed detached houses, one with an indoor pool!. I tend to look for areas with well maintained semis and detached houses, but i do get lots of work in smaller terraced and flats ( mainly from the local paper ad).

Ben

[ABLECLEAN]

My average job last year was 128 quid and on my estimate sheets is printed "There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people that consider price only are this mans lawful prey" My customers always agree. Do not worry about the cowboys, if your work is good and you can sell yourself to your customers the price is irrelevant. Most of my reccomendation customers do not even ask a price they want me because their friend or family member said I did a great job.

Relax

[Ian Gourlay]

What do you do.

We have a guy who has the largest advert in Local Press never beaten on price

Ive noticed apart from one other Carpet Cleaners have stopped advertising in Local Paper

Oh forgot another new Cleaning company has a Colour Display advert 3 rooms £59.

What happens if  Customer has large room not sure.

they are not just doing traffic lanes.

Maybee they do not pre vac, but in alot of cases customer has done that.
With a quality Vac.

OK does that make them a Cowboy?

or Girl

Obviously a good presentation will get you a higher price but this can take 1 hour plus if you include travel time etc.

OK in Large Cities you may get two or three calls a day close to one another.

[Neil Grainger]

Gents

Just to put my nose into this. According to reliable sources their is a gent in Bradford that charges £10 per sq m. Bradford is not the most aflueant place in the country is it. He sells himself not the cleaning.

Its not about the cleaning its about selling you. If you can crack that it does not really matter what price you sell at within reason.

Cheers

Neil

[ABLECLEAN]

Glad you agree Neil, I rest my case

[Ian Gourlay]

In my search for Knowledge I aquired
an old
Loyd Owen manual today.

Once I overcome the smell of stale ciggarretes etc from the pages I found the section on price. In 1983 he was suggesting £1.50 to £2.00 a yard.

[Dennis]

As they say Ian: "There's nothing new under the sun"

This article about "Reason Why Advertising" comes from 1904 and makes as good reading today as it did then.

http://www.longlostmarketingsecrets.com/Reason_Why_Advertising.pdf

[Ian Gourlay]

Exactly.

Some ideas are presented better today, but they are all there.
Why do I keep buying them

[Everbrite]

On average how long does it take you guys to clean a three piece draylon suite???