[md_cleaning]

Thanks for those answers, lots of mixed views, but everyone who is smart does seem to be doing well so maybey that is the way to go.
 Dave

[Steve Chapman]

I think customers are far more intelligent than we give them credit for !

Would you pay high price for something just because the guy had a shirt & Tie, I sure wouldn't!

It's what comes out of the mouth that counts, thats what sells, if you're smart and sound like you know what your talking about, then people will be more convinced.


I cant remember what any of the tradesmen wore when they came round to my house, but i do remember the ones that talked sense.
 


regards
steve

[Bertie Boo]

Shaun

I wasnt after the cheapest. I started out getting 2 quotes and there was almost £800 difference between the two. So i sought further quotes and in all -between the cheapest of all and the dearest of all- there was just under £1100 differerence, which when you consider i paid £1650 in the event is a HUGE amount of money. And i didnt have the cheapest compnay to do the work either.

I also had a one man who was a complete ass-hole and one who tried to talk me out of having UPVC (he suggested wooden doors, i already had wooden doors...). Talk about confusing me...

Stephen

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Stephen I was just pulling your leg, no offence intended, not really.

But look at the scenario, you get quotes from a guy smartly dressed with a clip board writes everything down gives you a quote say £200, then you get a guy who turns up in his smart jeans and trainers measures up and tells you the quote £75 cheaper.

Now to put into the fray, you have a lounge carpet is badly stained, it cost you alot of money you want it to look like new again but you can't be there when the cleaning has to be done and you have a teenage daughter who will let the cleaner in.

Both cleaners for this interest say the same things and offer simular work BUT which one is the average customer going to go for?

If I am charging £75 more for the same job I have to look better than the opposition, sometimes it can be more than £75 but because I look the part when I say that I have done all I can to get a certain stain out of a carpet they do tend to believe me - I look the part.

Shaun

PS did you know that woman can make up their minds if they like a person or not in the first 6 seconds!



 

[prodry]

Dont wear your wives undies on jobs.

Because when you bend over they can se your thong... Very unprofessional.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I'll remember that.

Shaun

[Bertie Boo]

shaun

No i knew you wern't being offensive.

But i must admit i wouldn't pay more to a company where the rep wore the suite UNLESS  i was getting more 'product' for the money. Maybe its just me. I have a partial fear of men in shirts and ties  i always feel i'm about to be sold something 

Stephen

[conallon]

Dress up in confidence and you can not go far wrong 

Conrad

[Jason Hedges]

I'd rather pay a tradesman decent money for turning up after work in dirty workwear than a spiff in shirt and tie any day!

My customers appreciate I've done a decent days work when I turn up and quote at the end of the day. If you've just got out of the shower you havent been working!

Embroidered polo shirt, smart trousers, clean shoes... job done!

Jason.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Perhaps going home and getting a shower shows the customer a clean and healthy respect for them and the job you may be about to do.

If you turn up semi smart but with BO from a hot day then how is that going to look?

Shaun

[Bertie Boo]

...who mentioned BO?

Stephen

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

all my staff wear shirt and ties when at work,  i have sacked to cleaners on the spot for takeing there tie off at work , were there to clean not look like bin men , image is every thing and it starts from the very frist time very open the door to you

eddie stobart made his name buy three things looking smart , wagons alway clean, offering the best serivice at very good rates ,

[lands]

Dress up in confidence and you can not go far wrong 

Conrad

And we have a winner!!!!!!!

Anyone ever met the owner of the Weatherspoons pub chain? Take Richard Branson. Bill Gates. The entire board of Google. To name jus a few.

Conrad has hit the nail on the head. Custys buy confidence above everything else. If what you say makes sense and you are confident you are home and dry. If you wear a suit to exude this confidence then so be it but the names mentioned above rarely wear suits and.............well need I say more.

[David_Annable]

Hi

Are there not three ways to make a first impression.

1 How you answer the phone.

2 Your apperance the first time they see you.

3 What you say during that first meeting.

Get them all right & you will be succesfull.

Dave

PS I they want to pay £60 for a £100 job none of the above applies.

[gwrightson]

Pete,
Would you like me to post an entity of names of succesful people who DO wear a shirt ant tie,
what a stupid assuption!!   because a few dont does not mean to say that they all dont.

and many a worker wears a shirt an tie for exactly the reasons already mentioned, to name just a few, delivery drivers, bus drivers, lorry drivers........ yes lorry drivers   look at any major supermarket chain,or large organisation and the majority of its workers wear a shirt and tie. Why because its smart, it gives the right image instead of that cant be bothered , I sling any thing on attitude attitude.

in other words old fashioned principles and standards are still what the custy likes to see. dress accordingly,  you want higher prices, show them your standards, you want price seekers, go dressed in jeans and a t shirt.
If you get my drift

Geoff

[lands]

Geoff

I understand your point and shabby dressing is not what I mean. The point I am trying to make is that if you are confident in your abilities and a reasonable communicator you will exude confidence and this will override any initial impression you give by the way you look. Someone said earlier that most people are not stupid (even if we do think most of our customers are sometimes) and I agree.

To be a little more specific, a carpenter is a highly skilled job (much more so than ours probably) but it is also a labour intensive job (as is ours).

I think you wear what feels right to you and this is why we do it because it feels right to us and this then leads us to feeling comfortable about ourselves and again this lends itself to our confidence.

And Geoff it's just an opinion and I was using examples to illustrate it not to prove it beyond all reasonable doubt.

Pete

[Dan Williams]

I wear whatever the customer wants me to wear!

[Prestige1]

I think a lot off you are missing Mike's Point, when calling at someone’s house to quote for a service, the customer will make his/her mind up within 30seconds whether they like you and what you represent. My marketing and appearance is crucial to my pricing strategy, its like a jig saw, each piece plays a part, that first contact via phone, what you have to say, the van, and most important your appearance. you might have the best cleaning machine in the world but if you don’t look the part it means nothing to someone who has to make there mind up to book you or not.
I think you are far more likely to attract those high paid jobs if you market yourself in a professional way.
Sure if you want to work for £100 a day then your appearance won't matter but in my opinion if you want go for £200 plus a day you need the right image. But this is only my opinion. Phil

[Liahona]

It has been mentioned about having the confidence in whatever you wear.  I am a very confident person and dont give a monkeys what people, clients or otherwise want or think I should be wearing. 

A few people on here have met me and know that I wear cut off jeans and a tee shirt with the sleeves cut off.  I am unshaven but hasten to add I am clean.

I deal with "suits" quite often in my dealings of aquiring clients and most mention they quite like that I dont present anything that I am not.  This is not against how anyone else does what they do just a comment about myself. 

The only suit I ever wear for work is a wetsuit.  Be d**n cold otherwise in shorts and tee shirts.

I have never found what I wear to have had any bearing on what I do for a living as in a first impression. 

It has been said that a first impression is made inside of a second.  So which is more important, that first part of a second or what follows.  I happen to think maybe contrary to most that what follows the initial contact is more important.

I have had people who are worth billions and or their pa's make a comment on what I wear sometimes when I have first met them.  This becomes brilliant marketing as the conversation has turned into who or what I am as a person not anything to do with cleaning or whyever I am there.  If the secondary conversation is about why I am there then, at least in the world I work in I know I already have aquired that particular client.

I get more clients because of who I am and how I do things than anything else I can think of.  They already know I can clean.  We all clean, thats why we are cleaners.

Each to their own as it should be.  I wouldnt dream of suggesting to Mike or anyone else that the way to go is in shorts.  But Mike wouldnt suggest to me either that I should be in a shirt, tie and trousers.

I work, teach, have meetings and just about anything to do with cleaning in shorts.  Obviously a bit different when doing certain types of cleaning but for normal cleaning the preceding applies.

Best, Dave.

[PaulKing]

liahona

would love to do the same, but it's ruddy frezzing up here!