[Fintan_Coll]

Cannot complain really, Busy in January and February looks promising too, working everyday this month so far. I do feel sorry for the guys who are struggling at the moment and there appears to be quite a lot of them around.
Have wooden floors and leather suites done us some harm ,or is it because there is an over supply of cleaners?.

[Neil Williams]

,or is it because there is an over supply of cleaners?.

No it's under supply of disposable income....basically
I just think the country is currently hitting rock bottom on spending. In time the reality will hit that they will have to make do with what they have and get it maintained, but currently it's don't spend, don't spend, don't spend.
It's just a natural cycle of events over every 20 years or so. In time the good times will return so it's just a case of sitting it out.

[Matt Seymour]

  matt why are you blaming enterprise , they dont run your bussiness you do, out of 60 odd million population how many watched that program, and how many remember it a month later, when they want there carpets cleaned,

I don't hold Enterprise solely responsible, but their presence in the area does have an impact, particularly on newbie carpet cleaners. The simple fact is that Enterprise and newbies are competing for the same work, ie NEW customers and not repeat business.

If you haven't been established long you don't have the luxury of countless referrals or repeat business. How can any new business compete with an outfit the size of Enterprise? Sure they run a bait and switch scam, but the customer doesn't know that until it's too late and they have been parted from a very large sum of money and £8.99 for 2 rooms does sound like a great deal - a deal that no one else offers.

I would think that in this economic climate carpet cleaning is well down the list of people's priorities as well.

Enterprise have the luxury of trapping customers who probably wouldn't ordinarily have their carpets cleaned. That's why what they do works so well. Over the phone the lovely, friendly young lady creates the impression that this is some amazing opportunity that is too good to be missed even if the thought of having their carpets cleaned has never entered the client's head before.

We all know it's dishonest, but it works and it works very well.

[Joe H]

Matt - I think you are right on these two points you quoted.....

I would think that in this economic climate carpet cleaning is well down the list of people's priorities as well.

Enterprise have the luxury of trapping customers who probably wouldn't ordinarily have their carpets cleaned.
...............
The first one you cannot do much about..
The second one - well they are not your type of customers.

What you have to do is find the ones where it is higher on their priority list.

I gave the example of my friend who did 2 hours delivering leaflets by hand and got £500 of jobs.
On another forum you dismissed this saying people round your area dont like door knockers.
Your area is no different to my friends area. Sure someone may not like a door knocker but you just smile, say sorry to trouble you and then move on.
£500 for 2 hours leaflets bot to be sneezed at.

Shaun - dont know how many jobs, but the greater the number means there are people out there willing to part with their hard earned money. All we have to do is deliver a good service.

[The Great One]

Hi

There's a lot of chat on here about price and obviously the cheap CC's.

Lots of customers don't care whether you have the latest machines that are all doing and can make a coffee and put the baby to bed all at the same time. They want their carpets cleaned as cheap as they can get it (IN MOST INSTANCES) so yes the cheap brigade may not be your type of customer but they will be someones customer and they may tell their friends about this new cheaper CC, you have loyal customers but they will at least try the cheaper option and while they may not use them again, that's one customer less for you for maybe 6-12 months.

2 brands of sugar in your hand the other is 50p cheaper than your usual brand, do you try it and see if your tea is any different, or stay more expensive for the same thing?

Martin

[Joe H]

Just finished a lounge and hallway in a small bungalow just round the corner for a retired couple.
They were happy to pay my £60 because the last cleaner came with a Rug Doctor, overwet the carpets and they had to have them stretched.
I did part of their bedroom for free.
Customer and friends for life I reckon.
We are moving house soon and they were asking for my new telephone number to be sent to them as soon as we move (new area, cant take the number).

[garybristow]

I am in london and surrey,ive diversified,i do carpets & upholstery but i have added hard floors,curtains ,blinds.
also leather,pressure washing(ok in the spring,summer) and some communal area cleaning.
Just lately ive taken on some after build cleans and basic hand cleaning.
It really enables you to up sell.I dont partically want to cleans carsys ,but one job leads to another,people like the idea of one company doing everthing !ive picked up some great long term classy work offering everthing
gary bristowclean

[Teddycare]

Martin, two brands of sugar one cheaper than the other, sounds like one carpet cleaner cheaper than the other, in other words price related.

The secret is to up cell your business, do the very best you can and possibly a bit extra and charge your customer for the privilege, if it is the right type of customer they will appreciate it, and recommend you to others, as others have mentioned peoples stop spending in a recession, but eventually they realise that it is better to look after what they have than replace.
Of course that is where we come in, the professional carpet and uphold cleaner, nothing to do with price just a good honest clean
if you do it right they will recommend you, and you won't have too worry so much about little glitches in your takings.

And out of interest, we have had steady work since 4 January, not saying it might not dry up, as carpet cleaners you never know from

[wayne zabel]

I understood that Jan and Feb are always very quiet months in CC.When I started this is what I was told and advised to put money in the bank from November and December to cover these bad periods.

Is this still the case and are some not panicking?

[Steve Gunn]

http://www.gleecompany.co.uk/service/pricing

then take a look at franchise opportunities you will have to clean some carpets to get your money back

[Mike Halliday]

Advanced stain removal: From £5 per stain (Depending on type and size of stain

i would guess every job I do has 3 or 4 stains which they would consider to be advanced so that put £20 on the job sell some deodoriser and stain guard and they start to be around the average price. they are using the 'budget airline' marketing ploy

[Shaun_Ashmore]

The reason I asked about how many jobs is that I could knock on every door and charge £20 for any carpet and it would amass £500, now if I were to charge £100 a carpet I bet in those 2 hours I may get very little takers BUT if I were to get a 'warmer' enquirer who called me then they are ready for a price and information to get that price, but then again that's my train of thought.

Shaun

[clive ware]

Eh?

[Neil Williams]

Clive,
The theory goes like this
£500 divided by £20 a job = 25 Jobs
£500 divided by £100 a job = 5 Jobs

Less work for the same end result

[Neil Williams]

Clive,
The theory goes like this
£500 divided by £20 a job = 25 Jobs
£500 divided by £100 a job = 5 Jobs

Less work for the same end result

On the other hand it is better to have £500 in the bank from 25 x £20 jobs and build up a customer database then fail to get any £100 jobs

[clive ware]

Thanks Neil. Got it now!

[ianharper]

Guys

Interesting comments. from your comments marketing to people with a need is out and selling is in by the sounds of things.

Respect

Ian Harper

[clinton]

its ok door knocking and getting some booked in and how many will cancel before you get to the job.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Neil you are correct about the £500 being better in your account I whole heartedly agree, not sure about doing less work you still have to knock on the same amounts of doors to get those customers, carpet cleaning is the easy bit IMO.

Shaun

[The Great One]

Martin, two brands of sugar one cheaper than the other, sounds like one carpet cleaner cheaper than the other, in other words price related.

The secret is to up cell your business, do the very best you can and possibly a bit extra and charge your customer for the privilege, if it is the right type of customer they will appreciate it, and recommend you to others, as others have mentioned peoples stop spending in a recession, but eventually they realise that it is better to look after what they have than replace.
Of course that is where we come in, the professional carpet and uphold cleaner, nothing to do with price just a good honest clean
if you do it right they will recommend you, and you won't have too worry so much about little glitches in your takings.

And out of interest, we have had steady work since 4 January, not saying it might not dry up, as carpet cleaners you never know from

Hi teddy

Yes the above is true as long as they accept your quote to start with, what I said is that most people couldn't care less you have the all singing, dancing machine with all the taining the world has to offer, they want the carpet cleaned, end of.

Will they try a cheaper cleaner, of course they will, will they tell you they have, probably not.

My analogy stands, if they can get it done even £15-30 cheaper, they may well go for it and who says the cheaper CC is crap, if they have had the same training and have the same machine but simply want to undercut everybody.

Had to quote to repaint an entire building last year, easy a £14,000 + job, but someone else had quoted £6500 all in, inc scaff, paint & labour and he had another 10 in the same square!

I am not the cheapest by far in all my cleaning and I do lose some, carpets and cleaning, even painting jobs.

Martin