[Simon Gerrard]

I think the people least likely to make a groupon scheme work are the new start ups. The temptation for them is a steady flow of work, but if they have all of the usual overheads, insurance, vehicle costs, wages, machine and material costs etc then the £12 they get from doing the average groupon deal doesn't cover it, let alone make a profit and without profit how can they generate sufficient funds to start more main stream advertising that brings in much higher priced work?
The notion that you can build a database of customers from these schemes is flawed, as in my experience you can never get away from a low price, add to that these people didn't even choose you, they came to you via groupon, purely because it was a cheap deal, which isn't ideal as they are never your customer, they are groupon customers.

Far better to set yourself up as a professional carpet cleaner and deliver superb quality, that is the way to build a successful business.

Simon

[Phillip Mold]

The only winners here are groupon... and the carpet cleaner is putting money in their pockets!

Is your heart and soul going to be put into that job? will the customer ask me back?... sure they will as long as the price isnt a penny over £29.99!
I bet 9/10 carpet cleaners who use Groupon throw their training book out the window and simply rush the job and move on to the next one... now im not saying this is what you are doing but its human nature to give less when the job isnt paying much.

Look at it another way... would you come and work for me for peanuts if  i told you i could increase traffic to your website and there's a good chance you could up sell your service on site.... i could dress it up anyway you want it as long as you think your the one who is going to benefit.


Times maybe difficult at the moment but Groupon are simply exploiting the fact that the public like to pay peanuts and they are using people like you... and it is damaging the industry by encouraging "have a go carpet cleaners" to spring up and ruin carpet cleaning as a skilled trade.


Spot on, could not agree more.

 

[Joe W Brown]

Joe the idea that you were going to offer a free room of cleaning to build up your client base so might as well use groupon as you will at least get some money is a slightly flawed idea,

a free room of cleaning marketing strategy is targeted, you aim it at the customers you want, but groupon is not targeted..... everyone gets the offer, you have no control

secondly the free room of cleaning strategy when done correctly involves giving the customer a full home survey while you are in the house, you would say to the customer......

"while I'm here Mrs Smith could i do a full survey of all your carpets, Then we will have a record of your cleaning needs for the future, this will save time as when you call us for any further cleaning we will  have your sizes and type of carpet on record."

although this full survay should be offered when doing a groupon job.


I think an average groupon customer does not understand  the concept of working for free to build up a client base, they believe you are making a a profit on the £29 they are paying you. so when next time they ring you and say £100 they think you are  making an unacceptable  amount of profit..... they see the first price as what it really costs..... not a discounted price.

I tend to throw into conversation that I do not earn a penny from groupon cleans and explain why. Sometimes I feel guilty doing this though, as I think people feel obliged to give large tips. Someone gave me £65 worth of tobacco the other day as a tip :-x


Baring in mind Norwich is, in general, a very friendly city.  And quite a rich one, compared to some.mMaybe this is one reason why I appear to be getting better results than a lot of people claim to be.

As I mentioned in the post above, my upsale rate is massive.

[Simon Gerrard]

Joe,
If Norwich is such an affluent city, why are you aiming your services at the cheap end of the market? As you say you make nothing from Groupon deals, surely it makes sense to aim for those more affluent customers who are more likely to pay a good price for top quality work.

Simon

[Hilton]

I think, if I read his posts right, that he is and just using Groupon to get his foot in the door.

I can sort of understand the logic, better to gain experience and hopefully customers who understand the deal is a one off, plus he appears to be pretty good at upselling which will hold him in good stead.

One way to look at it I suppose is your getting paid at least something to learn the business.He's absolutely right when he says better than sitting at home looking at his gleaming unused equipment (so to speak  ) .

[Simon Gerrard]

I think, if I read his posts right, that he is and just using Groupon to get his foot in the door.

I can sort of understand the logic, better to gain experience and hopefully customers who understand the deal is a one off, plus he appears to be pretty good at upselling which will hold him in good stead.

One way to look at it I suppose is your getting paid at least something to learn the business.He's absolutely right when he says better than sitting at home looking at his gleaming unused equipment (so to speak  ) .

True, but all the time you spend time working for customers that aren't your target customer, you aren't actually building the business you want. Rather than sitting at home looking at your unused equipment you'd be better off going out leafleting into your target market and do less jobs than you have to do for groupon but earn the same money and have time to develop other customers.

Simon

[Mike Halliday]

for all yout  treckies out there.... an old  ferengi saying...

a pocket full of promises is still an empty pocket

to do work on the promise or hope that further work will be  forecoming is not wise.

I agree with simon it would be better to work on creating high paying jobs rather than do zero profit jobs.

i know that if I spent 6hrs delivering leaflets i would get 2 jobs paying on average £100 each so would make £200. i could do a groupon promotion and get paid £13 for 3 rooms which would take me about an 2hrs inc travel time, so to earn the same £200 I would need to do 17 jobs which would take me 34hrs, this compares to the 10hrs  it would take me to earn the same when i create work by leafleting.

 only 2 down sides the groupon creates 17 new customers, leafleting only 2 .......but with leaflets i have 24 spare hours to leaflet more and find more high paying customers.

and secondly leafleting requires effort groupon does not

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

Jo I did write something saying how can you use Groupon when you were complaining about £65 merchants last week. But  deleted it

I have  read your other posts and I have to agree with Susan how ever much it hurts
Well Done for trying different strategies perhaps when I am well and back in business we can meet up some time. Did a ma dash to Yarmouth Yesterday , ( not Carpet Cleaning) realized I need to get out more

But I do  have sympathy  for any carpet cleaner that looses his house that Susan mentioned , I have always thought the danger of Forums is that people take everything as Gospel and it will work for them. I remember a young man called Red who was on here , Leased truckmount, went on Fasttrack and hired  people to put out leaflets etc etc etc doing what could be said were the right things but he burnt out

red was a great guy what ever happened to him ? hope hes doing something else and earning loads ??

[Simon Gerrard]

Another way of doing it if you want to use a lower price to build a database is to use Adwords and advertise a special introductory clean at £x, a rate that is higher than the silly groupon prices but low enough to act as a lure. The advantage is that they are YOUR customers and providing you do a top job are far more likely to use you again, know that your first job was at an introductory rate. What a lot of newbies don't understand is that people are looking for someone to trust with their furnishings (having been disappointed in the past) and when they find that person they tend to stick with them, whatever the price and not because the price is super low.

Simon

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

 guys guys guys its ok for you big hitters to tell him to go after the top work but if your not earning northing at all wears the cash comeing from for the new leaftlets and the fuel money to put them out ??

its ok for people like use that have a few quid and couldnt careless weather we make any money or not but i can remeber the time i had northing ......

most new cleaners spend all there money on there gear and that daft tranning wear there brain washed into buying even more gear they dont need then after ther marketing there left with very little in there pocket

two weeks with out work and there pooping it ! no cash no work no food , put yourself in someone elses shoes and see how there feeling

 maybe because i am a woman i see the danger more as men dont seem to see how much strain women go thought to help with the mans dreams of being his own boss ! let alone wear the next meals comeing from

most woman work hard and say northing and try and hold the family together whlie hes sitting on fourms like this reading mosty man banging on the chest like silver backs say how good life is  very funny at times but its not easy starting up these days and most do want they can

[Simon Gerrard]

Susan,
I think the important point is not that the 'big hitters' making a point, it is how the big hitters got to be big hitters in the first place. We all started out somewhere, most of us with next to nothing and built what we have today from the ground up. We've all done whatever it takes to stay afloat and made many mistakes along the way. Today there are forums where newbies can share their ideas with far more experienced people and that is a fantastic resource for them, provided they take the advice given in good faith.

Simon

[Mike Halliday]

guys guys guys its ok for you big hitters to tell him to go after the top work but if your not earning northing at all wears the cash comeing from for the new leaftlets and the fuel money to put them out ??

if you have'nt got £75 for 5000 leaflets then pack it in now and get down the dole office, and my shoes don't use fuel so i can walk out my frontdoor  and start leafleting.... if i'm really clever i walk in a big circle so end up at home when i'ver finished

[Ferenc G.]

guys guys guys its ok for you big hitters to tell him to go after the top work but if your not earning northing at all wears the cash comeing from for the new leaftlets and the fuel money to put them out ??

if you have'nt got £75 for 5000 leaflets then pack it in now and get down the dole office, and my shoes don't use fuel so i can walk out my frontdoor  and start leafleting.... if i'm really clever i walk in a big circle so end up at home when i'ver finished

Agree, I buy them for £58, but its only £48 if one side only. 130gsm full colour a5 with free delivery

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Full-Colour-130gm-Gloss-Flyers-Leaflets-FROM-30-/330716743647?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var&hash=item4d004107df&_uhb=1#ht_1983wt_1190

I would rather drop leaflets for 3 days a week and work 2 full days at full price than Groupon. You can get 20k leaflets for less than £200, that should be enough for a while.

[The Great One]

I feel a lot of us look at carpets from a carpet cleaners point of view, not the customers.

A lot of customers are not concerned with your training, affiliations, equipment and how amazing you are.

they just want the carpet doing, a good job and most as cheap as possible with as little inconvenience as possible.

If the groupon guys are earning money to cover costs, are upselling, getting experience of cleaning and customer service, and getting exposure to other potential jobs, basically earning while they are learning then more the power to them.

A lot of carpet cleaner seem to think that cheaper = a bad job, maybe the person still does a good job but cheaper or for a myrid of other reasons and why shouldn't they give groupon a try, it's their business and their choice.

I for one say, well done!

Martin

[Russ Chadd]

Some interesting points made there Martin and you are right regarding how the customer sees things compared to how us carpet cleaners see things...
Groupon maybe a good idea for restaurants and shops to promote a product or to attract people through the door, but i just dont see it working  the same way when service is involved.
Take two identical 2 bedroom houses and get the same carpet cleaner to clean both, pay him £30 for one and £130 for the other, will both jobs take the same time and will the method and results be the same?

[The Great One]

Hi Russ

I guess it depends if the customer will pay the £130.00?

But it's not £30 for a whole house though, just a couple of rooms, some can charge over a hundred for two rooms, some will lose the job for a cheaper quote, it's happened to us all, we've all. Done jobs for hundreds also, sadly it's not every job.

Martin

[Jim_77]

I agree with simon

Screenshot taken, saved for all eternity as one of those things you never thought would happen in your lifetime

[Jim_77]

Martin you can flog the cheap price argument till you're blue in the face but any carpet cleaner who can produce truly GREAT results is not going to sell themselves down the river for slave wages.

A man who accepts a cheap price for a job knows he has not done it well.  Some might be able to sleep easy in their beds at night knowing they didn't do a great job but not all of us.

[The Great One]

Hi Neal

not flogging any argument at all, i agree with both sides.

We all get price shoppers and they will go with the cheapest everytime, you also get customers who'll pay top dollar, that's part of the business same as any business, you get macdonalds and you get 5 star resturants.

Martin

[robert meldrum]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH......Nothing like MARKETING issues to get the mud flying around.

I've watched with interest the changes many have made to their business models over the past three or four years with some amusement.