[Mrs Nicholls]

hi guys,

just a bit of a rant really, I have increased prices and cganged pricing structures for this april, but the customers are driving me mad! saying we are charging more than minimum wage. and in some cases shock horror twice the minimum wage. New charges for 2 hr clean are £25. i dont think this is excessive, when you consider cleaning materials & supplies, all employee costs including insurance and CRB checks etc etc now we all know we cant get good reliable cleaners to work on the minimum wage, so why do the custys think we are so useless ' only cleaners' that we are only entitled to minimum wage?  when we are not just off the street cleaners, but a cleaning company, Perhaps iot doesnt help that i go cleaning still.

should i send then a newsletter explaining in a pie chart where all the revenue comes from and how it is spent like the council does??  :

Has anyone else had this go on at the moment?

Lisa

[mirandauk2006]

Hi Lisa,
I'm only just starting out so cant really say i have had these probs yet (although i will brace myself!) but the pie chart idea is fab i think! Like you say, i dont think people have a clue about overheads and the actual costs.. i think they just think like you say..your a cleaner and min wage it is... and that £25 is going straight in your pocket. and dont appreciate how tough and costly it can actually be! 

[Stevie G]

Hi Lisa.
Don't let them get you down. Try and replace the annoying ones with new ones!
In my experience, hourly rates are a no no. I used to charge by the hour and now it is per job, as alot of the cleanitup members too have advised to charge per job. Unfortunatley,some customers like to tell you how you should run your business and to state how much the wages should be. Hope you don't get more annoying ones this week! Keep up the good work and stick to your guns.x
Lisa G

[Paul Kettless]

Also agree with the above comments, the custys that you are talking about should employ a cleaner and NOT a company.  These kind of people come and go all the time.

Obvioulsy I do not know your overheads, but your pricing seems fine to me.

Regards
Paul

[steve doyle]

I wouldent try and justify your costs to them,

a simple comment like;

 I agree, I am sure if you go down into the town someone will agree to take your house keys off you and give your house a good clean out for you for a fiver! And if your not bothered about who it is, references, insurance, reliability, training, materials or coming home to an empty house then alls the better.



Now &$%£ OFF!!!! (optional) 

steve

[Lesley J]

your price is fine, I tell my clients when they make any comments about the price is that you are paying not just for a cleaner, but a good reliable service.

[Os]

HI, Most people have a whinge about money at some stage, often for completely bizarre reaons. I have been in sales for over 10 years before my business now and I know generally that when people complain about price, its not the price they have a problem with its something else, eg service, lateness etc etc or  worse they have someone else behind them winding them up (ie 'you pay how much.....!!!) I agree with those below, its not your customers business how much you pay your staff.
 I have often found that a genuine supportive chat helps, ie
'yes I know prices are moving up its ever so hard at the moment, my costs are up drastically too, my fuel has increased 20%, tax, labour etc etc, I'm sure much like you you try to protect your customers, for example we've only passed on a fraction of our costs to you etc etc etc'
Main thing is keep your sense of humour and persevere. Don't forget they CHOSE you to do the work for them.
Good Luck!
Os

[turneylogan]

Justb sold my business, but we charged £25 per hour for domestics. We did this by charging per room, allowing customers to pay within their budget and rotate/add rooms as necessary.

we found that customers who moaned about price couldn't afford us so we let them go and replaced with someone else.

[Mrs Nicholls]

Just had another customer being very nasty, thinking that when we went to quote and said £25 for up to 2hrs work, or if theres 2 cleaners it halfs the time, so clean duration is 1 hr x 2 cleaners. He was very angry when he found out that he saw 2 cleaners in for 1 hour as it should be. He thought we said £25 for 2 cleaners x 2 hrs, total 4 hrs or 1 cleaner its still 2hrs.  Why oh Why does he think we can charge  £6.25 per hour and still run a business? he is a teacher and he treated us like naughty school children, even worse as he is around the same age as us. "something for you to think about" he said. I think we should have downed tools there and then and left, but he would have won then.

[The Great One]

HI

look, say that if you want to earn min wage, you'd work in beelding Tecos, or bar work, or care homes. As it is you run a business, and therefore have all the overheads as well as turning a profit.

Profit isn't a dirty word.

If they want slaves, then you are not that person.

Regards

Martin

[Os]

Hi Lisa. Sounds to me as though the issue may have something to do with communication rather than price. It also sounds that you really need to steer clear of the number of hours conversation. You are selling a service, NOT time. You are selling someone a clean home, not 2, 3 or 4 hours of your time. Strongly suggest you change the way you give people your price. Talk about jobs not HOURS. With carpet cleaning, I give a price to do the work. I only ever talk about time for two reasons, 1) About how long it takes to dry, and 2) If I am trying to help the customer plan their day, eg we should be here around 4 hours so you will be fine to pick your kids up by 3pm etc etc. I never say to them for example I charge £10 per hour for carpet cleaning. If I did I would really struggle to get a fair price. I VERY rarely lose jobs on price and we are definately not the cheapest round here. Hope this helps. Os

[Mrs Nicholls]

Hi

I have tried to tell other Lisa about this but she always gets steered into the i want 3hrs etc conversation, She is the customer manager and i have tried to tell her now we quote on service not price that duration doesnt come into it.

The amount of times i have had to tell her about communications and how people react to you and what you say.

I'm glad someone else sees my point of view. Anyone have any training packages specifically for surveying peoples property and discussing their requirements? what i am trying to get through to her isnt working.

I might add, when i carry out the surveys we seem to have a higher success rate, she just doesnt listen and learn.

[garyj]

Have you taken the business over from her now Lisa?

If so, you're the boss!!!, tell her if she doesn't do it your way then you'll start disciplines procedures. Sounds like she is losing you work.

Don''t worry about that custie, he can't be very bright otherwise he wouldn't be a school teacher, what's the matter with blokes that want to hang around with kids all day 

[Alan Rowley]

I did a quote for someone the other day who is losing her cleaner. She does 10 hours work in two 5 hour stints on two separate days and charges £55. Yes, £5.50 per hour.

I knew I had no chance getting the work when her husband, who was an accountant, joined the conversation and ranted on about industrial cleaners charging £9 per hour. Because we were only domestic cleaners, he expected us to be cheaper.

I let them rant for a while then turned to the wife and said my quote is £150. I never heard from them again, but the look of horror on the wife's face was a picture.

[Mrs Nicholls]

Hi Gary

Yes i am the boss now  i do forget that sometimes. She needs a shock cos she thinks no matter what she does she still gets her wages, but at this rate she will not have enough hours. She knows she has a bit of an easy ride cos she owes me money and i can't give her the chop or threaten it cos i would like my money back at some point (she pays a percent of her wages back every week).

Anyway thats a whole other story.

I would loved to have seen that customers face when you said £150 Alan classic.

How much does the accountant guy charge his clients i wonder....

[Alan Rowley]

I would loved to have seen that customers face when you said £150 Alan classic.

How much does the accountant guy charge his clients i wonder....

Probably a lot more than £150, I guess.

[Os]

I have to agree with Gary, its your business, not hers, she needs to do it your way. I would suggest that you go with her and re-train her yourself, if your success rate is higher have a think about what you do, then go with her and see how she does it. Then take her along and show her how you want it done. Guide her in the right direction. If she then wont play ball maybe you need to find yourself another sales person.

[Prestige1]

When some asks how much per hour, tell them how you attract the best cleaners in the region because of your rate of pay, and advise them because of your in depth training of staff and advance systems of cleaning coupled with superior products, all this enables your staff to clean faster and better then other cleaners so your staff get more done in less time, so its unfair to compair hourly rates, we charge per job, try us and see what you think? works for me, could not suvive on £25 for 2 hours, need at least £37 for 2 hours. but its down to areas again. regards Phil

[julia]

Hi All
You guys all seem to quote per job for domestic work.  So if you quote the client say like lisa £25.00 how many hours would you be paying your cleaner?  As I am assuming you pay your cleaners by the hour.  I find this a bit difficult to sort out in my head.  Any information would be great.
Many thanks
Julia

[Alan Rowley]

Hi Julia,

I normally visit each prospective customer and give them a quote there and then. This is based on how long I estimate the job to take. I don't mention hours, I just say 'the price for the job is x'.

With the cleaners, I always do the first couple of cleans myself so that I can see if I got my estimate right. I then give my cleaners a time that I expect them to do the job in. They are free to discuss with me whether they need more time (or less) and I adjust the time taken to suit.

At the end of each clean, I add the hours they have taken to a spreadsheet which calculates how much they need to be paid.

[Mrs Nicholls]

Hi Everyone
Thank you for your replies.

I have a new problem now - or challenge however you like to put it, customers are cancelling due to April increases, I have our tariff at £25, £37.50, £50, depending on the duties required and size/state of the property. Looks like i'm having to go out with a load of my new leaflets to try and gain some more business.

Thanks
Lisa

[dustdees]

Lisa,

I had that problem, but you will soon make up again.

If they don;'t want to pay your rate then let some else service them, look after the ones who stay on build on that.

You win somw you lose some.

Don't worry it will turn around. I was a bit scared at the beginning, but I put my charges up in chunks of three using the the following criteria.

1. Clients who are more hassle that they are worth - moaning ones really
2. Client where cleaners hate going into, the real yucky ones - and real messey ones.
3. the final block of the good ones who give you referrals, pay on time, etc etc. 

You will lose some nobody likes to pay extra, but that's life.

Hope this helps. I worked for me, panicked a bit but that's me!!!

I don;t know if anyone else did it differently, would be good to find out!!

[Londoner]

Lisa, if you don't get some reaction over your prices you are not charging enough. Often little things like uniforms and sign written vehicles make more difference than you would think.
I have a window cleaning customer who pays one of the Franchised names £80 for two cleaners for two hours every week. She seems quite happy with the arrangement but they don't seem to do that much when I've been there.

What she is paying for is the name and the branding.

Without knowing you or how you operate I suspect you have got to work on your image rather than your prices.

[deborah waters]

stick to your guns lots of custs at little money makes a busy fool ,someone once said 'think of a fair price then add a third!'
wise words don't ever apologise for trying to make a living!
p.s. mine moaned this apr too and i lost two of them for it but got four more the next week who didn't quibble at new price!
 
Debbie (mlh)

[richyvezy]

I believe hand on heart that domestic cleaning is one of, if not the, hardest jobs to do in this industry. It is even harder if your sole role within your business is domestic. Anyone who does this and sustains this over a lengthy period of time has my utmost respect and admiration.

We started off just offering domestic but soon realised that there was no way we could sustain a business doing this alone. We have since dropped most of our domestic and will not take anymore new clients on. We've only kept the 'nice' ones that my wife and another girl share between them.

The reasons for getting rid of them are pretty much the same as dg. We used to charge per hour as well after trying per job, as we felt it suited us and the clients better. Whenever we did charge per job we would always end up arguing with the clients who would always time us etc - even the ones that signed an agreement on price for job !! Most of them were not business minded people and didn't care about overheads, insurances, wages, profit etc, they were convinced they owned us just because they give over some money.
As dg said their mentallity eventually became that they wouldn't tidy up or clean between our visits and some we are talking every other week. This then meant that they expected us to do more whilst we were there. This is where the per hour came in our favour as I would just say "no problem, we'll just charge you for an extra hour or 2". So I would have to recruit more staff to cover, until the client(s) decided they couldn't afford the extra hours and would get stroppy and demand that we work harder and faster in the original alotted time. Totally unrealistic and it would just become an unworkable arrangement. I know people say 'get rid and replace with another' but it ain't that easy when you have girls waiting around. I would even pay them to go out delivering leaflets to get there own work which worked to some degree but they used to get p'd off as they're cleaners not distributors etc. But even then when we did get the new clients the cycle would continue.

We even had one client who whilst we cleaned for them accused our girls of damaging a towel rail and toilet paper holder in one of their many loos. The girls denied it and said they noticed it when they went in one morning to clean but didn't think it neccessary to tell me. Anyway I went down to view and as it wasn't much I offered to give them a free week to cover the cost. "No, no, it's ok, just ask them to be careful etc" was the reply and all was forgotten. They even missed a payment some weeks later which I made a note of but thought I won't make waves due to it being quiet from their claim. That is until I gave them (along with everyone else) notice that we wouldn't be cleaning anymore - they went mental, demanding that we pay up for the damage that happened months earlier. When we informed them that they had actually missed a weeks payment and that we had proof, they threatened us with small claims etc. I became very angry and told them to go for it.....heard nothing since, touch wood.

Staffing was another issue as there are simply not enough cleaners out there who felt comfortable enough doing domestics, especially if the clients were in whilst they were cleaning. The hours would suit them with their kids schooling etc but they would eventually get dis-heartened with the moanings and nit-pickings of the clients. Some realised it wasn't what they expected and would just leave without notice leaving me with a huge headache. In just over a year we went through 21 cleaners on the domestic side alone which is just too many....and the paperwork was just doing my head in !! We paid well and have always looked after the girls but we just couldn't keep them.

It's been a few months now since we got rid and it's been like a weight has been lifted and I take pleasure in telling telephone/email inquiries that we no longer offer the service.

To Lisa, dg and all you other domestics, my hat goes off to you