[CMS]

Hi CMS
I am talking about small cleaning contracts (1 or 2 cleaners 2 hours each per day)
in central London . When they are looking for a daily cleaning service 9 times
out of 10 they will always take the cheapest quote. this is not a guess I
have been operating in central London since 1979 and this is what allways
happens. this is why my company got out of the daily office cleaning business

Sorry, that is not what always happens. The portfolio I managed was made up of many different types of cleaning, even down to the one cleaner, three days a week stuff.

You can still sell on service if you're good enough.

[D woods]

Hi CMS
Yes you are correct you can sell on service if you are good enough. But it will
only work 10% of the time .

[Tim Downer]

Mmmmmm......becoming like another soap on tv!!

I think that we are better than that? Why should we try to provide such a good service.....for it to work in our favour for 10% of the time?
I would like to think that after all the hard work and investment of time......and putting into practice a lot of the suggestions etc put on forums such as this......that the % should be a lot higher!! Say in the region of 70-80%?
What do you think??
I have started up Office cleaning again as of this week, after a break of 3 years.....and i wouldn't be happy with less than 70% success!!
Maybe after a few months i will be prooved wrong.....we will see.
But any way......back to my original question......
How much do you guys place ontop of the purchase price from your supplier??

Regards

Tim

P.S Thanks for your comments above - CMS and D Woods and for CMS's helpful ideas and advice

[CMS]

A lttle bit off topic, but I saw a brilliant training session for quality standards once. I can't remember the exact figures but it went something like this.....

The delegates were asked the question "When striving for quality, what percentage do you think is acceptable?"

There was a variety of answers but the general consensus was that we should aim for 99%.

Then it went on to tell us what would happen if we all hit only 99%..........

So many thousand people would die each day on an operating table.
So many million letters wouldn't be delivered each day.
So many this and so many that........etc.

It brought it home to us that nothing less than 100% is good enough.

[D woods]

A cleaning contractor came into our shop today to buy cleaning supplies,as he was choosing the products he wanted I got talking to him.
He told me he had recently quoted for the common areas on a local office block.
He said their was five of them quoting and he went in at £22,000 per year.
He found out that four of the five quotes were between £21,000 and £22,700
per year.

But one quote was for £15,000 per year guess what one they took.

This is why cleaning contractors need to maximise their profits on the extra services they provide such as window and carpet cleaning and the provision
of consumable products such as toilet rolls and bin bags

[Tim Downer]

I think we should educate our clients out there about the service we can provide......compared to a service they may get compared to those who go in cheap.
I would rather have 10 properly run contracts at the right price.....as apposed to 20 cheap contracts not run properly due to making no money!!

Interesting point from CMS regarding a 100% goal to aim for.......

Regards

Tim