Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: wayne zabel on November 13, 2010, 06:36:00 pm
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Do any of you guys/girls offer and advertise your services as HALF PRICE CARPET CLEANING.
Some who advertise in the same places as me always use this gimmick.
To me its very misleading - You call and they quote say £45 for a lounge,now when was that same lounge £90.Its a misleading gimmick to me,but how do the public perceive it?
Do you think this kind of advertising works.I personally have never wanted to go down this route and would rather operate and advertise myself as a quality but value for money CC'er,but if this sort of advertising brings in more leads is it worth a go?
Any views of this?
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I think it grabs peoples attention, so it does it job.
what i don't like it the ads that offer half price cleaning then in small print say something like ' second room cleaned is half price' so people have to pay the full price for 1st room which is usually the biggest and most expensive
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So wayne what your saying is if it worked you would do it but at half your actual prices (which means you make naff all) even when you get a job. Or would you do what they are doing and say it's a lot more?
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You would have to do what the others are doing and charge a proper rate and just use the HALF PRICE CARPET CLEANING as a banner to grab the attention of those looking at the adverts.
As I said its their gimmick,they are no cheaper than me when you get a price but I just wonder if the public would be more likely to call these first.
I have never wanted to go down this avenue and just wonder what you more experienced cleaners think of this marketing tack
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i really don't get these offers for carpet cleaning, yes, i have offers on my website but i don't get asked about them. you all keep banging on about offers but it don't make sense. imagine a leaflet from a plumber, "this weeks special offers, half price leaky tap fixing" ;D
you've either got a leaky tap or you aint, you either need your carpets cleaning or you don't. and if your leaflet (with no offers on it) happens to land on that particular customers mat when they need there carpets cleaning, then you'll get a call, or if your add is in the paper (with no offers on it) when they start looking for a carpet cleaner, you'll get a call.
i had £10 off on a load of leaflets, got a call today for living room to be cleaned, they were recomended by a neighbour, told them £80, and they said we have a leaflet, will we get a tenner off that price, yes i said. ive just cost my self a tenner cos i'd of still got the job without the leaflet.
offers are bo11oxs.
no one has there carpets cleaned because of an offer, they have em cleaned cos there dirty.
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I need 2 new tyres on my jeep, still have haven't got round to getting them ::) ::) Why? I need them..... it won't pass its MOT without them..... but I still haven't got them
same idea with carpet cleaning and offers. peoples carpet are dirty but it doesn't mean they will call us, they will procrastinate.
but an offer will give them the push they need
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Don't you have to sell at the "Normal" price for a period of time before you can legally state that the service/item is half price?
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I need 2 new tyres on my jeep, still have haven't got round to getting them ::) ::) Why? I need them..... it won't pass its MOT without them..... but I still haven't got them
same idea with carpet cleaning and offers. peoples carpet are dirty but it doesn't mean they will call us, they will procrastinate.
but an offer will give them the push they need
so they need there carpet cleaning but are procrastinating, a leaflet drops on the mat with no offer on it, hmmmm "no offer says the consumer with the dirty carpets, i'll wait till one drops on the mat with an offer" ;D
a leaflet on the doormat with no offer will encourage them exactly the same in my opinion.
ps... thats 6 points on ya liscence mike. and its been years since i had a leaflet with half price jeep tyres on it. ;D
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Wayne i know your a newbie and you as i did when i first started thought these guys were getting more work than me..I was wrong and all they got was in most cases the really dirty rubbish jobs.
It takes time and just have to keep in there.
Derek is a great example and he started 3 years ago?He just does the job at the right price and gets recomondations and when you do a great job in most cases they will coem back to you..
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You are right Colin but it's the same old story. If the Watchdog guys are still doing the same thing after all that publicity and nothings been done they ain't going to chase you to see previous full price cleans.
Personally I think it smacks desperation anyway and all you will get are those pooe jobs you are trying to get away from and doing them at half price.
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i really don't get these offers for carpet cleaning, yes, i have offers on my website but i don't get asked about them. you all keep banging on about offers but it don't make sense. imagine a leaflet from a plumber, "this weeks special offers, half price leaky tap fixing" ;D
you've either got a leaky tap or you aint, you either need your carpets cleaning or you don't. and if your leaflet (with no offers on it) happens to land on that particular customers mat when they need there carpets cleaning, then you'll get a call, or if your add is in the paper (with no offers on it) when they start looking for a carpet cleaner, you'll get a call.
i had £10 off on a load of leaflets, got a call today for living room to be cleaned, they were recomended by a neighbour, told them £80, and they said we have a leaflet, will we get a tenner off that price, yes i said. ive just cost my self a tenner cos i'd of still got the job without the leaflet.
offers are bo11oxs.
no one has there carpets cleaned because of an offer, they have em cleaned cos there dirty.
Couldn't agree more with you d.
I've never understood why cc's give discounts/special offers to existing clients (or do I mean customers?) (Maybe that's the differnce; I think of them as clients-others think of them as customers.) Anyway, back to the point. If clients have dirty carpets and you've done a good job previously, odds-on they'll come back to you rather than find somebody else. (Better the devil they know! ;D) So why give them a discount if they've already made up their mind to have their carpets cleaned.
If you look at all the big national businesses-banks, telecom companys they all offer introductory offers to get you on board. Once you've signed up and completed your introductory time/offer the price goes up to the full rate. they don't say "oh, you've been with us for 6 months, we must give you a discount to keep you with us". (In general)
Rog
PS Mike I'm sure you will think of exceptions but I think you will agree with the general drift/tone of the comment.
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Guys
you can go round and round with this one but it all comes down to in the end in DEMAND.
if something is in demand and supply is low you will get high prices or the other way around. my experience at the moment is that demand is very low. hits are down by a massive percentage. response for what i call active marketing is at the lowest i have ever experienced it.
One example is in one area i work one guy has top natural listing and top google map listing but he still feels the need to pay for top ppc slot. why because the other two are not producing work. he not doing anything wrong its just demand.
my takings are in the bin at the moment. lucky the wife works -)
Hits on a website i think are a good indicators of where the market is. its a way that shows us that people are looking for our service.
did you know that 18% of people find it hard to pay their mortgage at the moment add to that things like worry about their jobs and I think this December will not be the best ever. I for one are not banking on it. i making moves for a new position for next year.
half price carpet cleaning, i play as many different ideas as i could and find out what works.
Respect
Ian Harper
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What paper do you advertise in wayne ???Bury times etc?
Yes the Bury Times and the Prestwich Advertiser which is full of cheapo CC offering to clean 2 for £35 and beat any other quotes.I have started a new advert last week saying I might be beaten on price but not quality,yet to have any calls from that one
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We're operating in a PRICE DRIVEN society with our prospects bombarded from TV - NEWSPAPERS - SUPERMARKETS all claiming to offer HALF PRICE or THIS WEEK'S SPECIALS.
I could have typed that 25 years ago and it would be just as true then, as now.
You advertise to GRAB ATTENTION and your marketing should then kick in to give your prospect a reason or several reasons why they should use YOU.
Some businesses have always and will always use LOWEST PRICE as the ATTENTION GRABBER some use LOYALTY CARDS some offer EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE.
Biggest problem is finding enough of the like minded individuals you want to target.
Never assume the area or size of the house to be an accurate indicator nowadays or you'll be very disappointed on many occasions.
You have to find the market where your FACE FITS ( and your personality ) a poster on here targets bungalow type houses with mainly elderly clients, but his FACE and PERSONALITY fits and his success has as much to do with his MARKETING of himself rather than his SUPER DUPER machines or methods.
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this topic is slightly drifting away fro Waynes original question, from half price offers to general offers.
I don't agree with using Half price offers but do agree with offers in general.
Derek just to use my jeep as an example again i drive past 3 or 4 tyre places every week but still cant be arsed to stop, but if I drive past one that had an offer saying £20 off jeeps tyres.... this week onlyI would get them done....... such as a leaflet often is not enough to over come peoples procrastination some people need an extra push.
and we need to be clear an offer is is about encouraging the customer to spend money or even better spend more money not about giving away money.
we can get all snobby about it and say how we don't believe in offers but we all believe in making money and if an offer can be used to create more income then we should swallow our pride.
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mike
not sure where you get snobbery and pride from but if i don't believe they work then i express this on a forum, thats what forums are for, different opinions, right or wrong. and i'm not saying i'm right, but from my experiences to date, they only cost me money rather than generate more money.
makes me laugh how a lot on here haven't got the time of day for price shoppers then deliberatly encourage them to ring with offers. don't make sense.
would you really fall for 20% off without checking to see if it was genuine or not by comparing other prices elsewhere?
anyway my point is we're in the service and maintenance trade which is completely different to retail. we all know carpet cleaning can't be compared in price like a samsung tv can be. so for me personally, the idea is to sell your USP rather than offer discounts on invisible prices.
i'm sure discounts work for some on here but wayne needs to hear both sides of the coin so to speak. just giving my side.
ps....we can get all snobby about it and say how we don't believe in offers but we all believe in making money and if an offer can'T be used to create more income then we should swallow our pride.
works both ways mike
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Wayne if you don't want compete with the cut price guys then advertise in different places, job done.
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guys
here is a way i seen others use. they don't pick up their calls wait till the next day then call prospect back. when prospect says they have someone they say i do it cheaper. this is cleaver as the customer does not have reason for not telling them the price as the job been booked, its then that they come in just under.
most cheap price cleaners do the guessing game on how much others are charging. this method takes the risk out and does not leave any money on the table as they say.
I seen a carpet cleaner do in right in front of me.
respect
Ian Harper
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Any service-related trade/industry that markets itself on being cheap, cheaper or cheapest is on a hiding to nothing !
Feel free to disagree with me but you will never change my opinion on this.
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I agree with that Steve.... I think better words to use are affordable, value for money etc!
The word "Cheap" always has me running for the hills, I personally hate the word and all it stands for.... Much to the annoyance of her indoors ;D
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I would maybe think of pulling out of the bury times wayne as we have the same one here in stockport(the stockport times)Its also full of half price this n that and even with you saying your quality wont really help mate.
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I will probably keep adverts in the papers until Xmas and have a rethink after that.I also have ads in about 3 A5 glossy magazines that get pushed through doors monthly which I have got some good responses from in the past.
I think your right about the papers,it seems the only ones phoning after reading them are price shoppers wanting cheap work.
Like you said I just have to keep hanging in there for a few years to get established.I have been doing better than I thought I would but the last 2 weeks have been dead phone call wise where as before I was getting regular calls/queries.I suppose its the vaugaries of CC which I will have to get used to.
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What paper do you advertise in wayne ???Bury times etc?
Yes the Bury Times and the Prestwich Advertiser which is full of cheapo CC offering to clean 2 for £35 and beat any other quotes.I have started a new advert last week saying I might be beaten on price but not quality,yet to have any calls from that one
Wayne,
Every carpet cleaner in the uk is up against these half price cleaners etc, dont waste your money or time competing move your marketing spend onto something else, postcards, website etc
Mark
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DEREK
Read your posts and I think you'll find it was you who was criticising offers and Mike who agrees with offers from his pretty extensive experience in this marketplace.
If you subscribe to the thinking of any marketing programme, seminar, business school, or anything to do with prospecting for customers you will always find they always suggest you have an " offer " included in your advertising. The purpose being to CATCH ATTENTION rather than make your service appear CHEAP.
Even M & S have offers as do Harrods etc,etc. It gets the phone ringing or in their case people through the doors.
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mike
not sure where you get snobbery and pride from but if i don't believe they work then i express this on a forum, thats what forums are for, different opinions, right or wrong. and i'm not saying i'm right, but from my experiences to date, they only cost me money rather than generate more money.
makes me laugh how a lot on here haven't got the time of day for price shoppers then deliberately encourage them to ring with offers. don't make sense.
would you really fall for 20% off without checking to see if it was genuine or not by comparing other prices elsewhere?
anyway my point is we're in the service and maintenance trade which is completely different to retail. we all know carpet cleaning can't be compared in price like a samsung tv can be. so for me personally, the idea is to sell your USP rather than offer discounts on invisible prices.
i'm sure discounts work for some on here but wayne needs to hear both sides of the coin so to speak. just giving my side.
ps....we can get all snobby about it and say how we don't believe in offers but we all believe in making money and if an offer can'T be used to create more income then we should swallow our pride.
works both ways mike
Derek I get the feeling from your post that you think my post and the snob & pride comments are aimed at you, but they are not, my opinion that some carpet cleaners think that they are too good to use offers comes from yonks of talking to carpet cleaners and reading these forums. I see the same comments time & time again how all you need to do is do a good job and the phone will start ringing and you'll be snowed under with work....you don't need offers just do excellent work.
we are disagreeing on this but thats because we are both intelligent knowledgeable bloke who have different opinions on the subject it make neivver of us right or wrong . ( although I think you are a little bit wronger than me ;D ;D )
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Wayne another paper is the manchester evening news and thats also part of the bury times now and they do offers for placing an advert..
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bob
totally agree if i was in retail,but this is the service industry, this is where my opinion differs, i honestly don't believe offers work anymore better than if you can grab there attention with something else and therefore deviate yourself from the price issue.
wether it be drying times, quality of work or something else i'm actually working on.
i honestly believe if you sent out 2 different leaflets (diff phone numbers), one with all the offers guys do on here and another which spoke about quality at a reasonable price.
lets say 10,000 leaflets to the same houses on the same day.
i'm confident that both leaflets would get the same responce rate.
but, the ones without the offers on would be easier to convert into well paid jobs.
leaflets are a lottery, if they weren't, the returns would be far greater.
just my opinon.
not saying i'm right.
mike
totally aimed at me then, ;D i am one of those guys that thinks, well actually no, not totally, yeah i think a fantastic job is important to retain a customer but its also down to how you chat to your custies while your there, my wife laughs at the amount of SAE's we get telling her thanks for an amazing job and your hubbies a nutter.
and yeah, you probably are slightly righter than me ;D only slightlier though.
ps... is wronger and righter actually a word ;D
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Well I've just finished for the weekend being so busy.
If there's someone in your town busy, what's your excuse?
Oh and by the way, my leaflets have offers on them, even in nice areas.
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Any service-related trade/industry that markets itself on being cheap, cheaper or cheapest is on a hiding to nothing !
Feel free to disagree with me but you will never change my opinion on this.
The carpet trade does that all the time
Belgium Wilton £9.99 a metre
Berbers £4.99 a metre
Bedroom Carpets £3.99
Some of these adverts make it hard to charge £5 a metre to clean a Carpet
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That's not my idea of a service-related trade - carpet retailers are selling a product, yes they provide a service by fitting it but that's not my point.
I'm talking about the likes of us, predominantly selling a service not a product.
The underlays I sell cost as much as some of those carpet prices you have quoted Ian.
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We have several such companies in South Wales. These companies are only selling on peoples greed unfortunately people are not bright enough to phone around and get comparison quotes. If they did they would realise that companies that advertise and provides a good service do not charge any more than their half price offer for a lot of poop. The fact is that these firms do take a lot of money because peole are so easily mislead. All it takes is a total lack of conviction in what you are doing and for the money to be more important thanthe way that you get it. How can anybody permanently advertise that they are cleaning for 1/2 price but they do.
I think as things are there are going to be even more resorting to this way of business.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com
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Hi wayne,
It Mike from the oven cleaning Co.
Just popped over from ' general cleaning issues ' to see how the other half live.
This is a no brainer this mate, do not go down the route of half price then inflate the original to compensate, many oven cleaning companies offer such services then say, well we normally only clean one side of the door or we only clean one shelf for the original price.
Instantly the customer is aggrieved and on the back foot.
In my opinion people would much rather use someone who sticks to there guns on price but guaruntees a good result.
As has been stated by many of your CC buddies, if your carpet is dirty and needs cleaning, it needsd cleaning, they are not going to replace, so they want a good job done, not a cheap one. People call me and say £45 to clean an oven, its not that dirty. I just give them the number of some of the other oven cleaning services around greater manchester and forget about it. I usually get the call back, WHY ? because I dont discount and I dont compromise, I set the stall out from day one and I stick to it, even when I need the work.
This is my third Christmas, its tough times to get every penny in, think about a bounce -back offer for the spring or summer, but stick to your guns mate, the two jobs you have done for me have been spot on, more to come.
MCM
Lancs Oven Cleaning Co.
ps. have you seen my new site. www.halfpricecarpetcleaninginbury.lol