Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: bennymon on February 09, 2011, 01:17:41 pm
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worst week ever 1 job took 1 hour £85. and only had 3 jobs last week.dont know whats going on still got 7 web sites highly ranked and 20,000 leaflets went out a week and a half ago.
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Four suppliers in our area have closed in the last 6 months, one had only been in their new unit a year.
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If i had only 1 job booked in this week i'd be out knocking doors until I got some work booked in !
steve
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used to go doorknocking but people dont like it and i dont want to look like a dodgy salesman [ i cover fairly posh areas]and i wouldnt buy at the door.
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You're not alone Benny. I packed in because I had weeks like you describe for almost 3 months in a row.
Speaking to some other carpet cleaners it seems to be a very similar story. Having to work very hard to secure any kind of work at all and with so many price shoppers at the moment the value of each job seems to have gone through the floor.
I notice you are down south like me. I am beginning to wonder if the problem is worse in this part of the country than north of here.
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Theres lots of different ways to go about door knocking, if I go out leafleting, instead of just pushing a leaflet through the letterbox i will knock and ask if its ok to leave one. - You wont look like a dodgy salesman just a considerate a business person.
You'd be surprised how many people will ask for a quote straight away and saves you having to go back when they ring you later.
Also if the occupier says they dont want one at least you can keep it rather than it ending up in the bin !
Steve
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Go to your nearest secondary commercial area/suburb, the kind of place where all the shops and busineses are owner operated, NOT national chains.
Go after 7 at night and leaflet them all . I did this when starting out ,worked wonders.
Then the next night do it again in another area
In fact , since things are so quiet , I think I will do it myself tonight.
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good idea jason will give it a go steve i have tried that way in the past not great results but it wont hurt to try again cheers del
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I go to Guildford regularly
I am thinking of opening a Branch in that area.
What strikes me is that House Prices are so Expensive you need 60 k a year to pay a mortgage and if you are first time buyer 100k
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not wrong ian my mum sold her 3 bed semi in the town center in 2000 for £170 one year later it was resold for£345k and in 2003 it was turned into 3 self contained flats wich sold for £220 k each not even any parking with them CRAZY
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Hi Guys
Just deleted the last few posts and it was getting silly, lets stick to the topic and forget the insults.
Thanks
Doug
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Good move Mr Holloway.
But have to agree with Gary
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Iv been quiet lately. Maybe enterprise have given carpet cleaners a bad reputation? An it doesnt help with the recession! I think alot of people would rather have a go at it themselves with some asda shampoo! Or maybe things will pick up nearer summer
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yeah good move Doug, and i agree with Gary too. some people just want to go off topic for their own personal gains. this forum used to be about helping each other. good to see the moderation team were quick to delete him this time.
don't know if you remember me benny, met you before at cleans we were both doing at the same time. work is picking up for us maybe it'll start coming for you too as we both are i nthe same area. i've got your number handy for when we're too busy to cope not yet happening but sure it will in the coming weeks so may be sending work your way soon
clinton: not once noticed enterprise in guildford area. didn't realise they operated here. no customers have mentioned them and never seen a leaflet, where as i often here of abm and a few others
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Have this enterprise set up taken a lot of work from you guys down south then ???
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Have this enterprise set up taken a lot of work from you guys down south then ???
Yeah a fair bit, and some polish too. I had a ladie call me for a quote 2 weeks ago, i gave her my price and she said she had got another quote of £40 from a polish bloke for the whole house!! I told her the quality of the clean will be very low compared to mine, u get what u pay for!
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sounds like dif areas then down there that enterprise are hitting hard by the sounds of it.
Thats cheap daniel what the polish guy is quoting.
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I know! Well she was happy to go ahead with him so fairplay to him, maybe im
In the wrong?!!
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yeah good move Doug, and i agree with Gary too. some people just want to go off topic for their own personal gains. this forum used to be about helping each other. good to see the moderation team were quick to delete him this time.
Looks like everyone agrees with Gary ;D
What you failed to mention is that your posts got deleted too ::)
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Hi Guys
I'm holding up quite well here,essex.
My diary is about the same as last year apart from a nice commercial.
Cheers
Doug
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yeah good move Doug, and i agree with Gary too. some people just want to go off topic for their own personal gains. this forum used to be about helping each other. good to see the moderation team were quick to delete him this time.
Looks like everyone agrees with Gary ;D
What you failed to mention is that your posts got deleted too ::)
???
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Maybe il consider moving to essex or up north! ;)
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Daniel
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Why not move to South East Essex, there's hundred of CC's already mind you ;)
Cheers
Doug
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I'm working at about 2 jobs a day which will move to the yearly normal by the end of this month of 3 jobs a day. and a commercial on the Saturday.
I didn't stop the advertising for the pressure washing this winter which surprisingly has been bringing in at least a job a week usually 2.... so that has been a nice surprise
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Pretty slow here,but I am lucky that I have work coming in from lot`s of different sources now,letting agents are all dead quiet still,getting the odd booking here and there,but it`s from tenants rather than the agencies themselves,which in all fairness is good ,as I get paid there and then,rather than having to wait 28 day`s .
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I can't help but think that Enterprise are having a bad effect on others in the areas they operate, purely due to the number of jobs they are doing apart from anything else.
They are running several vans in each area, turning over more than £20k a week and each of their conmen is doing 3 or 4 appointments a day.
That's a whole lot of carpets they are doing. It's little wonder the rest of the carpet cleaners are fighting over scraps of work.
You can leaflet and knock doors all you like, but it's very hard to compete with their telesales team who are working at least 6 days a week. I believe they are leafleting as well.
An operation on the scale of Enterprise, who advertise for staff claiming to be the largest carpet cleaning company in the south, is tough to compete with even with the bad reputation they have.
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Commercial work that's keeping me going at the moment plus a few regulars new customers just want cheapest price,but who can blame them given today's current uncertainty with jobs etc etc. One lad I know has knocked his prices down because he is so quiet
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Its only a couple of weeks ago that most on here were saying how optimistic they were as work was steady,now its all doom and gloom.
A week is a long time in Carpet cleaning ;D
Personally as a Newbie I'm very pleased with how Ive done in January and so far so good for February.
Probably wont get a call for rest of the week now ;D
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Because I've been going in this industry for zillions of years I just don't go quiet, you may say I'm rubbing salt into the wounds but it's true but then I keep myself out there and the multiplication factor comes into it where the more you get out and about the more that you have a chance of someone seeing the van or a customer having more work done or recommending you.
Anyway you can throw stones now!
Shaun
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Im as busy as i was in Nov and Dec here, Feb normally goes dead but this year its been amazing, no idea why.
Mark
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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,
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Well said that man!
Chemdry do rather well.
Shaun
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Good move Mr Holloway.
But have to agree with Gary
Hippos in crates on there way to the west country. ;D
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The first few weeks of Jan were quiet , but due to weather.
Lots of commercial at moment, plus the odd regular domestic,
A few new customers, also had a lot of email enquiries from web,
which is unusal this far north :)
Andrew
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Long term reducing prices is bad because you may do it again and again, if you go quiet go out and quote, yes petrol is highly prices but getting the job at the right money more than pays for it and the conversion rate on in home quotes are higher, then it's up to you to show off!
Shaun
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Just been talking to a carpet cleaning friend and he is so quiet he decided to go out with his leaflets but knock on doors.
2 hours and he got £500 of work. Not bad eh!
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fully booked thursday friday saturday, 4 figure week and thats with monday off. wouldn't say i'm booming but not doin poo either, things are going swimmingly i would say. plus i don't really judge my business on a weekly basis, we all have crapuns, i'd go mad if i did, its about the end of year figures that count, hopefully will hit my target again come december.
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Got friday with nothing in at the mo but am sure something will turn up.
Got some bookings next week too and somtimes the client wants the work done next day :)
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Joe £500 is good but how many jobs does he get at that? please don't think that it's a price debate it's not but I find that customers coming to me are more ready for a purchase and are collecting information to get the best clean where as a 'cold call' is more of instantanious if the price is right.
Shaun
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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 think you're missing the point. Whilst everyone might have forgotten about the programme they continue to bombard the public with phonecalls through the peak times of 'After school to 8 pm.' Selling cheap cleaning.
So:
Leaflet - pick it up see what it's for chuck in bin.
Phonecall - most of the british public are polite people and try not to be rude which is how this bunch pray on their pray.
Anyway I don't think they are solely to blame. Down here in the so called rich south we are being hammered from all directions by the Conservative Liberal govenment. Seriously guys the consumer is seriously trying not to spend unless they really have to.
We have a couple of static holiday caravans and the bookings for them are down on this time last year.
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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?.
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,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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 8)
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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).
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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
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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
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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?
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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
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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
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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
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Eh? ???
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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
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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
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Thanks Neil. Got it now! ;D
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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
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its ok door knocking and getting some booked in and how many will cancel before you get to the job.
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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
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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 8)
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I'm managing to keep pretty busy thankfully and I'm only here at the moment because my first job isn't until 1230. Saying that, things definitely do seem much quieter. The phone is ringing less and the emails have slowed down considerably. I think you've just got to keep at it and keep doing a good job and, hopefully, things will improve. This will be my third year in the business and I'm seeing the repeat customers now and it's really pleasing when you get the call from someone you've previously worked for. They wouldn't call back if they weren't pleased. Recommendations are also providing more and more work which is also good. The price shoppers are there of course and I really used to beat myself up when I lost a £50.00 job but now I think do I really want them as customers anyway? We've all just got to keep at it!
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Go to your nearest secondary commercial area/suburb, the kind of place where all the shops and busineses are owner operated, NOT national chains.
Go after 7 at night and leaflet them all . I did this when starting out ,worked wonders.
Then the next night do it again in another area
In fact , since things are so quiet , I think I will do it myself tonight.
Jason,
is that just an industrial estate?
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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
I guess that was a tongue in cheek moment Ian ;D
I would say that marketing is still the most important factor of all.
Marketing and advertising (however you do it) gets your name known and hopefully brings enquiries in (if not you need to change the marketing etc)
Then selling and wining the work, along with a high standard cleaning service, should all follow closely. Then as you finish with one satisfied customer your marketing should start with them again and so on.........
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Well things are really looking up for me and im really optomistic for this year.
Ive managed to get in with a well known local figure, Ive done two single carpet jobs for him then today picked up my first indian resturant through him.
Only problem is some of the stuff coming up he wants me to quote on are probably beyond my equipments capability, might have to start eyeing up a truckmount.
Im still struggling at the minute no where near as busy as id like but like i say im very optomistic.
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Go to your nearest secondary commercial area/suburb, the kind of place where all the shops and busineses are owner operated, NOT national chains.
Go after 7 at night and leaflet them all . I did this when starting out ,worked wonders.
Then the next night do it again in another area
In fact , since things are so quiet , I think I will do it myself tonight.
Jason,
is that just an industrial estate?
No a suburb , or the secondary shops , every town and city has them.
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Think we have to do the best job we can and get referals and keep the clients that we have already and go the extra yard to do agreat job. :)
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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 8)
I agree, most if not all customers could not give a flying toss what machine your using, its other carpet cleaners who have this fixation with their 'equipment'.
Its an old adage but still true today, 'we want the hole not the drill bit'
We have a low priced operator in our area who is very good and knowlegable probably more so than most on here, he's as busy as he wants to be and makes a very comfortable living.
Lets not tar all people with the same brush.
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Well things are really looking up for me and im really optomistic for this year.
Ive managed to get in with a well known local figure, Ive done two single carpet jobs for him then today picked up my first indian resturant through him.
Only problem is some of the stuff coming up he wants me to quote on are probably beyond my equipments capability, might have to start eyeing up a truckmount.
Im still struggling at the minute no where near as busy as id like but like i say im very optomistic.
Sub it out to me ;D
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Gentlemen and Ladies
You are in the marketing industry.................USE YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET! YOUR LIST !
Send everyone on your list a brief letter with an offer ( short expiry date ) just to stimulate their interest and because of the offer you should get a response.
You MUST give them a reason to call you, eg.
Thank goodness the snow and ice have gone BUT WHAT A MESS IT'S LEFT .......
Don't panic..............WE HAVE A VERY SPECIAL OFFER for our past customers to help get their homes back to normal............................................................ For the next 2 weeks we are offering MASSIVE 50% (or whatever ) off our normal pricing.
We've just cleaned our own entrance hall and stairs and it's nice to get back to normal.
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fantastic idea robert.
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Can't take the credit...............working the list has been going on for decades by many industries.
Just a case of tweeking to suit each occasion.