Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: richywilts on April 10, 2011, 09:26:55 pm
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just a thought i had say you called yaself the ten quid cleaner and did any home no matter what the size small or big do you think itd bring in lots of work???
im considering putting an offer on my leaflets 10quid any house for 12months subject to contract etc
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just a thought i had say you called yaself the ten quid cleaner and did any home no matter what the size small or big do you think itd bring in lots of work???
im considering putting an offer on my leaflets 10quid any house for 12months subject to contract etc
You'll get bombarded with £20+ customers & NO £5 to £10 ones!
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It would probably lose me 90% of my work if I made them all a tenner
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your bored arent you ;D
bob
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i was thinkin to just reel in the bigger jobs for now with it maybe coz the two lads who work for me would still blitz the larger jobs even for 12 months then u either lose them or put price up to what it should be when there all made up with ur work etc
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bored yes bob waiting for the missus to come n watch a film with me
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richy dont satrt something you dont want to continue, its ok doing this cause you want to pay a wage but its about profit and for that you nedd good pricing
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i think it is a good idea richy, i would just add t and c like them must pay one line and can be dont in light rain, and tell then that is wny u can offer the service as cost are kept to the minimum
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crazy idea mate,like been said in earlier post all the new houses you get are going be under priced,custys arnt going pay £10 if there house isnt worth that,just get some leaflets or canvasssing done if you need more work for your lads
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richy m8 im 100% sure
the work is going to come in
checking my diary our schools r due
lol yr work is 6 wkly now yeah
bring a few forward m8 aint 6 wk to the day ya know ;D ;D
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whats the worst that can happen you get flyers made up, u get say 100 custy its doesnt work out sell them on to a newbie who will be glad for the work
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whats the worst that can happen you get flyers made up, u get say 100 custy its doesnt work out sell them on to a newbie who will be glad for the work
I don't know, the worst that could happen he gets loads of 20 quid work from other cleaners and they take the hump and burn his van out ??? that is pretty drastic but I am sure you get the picture
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thats business, do you think asda care if they put a special offer on and take business from some one else,
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thats business, do you think asda care if they put a special offer on and take business from some one else,
No I suppose not ;)
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i just think it is a good idea, there seems to be this thing with window cleaning that if some one trys something new then it wont work and is wrong,
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i alway feel that special offers attract the wrong sort of people.
a genuine customer wants a window cleaner who does a good job at a fair price
special offer customer bring in the money saving brigade. how to you tie them into a 12 month contract. they moan and cancel after one or two cleans when a doley undercuts you. what do you do then pursue them through small claims for breach of contract?
price fair and do a good job.
maybe prices from £6 on a leaflet get it noticed, ok so £6 may be a shop front but no one needs to know that so youre not fibbing
another quick thought on a mixed housing development you may get different houses next to each other, so a 4 bed 3 story is a tenner but so is the neighbours little 2 bed. they are going to feel cheated that they pay the same.
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i just think it is a good idea, there seems to be this thing with window cleaning that if some one trys something new then it wont work and is wrong,
Yeah & I would advise anybody who proposes to clean £20 houses for a tenner that indeed it won't work & is wrong! ;) ;D
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any offers smack of desperation,same as when i get a domino pizza leaflet saying 2 for price of 1 ,i know they are struggling to take up the slack. as said above you only want the ordinary folk who want a fair price and no airheads
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i just think it is a good idea, there seems to be this thing with window cleaning that if some one trys something new then it wont work and is wrong,
i cant see anyone giving a stupid answer(makes a change) just quite sensible opinions.
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I must say on this occasion I agree with sgibson, we normally disagree ;D and richy has answered this himself by saying he doesn't like canvassing as it brings in the wasters etc, but this exactly what an offer on a leaflet will do
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I think this is not a good idea.
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i was in retail for several years and the loss leader advert was aimed to get more customer in the door buy the partiular product and then buy other things and return, most of the time they came in bought the item and fecked off never to be seen again. the more succesful advert highlighted the range of products and the competitive prices.
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any offers smack of desperation,same as when i get a domino pizza leaflet saying 2 for price of 1 ,i know they are struggling to take up the slack. as said above you only want the ordinary folk who want a fair price and no airheads
I thought Domino`s Pizza were quite successful.
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If you're short of work:
1. Knock on doors.
2. Leaflet.
3. Put adverts up in shops.
4. Ask current customers to recommend you to their friends and family.
5. Sign written vans/uniforms can't hurt.
6. Advertise verbally to your current customers about gutter cleaning, or whatever add ons you do.
But a blanket £10 for all doesn't sound good to me. In any area there's a range of houses from big to small; from privately owned to social accommodation. It's purposely planned to be like this, so you cannot possibly gauge an area and say they're all £10 houses. Some will have access problem, some will have conservatories, some will have extensions.
The type of customers we are after are people who have a few spare quid, who are willing to pay a fair price, REGULARLY, for a regular window cleaning service.
And our business is extremely labour intensive. We can only clean a finite number of properties in any given day, unlike shops or pizza places who can sell (within reason) an 'infinite' number of products in one day. Therefore we should be aiming to get the best customers and prices we can for our efforts.
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dominos is not a good example as they charge a high price for what is basicly cheese on toast they can off set the deal on the mark up of the product. plus it takes no extra time to cook 2 as it does one.
as tosh said there are a lot of ways to drum up the right sort of new business
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Domino`s are relatively expensive (so I believe), so the free one is probably accounted for with the one you pay for.
They are still very successful though.
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Domino`s are relatively expensive (so I believe), so the free one is probably accounted for with the one you pay for.
They are still very successful though.
price up their windows and I bet they won't pay what you ask ;)
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Domino`s are relatively expensive (so I believe), so the free one is probably accounted for with the one you pay for.
They are still very successful though.
price up their windows and I bet they won't pay what you ask ;)
It depends what I charge and what you`re willing to bet :D.
It`s probably one of the reasons they are successful.
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Domino`s are relatively expensive (so I believe), so the free one is probably accounted for with the one you pay for.
They are still very successful though.
price up their windows and I bet they won't pay what you ask ;)
It depends what I charge and what you`re willing to bet :D.
It`s probably one of the reasons they are successful.
well that is all very true ;D but the idea is still mental ::) but what do I know richy has employees and loads of vans and I don't, so my opinion doesn't count really
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Yeah, I know what you mean but it was a bad example to use Domino`s; that was my point.
They aren`t desperate and it is likely to be a very useful marketing strategy; the buy one, get one free.
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I have a very basic home printed flyer that I use only in my village and close by. It states who I am and my address. I have on there that i charge £10 for a standard 3/4 bed house. I don't see the problem.
I have gained loads of work from it. I can walk most of that work if needs be. There are some that should be £8 or £12. Anymore than that and I remind them their house is not what I view as standard. I can choose to clean it or not - no one can make me. Usually i get it at the £15 or whatever it needs to be.
The bottom line is I am building my core business on my doorstep at £10 per house. It has cost me about £200 in canvassing/free first cleans for reccos etc to gain roughly £600 monthly work in this way. I work hard and fast and this little lot does me nicely thankyou. It's all within 1 mile radius of my home. With rising fuel costs and travelling time becoming an issue this matters.
Richy I think you should push it more. A tenner is fine for most people. When you miss a month collecting they are only parting with a £20. More than that and the husband wants to cancel. I can collect any not in on the way to the pub or walking my dog.
I have other custies but I intend to grow these 60ish up to 100 with more canvassing by the end of the summer.
Also a fair few have had fascia cleans, and become plumbing customers as a result of taking up the £10 clean.
When they are close enough together its quite possible to do 25 to 30 a day between two of you. I have two vans and two seperate wfp setups and even after paying staff its a good days work.
Roll up roll up everyone a tenner!!!
Andy
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ive watched a Dominos open in my town earlier this year and it started with a whole load of eager staff but now has only a few who look very jaded too. they try hard with staff carrying billboards around town who dance with the board and all these special offers leaflets but its tough climate now as it is in our game too .having said that their pizzas are pricey once you get to the ordering stage . this is just my rambling observ of Dominos and no they dont have a window cleaner .
then again i suppose you could repeat flyer your area just as Dominos do and it would certainly stick in folks minds that youre the main man for a great deal
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bad idea, if a leaflet came through my door with the £10 window cleaner on it it would get me thinking pikey and beer brigade.
putting a leaflet out klike that is just saying to other w/cs in your area that your gonns undercut them no matter what
why not on the back of the leaflet put insides cleaned for £12.50 and any takers you can then flog them some clothes pegs and lucky charms ;D ;D ;D ;D
you need to go and stand in a corner of the room and have a serious word with yourself
but if you are serious then why not come and work for me ? in fact I could take 12 months off while you clean all my houses for £10 a throw, you could earn as much as £60 a day on some days :D
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It is of course completely nuts. A bit like Honda offering any car for £10,000.
"Hmmm .... Can't seem to sell any Jazz models; but loads of top end Civics and Accords are flying out the door - wonder why?"
(Rolls eyes)
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Ok then. How many of you on here charge £10 for a 3 bed semi or smallish 4 bed detached. I know BFG is along the M4 from me and Gold is only 30 mins into Bristol.
£10 is the price around here so i'm not setting out to undercut.
My name and address is on the flyer and people know me in the village and have done for a long time as a heating engineer. I want to use that recognition to jump start the cleaning. A pikey looking leaflet mine isn't. It also has a landline and email address. Most peoples reaction is " great, we didn't know you did, can you put us down on your list". No query on the price and I know the houses anyway so I can price on the phone.
I was only answering the opening thread with a positive take on how its worked for me. BUT for me 90% of these tenners are correctly priced. It is perceived by the customer as open and upfront and if they call it's usually to go ahead based on the above.
you're all welcome to your opinion and I have my business plan. When I have enough of these I can creep the price and introduce extras to boost the round. Take on another staff member and make even more by paying them less than I take per day.
One thing is for sure.
All the talk in the world about it being the right price or not, I'm still pulling in the customers with leaflets and canvassers. There are dozens of conversations on here about knock or not to knock. Leaflet or van wraps etc., etc. Even if some of my £10's are underpriced it's better than no work coming in because it's all in "the planning stage" or with the printers. When it becomes a problem I'll deal with it. At the moment its all good profit.
Andy
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just a thought i had say you called yaself the ten quid cleaner and did any home no matter what the size small or big do you think itd bring in lots of work???
im considering putting an offer on my leaflets 10quid any house for 12months subject to contract etc
you will cause yourself all sorts of problems. you're service is really well branded so your current customers will find out about the offer, and will want the same offer. and how will you explain to them that their house you're currently charging £20 for shouldn't be £10 as well? they are loyal customers after all.
also the people willing to pay £10 for a clean wont be happy with the the price rise after 12 months, so i guess you'll loose a lot of them if you jump the prices up.
after you have clearly spent a lot of money making your service look very professional, offering rock bottom prices just devalues it. i'd be very careful
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thats business, do you think asda care if they put a special offer on and take business from some one else,
No I suppose not ;)
ASDA HAVE SECURITY CAMERAS EVERYWHERE
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it was just a thought guys that i thought i would run past you all, it wasnt something iv been thinkin of for a long time it just came too me n i thought id ask your opinions, richard thats exactly wat i was thinking about my current customers and brand,
but i dont think ten quid is that cheap and as long as you provided excellent customers service and quality work i dont see the problem with converting the "special offer" customers into regular higher paying customers after 12 months.
its just a way of getting the sceptical people on board ar discounted price to see how the system work etc
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i dont have loadsa van i have one n iv put deposit down on a second!!! im not short of work but i would like too gain a lot more as have taken on my second employee this is reason im looking at gaining new custom as even if it was a 4 bed house maybe worth 20quid the speed these two lads work together even earning ten quid would be a fair price
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also too point out as long as you werent dropping these leaflets to large houses off executive size run of the mill housing estates etc upto 4 bed detached size i dont see the problem in charging ten quid
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also too point out as long as you werent dropping these leaflets to large houses off executive size run of the mill housing estates etc upto 4 bed detached size i dont see the problem in charging ten quid
you re a lot more experienced than me richy so you know what you're doing.
i would be worried that regulars would get in touch and expect the same offer which could really screw up your regular income. i can imagine the conversation... "so if i cancel my service, and come back as a new customer you will clean my home for £10..." the last thing i would 2want myself is to take on 2 employees, a new van, and then my profit margins to drop on my expected income :'(
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i dont have loadsa van i have one n iv put deposit down on a second!!! im not short of work but i would like too gain a lot more as have taken on my second employee this is reason im looking at gaining new custom as even if it was a 4 bed house maybe worth 20quid the speed these two lads work together even earning ten quid would be a fair price
Go for it mate. Its a different outlook when you employ. if you charge £10 and they clean all your new work you get at this price then you could look at making £50 to £80 a day profit from them. Work that over the year and its a no brainer. I am surprised at some of the comments on here. There is a complete difference between maxing out your own time/money as a single cleaner and maxing out profit from staff.
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Threads like this always keep me coming back for more!
If the guy wants to charge £10 per house regardless of size, what has it got to do with anyone? It's his business.
Hope it goes well for him.
It seems to me that these days it's better to have lower priced work than none at all. As for devaluing our work, why can't we be content with what we have, be happy for each other? At this point I am diving for cover and awaiting fallout! ;D
John
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If the guy wants to charge £10 per house regardless of size, what has it got to do with anyone? It's his business.
Er, it was posted on an interweb forum, so I'm guessing Spongebob wanted some feedback and opinions.
Hope it goes well for him.
Me too, but I still don't think it's a good idea. I don't think it's a good idea to mention money at all on a flyer, to be honest.
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Threads like this always keep me coming back for more!
If the guy wants to charge £10 per house regardless of size, what has it got to do with anyone? It's his business.
Hope it goes well for him.
It seems to me that these days it's better to have lower priced work than none at all. As for devaluing our work, why can't we be content with what we have, be happy for each other? At this point I am diving for cover and awaiting fallout! ;D
John
by richie saying "what do you think" he is asking for opinions
this is a discussion not an agreement thread
still think its a dodgy idea now due to the fact i got 2 25 quid jobs booked in tomorrow
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What next? The one pound plonker?
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Point taken guys.
This is why I you will never find me asking 'What do you think...'
type questions about the way I conduct my business. If I did, I know exactly what the reactions would be. ;)
John.
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i was just wondering i price at the higher end for my area so i thought even getting sum of them houses on for a tenner its prob rnd the normal price what window cleaners charge, i wouldnt expect too lose that many customers after 12 months even with any increases in price coz once someone is happy theyd prob carry on regardless becuase they know it would be hard to find another regular quality cleaner and you would have 12 months to find out if theyre a good customer
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actually I can now see where you are coming from, for example I live on an estate of 4 or 500 houses that I pretty much just charge the same price regardless, and because I know the area if someone phones from this estate I give a price there and then without looking, so long as you pick out estates that are like this then it could work
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i dont think im gna use it yet but maybe if i move too new areas wjere it wont cause conflict with current customers
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More work less money!! Never a good idea in my opinion!!! :o
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If the guy wants to charge £10 per house regardless of size, what has it got to do with anyone? It's his business.
Er, it was posted on an interweb forum, so I'm guessing Spongebob wanted some feedback and opinions.
Hope it goes well for him.
Me too, but I still don't think it's a good idea. I don't think it's a good idea to mention money at all on a flyer, to be honest.
Hi Tosh.
I didn't mention money on my first batch of flyers , or my name or my address.
I got feedback from them that I should have as people who knew me and my family would have signed up on that basis alone. Then the same feedback on price. They didn't want to phone and ask. It almost seemed impolite. Put the tenner on that I wanted and bingo they just call to book.
If I can get the flyers through doors using anyone who's free it's better than not at all. The jobs would price up at a tenner anyway.
As an example I have a friend who has retrained as a sparky and is out dropping flyers to every house in my village. Thats about 600 houses. He is dropping mine also.He moves out to the next local villages to me and potentially we will drop say 5000. I have had a call today from a lady in a large bungalow. I know it well without seeing it close up. She tells me it is not your average 3/4 bed house and I have told her between £15 to £20. Thats lovely she says , carry on please. Now the leaflet is in front of her with the price which she referred to but uses her common sense. I am picking up 1 to 2 customers a day in this fashion from 100 leaflets dropped as a rough guess. I pay him £10 per confirmed clean. It pays for his own leaflets. As I said before I would estimate that overall I am only about 10% down on income on these jobs than if they were priced individually. The upside is the speed at which I am picking up work and they do get sold conny roofs and fascias etc which more than covers his commission and the 10% shortfall. The work is very local.
Anyway as Johnny B says "we should all be happy with what we got".
It will be interesting to see whats happened this time next year. How many tenners will I have monthly? Did Richy do it? Will we both be able to keep up with the headache of too many staff and vans or will we both be working for BFG ;D
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i think i may go balls out n run with this idea iv got a feeling it could bring in quite a bit of work
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It may well work -depending on the business model that you use (ignore my earlier jest about one pound plonker :) .
I don't think it would be much good for a sole trader. However, if you have guys working for (subbing from) you who are on a straight percentage only, who supply the vehicle/water etc., then there is a guaranteed profit in it. Whether or not you hold onto your guys, due to the ten pound stuff making it too hard for them, is another matter of course. Even if you only make £2 a job, if your only input is the admin then it may just work.
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iv got two lads who work for me id put in the terms and conditions and small print anything up to executive style size housing etc and it would only be for 12months fixed price of 10quid and we would give them a price for thereafter its basically a way of signing people up for 12months to see the true benefits of our business and see how we operate, as well as pulling in a lot of work to pay staff while there aint really enough just yet for 2 staff the speed there pushing thru my work.
oh paul ur comment didnt bother me i asked for peoples opinions i knew there would be 50/50 for and against
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Instead of competing on price, I explain that the frames will be included with the price . . . . and because they are cleaned with wfp it only takes a few seconds more. I have been pushing this for a few months now and have picked up quite a bit of work. ;D
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Of course the flyer could be area targeted to new estates where most of the houses are the same. The price of £10.00 should have the small word 'from' in front of it. We have a house that has a conservatory that has more than twice as much glass to clean as the house its self.
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i aint got a problem pulling in work but i wana pull in work fast and not have to faff around quoting n all that trying to push sales i can trial this for trial period of 3 months and have offer runs out at set date etc
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richy go for it m8 you got
nout to lose n loads to gain
i know you are very capable
of pulling in the work n
most of yours is quality
it will defo get you the quantity you need
what about using yr canvasser again
he got you a lot of good stuff ;) ;) ;)
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richy why dont you do for only 6 mth and not the 12. ;)
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Or less, or maybe blanket areas of houses that you reckon are about £10 - 15 and then wack one through saying £10 -12, and get them you will win on some and lose on others with connies etc
But i would say just get a canvasser or buy work!!