Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: andy east sussex on June 14, 2012, 09:58:11 pm
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is anyone else finding prices on jobs are falling had a call for a wool rug to be cleaned and what i quoted was far to much it was 7ft x 4ft and she got q quote from another cleaner for £20 how the hell down this end just seems to be prices are falling so low i dont know how to compete against it
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So stop competing on price, up your service and aim at the kind of customers who like to pay a good price for a good job :)
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So stop competing on price, up your service and aim at the kind of customers who like to pay a good price for a good job :)
Agree with that 100%
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Ignore other peoples prices, someone will always try to undercut you.
They will just go bust quicker than you if you try to compete.
As said above do a good job at your price to make a profit after expenses.
Aim for the better customers and leave the rubbish to the other bloke to sweat his nuts off making no money.
Its up to you ( and him!)
Don't forget YOU are the expert, no one knows any different- until you make a c==k up ;D
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Andy, there is another way, call Robert at Alltec.
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Andy, there is another way, call Robert at Alltec.
Have you been on fasttrack Craig?
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Yes well worth it too.
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since I put my prices on my website i have not had any price shoppers as most of them came from google searches.
I have just done a joint leaflet with another company each of us on one side, we are putting out 45k a month because of the number i have had to accept that some will go into the less wealthy areas, this has lead to an increase of priceshopper who will not pay my prices. i just screen them over the phone and quickly give them a high price to and allow them to quickly go and call another company
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There are lots of ways of looking at pricing, but as Jim says, stop competing on price. The trouble is that only leaves you with quality to compete with and that in my experience is the main reason lots of cc's can't charge high prices because they can't deliver the quality that goes with high prices.
We re-cleaned this job the other day on a carpet cleaned by someone else just last week, how can that guy charge higher prices if that is the best he can do?
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1339745758_photo.JPG)
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Can I add something here as newbie to cc, I had a leaflet from a local cc he's been at it years, prices unreal like £10 lounge, £15 hsl, £49 three piece . To be fair to him he does a pretty good job but it turns out he has a full time job doing shift work so no wonder he can afford to do them at this price. It does p*ss you off though, I will have to fish in a different pond.
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There are lots of ways of looking at pricing, but as Jim says, stop competing on price. The trouble is that only leaves you with quality to compete with and that in my experience is the main reason lots of cc's can't charge high prices because they can't deliver the quality that goes with high prices.
We re-cleaned this job the other day on a carpet cleaned by someone else just last week, how can that guy charge higher prices if that is the best he can do?
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1339745758_photo.JPG)
Wow that's quite an impressive difference, what did you use Simon, and did you find out what the other carpet cleaner used?
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i recon the other carpet cleaner used an old style carpet sweeper ;D
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this is the thing every customer is very happy with my results but its like everyone we all do it if we see a deal for the same kind of product somewhere else we buy it at the cheaper price and i guess thats what all the customers are begining to do
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Guy advertising in our local paper for 8p sq ft. I have no idea how good he is. Mind you it is a half price summer offer so his real price is normally 16p sq ft.
;D
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I often hear this argument of offering your services to higher end clients who are willing to pay more.
Do you not find that these clients are hard to come by for various reasons.Here are 2.
There aren't as many of them to market to and higher end houses dont require CC as often as these people are much more likely to look after their carpets the houses are a lot bigger so dont get dirty very easily as soiling has more than likely been got rid of in the hallways,unlike in an average sized house where you are directly in the lounge.
There are many quite affluent areas in my vicinity but I very rarely get calls from these places.
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Middle of the road people will pay higher prices, it's not all about working for mrs buquet.
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;D
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I often hear this argument of offering your services to higher end clients who are willing to pay more.
Do you not find that these clients are hard to come by for various reasons.Here are 2.
There aren't as many of them to market to and higher end houses don't require CC as often as these people are much more likely to look after their carpets the houses are a lot bigger so don't get dirty very easily as soiling has more than likely been got rid of in the hallways,unlike in an average sized house where you are directly in the lounge.
There are many quite affluent areas in my vicinity but I very rarely get calls from these places.
most of my customers live in semi-detached house or detached but not in the high end of the market,
if I was to compare my customers to cars my customers are Audis or Volvos..... not Rolls Royce's or Bentley they are middle of the road people , but they still pay £160 for a suite clean or £85 for a through lounge,
i get lots of customers calling who are willing to higher prices because that's were all my leaflets get delivered
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I'd say mine are Usually Hyundais, often Fords, and Occasionally Audi. Representative of the area as a whole, really.
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and i would say mine are often Horse and cart, Tractor and the occasional scooter!
;D ;D
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Andy just tell em "if you pay peanuts you get monkeys!" emphasize how you want to give them a good job
and you can buy cheap and pay twice as eg simons job.
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You need to charge more if your spending a lot out on flyers and big ads, after say 5 years you should have enough regulars and recommendations to keep busy
It's all very well charging high prices for suites but how much does each job cost in advertising?
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Dave that's a good point, I spend £200 a week on advertising, as i do on average 17 jobs a week.... so every customer cost me £11,76p
imagine if I did AdWords on google and had a PPC bid set at £11
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But that's not the same Mike, unless you converted every click to a job? Your cpc would more likely be £2-£5?
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your right Ash but even at £2-£5 I would be top of the page and with a budget of £800 a month it would be an interesting experiment to see if AdWords would beat leaflets with the same amount spent
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How wide an area do you cover with your leaflets? If you wanted to cover a relatively small area (12 mile radius, the way the crow flies), I bet £800 would last months!
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my leaflet were delivered 4 miles from my house but just started to deliver to another area which is 8 miles away.
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The other thing of course is that google adwords is reactive, leaflets are (largely) proactive - so difficult to compare apples with apples
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I often hear this argument of offering your services to higher end clients who are willing to pay more.
Do you not find that these clients are hard to come by for various reasons.Here are 2.
There aren't as many of them to market to and higher end houses dont require CC as often as these people are much more likely to look after their carpets the houses are a lot bigger so dont get dirty very easily as soiling has more than likely been got rid of in the hallways,unlike in an average sized house where you are directly in the lounge.
There are many quite affluent areas in my vicinity but I very rarely get calls from these places.
Wayne you've got completely the wrong perception. As already said, we're not talking about mansion houses and stately homes which are indeed a very tiny number of customers within your area. We're talking about those who live in 3 or 4 bed semis or detached houses, work in reasonable jobs who make the money available to use decent professional services. It's a state of mind coupled with a state of bank account.
There are more than enough of these customers near to ANYONE to run a business off.
It's all about aiming above council house level. I know some people will take exception to that but it's a tough old world, get used to it :)
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Wow that's quite an impressive difference, what did you use Simon, and did you find out what the other carpet cleaner used?
Richard,
SPM and a Titan 875, but I could have got it clean using my porty.
It doesn't matter how much you charge, high, low, or in the middle, but if you want to build a successful business you have to be able to deliver top quality carpet cleaning.
Like others, the vast majority of our domestic customers are 3/4 bedroom houses, people willing to pay our price for a top quality job. There shouldn't be any difference between a cc willing to do it for half the price because that is his price, but why, as is so often the case, should that result in the customer getting half the quality?
Simon
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I often hear this argument of offering your services to higher end clients who are willing to pay more.
Do you not find that these clients are hard to come by for various reasons.Here are 2.
There aren't as many of them to market to and higher end houses dont require CC as often as these people are much more likely to look after their carpets the houses are a lot bigger so dont get dirty very easily as soiling has more than likely been got rid of in the hallways,unlike in an average sized house where you are directly in the lounge.
There are many quite affluent areas in my vicinity but I very rarely get calls from these places.
Wayne you've got completely the wrong perception. As already said, we're not talking about mansion houses and stately homes which are indeed a very tiny number of customers within your area. We're talking about those who live in 3 or 4 bed semis or detached houses, work in reasonable jobs who make the money available to use decent professional services. It's a state of mind coupled with a state of bank account.
There are more than enough of these customers near to ANYONE to run a business off.
It's all about aiming above council house level. I know some people will take exception to that but it's a tough old world, get used to it :)
I wasnt really meaning working in mansions I was meaning the type of property I worked in the other day - a large 4 bed detatched with big hallway, that only needed a job doing because of a wine spill,the rest of the carpets were immaculate.
There are thousands of these around here.
I would say that the majority of my work is done in 3 bed semis,but I doubt I would get some of the prices some on here charge.I would try asking more if I got the volume of calls to take care of those refusing to pay higher prices and still get me enough work.
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just to make the point about higher prices, i find that a lot of people pay my prices which are slightly on the higher side but not everyone is happy to pay them, i do a lot of quotes ( i did one just now which made me think about what I'm typing about here) and they practically tell me to get stuffed.
This morning i did a quote for some powerwashing which is even harder to sell at a high price than carpet cleaning because most people have an electric machine in the garage and can do it them selves , (its a bit like every home having a rug doctor under the stairs)
I gave him the price and he said straight away..... "not a chance" then he called his wife outside to tell her the price.....and she nearly passed out!!
HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PIONT!!!!!!
a high price often is a shock, it needs to sink in for a bit so they can come to terms with it, most newbies will accept the first refusal........ if you pack up and go you will miss the sale.
I just listen to their refusal and carried on chatting about how we work and i told them that they did'nt need to worry about moving the plant pots as we would put them on the lawn and replace them when we finished......it was a good 5 minutes before he said that they needed it doing on a thursday or friday morning as thats when his wife plays badminton I just said "we'll do it next Thursday as the second job about 10.30"
higher prices are not about just saying the price and hoping they say 'OK" it takes a bit more work before you give the price and after... this is were most new starters and slightly less experience carpet cleaners slip up.
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Good post Mike, makes sense.