Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Dan Williams on January 21, 2006, 10:39:56 am
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When you give a quote to a customer and they say to you, I will get back to you and they dont get back to you. What am I doing wrong, I give them a cheap quote. for example this morning I went to a 4 room house, rooms where 15 by 10 foot and 2 flights of stairs and 2 landings. I quoted them 130 pounds after a discount. They said they have a few more quotes coming and they will get back to me. They dont get back to me???
Can someone give me some advise and knowledge?
cheers
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hi there
is that a 4 bedroom house, on ground, first and second??
or just 4 rooms, plus the HSL's
is that including VAT.
and if it were just 4 rooms, plus HSL's then from my point of view, thats a LOW PRICE.
CHEAP and DISCOUNT, --- horrible words.
SERVICE, VALUE FOR MONEY, PROFESSIONAL -- are better selling words.
Sell, sell , sell.
Customer -- i'll getr back to you. later today.
Supplier -- take phone number when doing quote., haven't heard by say 4.00 then give them a call.
if customer says they will make a decision tomorow, then follow up the quote. tomorrow
FOLLOW UP ALL QUOTES!!!!!!!!!!!!
Be proactive,and win the business.
hope this helps
regards
martin
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cheers martin
its was a 1 room on ground floor, 2 on first floor and 1 on second floor. so i have to cart my machine up the stairs aswell.
there are so many carpet cleaners these days charging too cheap. no affence to carpet cleaners.
The other day I went to do a quote for a wool stairs and landing, I quoted 40 pounds later on when I phoned back some one had quoted the lady half the price I did.
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hi there
i use a portable,
ground, first and secod floors, machine stays outside, hose through the top window, no problems at all.
i always avoid taking the machine indoors, let alone upstairs, and if it must go up, then it goes in the lift.
with regards to pricing, when we first stated out, i think we priced to low, but a year and a half later we are now in a position quote, and sell thats it, if its too high and we dont get then fine.
we would have been in at around the 200 mark plus VAT for that paticular job.
regards
martin
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Hi Dan "your a bit limited on your profile"
Most people aim to be closing around 85% of there quotes, im still trying, dont compete with the splash n dash brigade, keep your prices the same but it's like Martin said it's all about up selling you have to let the customer know why your charging moe than the others, because you will do a better job ;D And if they still dont like it screw them let them have there carpets shrunk by a vax
£40 for stairs and landing sounds about right and min call out, dont work for anything less
James
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Do you give the customer any information to read, like a Consumer guide, Package descriptions and testamonials from happy customers.
This all makes you look more proffesional and will go along way to stop the custy from choosing the lost price.
Remember most customers no nothing about carpet cleaning so information is the key to securing most jobs.
Hope this helps.
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Hi
I have not looked at the carpet cleaning side of the forum for many months, so thought i would give it a look.....but along with Martins comments, i would never give a price out on the phone....such customers are looking for price work.....the cheapest price and not quality work.
You must sell your carpet cleaning at their home.
If you are properly dressed, take in your box of tricks and you do a proper survey - checking fibres, carpet backing etc and make a note of major stains, and go through all of this with the potential customer, you should on most instances seal the deal there and then.
If there is a stain which you know will be removed by stain pro etc....I always remove half the stain with the customer there.....they are impressed and sign on the dotted line.
I usually get 9 out of 10 customers every time...well as a rule anyway.
Most customers tell me that other carpet cleaners have been round before me to give them a quote, they just walk around and write down a price. I have done that too, but by doing the survey and checks.....how much more professional does that look to the customer??
Those now odd few that say they will call you later.....as Martin says, take their number and if they don't call....call them instead.
Kind Regards
Tim
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maybey its your marketing.
How are you getting these quotes in the first place.
I belive if your marketing looks cheap people will assume your a cheap company and you will atract the price shoppers
However if you have quality advertising people will expect you to be dearer and the people ringing will be more worried about service than price.
For example if i need somthing and i only want the cheapest quote i turn to yellow pages and ring people with a free listing as these are usually cheaper as they have fewer overheads.
Also agree with neil and tim, you have to look professional
if you havent allready get yourself a smart folder/portfolio type thing i got mine from staples, leather zip up one £20
get some clear a4 pouches and put in your training cert, insurance cert, pictures of your work, your equipment etc. and show it to all prospective customers at the quote.
once i started doing this i secured loads more quotes.
Another thing iv started doing is leaving a brochure/info pack with them at the time of the quote,
And iv got every quote since 12 to date.
The job i just done today i quoted around £300 and they had allready had a quote for £150 wich they said they thought was dear they was hoping for me to beat it. And after a lot of haggling they got me down to £230 but i still secured the job at £80 more than the other guy and these were price conscios customers
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Are you my long lost twin?? ??? :o :o ;D
From the Collins leather folio from staples onwards you're doing EXACTLY the same as me with EXACTLY the same results!
It really does work. People will spend top money for a top job and like you say you can afford to knock a good amount off from time to time and still get a very good days wage.
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Ime sure they will.
And i dont even charge top money my prices are very reasonable.
It costs peanuts to do these things and the customers apreciate it so its definatly worth while its just a matter of getting organised.
Since iv been doing the brochures iv booked all jobs and just had my busiest week yet £800 not a lot compared to some of you but iv only been doing it 4 months so im happy if things keep going this way il be very happy
Alan what type of info pack do you leave your customers?
Did you design it yourself?
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Loosely based on healthy home consumer education booklet which you'll find either by scouring internet or phone up someone's recorded message. I found though that these are usually very brash americanised and sometimes a little cheesy for the uk market. I toned it down a bit so its not quite so teaching the potential client to how to suck eggs, mixed in some good illustrations and really carefully thought about the wording. If you're displaying a few accreditations then you can't come across as Joe Bloggs but then if you pile it full of un necessary long terms then you still come across as Joe Bloggs but with a well thumbed dictionary ;). Fine balance.
Centrefold of colour before and after shots and the last couple of pages with information about the range of services that I offer and what the client should expect from the moment I arrive to completion of the job.
I found the colour centrefold useful as sometimes people just aren't interested in a few pages of written text. But it is important to keep the rest in black and white so you aren't immediately dismissed as too expensive.
Any help?
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Do you print them yourself or do you have them done for you?
Ive been doing mine myself on the computer 8 pages of a4 but it takes ages and kills the ink, im trying to find somwere to print them but best quote iv got so far is £700 for 500.
Wana do a swap so we can look at each others for ideas?
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Red,
It would work out cheaper to have photocopies done.
On the SCSF site at the bottom there's a help us help you section it takes 2 minutes to fill out, and you never know we might be able to negotiate something with a print company.
Arthur
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red
What printer do you have, If its Ink Jet you need top change to a laser printer as this will save you loads on toner and you'll get much more for your money.
Cheers
Neil
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Hi Guys
I would say buy a good laser printer form PC WORLD for about £300 to £400. They are fantastic, you can get a good result. we even do our owne letter heads. ours is EPSON C900. but now you can buy more advanced one.
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Konica Minolta 2300W Colour laser printer. Long arm stapler. Good quality paper - 100gsm. Takes some patience to begin with but then you get into a routine.