Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: andy east sussex on February 24, 2013, 06:09:00 pm
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every job i do come up great 99% the time and happy customers but when i write to them i never get a hit from it i dunno what im doing wrong but just dont get alot of repeat business not sure what else i can do to guantee the return. anyone else have that problem ?
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Are you talking about domestic jobs?
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ye sorry domestic work
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Are you putting an incentive on your letter to call you again, like call before such en such a date and get 10% off!
Or refer a friend and get a carpet cleaned free!
It's ok sending them a reminder/sales letter but you need to get them to call you by offering them something??
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What time period between contacting and doing work are you talking about?
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How long have you been going?
How do you get the majority of your customers, advertising wise?
Simon
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i send them either a discount or voucher at six month intervals and we get our work from leaflets and weve been going 8 years
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I thought you were going to say leaflets. That leaves you vulnerable to your customers being leafleted by your competitors and your customers becoming used the the various offers that come through the door on a regular basis, making them a lot less loyal, hence your problem, I'd suggest.
Simon
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I would say that six months is too soon an interval... and when they do want them cleaned again the offer that you have put out will have expired, and they will just go with the next leaflet as Simon suggested.
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since october have been doing key rings i dont mind saying what i do just trying to make a living like us all but hopefully they might work
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I just wait till i get a very quiet period and then go through my customer base and spend a couple of days calling them, works much better than sending mail. I usually do this at the begining of each year and i get booked up for a few weeks after doing it.
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Andy, if people get used to buying carpet cleaning by responding to offers from various companies on leaflets then you're really going to struggle to retain your customers. Have you got a website, or yp advertising?
Simon
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ye got website just one i put together really but didnt do to bad on first attempt
www.acscleans.co.uk
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Hi Andy
Going out tomorrow...Putting fridge magnets through doors.
Richard
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There's postcards, email, letter, phone etc so you could communicate easily every couple of months in different ways. Don't exclusively send offers or try to sell something.
Some people may use you every few monts for something, many wont use you for years no matter what you do, but you aren't loosing business either.
You also want to consider direct debit schemes.
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see we dont get to much trouble getting work in ye we get our quiet times. just didnt know if anyone else had same hassle as us trying to get previous customers back
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Leave bottle of spotter. Much easier.
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I also get returns from the stickers I put on the vacuum cleaner...
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Spotters and stickers are good when THEY decide they need you, but you are not in their mind in the meantime. If everybody picked up the spotter or dug out your card you would be laughing. But the reality is every so often they get a leaflet or talk to a neighbour about their cc and despite how wonderful a job you did, you are a distant memory.
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Makes you think that Mike Halliday has the right idea after all...
Blanket leaflet drop the whole area every 3 months... They get sick of you sure... but they have your details to hand when they do want you..
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I send letters to all customers after 12 months,if I dont get a reply then I do again after another 12 months and then after another 12 months if I still haven't heard back from them,after that they can get stuffed ;D
I do get a lot of repeat work now,but I still get frustrated when I dont hear from people who I know I have done a good job for.
I actually did a job today for a guy who I have sent out 2 reminders to.I was pleasantly surprised that the carpet looked fine after almost 30 months.I suppose 6/12 months is too short a time for lots of people.
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It's a numbers game sometimes people have carpets cleaned because they've just had the decorators in or an accident has happened or are wanting a feel good factor but then again if you are sending reminders out and customers aren't ready for a clean or are just plain skint then they may take you up on your services next time.
Shaun
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It's not just you Andy.
Sometimes I ask new customers how long its been since it was last cleaned, or since new, and I get replies around 8 years.
It is unlikely their going to change.
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Dosen't Mick Haliday get most of his work from leaflets ?
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yea, but don't do what i do.... its wrong :-\
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Like mike I put out leaflets I put out 20'000 to the same areas every month I also have a decent website .I do send reminders but at the moment nothing is working this week I have only 2 small jobs with a grand total of £140 .am gonna start texting and phoning previous customers . Will start door knocking if I have to but people don't like that . It's the worst start to a year ever . Beginning to think I should go really cheap and pay someone £8 per hour to do it.
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yea, but don't do what i do.... its wrong :-\
Mike, what percentage of your leaflet customers are new and never used you before?
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It's funny ATM last week I had a really great week but I could tell this week was going to be quiet as the phone was quiet last week I'm usually planning a week in front or so, I've got more on for next week than this hope I'm not confusing anyone ;D
Shaun
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Yes Shaun , shut up you are confuseing people
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I think youve got yourself all confused shaun and really they wanted this week and there going to be all confused when you dont turn up and your going to be all confused when they ring you confused as to why you havnt turned up!
eeh am all confused now!!! ???
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Done that before :D
Shaun