Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Shaun_Ashmore on April 23, 2006, 08:32:14 pm
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Gone down hill?
Last week I counted 14 sales calls and I'm registered against these so how many didn't I get?
5 price shoppers, and 3 jobs.
Hardly pays for itself.
I think I'll go for a smaller ad next year before it goes for good.
I did leaflets for the first time in a long time, paid for around my home only 3000 done by the post office and I've got 5 jobs booked and 4 calls to go and see.
I'm repeating this every 6-8 weeks as I'm now on a contract, not bad money as I can work closer to home, I think my local address is a good puller.
Shaun
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this last year only had 2 jobs from yellow pages wont be wasting my money next time will do more leaflets. now tompson local is much better
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Hi Shaun ! Yellow pages works for us very well in the north east,well it does for me that is!! I average about 15 new jobs a week from yp mind you i am in two directories,stuart Clark
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YP is crap...Im in the south east...had an ad under "a"...so on the 1st page....had 4 jobs in a year from it....all my advertising is done via my website...as most people use the net these days...never looked back.
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Same for me, i tried the introductory £99 offer for the first year and was crap. Payed £1000 for Two book deal and again crap.
There are too many advertisers in there. To back this up, my next door neighbours son who knows i am a carpet cleaner, phoned me from Worcester on Saturday asking my advice about carpet cleaners because the choice was that great, and which one should he go for.
At least by putting a leaflet through someones door it's your own personal advert on their doormat. I had a job on Saturday from a self made business card that i had posted Two years ago which the customer had kept.
If in the future i earn substantially more, then i would go in yp just to beat the taxman, but when you are not it becomes just another drain on your income before you earn a penny.
Dave
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Shaun,
Of the 14 calls you received how many did you try to make appointments to go and survey?
How many Surveys did you do?
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Hi
First year in YP.
Smallish ad (£680) but a good ad.
Had 3 jobs so far
Regards
Martin 8)
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22 jobs in total, 14 were trying to sell me something, 5 were wanting a price there and then and admitting they were looking for the cheapest, 2 onsite 1 over the phone.
Shaun
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strange how areas have results and some not ??? we have gone in yp to I hope we have not wasted it :-\
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What kind of response do you get from Yell.com and do you notice any difference between priority listings compared to standard listings?
Ali
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yellow pages just does'nt represent good value for money, it's too big and too many adverts all offering the same thing.
I ditched them about two years ago and saved about £2000 :)
In my experience adverts work better in a publication that people pay for, like a local paper, they pay the money and read it religously cover to cover to get their moneys worth, plus it's local and not so much competition!
Oh and it doesn't cost 2 grand 8)
regards
steve
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Have you heard the recent Autotrader adverts on the radio?
The punchline is that there are over 300,000 cars in it so that the customer can be choosy when buying, a bit like YP.
Shaun
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Hi Guys
Once again I am replying to the same complaints. I am in Northants and there are hundreds of ads in our directory. I have tried three sizes over the years and I have found that a quarter page with a photo of me and my machine in action ( full colour) works a treat. Small ads will not work!! The ad costs £2150 per year which is interest free over 10 months
which works out at £41.35 per week over 12 Months I did £18,000 off it last year (New business). Yell.com is rubbish.
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I cant see why anybody can say that yellow pages advertising is crap!!! maybe its there adverts that is crap ! I have advertised in the yellow pages now since 1996 and have always had a good return for my money Regards Stuart Clark
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I agree with stuart, there's no crap YP just crap Ads ;) ;) and I know I've had my share of really crap ones!
this year I have 2 adds under 2 names, a half page ad & a 1/4 page ad.
the half page ad is almost an exact copy of my A5 leaflet and corrsponds nicely with my van graffixs, I'm going for a whole reconisable, memorable marketing concept ;)
Mike
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I think most of you know that I dont advertise at all. looking around and in particular the yellow pages near where I live but might add that I dont work there is huge amounts of adds for carpet cleaners and within those adds there are 5 or 6 fast track people advertising. A lot of these people I know and they would say that on the whole they are dissappointed with the results. Could this be simply that the market is flooded, pardon the pun, with so many adds. I am very pleased with those of you who are getting a good response but my question would be to those is, are there just a few advertising where you are? For me though, if I was to spend 2 thousand or close to on getting work it wouldnt be through the yellow pages. Anyway, best for now, Dave.
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Mike
Which 2 adverts work based on your leaflet and what response have you had. Mine is something like Fastrak advert but not very happy with the way it has turned out.
Cheers
Neil
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iv been in 3months now at about £240 a month i think, so far had back 3very small jobs at £40 each
so about £720 out £120 in
currently £600 behind :(
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To be honest i think it has nothing to do with the advert, but the type of area you live in. city dwellers tend to use the yellow pages but in a smaller area where we are people hardly ever touch it, they like referals and local people they know or go for the local publications.
I surveyed my customers for a year when i was in the y/p and it was only the ones that had just moved to the area that used it as a last resort?
Certainly not worth 2 grand of my money ;)
regards
steve
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Well over priced and over rated..........leave well alone total waste of money.
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I live in stockton on tees thats near middlesbrough for people that dont know the area, and it is very price sensitive! there are loads od splash and dash in this area and that includes some NCCA members unfortunatley!! I have been cleaning carpets since september 1990 and i started out very much the same to cater for the budget type quick and freshen up cleans,cleaning carpets from about £10.00 and suites from about £20.00 but that was in the bad old days over ten years ago!!I joined the ncca,woolsafe,IICRC and got as many qualifications as i could then learned to market my business,it still is only a two man business but thats the way i like it,as for the yellow pages not working i couldn't disagree more!! yes we have had a few flat spots over the years but what business dosn't ? the new directories were delivered in january the adverts that i have placed are in two books which cost me about £3,500 for the year they are a bit Joe polishy type but its always worked for me,We charge about the highest prices in the area apart from servicemaster and rainbow and in four short months we have taken just over £36,000 and that is mainly from yp regards Stuart Clark
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Horses for courses then! ;D
regards steve
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You are all chaseing the 25% of people that have their carpets cleaned professionally. Try finding the other 75% that are out there, not many people are chasing these people
Vernon
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but we all occassionly do work for people who have never had carpets cleaned before, so we all tap it somtimes ;D
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Hi new member found this forum very good. I have been in the carpet cleaning business for nearly 4 years and found a small amount of work through YP, this last year went bigger in YP and have found it rubbish too many people ringing around for quotes they just want cheap not quality.
Now when the rep rang a few days ago for next years sign up he was shocked when I said NO WAY; but I fell about laughing when he told me he had figures that I would get a return of £25.00 for every £1.00 I spent with them. I told him that if he could guarantee that I would invest several thousand but I couldn't stop laughing .
I am learning so much from your site and hope to diversify soon into the window cleaning using the pole system and I am heading for the van based system with Gardiner any comments..
Thanks for all of your comments keep up the good work.
Ian
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Finally binned them after 5 years.
Spend around £1500 per year with them and get nothing in return. 3 Jobs last year.
Rep would not listen so had to hang up on him. Do you ever notice you get a new account manager every year who will make things better for you!!!!!
Now Customer Serives on the case to tell me the account manager and the previous ones did not help me correctly and my account has been passed to them so it works the way it should....................
Told them to go away, leave me alone. I would be better handing out £1500.00 to Joe Bloggs in the street and would prob get a better return.
Cheers
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I binned them after two years. First year introductory £99 offer then £1000 to go into two directories. Result was rubbish.
I worked ot that for £800 i can get one hundred thousand A5 double sided glossy leaflets in full colour. If you find the time to post them, and people like your unique design of leaflet, it's your own personal advert on their doormat.
And if the response rate was even as low as 0.5% this would work out at 500 jobs per year..... hopefully 8)
500 hopeful jobs divided by say 48 weeks = 10.48 a week
Imagine 500 jobs worth on average £60 each.......£30000 ::)
All it takes is effort, or am i living on another planet :-\
Dave
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I was talk into a large add with yellow pages . must admit it looked great. among the rest of the box standard adds response from this add 3 enquires. big is not always better ,
generally as a consumer i avoid large adds as i now they will be more expensive. It is the basic mind set of anybody with half a brain.
when i told the rep of my response from that add. His response was, OH REALLY????????
this was in the wakefield ,huddersfield area.
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yes reps always say that,I just hope we have not wasted our money,we are in yp and the BT book we have had 2 jobs from the BT book both books have been out for 2 months ??? we do more adds than this and its very slow to pick up :-\
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Not gone in YPs this year so saving £300 per month, still getting a reasonable number of jobs per month from the free listing though, so maybe more people are looking there for a local number instead of being totally confused by the big ads!?
Dave.
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makes me think if it's worth advertising next year! I think I'll go for leaflets around my area, I'll give both a go and then decide when the rep comes round.
Shaun
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Do you ever notice you get a new account manager every year who will make things better for you!!!!!
YEP!!!
Phil
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well, finally gave yell.com yellow pages. 118 247(that did not work either despite only two of us on it in my area) busness pages, the old boot. ;D
dont the sale consultants change there mood >:( >:( >:( when you eventually say no" your crap dont wont any more adds" " rumour has it that they can grip
tighter than a limpet mine or a silverback gorilla to a customer. well got rid of my silverback dowt he,ll be back in a hurry.
now down to some serious mail drops they worked better than yp.
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Do what i did if you want a better return, ditch the yp, (i was spending about 2500 a year) and spend the money you save on having someone rep for you part time in selected areas, 8)
even if it's one day a week, it's better having someone speak to potential customers who can answer they're questions than having a tiny piece of paper in a book, with loads of other ads, on peoples shelves doing nowt.
regards
steve
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Have you all ever considered that maybe its your ad thats crap and not YP. Three calls in a year ??? Maybe your number was wrong??
If YP dosent work why is my book about 4 inchs thick with probably the same businesses in it each year.
Everything works you just have to MAKE it work for your business.
Mark
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can i see your ad mark? ;D
cus im going in next year, spending 2k, so hoping i get it right ::)
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Had a couple of expensive ads with poor response now under Ncca corporate section £165 get lots more enquires.
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Craig
To to your local library and get the Belfast book. Its in there.
Mark
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came out in middle of march
cost £2800
so far done £2728
i think that is a good return so far
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the question is, is my add crap ,the answer from yp is no .
what is it people see in a add. what appears to be great to one person. maybe rubbish to anyone else. it would be a funny old world if we all thought the same as you seem to imply, but anyway even the so called CRAP ONES would get a average hit. Over the course of 6 years, have seen many good adds dissappear. having phone these people,the answer they gave is the same, it is not fuctioning.as it should, money under false pretense. YP tell you that there are on average of 33 calls per month. what they dont tell you is that these averages are work out over several trades not just our own, which in my opinion is totally unfair.If your washer breaks you have to get it fixed,roof leaks you get a roofer,blocked drains you call out a drain cleaner. these are nessasary trades, yet our averages are taken from these
just as a last thought i have had 17 calls in the last three months on a simple line entry with bt. so would you like to explain that to me.
by the way my add was designed by yp themselfs. so in affect you are saying they have crap designers
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One thing i came to realize with yp and other directories, most cover a wide area, so i was getting calls for jobs 30 -40 miles away, after ten years i've realized that most of my work can be had locally in around a 3-4 mile radius, and i don't live in a city either ::)
Why advertize to people futher away when more are likely to know you locally and you don't have the fuel costs or time waste either, plus you can direct mail your potential customers easier and more quickly and actually hand pick the sort of tcustomers you want 8)
It's simple but it's worked wonders for my business :)
What you need to remember is that people or businesses dont use yp if they know a local firm, i've ended up scoring big contracts with local housing groups simply because i live near them and they know me, thats worth a lot more than 2.5 grand for an ad in a impersonal directory :P
Just my humble opinion ;)
regards
steve
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some of my best jobs are 20 plus miles away
i think its worth the journey when the price ticket is between £300-£500
obviously the further i travel the higher the minimum charge would be
but if its not worth the travelling then i always try to pass the work on to someone more local to the customer