Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: spickandspan on November 30, 2006, 05:08:37 pm
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I have just started to apply a minimum charge of £30..... do any of you guys do the same.
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£59
Shaun
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£65 for me.
Even if its the smallest of Jobs you still need to set up Pre Vac, Pre Spray and Clean.
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Hi
£40 but that looks a bit light in this company.
Dave
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we had this topic only recently, do a search.
thats high Neil, even for just single stain removal ? do you get many takers ?
PS mine £45
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£45...sometimes £35 if it's close by.
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40
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£35 or £25 for regular customers (stain removal)
works for me as most work is within 5 mile radius
regrards
steve
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also £45 no problems with it but if its an oap will do for less
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there the ones with all the money lol
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55 +vat domestic
75 +vat commercial
Can you tell I don't like small stuff
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Craig
the way I see it is You pay for call, Drive to Customer, Set up Pre Vac, Pre Spray and Clean, Then Set down and go home.
Minimum of 1 1/2 hours work. Most dont complain because most trades around here charge a lot more than that.
I am open with Customers about this and do explain the breakdown of it to them and always try to offer them something else to make it more cost effective to them.
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yes spot on people think when u charge 50 for an hour they think u are earning 50 an hour ???
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here's the problem. if i spend a £100 on a advert and get 1 job for £120 this job is worth to me £20 this is not above my minimum charge so I shouldn't do it
if I get a recommend for a job worth £40 then this job will make me £40, double what the £120 job made me.
If I turn down a bathroom for £25 today, they definitely won't ring me to clean their suite next month which would earn me £120
if you are spending money to get customers then you can't have a minimum charge because when you do your figures you will find most of them pay below your minimum charge.
So see the small job as a door opener for future bigger jobs.
Mike
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Mike
Thats why I always try to offer them something else, it keeps them happy and more importantley makes them think they are getting something for nothing and think I am a very nice chap.
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makes sense Mike but if they call you everytime they need a small carpet or a rug doing then it doesn't work.
Trade print some time ago sent me a portfolio of fliers and on 1 of them it had a carpet cleaner who had a min charge of £65 but only charged £40 an average room, so may be got £80 an average job.
It depends on how much you want THAT customer.
Shaun
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Agree depends how bad you want the work. About 5 years ago i did a small bathroom that really needed replaced charged £25. Next week Im going back for about the 6th time. Over the years this customer has been worth around £2000.
Now its £50 min for new customers and £40 for old but have done favours for really good customers for as little as £20.
At the minute ive only 3 full days left for bookings before Christmas so am going to try a £100 min so see how it gos.
Mark
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I agree with MIKE £35min, when I explain that I need to charge that to send a van and equipment out, most customers nod and understand that under that price its not viable .
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I think it can be 'touchy feely' with customers depends on if you can link them onto exsisting jobs and how good a customer they are.
Sometimes free works even better.
Shaun
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£40 or £35 if very close by.
Nigel.
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I do £35 ,been thinking about £40 but i agree with mike in that small jobs lead to good customers,i've lost count of the custy's i'vce done a favour for and its led to bigger things. A lot of people like to test the water first see your set up and it goes from there. With experience i think you can pick out the price shoppers who only want a cheap job and move on to another cleaner the next time.
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With a minimum fee of £35 you can still earn £50/h pro rata or even £1/min if you push it! The custs that require this sort of price do not expect a pre vac and are only familar with splash n dash so all though you will be charging more (yes more than splash n dash @ £15 min fee) you will be giving a better job and thats probably just fine :) Just fit the job en route to elsewhere more prosperus.
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So what you are saying if the customer just wants a small bathroom cleaned she would be looking about £40????????
I also depends if you live in the south or north dont you think???
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there are just as many millionaires in harrogate as London (per % of population) when it comes to price there is no North-south divide,
Mike
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i think your min charge will also depend on weather your using TM or portable,
you would'nt want to set up a 20k TM for £30 jobs to often, i had a lower min charge when i was using portable.
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Craig that's interesting. Truckmounters are forced to put their prices up because of running costs. Now do any custys think, he's got a truckmount and I'll pay more than if it was a porty?
Most people only see the person and book and repeat book on results/service, rarely does anyone say 'have you got a truckmount' they just say will you be - able to get that stain out?, will it be dry by.....? etc.
So porty operators could theoretically charge the same.
And if you say I've got a 20hp truckmount and what that means to you is blah blah blah is good salesman ship, but the sort of thing a porty owner could say to a custy anyway.
And if you ever say to a customer you need to charge high because of your monthly payments then that's no reason at all.
The main advantage is no. of jobs/m2 you can cover per day, not the superior results cos custy don't know no better.
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Hi
What you havn't factored in is if when using a portable you earn £40 per hour.
But using a TM speeds things up, so on the same job you earn £60 per hour.
So you dont need to put you prices up.
Dave
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I've been a truckmounter for two months...porty for 12 years and i would charge the same and use the truckmount every time possible...even for stain removal....its quicker and easier on the back plus its more impressive to the custy.
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You also find that you get extra work from the t/m as the nieghbours hear the machine, see that you have invested in good equipment and ask you for a quote
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If you Charge the right Money it should never be about speed. This is getting a bit like the old days my Truckmount is better than your Portable.
The quality of work sells my business and I use a portable. People buy you not your equipment.
Off to the pub now.
Have a good one everybody.
Cheers
Neil
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Neil that's a 'stock' answer that's as old as the hills.
If you can do the same high quality job faster you could go to the pub earlier.
or like me put an extra job or 2 on.
Shaun
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Craig that's interesting. Truckmounters are forced to put their prices up because of running costs. Now do any custys think, he's got a truckmount and I'll pay more than if it was a porty?
of course the customer does not think that, but i do need to charge more now regardless. just a financial reality.
but when they see it it does help justifi your higher price.
and yes a porty user can still charge the same, nowt stopping you.
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£35, going up to £49 very soon.
Fast track recommend £85
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£85 min charge! Blimey
Ironically I think min charge is more applicable to porty users, TM just turn up and start sucking. So you just do a lounge for £60 then buzz off to your next job of 6/day.
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even with TM i dont like to go over 3 jobs for one day,
hows it been going Mike ?
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thing is i had 2 min order jobs other day, added together with travel time they took best part of 3.1/2 hours thats almost half a working day!
so they take up alot of time, for not alot, thats why i would'nt want any lower min charge thatn i got, and can see the sense in the FT min charge.
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Hi Craig,
I forgot to factor in travel, the other way to do it would be work more local. I guess if you get your marketing right you can eventually have a high CO charge, work local and cherry pick the best custys if you stay a one man band.
Business is quite good for me at the moment, Christmas and steadily improving leaflets/ads.
Only snag is it's bang in the middle of exam time for me, all over by the ninth though.
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£40. Most times if you explain that you need to cover mileage, time travelling/setting up etc. people understand the logic.
Have a job booked in next week which would have been £20 if based on room size. After explaining reason behind minimum charge I now have a £125 job instead. :)
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£50.............min charge............not worth going for any less.............time to get there..........time to set up .petrol/diesel cost........
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No north south divide you must be joking???
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A lot of cleaners, truck mounted, porty and dare I say dry, often talk about that they want to make a hundred an hour while they are cleaning. If thats the case, why on earth would you charge any thing less for a minimum charge? If you charge in the end about 50 an hour under normal situations then 50 would be a good minimum and so on. Best, Dave.
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That makes good sense, your minimum charge should be your hourly rate, as even the smallest job with the setup and breakdown is not gonna be far shy of a hour.
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Hey red sometimes I can get to my next job within an hour from my last picking up 35 on the way and they're stilled 'made up'! And I havent got a TM like you. It's how you enter it into your diary!
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"sometimes" is the key word, sometimes we can all manage it, but in reality something usually goes wrong.
Traffic
No parking
Chatty customer
Cant find the address
Lots of furniture
The carpet they want cleaned is at the back of the house, so you have to lay a load of dust sheets first
Its a 3rd floor flat
Come on, you know how it goes.
To charge less than your hourly rate is robbing yourself, that said i rob myself on a regular basis :(
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I must be lucky then because I rarely have any of those problems, honestly.