Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: markpowell on August 22, 2007, 04:17:54 pm
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Hi Everyone,
My parents had this leaflet delivered today, has anyone ever seen anyting like this? its a joke!!!!!!!
Mark
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Sounds like a very good deal - might book them in to do mine. ;D
Joe H
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Mark
If you doubt it then why not ring them and check?????
Here in Birmingham we get leaflets like that ALL the time (albiet different companies and different pictures, but the format and the prices are the same school of thought), and as i'm not a carpet cleaner myself you're gonna have to tell me whats wrong with it......
Cheers
Stephen
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Mark
If you doubt it then why not ring them and check?????
Here in Birmingham we get leaflets like that ALL the time (albiet different companies and different pictures, but the format and the prices are the same school of thought), and as i'm not a carpet cleaner myself you're gonna have to tell me whats wrong with it......
Cheers
Stephen
Tis called "splash and dash" Stephen
ie, don't sub anything to them. you will regret it
Pete
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I only charge £75.00 - £85.00 for a 3 pc suite and £40.00 - £45.00 average for a lounge carpet, compared to some cleaners i thought my prices were cheap. ???
I have seen cheap prices on leaflets before but never a full house and suite for £75.00.
Mark
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hi pete i personally wouldnt work for those prices but i do know a carpet cleaner who will do a 3 bed semi for £65 and do a great job
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Where abouts are you Mark is this Leeds or Wakefield. I am North Leeds but never seen this before but have seen another company using the same format.
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Mark
If you doubt it then why not ring them and check?????
Here in Birmingham we get leaflets like that ALL the time (albiet different companies and different pictures, but the format and the prices are the same school of thought), and as i'm not a carpet cleaner myself you're gonna have to tell me whats wrong with it......
Cheers
Stephen
Tis called "splash and dash" Stephen
ie, don't sub anything to them. you will regret it
Pete
why is it splash and dash ???? have you had any work done buy them befour ???
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I am based in ripponden, halifax.
These leaflets were distributed in Wakefield.
I have been told that these leaflets have bee sent out before on several occasions te same tel numbers but with a different company name.
When they sell stain protector they tell the customer they have added it into the solution tank on the machine and it is applied as they clean.
I was told this this afternoon by one of my suppliers, who has had dealings with this cleaner.
Mark
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I am in the same area (West Yorkshire,) and my prices are cheaper than that i.e. £15 for a lounge, £15 for HSL, £10 for bedrooms etc. I have leaflets delivered 5000 at a time.
The majority of my area is relatively small terraced houses upon which my prices are based. I have been doing this area for 4 years and everyone is happy with the work I do, in fact I don't ask for any money until they are totally happy.
I very rarely travel further than 2 miles from where I live and if I do travel further I charge extra. On a bad day I will average £20 per hour, which of course is not an amazing wage but it's a lot better than most of the people in my area earn. On a good day I can be over £35 an hour purely from domestic work. However with ramadan just around the corner I'll have at least a dozen mosques to do and the hourly rate is significantly higher on that type of work, in fact I probably make 30% of my yearly takings in the month of ramadan where I work 7 days a week.
You may suggest that I cannot possibly do a good job if my prices are so low - but my customers are more than satisifed with the results and at the end of the day that's all I care about.
The equipment I use is fairly modest - I have a Victor Sprite 400 rotary and a Numatic CTD572 extraction machine which has been a real diamond since I bought it - it's over 3 years old and has been used constantly since new and I have spent less than £150 in parts on it. I use Prochem's Double Clean in the hwe and Prochem's Contract Carpet Foam Shampoo in the rotary.
For the record I currently charge £29 for a 3-piece suite but I don't bother with curtains or leather suites. I am currently looking to upgrade my equipment so that I am not having to put so much effort in (a CTD572 is rather underpowered and I also have to carry it up and down stairs,) every day is like a workout at the gym at the moment. When I get my new machine, possibly a CFR or maybe a Powr-Flite Perfect Heat with Wonder Wand I will have to increase my prices to reflect the extra investment but I cannot ever envisage charging much more than £20 for a standard lounge and £40 for 3-piece suite.
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Mark
If you doubt it then why not ring them and check?????
Here in Birmingham we get leaflets like that ALL the time (albiet different companies and different pictures, but the format and the prices are the same school of thought), and as i'm not a carpet cleaner myself you're gonna have to tell me whats wrong with it......
Cheers
Stephen
Tis called "splash and dash" Stephen
ie, don't sub anything to them. you will regret it
Pete
why is it splash and dash ???? have you had any work done buy them befour ???
Just a guess but while you mention it do you think they agitate, vac, pre-treat, agitate and then rinse/extract for that money? Unlikey me thinks but as Bennymon says there a few that do but I suspect they are in the minority.
Pete
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I am in the same area (West Yorkshire,) and my prices are cheaper than that i.e. £15 for a lounge, £15 for HSL, £10 for bedrooms etc. I have leaflets delivered 5000 at a time.
The majority of my area is relatively small terraced houses upon which my prices are based. I have been doing this area for 4 years and everyone is happy with the work I do, in fact I don't ask for any money until they are totally happy.
I very rarely travel further than 2 miles from where I live and if I do travel further I charge extra. On a bad day I will average £20 per hour, which of course is not an amazing wage but it's a lot better than most of the people in my area earn. On a good day I can be over £35 an hour purely from domestic work. However with ramadan just around the corner I'll have at least a dozen mosques to do and the hourly rate is significantly higher on that type of work, in fact I probably make 30% of my yearly takings in the month of ramadan where I work 7 days a week.
You may suggest that I cannot possibly do a good job if my prices are so low - but my customers are more than satisifed with the results and at the end of the day that's all I care about.
The equipment I use is fairly modest - I have a Victor Sprite 400 rotary and a Numatic CTD572 extraction machine which has been a real diamond since I bought it - it's over 3 years old and has been used constantly since new and I have spent less than £150 in parts on it. I use Prochem's Double Clean in the hwe and Prochem's Contract Carpet Foam Shampoo in the rotary.
For the record I currently charge £29 for a 3-piece suite but I don't bother with curtains or leather suites. I am currently looking to upgrade my equipment so that I am not having to put so much effort in (a CTD572 is rather underpowered and I also have to carry it up and down stairs,) every day is like a workout at the gym at the moment. When I get my new machine, possibly a CFR or maybe a Powr-Flite Perfect Heat with Wonder Wand I will have to increase my prices to reflect the extra investment but I cannot ever envisage charging much more than £20 for a standard lounge and £40 for 3-piece suite.
Jason, respect to you as you clearly do it properly but you are letting yourself down on those prices (even in that area)
Pete
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Hi Jason,
£29.00 for a 3 pc suite, how many a week do you manage to book at that?
Wouldnt you be better charging a little more and cleaning a few less for the money at the end of the working week. Do you have any other advertising running or do you find that leaflets work alone.
Do you use Double clean on all carpets you clean?
sorry if i seem nosey im just interested to see how other carpet cleaners work!
Kind regards Mark. ;)
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Hi Jason,
£29.00 for a 3 pc suite, how many a week do you manage to book at that?
Wouldnt you be better charging a little more and cleaning a few less for the money at the end of the working week. Do you have any other advertising running or do you find that leaflets work alone.
Do you use Double clean on all carpets you clean?
sorry if i seem nosey im just interested to see how other carpet cleaners work!
Kind regards Mark. ;)
I won't beat about the bush - the majority of my customers (over 90%) are muslims and we all know how "careful" they are with their money. It wouldn't be a case of me putting my prices up and getting less work it would be a case of me putting my prices up and getting no work at all. I think they'd rather I slaughtered their first born child than charge them an extra tenner. And also as a community they're like the Borg off Star Trek - if they think I've done a bad job/ overcharged or undercharged one of them the rest of them know within hours! I learned this early on and now use it to my advantage, I get a lot of recommendations. I wasn't the best carpet cleaner around when I first started (having been trained by a cowboy from Doncaster,) and I used to get a few recalls but now I can't remember the last time I had someone complain about anything.
With regards to advertising I ran an ad in the local paper for about 12 weeks and it got me about two jobs so I sacked that. I place ads in the local Urdu magazine which has a circulation of around 7,000 which is a lot less than the local paper but I get a much better response. I think that within 12 months I will be totally without advertising, I have worked hard at getting contracts doing mosques and they are the best referals you can get.
As for Double Clean, yes I use it on the majority of carpets I clean. I do have some other chemicals, one from Chemspec and another from somewhere else I can't recall, but Double Clean seems to do ok for me.
My main problem is going to come when I get my new equipment as I simply will not be able to clean a carpet for £15 using £3K of machine and I can pretty much bet any amount of money that my customers will rather pay £15 for the clean with the old £600 machine than pay £20 for a clean with a £3K machine..... :-\
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Hi,
Its just a word of advice, but using double clean on all carpets, with a ph of about 10, you will end up with a disaster on your hands at some point in the future. I suggest if you use prochem chemials you get some crystal green and fabric & Fibre rinse on board.
Please tell me you dont use double clean on upholstery!
Kind regards Mark
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Hi,
Its just a word of advice, but using double clean on all carpets, with a ph of about 10, you will end up with a disaster on your hands at some point in the future. I suggest if you use prochem chemials you get some crystal green and fabric & Fibre rinse on board.
Please tell me you dont use double clean on upholstery!
Kind regards Mark
Jason,
Mark is right. Using such a high PH on domestic carpets is an inevitable claim at some point. I also know that the Muslim community usually own alot of rugs. Whatever you do don't use it on them as they are generally imported rugs that are often made using very PH (even water) sensitive dyes. It's main purpose is for sythetic, highly durable commercial carpet. I sometimes use traffic clean (ph 11.5) on very dirty domestic carpets but not without testing and making sure I use a good concentration of Fibre and fabric rinse (ph 3.5).
Pete
As you say, this community is important to you so don't go
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He is right about the Muslims! £29 to clean their 3-piece sweets? With all due respect id tell them to stick it in their black hole of calcutta! You must be barking mad mate!
I did a muslims today. He tried to knock me down but i never do now. I set my prices and never lower them for anyone. His mate a few doors along wanted me to give a quote on h/s/l and I told him £45. He said 'too expensive' I said no problem get someone else to do it! He then said do it for £40 and i said NO! He chased me down the road until i got in the van and p****d off down the road (after shouting SEE YA out of the window)!
A great majority of these people are tight arses and my advice is to walk away
What you can do is over quote so for instance if you think a job is say £100 say to them it will be £130. If they say no ill give you £100 then great! They are happy after they think they got you down and you are happy getting what you want!
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I said no problem get someone else to do it! He then said do it for £40 and i said NO! He chased me down the road until i got in the van and p****d off down the road (after shouting SEE YA out of the window)!
Cowboys and Indians
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LOL thats good ill have to remember that one!
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HI
Looks like good marketing to me!
Professional outfit marketing at a specific need, will do well.
Dave
PS A custurd said to me 10 years ago, we had a ring around & you were the cheapest.
I decided i didn't want to be he cheapest anymore.
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Today,
Lounge, hall, study, £ 100, 1.5 hours
large bedroom, large hall, £125, 1.5 hours
Clean limestone floors x 2, 2.5 hours + waited 1/2 hour for custy to come back and pay £225
Set off at 8.45.....finished at 4.30 got home at 5.30
Travel time approx one hours 40 mins to jobs, plus cups of coffee and chattin about life in general, refueling, telephone calls, dinner etc.
Great Scott! how anyone can do a suite which can take 2 to 4 hours for 29 quid is beond me!
John
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I hear what you are all saying about the fact that I should charge higher rates and believe me I wish I could. However my overheads are probably lower than most carpet cleaners, I don't advertise in the Yellow Pages and I don't advertise in the Press anymore (apart from the Urdu Magazine.) I pay £47 for 5000 leaflets and then get schoolgirls to deliver them for peanuts and ten Benson & Hedges. So yes I may charge less than most but I don't have to pay much out at all to get the work.
This will all change of course when I 'upgrade' and start chasing more commercial work.
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Hi Jason,
£29.00 for a 3 pc suite, how many a week do you manage to book at that?
Wouldnt you be better charging a little more and cleaning a few less for the money at the end of the working week. Do you have any other advertising running or do you find that leaflets work alone.
Do you use Double clean on all carpets you clean?
sorry if i seem nosey im just interested to see how other carpet cleaners work!
Kind regards Mark. ;)
I won't beat about the bush - the majority of my customers (over 90%) are muslims and we all know how "careful" they are with their money. It wouldn't be a case of me putting my prices up and getting less work it would be a case of me putting my prices up and getting no work at all. I think they'd rather I slaughtered their first born child than charge them an extra tenner. And also as a community they're like the Borg off Star Trek - if they think I've done a bad job/ overcharged or undercharged one of them the rest of them know within hours! I learned this early on and now use it to my advantage, I get a lot of recommendations. I wasn't the best carpet cleaner around when I first started (having been trained by a cowboy from Doncaster,) and I used to get a few recalls but now I can't remember the last time I had someone complain about anything.
With regards to advertising I ran an ad in the local paper for about 12 weeks and it got me about two jobs so I sacked that. I place ads in the local Urdu magazine which has a circulation of around 7,000 which is a lot less than the local paper but I get a much better response. I think that within 12 months I will be totally without advertising, I have worked hard at getting contracts doing mosques and they are the best referals you can get.
As for Double Clean, yes I use it on the majority of carpets I clean. I do have some other chemicals, one from Chemspec and another from somewhere else I can't recall, but Double Clean seems to do ok for me.
My main problem is going to come when I get my new equipment as I simply will not be able to clean a carpet for £15 using £3K of machine and I can pretty much bet any amount of money that my customers will rather pay £15 for the clean with the old £600 machine than pay £20 for a clean with a £3K machine..... :-\
ive just been thought this myself my companys been on the go for over 25 years and until 8 months ago i was chargeing the same as you !
i got loads of stick off people on here saying i was too cheap , i wasnt doing agood job , and many more nasty comments :-[
how ever there were a few like carpetguy , glynn watersworth , dave ingram , and the t.m. lads and a few more on here that didnt mock but just tried the best to show me the way forward and upping the priceses
i was nt going to do it as i thought i knew better but one week i started buy adding 3 -5 pounds per job then 8 weeks later 5 - 10 pounds and when the truck mount came it went up anthor 7 - 30 pounds per job
i have only losted 11 jobs in that 8 months ! IM NOW GETTING MORE WORK due to me upping the priceses , ok im still not getting what some are and were now doing suites for 45 - 55 pounds the custys are paying it with out even saying anything at all so in a months time there going up buy anthor 3 - 15 pounds each job
i work in middlebougth the cheapwest place to buy smack in the country so as you can imagen most of the places we go are not very nice but they are still paying !
as for the muslms i now get more work from these graet people because they dont want cowboys they want the job done right , and will pay for that !
hope this helps if you need any help im more then happy to give you my number to help you out any time good luck susan
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I hear what you are all saying about the fact that I should charge higher rates and believe me I wish I could. However my overheads are probably lower than most carpet cleaners, I don't advertise in the Yellow Pages and I don't advertise in the Press anymore (apart from the Urdu Magazine.) I pay £47 for 5000 leaflets and then get schoolgirls to deliver them for peanuts and ten Benson & Hedges. So yes I may charge less than most but I don't have to pay much out at all to get the work.
This will all change of course when I 'upgrade' and start chasing more commercial work.
Alot of people go on about how there overheads are lower then other peoples so it doesn't matter if they only charge £10 to clean 5, 3 bedroom houses, the point is if you are lucky enough to be in a position where your overheads are on the low side then think how much money you could make be charging reasonable prices, use it to your advantage not for the customers advantage they don't know your overheads are low so what give away your service?
matt
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Hi Guys
This is a good thread , a sensible discussion and all credit to Jason for his honesty.
The thing which strikes me most about working for very low prices is that you are not building a business so your life will never become easier/better, in fact as you get older it will be harder to keep up the volume.
I would suggest a two pronged approach, keep your cheap side while you build a better priced business and in a few years you will look back and think how did I ever work for those prices.
Cheers
Doug
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For the last three years I have put my prices up by 30 per year. I have still got comments @is that all?' so I put my prices up 50%. ( I have one or three olD customers still on the old rates.) RESULT---3 days work for 5 days pay. Thursday off in the caravan with the other half and the dogs for a weekend walking on the coast or moors!!!!
Trevor
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Well said Doug and Trevor.
Another thing to take into consideration is the quality of work you do.
If you impress your customers, recomendations will always come in and price is rarely an issue.
John
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the best option if you are stuck in a low price situation is to give the customer the opportunity to spend more money if they want,
OK tell them the price for a suite is £35 but always tell them you can protect it for an extra £20 you won't lose the job because you've mentioned the protector but you have given yourself the opportunity to earn an extra £15.
same goes for carpets stick to your low price but mention the extras, you've nothing to lose.
Mike
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Extras for turbo drying, protector, an extra room while you are there, disinfectant, pile lifting with your rotary. Spot removal should be standard.
Shaun
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I just remebered that a cleaning company used to have a menu of cleaning
something like basic HWE £25 a room
add £10 for scotchguard
add £5 for disinfect
add £10 for speed drying
add etc etc etc
The original phone call was for a carpet £25 thenon arrival a menu was presented to the customer while he was getting the machine from the van, then if the customer thought I'll add this that and the other well the price went up.
(but not always if they were tight)
Shaun
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The company my sister inlaw uses in Fife do her suite and carpet for £40 using Prochem powermax. But you have to have all parts of the equation to get the picture- 2 man team in & out in an hour. So their hourly rate could be the same as what higher priced cleaners are getting . There is a market for this but do you want to work that way.
As for Asians , I was recommended to a family who lived 20 miles away in Redcar , I tried to pass them to my aunties business in Redcar but no iit was me who had been recommended so I had to do it. They were the nicest people you could wish to meet & price was not a problem- but they were fussy , which I dont mind.
Mike
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Hi Guys
Customer I went to this morning rang an advert in the local paper (Basildon) for a quote and was told 7 pounds a room :o
He decided he wasn't going to get much for that and went on the internet and found me, I quoted 250 lounge,dining room , hall , leather suite which he was more than happy with.
Cheers
Doug
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Just an update to this topic - my previous username Jason_B was banned as was my previous to previous username JasonB, so here I am in my latest guise (does nobody have a sense of humour around here?)
Anyway I would just like to say that today I charged £80 for two lounges (basically it was a house with two downstairs rooms the same size) along with a small hall area and a tiny rug. This basically means that I charged about £35 per lounge which is £20 more than my previous rate which was £15.
I am at the moment over the moon about this but I have a feeling that this will lead to less liquidity in my business. Because where as before I was guaranteed a consistant income because my prices were so low, I am now venturing into the realms of gambling i.e. banking on the fact that a certain percentage of higher quoted jobs convert to orders.
I'll let you know how I go on.....