Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: clinton on January 17, 2009, 10:15:09 am
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Hi guys
After the last few posts on web sites and suite cleaning prices maybe it might be time to start puting our prices on our leaflets,web sites,yel pages adds etc ???
As i know some of us are geting new sites built at the mo so am also thinking of puting some sort of price guide on mine ???
I know in this cleaning industry not many have not done this but maybe it might be time for a change ???
My maine moan is at the mo from my web sites i have so many price shopers and even when i was in y pages i did not have as many.
Clinton
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I think its a bad idea Clinton. Ive found the best way to more or less guarantee you work is to go around and price up first. This way you can chat to the customer and they can see that your not a gypsy and are a professional. You can even sell them Stainguard while your there and add 50% on to your wage...something you could not do as successfully over the phone or internet.
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don't put prices on your leaflet or website because it will scare people off, especially if they are high prices.
this is what the uneducated tell you, but what if you don't want the people who are scared of high prices to call you, perhaps high prices get rid of the price shopper.
I'll tell you the real reason not to put prices on your marketing
the same as when customers call you, the only thing they want to know is 'how much is it' if your marketing answers this question they have no need to call you and the purpose of all marketing to is to make the phone ring
once they call you can begin your sales spiel and justify your price but unless they call you don't get the chance
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Mike, so why have u got your prices plastered all over your website? That's a bit hypocritical isn't it. Also if you scare off some people aren't u just robbing yourself of the opportunity to convert them into customers that's a bit silly IMO.
Col
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clinton its what you want to do, if you want to cut out the price shopper put a price guide
eg; a basic clean of an average room will start from £55. (but not all carpets are the same please call for an exact price)
this will scare of the people wanting to get it done for £20 but quality customers will still be interested.
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Clinton
Just a suggestion.
Get 10k of leaflets printed exactly the same. Only difference is 5k of them have prices on. 10k a month for 3months then add up how much money you have made from each one.
Then you will KNOW the answer.
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Mike going of the prices on your site u charge £80 to clean a 20sqm lounge and if it were a full house of say 100sqm then £400 which is absurd and a real turn of for the average punter. Isn't good marketing about attracting peopleto your business not scaring people of.
Col
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i would never put prices on anything, by putting prices out your alienateing naive clients who haven't got a clue about cc. they think a cc is a cc so the cheapest is a no brainer for them. theyve no idea as to the difference in quality from one to the other and its my job to educate them, so they can make a better decision as to whether to go cheap or dear.
putting prices out is the easy option, you weed out the price shoppers and know every call should be a job, personally i dont mind the hard option which is to try (and i do fail regularly) and convert price shoppers in to getting value for money by paying that little bit extra.
getting the phone to ring is priority number one, and price advertising cuts your phone calls.
i'm not saying its a bad idea, its just not for me.
and for that reason, amoot
derek
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What's coming across here is there is no standard approach.
Do what works for each situation. If you are not happy with something, don't do it. Better still do what Mike Osbourne suggests and test. It is the only way to get a true result.
Mike, we've never met but you talk so much sense when it comes to marketing.
Garry
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Gary ;D ;D
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I've never tested prices on leaflets.
The two key things I've tested are headlines and offers as these make the biggest difference. A printer should be able to do two versions for the same price if you ask them. Remember to change only one thing at a time.
The bulk of what I have learned about leaflets is from posts by Mr Halliday, Ian Gurley and a few others. Mainly having the faith to keep on pumping them out. :)
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Mike, it could also be the case that mike is so good on the leaflets because he has to keep on doing them because he is only prepared to serve some of the people who call him which to my way of thinking is simply ludicrous.
Col
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Two ways to look at this.
You only want people who are prepared to pay X, why bother with anyone who isn't prepared to pay X. And when you do this what does that make people think about your business ?
You work in the middle of the road market and want to persuade as many of the people in the middle to pay as much as is possible-by creating perceived value.
Why do people work in niches when, by their very nature are a smaller group? Because they will get more of that niche.
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Clinton
I don't understand the question, but we have already finished one bottle of McManis Cabernet Sauvignon from Tesco reduced from £8.95 to £4.95 and it's going down real easy. :)
All 'experts' will tell you never tell them the price until you have told them why you are worth it and from my experience I have no reason to question that. If you want to qualify early to filter out the crap I would talk about quality, service and value.
One of the quickest ways to split test stuff is adwords. ;) Then keep on improving and transfer results to leaflets.
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if you want to stop the price shoppers put.....
"we're not the cheapest but we are the best"
derek
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Or you could put
Respectfully No council, thank you
Paupers need not apply
If you need to ask the price, then you can't afford us
Please check these postcodes to see if you qualify.
I am joking.
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Mike O's suggestion about testing is sounds marketing advice but is'nt as easy as it seams, to test 2 different leaflets 1 with prices 1 without you would need two identical test subjects other wise the results would be meaning less
sound silly but you would have to put out 5000 leaflets out in say March the jump in a time machine go back in time and do exactly the same house at exactly the same time of month.
our business varies from month to month if you put out 5000 leaflets this month the result would be different from the next 5000 you put out next month
testing needs a big test to be valid, I don't think 5000 would be enough.
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Mike H
5k yield 10-20 responses. That's statistically big enough to be significant. Plus you are doing it side by side each month with the old one so that takes into account any other variance factors.
If you don't get that response then yeah, up the numbers.
In any case what I suggest has to be better than what most people do which is whack out a load of one leaflet, see how it works, come up with a completely different idea, whack out another laod and see what happens with that.
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Why not just have on your leaflet Prices from as little as £45.00 to stimualte enough interest so they call you for a price.
Col
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Mike when i think about it you might be right, if you do them side by side at the same time you could probably do a good test with just 5000 (more would be better though)
you'd need 2 separate numbers on the leaflet so as to really differentiate which leaflet the call came from
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I have just done a run of leaflets with a price on for 2 and 3 bed houses. to try and get things movin for me good response so far from it. Refuse to turn into a busy fool though cleaning for nought. better to do one good job a day rather than runnin here and there for peanuts. Because of the geographics of where i am i do have to travel for work but generally the houses are bigger down here so worth the drive. Lets face and average 3 or 2 bedroom house dont want to pay the earth for a clean.
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Mike
Yes for ease I put a ref number by the phone number. Below ten responses is def. not enough 20 is ideal, any more and you are going beyond testing. If the leaflets alternate you make sure a street has an even number of each leaflet.
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Gents, i've used leaflets with and without prices on them and by far the best response i had was the ones with approx prices on them.
I don't want to take loads of calls from people who just want a price off me because personally i don't want to waste my time.
I'd rather someone already have an approxiamte idea of the price i'm going to charge and they can make their mind up prior to ringing me if they want the job done or not.
Lets be honest i would say the majority of people who ring us for a job already know something about us. They've either been recommended to us or they've previously had work done by us.
If you take that you can fit in three jobs per day then if you work for 200 of the days of the year allowing for days off, holidays etc then you can realistically look to do about 600 jobs a year. Most regular customers have their carpets cleaned twice a year so your looking at 300 regular customers per year.
If you look at your customer base i would say that the vast majority if not all of you already have that number on your books.
Now if the average job was between £60 to £100 then you could be earning between £36,000 to £60,000 which i would say is a very reasonable wage.
Now my point in all these facts and figures and getting back to the original point is that by putting the prices on the leaflets we are reminding our regular customers that we are still operating and reminding them of the prices we offer. They already know that we are professional and will provide a quality service. Therefore they just want to know whether they can afford to have their carpets or upholstery cleaned, and i personally would rather them ring me knowing this before i embark on a sales pitch.
Of course i accept that we also want to attract new customers but you have to remember that eventually you will reach a saturation point and cannot do any more jobs so then you want to be able to weed out the £60 jobs so that you are only doing the £100 ones thereby increasing your income for the same amount of effort. So how do you attract the new customers??? That's the million dollar qestion!!!
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good post mike, all though i'm not sure about twice a year. be nice though.
derek
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Im lucky enough to have a few ( 15/20 with out looking) clients that I go to 3 times a year
an a lot more 2 times a year .
Derek your an x market trader as have I for a short while in my Very early teens , cant understand why you aint getting a program , plan or system to roll them over a time scale .
THEY WANT THERE CARPETS ETC TO LOOK GOOD ALL YEAR ROUND !!!
There like babies we just need to point them in the right direction
Ricky
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£36000 less your expenses at £20000 is £16000 which is a poor wage as the average is £25k.
When doing sums dont forget the unseen as well ie. pension, sick pay, holiday pay, critical illness cover etc. I think this is where many cleaners go wrong in their pricing and that is why their so cheap.
Mark
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Hi
Genie , Good post and glad you have found something that works but I do also have to agree with Mark.
£36000-£60,000 is Gross wage, take out all your materials, capital expenses, wages (if any) petrol, car/van tax, MOT, vehicle ins, etc. Say that was £16000 on the £36000 Gross, which leaves you £20,000 you will then have to pay Tax and NI on this amount which will leave you with around £15,000, possibly less (depending on circumstances)
Regards
Martin 8)
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On my last batch of flyers i put a 20% discount on the front,however when quoting i upped the price a little to compensate ;D ,customers are hanging on to them so they can use them again,have been back to several places.
Had 3 phone calls yesterday,didn`t get a booking out of any of them though,one bloke with 3 bed house said he had been quoted £80,and could i beat it ,said i wasn`t even going to tell him what i would be ! which is generally £150 upwards for a 3 bedder !
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largish Victorian terrace wanting stairs landing stairs landing was quoted £65 I quoted £100 ish also a rental out in the sticks the equivalent of 7 rooms £140 and could I beat it? only with a stick :o
Luckily I'm in a position that if I don't get them another omes along to fill it NOT all cleaners can say that and do tend to drop their prices to fill in the gaps in quieter times.
Shaun
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Hi
Genie , Good post and glad you have found something that works but I do also have to agree with Mark.
£36000-£60,000 is Gross wage, take out all your materials, capital expenses, wages (if any) petrol, car/van tax, MOT, vehicle ins, etc. Say that was £16000 on the £36000 Gross, which leaves you £20,000 you will then have to pay Tax and NI on this amount which will leave you with around £15,000, possibly less (depending on circumstances)
Regards
Martin 8)
I've got my overheads down to less than £5000 per annum meaning my profit margins are much higher. I ended up buying all new gear this year so the taxman wouldn't get his hands on my cash! Hope they don't view this forum!! :'(
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Cheers Clinton, I've been lucky so far this year - January has been really good for me so far and the "credit crunch" doesn't seem to be affecting my customers yet.
Hopefully it'll stay that way but i won't be doing too much spending now just in case.
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Mike,
"So how do you attract the new customers??? That's the million dollar qestion!!!
A few years ago, I asked myself the question " Why do the Chem-Dry's of this world, take the cream off the Top".
I thought about it and reasoned that they rarely operated in "Working Class" areas but always seemed to target the "Moneyed" areas. If you ain't do'in it, copy someone who is, I thought. So, I had some nice leaflets printed, delivered them in a "moneyed" area and - "BINGO". It actually worked. In that area, average income per job went from about £60 to over £150 and did quite a few £300+ jobs, which was previously very rare.
Successful marketing is fairly simple: Find enough customers willing to pay what you are willing to accept - the theory is fine - practice, may be another thing.
Jim G
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Good point Jim,but what if you get a lot of enquiries from working class areas,do you keep the same price structure and more than likely lose that business or do you adapt it ???
Ryan
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Good point Jim,but what if you get a lot of enquiries from working class areas,do you keep the same price structure and more than likely lose that business or do you adapt it ???
Ryan
Yes Ryan you adapt. Try never to turn good work away, you might not have any when you most need it. It's a horses for courses thing.
Jim G
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The majority probably would be working class to "comfortable" working class as i would call them,but in fairness i havnt really tried to target affluent areas yet.I was out this morning with my trusty flyers and i headed straight to the more well heeled areas so we'll see how it goes i am also going to take note of the addresses and find out the postcodes and send letters,information packs to these areas and see what happens.
Ryan
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Clinton,
People are still recovering from Christmas spending as well. There is 'bargain' fever out there though. Fuel down, food down, everything down.