Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: jasonl on January 10, 2010, 02:08:16 pm
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I got a magazine in the post this week , it had an interesting article in it by Charlie Mullins, who I have followed for several years, He owns pimlico Plumbers and has 155 staff turning over 15 million in London.
If you replace the word "plumber" with carpet cleaner ,, a lot of what he says translates,, and I know a lot of us do not have employees, or so we think, but how many of us employ ,, machine and chemical suppliers, vehicle supply and repair ,, printers, web designers , accountants, phone suppliers, helpers etc ,, even a one man band often has 10 or so part time employees without realizing it, and making plans for how to deal with them.
Some of his points are very relevent to CC ,and it might help some of us, I will type out some of it , as it is not copyrighted...........................
Nothing is too basic . Look at your company name. Does your name say anything about you? It might be easy to just call it after your initials, but on a card or a sign, who will bother to look furthur or investigate so they can find out what you do?
Pimlico plumbers is everywhere- on our uniforms, vans ,, pens- because our name is the most effective form of advertising we will ever get. So we spend time spreading it.
Make sure you mark any vehicles and buildings with your brand and your number. People become aware of your presence, and remember you. Be in thier mind as a name to call on or to recommend. Its crucial.
Its all about making it easy for customers to do business with you . And that should apply to things like pricing too. When we started, I introduced a ratecard- the same for everyone, with it all there in black and white,how much w'ed charge for time , call out , and so on, with no surprises, other plumbers were up in arms- they said we were making it harder to add that little discreet "extra" bit on here and there. But we didnt want to do that.
What we found was that customers were really grateful and relieved that they could deal with someone up front- maybe it wouldnt be the cheapest, but it would be the nicest to deal with, because there would be no surprises.
That, really, is where you start to sense a vision for the company, and then apply it to other things. So once you know you want to be the best for the customers and really stress-free for them, it affects the people you recruit. You bring in people who are not justgreat plumbers, but are good at dealing with people in thier homes, and repay the trust.
I hope this helps someone
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Good post Jason - but I wonder what the effect would be on my business if I introduced a ratecard and advertised my prices, particularly when I charge more than double what the "cheap" companies in my area charge and advertise.
Food for thought though.
Steve
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I just looked on their site ,, they are not cheap, even for london , ,yet they are proud of pricing well , I dont know what the answer is , it is just an interesting concept.
http://www.pimlicoplumbers.com/content/2/charges
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The difference between a plumber and a carpet cleaner is NEED, they do emergency call outs for burst pipes or boilers on the blink also you can't really plumb your own boiler it's too dangerous where as many a customer will scrub their own carpet first, flooded carpets are troublesome but you could rip them up but you have the option.
This guy was on secret millionaire a couple of months ago with a proper rags to riches story, Mike Halliday has always been harping on about branding which I agree with but in our trade it's not branding it's communication and talking to the customer as we done have the big budget albeit CD and SM and the franchises have.
Shaun
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First of all, good post Jase; provide's food for thought and any angle that works has to be good.
Just thinking aloud here. I spent 30 years working on dairy farms. All farmers used to operate separately. Some however got together to form co-op's. As a co-op they were more profitable than as a sole unit. They still made there own business decisions for there own farms but acted together to purchase good's and sell there produce.
Wonder (and I'm not talking about a franchise) could this be an idea for the CC trade.
Adi
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Good post by jason.
Its all the putting prices on our sites and bus cards that it the stumbling block ???
I know some on here who put there prices on there web sites and do get work.
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I would not let a plumber in my home or near it rip-off merchants, other than that interesting
Len
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If you are a london solicitor on take home of 8k a month, your boiler breaks , Pimlico plumbers come out and charge 320 plus vat for a new switch, and you have heat and hot water again, within 2 hours ,, no mess no fuss.No one else would call out same day.. how is that a rip off?
The above is a true story from last week about my sister.
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Nothing wrong with that - sounds like my ideal client, one with more money than time ;D
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Bit surprised they weren’t insured. ;)
Len
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Thankyou for that Jason. There is much to learn from it.
One of the significant differences between our trades has already been highlighted by others. The way I look at it is that a plumber, washing machine repairer, Dyno Rod type business etc. etc. are all called upon because they are NEEDED. For carpet cleaners, we are invited into a home because we are WANTED.
As for publishing a tarrif, for many of us it wouldn't work. Many of us tend to cost by the area. And the rate will vary dependent upon many factors such as standard clean, combination clean, accessibility, types and levels of soiling etc. etc. Sometimes we will be reducing the from the standard rate, sometimes increasing.
But there is so much to either learn or be refreshed by from Charlie.
Thanks Jason.
Safe and happy cleaning :)
The Ken
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I like thier website, the voice-over is very good
also thier policy of pushing their name at every opportunity is one I also really believe in.
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Wee Robert Saunders would have a wry smile on his face if he read this..........he was advocating this style of trading years ago before J P and Piranha were heard of.
You can see this typical style of " branding " in old American movies from the 30's / 40's.
Shaun made a relevent comment about creating a need a few days ago by introducing the concept of "Healthy Homes " particularly where there were children around.
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Just been chatting to a Large Chem dry franchissee, half of his new cleaning work comes from online quotes that he does on the CD website.
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Is he in the North, NE, South etc?
Shaun
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Cheshire, I am going to tral a rate card for 6 months, focussing on clarity.
Alot of my work is emergency based .
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American cleaners have mostly always displayed prices but that could do with volume of calls they get.
Be interesting to see how you go on Jason, BTW did you ever order a Prowler?
Shaun
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No , not ordered yet , need to sell that shop first.
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Try this
www.ecscarpetcare.co.uk/webquote.php
Shaun