with all the problems these days. cleaning packages are coming into their own. giving a prospect the choice of what they what done at what price, is the way to go.
removing stains, vacing, and moving furniture takes time, and we all know time is money. and that works both ways. people might save you time and in doing so save themselves money.
some people just want to dirt removed so why should they pay for say time that you allow for stain removal in your price?
just think about two different jobs, one where you vac, move everything, stain removal, ect, etc, and the second where the rooms empty and they have veced, no stains. is it fair to charge the same price for both jobs? if your ethical no.
on the other hand is it right for a person to expect us to spend hours stain removing and not expect to pay for that time? no. it cuts both ways.
When i talk about stains to prospects its always my intention to teach them the difference between a spot and stain. its this message that's key for any chance for maintenance, be it going back each year or teaching them about carpet care.
Teaching people about carpet care should be our main task as this will lead us all in to a place where we working more for people that we have done work for in the past.
One thing that has always been strange is how if you where to go to the USA and put as much effort into your carpet cleaning business that you do in the UK how much more successful you would be. I think that Carpet care is much more important to them. why because they some much good advertising.
They know about USP and to be unique your message has to be different to other carpet cleaners. if its not then its only price that is the differance and we all know what people will go for then. the cheapest.
Different marketing message come and go in our business the last one was allergy, its the green one at the moment. but the market is much bigger than just one message at a time. the answer is education. but education in the right way. not the type we all learn at the cleaning schools but the type that answers those problems like "how do i get red wine out of my carpet" or why do i have black marks all around the edge of my carpet"
These are not my ideas or from JP's they come from Dan kennedy. I read a lot about the Internet and i see loads of Dan's ideas being used and developed for the Internet. they are good sound marketing rules. we don't need to know why they work just they do.
oops i gone on again. sorry -)
respect
Ian Harper