[wynne jones]

How much of a jump in price do you do each year? I'm not that expensive but I feel a good hike was required especially taking into account fuel prices.

I'm always a bit wary but today everyone got the new price and didn't seem to make any difference.

[Mike Halliday]

over the last year I've put £20 on suites and may be 15% on carpets  so a  T/L has gone from £65+ to £75+

but the big difference has been not giving as much discount on  multiple rooms, before i  would start knocking £10 of rooms as they got more done...... sometimes i'd do a bathroom or box room for £10.

 but now each room is charged the right amount as per its size ( maybe a small discount but not as much as before)

[derek west]

as i get more and more efficient, i pass the saving on to my custy's, well half of it, so in theory my profit has gone up but my prices have gone down.

[Mike Halliday]

as i get more and more efficient, i pass the saving on to my custy's, well half of it, so in theory my profit has gone up but my prices have gone down.

'theory' is such a wonderful concept but I would think your efficiency would have to be massively improved to allow more work to be done at a lower price to increase profitability.

[wynne jones]

Now that's got me thinking even more. I have always got more by keen pricing for additional work, but I've never really tried asking for it at the full price and see what happens. Nice one Mike 

Derek

I can believe that. I think at first we are especially slow (which is fine) you are learning on the job and don't know shortcuts that won't affect the custies experience, right chems for right carpet/soiling etc. As you get faster your hourly rate skyrockets.

Anyway whacked on 10% and it's fine, who knows how firm I will be in Feb.

[derek west]

go on, i'll give it ago

used to use a brush to agitate, then a sebo, now a enviro.

my latest improvement is prespraying, used to use a pump up, then hydra force and now hydra force at 600psi.every couple of month i find a way of getting more efficient without lack of quality. allthough i'll admit, its getting tougher. saying that, it was only a couple of months ago that i upped the pressure when prespraying.

anyway i'm sure you guys are right and ive just got my figures wrong.

[wynne jones]

Derek I was agreeing with you 

[Neil Williams]

Here we go, the voice of reason is back again or not
Am I to believe that carpet cleaners have a strick pricing policy for example 27p/sqft, and each and every quote is done the same way.....I don't believe it, because there are too many viables involved. So I don't see how you can basically put your prices up from 1st January, because if you want the job you'll knock something off to get it.
Suites are probably a little bit different because we mostly have an idea of how long it will take, and as most of us dislike doing suites we call our price for that particular year and customers can take it or leave it.

(I've just read back through this and whilst it makes some sense to me, I didn't want to be typing for the next hour on the subject)

[derek west]

Derek I was agreeing with you 

oh yeah, just read back, old habbits eh!

[wynne jones]

Neil I don't realy have a /sqft price.

It's more a question of how long the job will take and as we all know, before you even enter the property there may be things that make a difference. Did two jobs yesterday one was a EOT lounge and hallway and front door on quiet road. One hose length in out in 35-40 mins. Next job had to park van 200ft from house, all external hoses totally covered in mud which would have to be sorted for today when home. Then drop sheets corner guards the lot, drop house out window. Best part of 50mins to set up.