[julieg]

I run a domestic cleaning business in Surrey. When I first started I wasn't charging enough around £10p/h, I put my prices up to £13.50 plus VAT, lost half of my clients, starting to get maybe 1 new client a month through heavy leaflet dropping and other marketing exercises. Our costs include staff costs, ins, equip and products.

I get a reasonable amount of calls, and I try to get an appoinment to see the client as opposed to trying to sell to them over the phone. I provide them with a fixed rate based on their requirements and say that if they have a budget I can tailor it to that to some degree.     

The last couple of quotes that I have done have come in at around £75 plus VAT, and some clients are quite taken aback by the price.  Although the houses are fairly minimilistic there is a lot of floor space and hard floors which of course pushes up labour time, and have at least 2 and a half bathrooms. The last house I quoted had 18 rooms (4 and a half bathrooms).

As a general rule of thumb I normally allow 45 mins per bathroom if they have shower cubicle as well as a bath and kitchen around 45 mins too.  For other areas such as bedrooms/ lounges around 20 minutes. We do do a through job. I have clients that pay anything from £27 to £75 plus VAT for regular cleans.

I am currently guranteeing my staff wages since I put the price up, so I need to get clients to fill those empty slots. I am wondering whether I should try and encourage clients to have less done, maybe do the labour intensive areas such as bathrooms and kitchen and then just hoover the rest of the house. I am not sure how to broach it. I know franchises such as Molly Maid do as many houses in a day as possible. They quoted one of my clients £39 plus Vat and said it would take them two man hours. This house actually takes us 3.5 man hours and they claim to do what we do.

On the one hand I don't want to compromise standards which will be noticed by the client but on the other hand I don't want to cut myself out of the market.   
Any feedback/advice would be appreciated.

Julie G
     
   

   

[maggie67]

Hi Julie,

Must be v.difficult for you . You charge around the same hourly rate as I do.

 I have put an advert in the yellow pages for the first time this year (only small) and have taken on five new clients in the last week, so if you haven't done this already then certainly consider this. I am also registered with yell.com (free!!!!) and 2 of these clients came through this method.

Your standards are obviuosly high & this inevitably will be reflected in each job you do. Don't join the rest of them by getting greedy & cutting corners. record every enquiry and call them again 2 or 3 months down the line. If they have employed another company ask them if they are happy/whether they are receving value for money. The personal touch makes a huge difference. This alone should impress them.

The right clients will come but stick with your values it will pay off in the long term. Perhaps consider office cleaning or approach letting agents as a compliment to your income.


Good luck

Maggie

[Musicman]

Why don't you simply offer the prospective customer a three tier service - for example bronze, silver and gold?

Bronze could be £11.00 per hour, silver £12.50 and gold £15.00.

Do extra tasks as the service level increases.

This way you appeal across the spectrum and should pick up more customers.

Hope this helps.

Musicman

[julieg]

Thanks for replies and encouragement. I have been in yell for some time now, I am quite happy with the business that I get from it. I missed the deadline last year for Yellow pages but will be in for the next issue. I also went touting for business from the letting agents but so far I haven't got any business, although I think that I could have tried a bit harder.

I did give some thought to having a tiered service, but I thought that this may prove complicated for the girls.

I think I will probably stick with it. What are your thoughts on hourly v's fixed rate?

Thanks again

Julie G