[jasonl]

I just spoke to the person in question , I am not saying if it works profitably or not , He is continuing to operate in this way!!!   


It is the same principle as offering money back guarantee , no one has ever asked for money back from me .

[Hilton]

Its not a new concept, its been used in business price formulation over many years mainly in the States, I can not remember the company that started it but do have the details somewhere.

It works very basically like this:

You set out your services;

The customer picks one or may be two , you ask them to price them for you at what they think is good value for money based on the procedure, once explained.

After a period of time say for arguments sake 6 months, you pull in all the data and break it down in to services provided

ie Carpet Cleaning
Upholstery Cleaning

and so on, work out an average of what you have been paid on each service in that 6 months period and hey bingo you have your price, based on what your customers actually think your service is worth.

Its amazingly accurate and would probably not be far off what you charge at present, the idea being that you can confidently advertise your prices as market researched and resistance to price is overcome....The very secondary benefit of this is an amazing customer retention percentage. Your customers have taken part and contributed to your business growth and loyalty is built in.Also complaints on work is practically non-existent.

Down Side is;

You have to see it through though and human nature being what it is you will definitely get stung on some jobs.

[clinton]

There is a small cafe in the lakes that was featured on tv a while ago and they used that offer

[David_Annable]

Hi

Not for me thanks.

I assume they are new to the cleaning industry.

Inevitable in a year or two you would want to increase your prices.

Which wouldn't be easy on that basis.

Dave

[Shaun_Ashmore]

What happens if you get a customer who only wants to pay £50 for a full house?

Shaun

[kinder clean]

Just for the record, ' Finally an answer to the question - How much to charge - Its genius ! ' I was being sarcastic, I can't believe anyone

would take this to be a good idea !  


From a customers perspective I would think it makes you look naive and worst still it's bount to make clients suspicious don't you think ?

There are some strange marketing ideas in this industry.

Paul

[jasonl]

It does work for sure , I know the person who does it and he is clued up on how to do it , often people pay more than he would have chosen to charge .

This guy should be running a seminar at CCDO about it.

[garyhumphreys]

Reckon it looks unprofessional and a bit desperate and I wouldnt ring any professional company advertising like this. Good luck to them though. Is anyone thinking of trying the same tactic?.

Gary

[Carpet Dawg]

Personaly not my cuppa tea...

Think about how many price shoppers you get on a daily basis wanting a whole house for £50 and think £90 is a huge amount for upholserty cleaning!
And how about the "ethnic minoritys" that expect you to work for free while they look over you and moan about everything! No thanks...

I'm sure it does work for the guy but how much is he actually making and how many hours is he putting in?!

Like the chap above me said, looks unprofessional and smells of glorified begging.

Tony

[The Carpet Cleaning Pro]

Well, what can I say, some good comments and some bad ones !!!!

So here we go then.......

Firstly, I am NOT new to the CLEANING industry.

Secondly, I DONT work the LEAST amount of hours for the MOST that I can get.

My clients get 100% quality 100% of the time - and I get LOADS of Referrals - thus the cycle repeats.

Whether it be a £30 job or a £100 job, the job is done to the best possible standard - In return we get FREE advertising.

Has anybody learnt anything yet ?

Thirdly,  OK here we go then......... Call yourself professional business men/people.  We are trained operators oh and yes insured. Second if you look at the number it is an 0844 number and guess what.... cost me nothing, neither did the other 30 that I have got.

The web site you are going on about.... www.carpetcleanersinchesterfield.co.uk... That was free aswell but guess what!!! Thats not the main website of my business... That was just put there for the domain name. (Like others have done in this area)

This one is my main website www.thecarpetcarenetwork.co.uk oh and how many different areas do we clean in??? How many websites do we have linked to our network??? None of these cost me anything neither... why... because I have built them all myself>>> from scratch, not a template...oh and I get free hosting for LIFE with each domain name. oh by the way, I have a brain aswell, I am not just a CLEANER.

As for the idea well all I will say is "Its works and my clients love it". I do not earn any less than I did before ... infact doing very well.

Being a carpet cleaner is not just about being able to clean carpets and upholstery correctly..., if you had any brain in your heads, you would realise that I am actually running a business, maybe rather than B****ing about what others are doing, you should perhaps concentrate on your own businesses and maybe, yes maybe, they might become sucessful one day.

Any questions ?

[Gav Camm lammy 283]

how do u get free hosting ? oh yes well done

[The Carpet Cleaning Pro]

On the Home page at the bottom it says   "web hosting by FreeVirtualServers" this is a LINK to Free Virtual Servers, as it is their Terms and Conditions, you must show the link on each page. Click on the LINK and it will take you to their site, where they will tell you all about FREE Web Hosting.

Feel free to ask any further questions.

[Gav Camm lammy 283]

thanks 4 that m8

[ianharper]

Monty

so what will you do if someone else in your area copies this? just like the Jim wolverton guarantee? its not really a market advantage as its easily copied.

Did you know that walmart are having massive problems because they went in as being the cheapest. put lots of suppliers out of business now have to do business with third world countries. where do they go next?

Its a good idea for getting every prospect but not as the lead marketing idea. it will have a shelf life.

with respect, you have by answering here now told every carpet cleaner in your area it works and will now pay the price. I think you have just made a massive mistake by commenting.

If the above happens my advise would be to expand your service range the your customers.

BTW do you do what the FT guys do and  an audit on all other areas? in other words upsell?

Well done

Respect

Ian Harper

[Hilton]

All marketing has a shelf life or their would not be a need for marketing agencies, its just that some last better and can be adapted better than others.

As I have written above he hasn't let anything out of the bag, this form of marketing and selling has been used and amended to suit thousands and thousands of times globally, if his neighbour decides to do it then you just have to be better.

As I mentioned and the chap has confirmed using his method you can pick up bundles of referrals and loyal customers and yes some body will knock you at some point, this is all part of the process.

It does not take a lot of brain cells to work out how to avoid getting paid nothing for your hard work, do you all do every job that comes your way ?

Having checked out his web site I can also add that in my opinion it is one of the best sites for the business I have seen, a lot of you are going down this route and ask opinions on here about your new site. Visit theirs and it will give you some idea about what a good site directing customers to your business looks like.

By the way Walmart are hardly suffering they are still by far the biggest retailer in the world, some of their business ethics leaves a lot to be desired (as Michael Moore will tell you) but they leave our very own Tesco a very long way behind at 4th.

What never ceases to amaze me is how so many following all the same ideas and marketing strategies day in day out and I might add constantly asking on here 'where has all the work gone' or 'I have only got two jobs booked in this fortnight', feel they have the ability to comment on a strategy they know nothing about and dismiss it at a stroke, of course the herd follows which makes it even better for those with a 'unique' marketing idea.

Congratulations to Monty and his crew for really putting it amongst the pigeons, this is so far out of left field for some of you that it has left you reeling trying to get to grips with the idea, but instead of criticising wouldnt it be refreshing if you maybe asked him for some advice, (if of course he wants to offer it) instead of herding together to have a pop.

Of course its just my opinion. 

[jasonl]

http://www.thecarpetcarenetwork.co.uk/online_booking_form.htm

A great feature

[ianharper]

Hilton

Good answer. and I respect what you say.

Ok, look at it from a different angle. Free listings on google. it takes lots, and lots of time to exploit this but at the end you are still half way down the page. google reserves the best position for its own customers and guess what it costs money.

If you are limiting the amount you earn to others in this case customers how can you be in control of your own future?

marketing is about reach and that reach is limited by your resources. also you have to take into account demand.

What i meant when i was talking about the method is that these forums get many more readers than posters, so by confirming that it works and it works "really well" that's all many need to copy and before you know it your edge has gone.

If it works for him great, when we get an idea its good to bounce it off other that we respect. we have the choice to take it on or not. sometimes words can sound much harder than they are meant if those same words where spoken and heard your understanding of what is meant might be different.

Plus you have to take into account anyone on here that's on the receiving end. they will need to know how to deal with this new  (to them) approach. which I might add there is.

One last thought. many don't like low price cleaning because it shows up their own lack of know how in marketing. get a few well paid jobs each week and your winning. or be in control and be able to turn the work on and off as you like. That's what I am looking for. had it once with my maid service.

On the positive side, this method has a silver lining if you can get it to work. as your week fills up with work the price you get will increase as your time is now worth more. but if you just add staff on at any price the overheads will start to eat into any profit. so it can be an end to a means.

Great Respect

Ian Harper

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I must have missed something here or I'm just thick.

How does it actually work?

Shaun

[David_Annable]

Hi

Surely the limitation is that it only works at one price point (average), not at different price points.

Dave

[Mike Halliday]

the more i read this reply the more I think it actually says nothing and any of us could have written it

 I've put some replies  in red but most people on this site could have answered the same. but the difference between us is we don't have to use clever marketing like...... the customer decides the price....

no offence is meant to Monty we all choose how we do business but i would appreciate a more detailed answer rather than this little sermon

.

Well, what can I say, some good comments and some bad ones !!!!

So here we go then.......

Firstly, I am NOT new to the CLEANING industry. yep, same here

Secondly, I DONT work the LEAST amount of hours for the MOST that I can get. yep same as me

My clients get 100% quality 100% of the time - and I get LOADS of Referrals - thus the cycle repeats yep same as me.

Whether it be a £30 job or a £100 job, the job is done to the best possible standard - In return we get FREE advertising. yep same as me

Has anybody learnt anything yet ?

Thirdly,  OK here we go then......... Call yourself professional business men/people.  We are trained operators oh and yes insured(.yep same as me) Second if you look at the number it is an 0844 number and guess what.... cost me nothing,( got me thier mate my number cost me about £3 a week) : neither did the other 30 that I have got.

The web site you are going on about.... www.carpetcleanersinchesterfield.co.uk... That was free aswell   got me  again , lmine cost £7-50 a year  but guess what!!! Thats not the main website of my business... That was just put there for the domain name. (Like others have done in this area)

This one is my main website www.thecarpetcarenetwork.co.uk oh and how many different areas do we clean in??? How many websites do we have linked to our network??? None of these cost me anything neither... why... because I have built them all myself>>> from scratch, not a template...oh and I get free hosting for LIFE with each domain name. oh by the way, I have a brain aswell, I am not just a CLEANER.

As for the idea well all I will say is "Its works and my clients love it". I do not earn any less than I did before ... infact doing very well. same here

Being a carpet cleaner is not just about being able to clean carpets and upholstery correctly..., if you had any brain in your heads, you would realise that I am actually running a business running a bisiness?  yep that what I'm doing, maybe rather than B****ing about what others are doing, you should perhaps concentrate on your own businesses and maybe, yes maybe, they might become sucessful one day. I'm already succesful

Any questions ?