[garry22]

I am seriously thinking of taking away the e mail contact form on my next rebuilds of my cleaning sites. I am wondering whether having a phone only option will filter out people who send emails like this which I opened this morning...

This was sent just before ten o'clock last night.

"Just been looking at your website and was wondering whether you carry out residential property carpet clearning? I need the work carrying out tomorrow for two rooms (living room and sitting room). The rooms are approx 11ftx10ft each and the property is in XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Can you please provide a quote and a contact number? The carpet is cream and im not expecting a perfect outcome but  a slight improvement would be great. The carpet is not in a "uncleanable" state.

I have some tennants moving in so in a rush! ;-)  ..."

I'm sure the gent was serious but do they really expect people to deal with things at such short notice? I find the ones that leave it this late are the ones that create the most problems.

Has anybody else had this sort of query?

[JandS]

Do it if you can don't if not.
Better these responses than no response.
One day you might be at a loose end and voila.

John

[wynne jones]

One page one job, CALL ME NOW! 

[Jim_77]

The guy asked for your contact number... is it not on the website

To be honest this doesn't sound too bad an enquiry, some folks genuinely don't appreciate that  we aren't sitting at home with the engine running waiting for them to ring!

Personally I would have emailed him back with an estimate, a bit of sales spiel and said I could do it late afternoon as soon as I'd finished my scheduled day's work.  Sounds like the best part of £100 sitting there to be earned!!

[derek west]

i agree with J.J.J..... i agree with J.J.J......(just say it derek) okay okay, i agree with jim on this one and would of tried my utmost to get round to cleaning it, possibly more work to come if he's a landlord, i work for 2 indie landlords worth about £1000 a year each. kerrrrching.

make hay while the sunshines i say. ya never know when the phone will go dead, and it will.

[Neil Williams]

E-mail enquiries.....tend to fall into one catogry
Other cleaning businesses trying to find out what your prices are etc.

[Matt Seymour]

I tend to find that any email enquiry that doesn't include a phone number for me to call the potential customer on are timewasters.

I still reply to those who don't provide a phone number, but I very rarely hear from them again. Probably the competition trying to get a heads up on my pricing.

As for short notice jobs... I will take them all day long.

[peter maybury]

I do a few hundred pounds worth of short notice work every week. I only now advertise on the internet and treat every enquiry seriously.
If you guys are doing that well that you can afford to ignore somebody who has, (no matter how lacking in detail) taken the trouble to make an enquiriy, you are in a very fortunate position.

Peter

www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[wynne jones]

I got fed up with a high percentage of these emails

Hi

How much to clean a carpet?

I just send an email back saying to call.

[Adam P]

i have no clue how someone emailing you for a last minute clean has anything to do with the downside to websites.

[suffolkclean]

I sounds like your a little annoyed Garry you are being contacted for last minute jobs  : Its the nature of the work we do if we're able to do it we will, if busy then apologise & let them know when you can. Websites are a great source of advertising there is no downside.
B

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I don't think Garry is fed up with 'last minuters' IMO, I'd say that he wants them to call as to get an immediate response not sending an email back and waiting.

Must admit that when I get these enquiries with no number I don't send a reply as I never get a reply or phone call back.

Shaun

[Andy Foster]

If you don't want to be contacted by email then don't put your email address on there... simples!

I love email enquiries, 2 weeks ago I got one for a leather clean of a 2 seater sofa, turned into a repair job on 6 seats (£500) and the guy is a property manager for a builder/developer so have quoted for £3k pa worth of work on the top of the sofa restoration.

Emails are a way for busy people to contact you.

[garry22]

Guys,

It's not the last minute ones I have a problem with.

I rescheduled a days work yesterday to fit an existing customer in who had a problem that needed sorting there and then. The customer that got moved to accommodate this will get something for free. I also have property managers who regularly have emergency last minute EOT jobs.

What I neglected to say was the gentleman's name and where he was. The area is a dodgy inner city area where (how do I say this?) you are more likely to see a lion than a Christian! I would fully expect the customer to ask for both carpets for £ 8.99 and the slightly dirty carpets to be minging. That is the general pattern with these sort of enquiries, particularly in this part of town and I've got fed up with it.

I am involved with another site which covers the whole of the UK and we actively encourage email enquiries with photographs.

Jim, the number is on the site.

Thanks for your input, there are some good points made here.

Garry

[Adam P]

oh i think i understand now. as the website can be found by anyone and not just the nice houses you leaflet and focus on then you're getting enquiries from the cheapskates? Doubt there is much you can do to stop that other then post minimum charge prices and also just ignore them. after all to read those emails it takes a few seconds before you decide whether it's worth a reply or not and move on.

[matthew martin]

i would have got back to him all jobs done well can lead on to other jobs and this is how we build our business.you are right some people leave it to the last min but thats life and when you are working for youself you have to take the rough with the smooth.

happy carpet cleaning

[garry22]

I did get back to him. Answered that one first. Said we were booked several days ahead (truth) and wished him well.