[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

Matt without being too harsh your low prices may have been one of the main reasons you decided to give up.

Takings should never be confused with earnings and low prices lead to a lack of money to invest in equipment, marketing and all the other things which lead to a successful business.

Cheers

Doug

[richy27]

matt this i not personal at all but from a perspectve of someone who decided to throw in the towel what do you think the reasons were . did your costs rise and you struggled to raise your prices.

I would actually say you are correct charging low prices does not make you a bad cc . but from what i can gather companies that charge rock bottom prices work on massive volume to prob only record sim profits as a one man band.   but in these times the customers who choose the cheapest because there decision was purely and simple made by price are in my opinion the customer sector that has dramatically dropped off .

One thing i am sure off is i get a lot lot less price shoppers this last year and my conversion from call to job is a lot higher. this i why i have come to the previous conclusion stated because those price shoppers generally are the ones who are just looking for the cheapest price poss and have got no perception on quality of workmanship.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

If you sell on price then you have nothing left to give.

Sell on quality and the price is only one factor.

Cheers

doug

[richy27]

Hi Guys

If you sell on price then you have nothing left to give.

Sell on quality and the price is only one factor.

Cheers

doug

spot on

[Neil Williams]

Matt without being too harsh your low prices may have been one of the main reasons you decided to give up.

Although Matt is in the same county (albeit about 30 miles away) I can understand what he has been up against with that crock of pooe doing his area.
When they are bombarding an area with telesales 'promising' £8.99 cleans and getting them, it doesn't leave much for those who advertise via books, leaflets and the web.
BTW I wouldn't know Matt if he walked passed me and said "Hi I'm Matt" so having a go at him was a little unfair when he can't get the phone to ring.

[clinton]

Spot on doug with the quote that if you sell on price you have nothing left to give..

Least you have a go mat and maybe the new business in transport will be the one for you mate.

[The Great One]

Hi

People will always price shop.

You go shopping, a bag of one brand of sugar is £1.38 and the other £1.70 for the same thing, most of us would go for the cheaper bag.

Same for any service, people phone around for quotes.

Martin

[ianharper]

Guys

the business model i follow now is priced based but thats because i have free time on my hands. when i dont have that then i will put my prices up.

when i am not working my price i sell my time at goes down and the more i work the more it goes up.

Now if i had staff things would be a bit different.

finding out how much YOUR type of customer costs has to be key to them repeating the process to move up the levels of business.

Has anyone found their repeatable reliable marketing method yet?

Respect

Ian Harper

[jasonl]

My repeatable method is ,

web, leaflet, trade shows, parish mags, then market to the customers obtained relentlessly. Give excellent service .

It has been said before that no failed carpet cleaner could not clean carpets , just could not market properly.

[Mike_Roper]

Doing a job the other day when they got an asda delivery  .The asda guy said he used todo carpet cleaning, just used a wet vac. Did a load before xmas where he was doing full houses for £50 , taking 2 hrs, good money he said.
The mind boggles!
Mike

[clinton]

Its good money mike till he has to start replacing a vehicle or a machine upgrade etc

Then a year or two down the line realises there is nothing left in the pot i guess..

[Mike_Roper]

Not unheard of to use a watering can to apply cleaner , brush in then suck up with wt vac
Mike

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Look at his out goings

Has a car already
Buy some detergent
Probably bough a wet vac
Some leaflets

Just needs customers, £50 less say costs of shall we say £10 for him leaves him £40 for the 2 hours CASH bet he doesn't get that at Tescos!

Some customers aren't bothered if you are insured or not or what you use or if they will use you again it's a one off purchase, I bet lots of things go wrong but they know the score but that's what they see as 'value' the risk is cheap cleaning but nobody says that anything can go wrong all they want is a slightly brighter carpet not the softer feel or drier or stain free or residue free that we offer.

Education is paramount but you have to choose to who will listen.

Shaun

[robert meldrum]

In the past week I've looked at two web sites advertising carpet cleaning at very low prices. One in London adverising £20 for a lounge carpet, the other in Glasgow and Sheffield offering THREE CARPETS for just £38

Both had professional web sites and both were running T/M's................so it's not just part timers or newstarts charging low prices.

[wynne jones]

With a truckmount you can easily ramp things up by offering £20 for each room in the house. A typical three bedder with HSL you could walk away with over a ton. It's getting the phone to ring and getting in there that's 3/4 of the job. 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Robert which website was offering 2 for £38 in Sheffield?

Shaun

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

Ian I can see from your adwords title that you are offering cheap cleaning.

What happens when you get recommendations and repeat business, you can hardly double your price just because your busy!

Cheers

Doug

[Carpet Dawg]

I was thinking the same.
How do you justify charging more the next time the customer wants something cleaned? Might only be a month or two down the line.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I think the best way of doing cheaper carpet cleaning is to 'bundle' it up like the Americans do,

3 room special $ 69 or whatever, at least you'd get a decent spend.

I once saw a half price cc company do a package system where they offered £18 for basic £25 for medium and £35 for gold, (can't remember actual prices) this also went onto bundles so you got full house basic £75, medium £100 and £125 gold great way of upselling.

Shaun

[clinton]

I saw an add in a local paper in the cheshire area and they do a suite and carpet for 50 pounds...

Shaun yes wouldnt you try and do a good few carpets in the clients house and walk out with over a ton.

As wynne posted its getting them to ring first so mwe get the chance to use the bulk selling.

Many cleaners used to have a price guide for each room etc and now it seems more are offering bulk cleans much cheaper.Maybe thats going to be the trend.