[Shaun_Ashmore]

Supermarkets do this but can switch it on and off to suit the season, upto Xmas there are no or little offers in the new year there are lots but they can blame suppliers for the change in price.

Shaun

[peter maybury]

a lot of the time the problem of price is in your own minds, it is up to you to get the message accross to the customer that standards vary and not all people are honest caring individuals. Everyone on this forum will have low priced compettiion in their areas,, selling your service is part of the business and if you cannot do that you will fail. It does no good to ponder about it all the time, When you have customers on the phone you have their attention until you give them the price you have to sell your services before that. I pride myself on being better and using better equipment and people will pay for that.
I have some real idiots cleaning carpet around me and I am quite happy to put myself into a different price bracket so that I will not get associated with them.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[robert meldrum]

Shaun

" Please accept our apologies if we failed to turn up............."

That statement is there for all to see when I put glasgowcarpetcleaner.com  in the search facility.

It takes you to a site called Perfect Clean making claims to be the best carpet cleaning around and with an offer to clean three carpets for £38.00

They say the operate in Glasgow and Sheffield............but they also appear to have mentions in Aberdeen and elsewhere. A Glasgow address is listed and an address which surprised me.

They list an address in the Phoenix Business Centre in Limwood which is where I 've been based for the past 10 years but never seen their rather hard to miss vans.

Passed an advert of their's today ---the tie on a traffic light pole type ----with the £38.00 offer.

Passed a set of traffic lights an hour ago with one of their tied on adverts bearing the OFFER..........
3 carpets for £38.00.

[happy mondays]

3 bed empty house more like 3 hours.
I charge £95 for average sized 3 bed semi.
Tell them may be up/down a little if room
sizes differ from what they tell me but rare
I change it.
If anything there usually under sized with
one bedroom sometimes just a box room.

John

John, IMO this price is not enough, I have cc's round me charging these very silly prices, they use good methods and very expensive equipment...  as you also maybe do.

You should be charging at least £95.00 just for the 3 bedrooms!

If all cc's on here and others that deliver a quality service stuck to at least £3.00 per sq metre, our lives would be better and much easier when quoting  

I have two jobs consisting of the deep cleans of some toilets at two locations booked in for nxt week, it will be 50 man hours, my earnings will be around £900.00 after tax, all other overheads and wages for my 6hrs work.  This work requires a rotary and two black pads, a wet vac, 4 buckets, 4 staff (paid time and a half) some cloths, gloves, hot water and a few quids worth of chemicals.

regards,

Paul    

[Matt Seymour]

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

The main reason I gave up was simply because it was getting harder and harder to gain work and keep the phone ringing. I was making a reasonable living charging lower prices - certainly enough to hit the targets I set myself.

When you are a newbie and have lot of competition including a shower like Enterprise running a huge operation you find yourself fighting for crumbs of work. They are turning over £20k + a week and have a fairly large telesales team on the phone at least 6 days a week offering the £8.99 bait and switch scam. It's very hard to compete with that.

I also had some well meaning but misguided people in my area distributing leaflets warning about a rogue carpet cleaning company. Unfortunately, the leaflets didn't bother to name the company in question, so that didn't help either.

I have spoken to an awful lot of people about Enterprise over the last year or so and it is amazing just how many people have had them in to "clean" their carpets. Everybody seems to know someone who has fallen for the scam. It is little wonder there isn't much work going around here at the moment.

[derek west]

aren't they the same people that will never use them again but still will want to use a carpet cleaner in the future, my campaign would be.....

have you been scammed by carpet cleaners in the past, blah blah blah we're honest cc, no hard sell, the price i quote is the price you blah blah blah.
simples

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Derek has hit the nail on the head there it's all about adapting to the market, Chemdry would be out of business if it was all about the cheapest, yes they can have bigger marketing budgets but that brings more expenditure, Chemdry franchisees only start off the same as you and me.

Shaun

[jasonl]

I was speaking to a Chem dry today , on one insurance contract they have , they can only charge £75 to clean a 3 bed house full of carpets.

[Neil Williams]

have you been scammed by carpet cleaners in the past, blah blah blah we're honest cc, no hard sell, the price i quote is the price you blah blah blah.
simples

Like that, might just use that on future leaflets

[Matt Seymour]

aren't they the same people that will never use them again but still will want to use a carpet cleaner in the future, my campaign would be.....

have you been scammed by carpet cleaners in the past, blah blah blah we're honest cc, no hard sell, the price i quote is the price you blah blah blah.
simples

I did think about doing something like that Derek. I mentioned the term "bait and switch" on the website and also the fixed price stuff etc but never tried it with leaflets.

In the end I just felt like this was a bad time to be a newbie in this industry in this particular part of the country. I had a choice between spending quite a lot on more marketing or cutting my losses. With all things considered I didn't see throwing money at it being likely to make a significant difference.

[The Great One]

Hi

We all know our particular area and what is working and what isn't.

Matt obviously feels that carrying on is throwing good money after bad and is probably tired of the constant struggle.

yes, with hard work he may come out of it, or he may end up in more debt.

there comes a time in almost every business where you feel it's not worth going on and you have to weigh up your own personal circumstances.

good luck matt

Martin

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

Matt I apreciate what you have said and you have been brave and honest facing this  setback which will stand you in good stead for the future, good luck.

Coming back to prices the nearer you are to the bait and switchers will make you more likely to be dragged into the 'just another  CC' bracket, whereas at the middle to higher end you can stand more aloof.

Cheers

Doug

[robert meldrum]

Wynne

Your comment about how quickly a t/m operator can skim over three rooms has no relevence to my post which was about companies with quality web sites, memberships of NCCA,etc, highly visible vans and a high monetary investment............but pricing at low ( not moderate ) low prices.

With their massive investment they will need to get a huge volume of work and work at least 5 LONG days each week.

If they were using a small van and low cost portable they would still need a reasonably high volume but would be in profit much earlier.

[JandS]

"You should be charging at least £95.00 just for the 3 bedrooms!"

For 90 minutes work if that?
I like to think I give value for money.
Two 3m x 4m bedrooms and a box room £95, I don't think so.
It would be nice though.

John

[Matt Seymour]

Hi

We all know our particular area and what is working and what isn't.

Matt obviously feels that carrying on is throwing good money after bad and is probably tired of the constant struggle.

yes, with hard work he may come out of it, or he may end up in more debt.

there comes a time in almost every business where you feel it's not worth going on and you have to weigh up your own personal circumstances.

good luck matt

Martin

Thanks Martin.

I'm not afraid of hard work and I'm sure I could have kept going had my heart really been in it, but it would have been an awful lot of hard work for little reward.

I hope that most carpet cleaners will get through these tough times and be stronger for it. I dare say it will also teach people a few valuable lessons as a result of having to put more thought into getting business and trying different things.