[Tom White]

I think this is not a good idea.

[sgibsoncleaning]

i was in retail for several years and the loss leader advert was aimed to get more customer in the door buy the partiular product and then buy other things and return, most of the time they came in bought the item and fecked off never to be seen again. the more succesful advert highlighted the range of products and the competitive prices.

[G Griffin]

any offers smack of desperation,same as when i get a domino pizza leaflet saying 2 for price of 1 ,i know they are struggling to take up the slack.     as said above you only want the ordinary folk who want a fair price and no airheads

I thought Domino`s Pizza were quite successful. 

[Tom White]

If you're short of work:

1.  Knock on doors.
2.  Leaflet.
3.  Put adverts up in shops.
4.  Ask current customers to recommend you to their friends and family.
5.  Sign written vans/uniforms can't hurt.
6.  Advertise verbally to your current customers about gutter cleaning, or whatever add ons you do.

But a blanket £10 for all doesn't sound good to me.  In any area there's a range of houses from big to small; from privately owned to social accommodation.  It's purposely planned to be like this, so you cannot possibly gauge an area and say they're all £10 houses.  Some will have access problem, some will have conservatories, some will have extensions.

The type of customers we are after are people who have a few spare quid, who are willing to pay a fair price, REGULARLY, for a regular window cleaning service.

And our business is extremely labour intensive.  We can only clean a finite number of properties in any given day, unlike shops or pizza places who can sell (within reason) an 'infinite' number of products in one day.  Therefore we should be aiming to get the best customers and prices we can for our efforts.

[sgibsoncleaning]

dominos is not a good example as they charge a high price for what is basicly cheese on toast they can off set the deal on the mark up of the product. plus it takes no extra time to cook 2 as it does one.
as tosh said there are a lot of ways to drum up the right sort of new business

[G Griffin]

Domino`s are relatively expensive (so I believe), so the free one is probably accounted for with the one you pay for.
They are still very successful though.

[mci services]

Domino`s are relatively expensive (so I believe), so the free one is probably accounted for with the one you pay for.
They are still very successful though.

price up their windows and I bet they won't pay what you ask

[G Griffin]

Domino`s are relatively expensive (so I believe), so the free one is probably accounted for with the one you pay for.
They are still very successful though.

price up their windows and I bet they won't pay what you ask

It depends what I charge and what you`re willing to bet  .
It`s probably one of the reasons they are successful.   

[mci services]

Domino`s are relatively expensive (so I believe), so the free one is probably accounted for with the one you pay for.
They are still very successful though.

price up their windows and I bet they won't pay what you ask

It depends what I charge and what you`re willing to bet  .
It`s probably one of the reasons they are successful.   

well that is all very true but the idea is still mental : but what do I know richy has employees and loads of vans and I don't, so my opinion doesn't count really

[G Griffin]

Yeah, I know what you mean but it was a bad example to use Domino`s; that was my point.
They aren`t desperate and it is likely to be a very useful marketing strategy; the buy one, get one free.

[spongebob]

I have a very basic home printed flyer that I use only in my village and close by. It states who I am and my address. I have on there that i charge £10 for a standard 3/4 bed house. I don't see the problem.
I have gained loads of work from it. I can walk most of that work if needs be. There are some that should be £8 or £12. Anymore than that and I remind them their house is not what I view as standard. I can choose to clean it or not - no one can make me. Usually i get it at the £15 or whatever it needs to be.

The bottom line is I am building my core business on my doorstep at £10 per house. It has cost me about £200 in canvassing/free first cleans for reccos etc to gain roughly £600 monthly work in this way. I work hard and fast and this little lot does me nicely thankyou. It's all within 1 mile radius of my home. With rising fuel costs and travelling time becoming an issue this matters.

Richy I think you should push it more. A tenner is fine for most people. When you miss a month collecting they are only parting with a £20. More than that and the husband wants to cancel. I can collect any not in on the way to the pub or walking my dog.
I have other custies but I intend to grow these 60ish up to 100 with more canvassing by the end of the summer.
Also a fair few have had fascia cleans, and become plumbing customers as a result of taking up the £10 clean.
When they are close enough together its quite possible to do 25 to 30 a day between two of you. I have two vans and two seperate wfp setups and even after paying staff its a good days work.
Roll up roll up everyone a tenner!!!
Andy

[bobby p]

ive watched a Dominos open in my town earlier this year and it started with a whole load of eager staff but now has only a few who look very jaded too.  they try hard with staff carrying billboards around town who dance with the board and all these special offers leaflets but its tough climate now as it is in our game too .having said that their pizzas are pricey once you get to the ordering stage .  this is just my rambling observ of Dominos and  no they dont have a window cleaner .

then again i suppose you could repeat flyer your area just as Dominos do and it would certainly stick in folks minds that youre the main man for a great deal

[the bfg]

bad idea,  if a leaflet came through my door with the £10 window cleaner on it it would get me thinking pikey and beer brigade.

putting a leaflet out klike that is just saying to other w/cs in your area that your gonns undercut them no matter what

why not on the back of the leaflet put insides cleaned for £12.50 and any takers you can then flog them some clothes pegs and lucky charms  


you need to go and stand in a corner of the room and have a serious word with yourself


but if you are serious then why not come and work for me ?   in fact I could take 12 months off while you clean all my houses for £10 a throw,    you could earn as much as £60 a day on some days  

[AuRavelling79]

It is of course completely nuts. A bit like Honda offering any car for £10,000.

"Hmmm .... Can't seem to sell any Jazz models; but loads of top end Civics and Accords are flying out the door - wonder why?"

 (Rolls eyes)

[spongebob]

Ok then. How many of you on here charge £10 for a 3 bed semi or smallish 4 bed detached. I know BFG is along the M4 from me and Gold is only 30 mins into Bristol.
£10 is the price around here so i'm not setting out to undercut.
My name and  address is on the flyer and people know me in the village and have done for a long time as a heating engineer. I want to use that recognition to jump start the cleaning. A pikey looking leaflet mine isn't. It also has a landline and email address. Most peoples reaction is " great, we didn't know you did, can you put us down on your list". No query on the price and I know the houses anyway so I can price on the phone.
I was only answering the opening thread with a positive take on how its worked for me. BUT for me 90% of these tenners are correctly priced. It is perceived by the customer as open and upfront and if they call it's usually to go ahead based on the above.

you're all welcome to your opinion and I have my business plan. When I have enough of these I can creep the price and introduce extras to boost the round. Take on another staff member and make even more by paying them less than I take per day.

One thing is for sure.
All the talk in the world about it being the right price or not, I'm still pulling in the customers with leaflets and canvassers. There are dozens of conversations on here about knock or not to knock. Leaflet or van wraps etc., etc.  Even if some of my £10's are underpriced it's better than no work coming in because it's all in "the planning stage" or with the printers.  When it becomes a problem I'll deal with it. At the moment its all good profit.
Andy

[Richard iSparkle]

just a thought i had say you called yaself the ten quid cleaner and did any home no matter what the size small or big do you think itd bring in lots of work???

im considering putting an offer on my leaflets 10quid any house for 12months subject to contract etc

you will cause yourself all sorts of problems.  you're service is really well branded so your current customers will find out about the offer, and will want the same offer.  and how will you explain to them that their house you're currently charging £20 for shouldn't be £10 as well?  they are loyal customers after all.

also the people willing to pay £10 for  a clean wont be happy with the the price rise after 12 months, so i guess you'll loose a lot of them if you jump the prices up.

after you have clearly spent a lot of money making your service look very professional, offering rock bottom prices just devalues it.  i'd be very careful

[CLEANCARE WC]

thats business, do you think asda care if they put a special offer on and take business from some one else,

No I suppose not

ASDA HAVE SECURITY CAMERAS EVERYWHERE

[richywilts]

it was just a thought guys that i thought i would run past you all, it wasnt something iv been thinkin of for a long time it just came too me n i thought id ask your opinions, richard thats exactly wat i was thinking about my current customers and brand,

but i dont think ten quid is that cheap and as long as you provided excellent customers service and quality work i dont see the problem with converting the "special offer" customers into regular higher paying customers after 12 months.

its just a way of getting the sceptical people on board ar discounted price to see how the system work etc

[richywilts]

i dont have loadsa van i have one n iv put deposit down on a second!!! im not short of work but i would like too gain a lot more as have taken on my second employee this is reason im looking at gaining new custom as even if it was a 4 bed house maybe worth 20quid the speed these two lads work together even earning ten quid would be a fair price

[richywilts]

also too point out as long as you werent dropping these leaflets to large houses off executive size run of the mill housing estates etc upto 4 bed detached size i dont see the problem in charging ten quid