[stuart mc]

Sorry but I still don't get it. Jo could put out 10,000 leaflets paid for by his security job and sit on his arse or sleep all night. At the moment he's working his nuts off to gain customers at what £5 an hour? No guarantee they will stay on the books either.
He could pick up new work by conventional means and charge full price at least for the first clean possibly 50% more.

I never said I got it either, just asking questions

[jouk45]

i will definitly report back in a few months time, but honestly, i am getting the repeat business, all i do is fitt them in when i am in their area, saves on fuel and time, i keep all my groupon custys seperated in george, and move them into my rounds as i get the nod from them, also i only do w/c, but a lot of you guys do gutter cleaning, pressure washing,ect, so can generate more work from these

[gary999]

There is a cost to Groupon, if you look into it even though they are a huge company with a massive valuation, they have yet to turn a profit!

As for the original story, it was muffin to do with Groupon










I'll get me coat.
[/quote

please do! and close the door behind you!

[AuRavelling79]

There is a cost to Groupon, if you look into it even though they are a huge company with a massive valuation, they have yet to turn a profit!

As for the original story, it was muffin to do with Groupon










I'll get me coat.
[/quote

please do! and close the door behind you!

That one takes the biscuit! 

[Smudger]

it's all a bit airy FAIRY really..... 

[AshWhite]

What have I started??

I'm so sorry.

[robby1]

 

[Crystal-clear]

So , hang on

Groupon get you 98 houses lets round 1 house to one hour as they are ment to be £24 and dont forget they are dirty first cleans,you could maybe do them in half an hour but im sure moral will be low since you are making only £4

so 98 hours you are paid £392 minus your travelling time well thats 2 weeks work after travelling costs and other costs you are earning well below minimum wage.

the only person i see benefits is the customer and unless i read it wrong i also find it hard to believe that you have 100% conversion rate you only cleaned 27 and 27 have chosen to pay you 3x more then they just paid for a first clean for a maintenance clean.? that doesnt sound right please confirm.

Groupon may work and if it works for you somehow thats great,
but i do know the numbers game , i also know customers very well are you certain that 27 are staying on your round and willing to pay you 3x more for a maintenance clean or did i read it wrong ? i know for a fact if any of us clean a house for £8 first time very few will agree to pay us so much more for a maintenance clean?

98 houses can be door knocked quite easily if you had the time in about 45 hours even sooner if you walk fast and if you pick up 98 houses at 1.5x the clean of £24 for example that's £3428 on the first clean alone , even if you are left with 70% on maintenance clean do the maths i just don't see the point of working for £4.

you do need to add the 45 hours canvassing to your first clean hours of in this case 98 houses so at most 98 hours probably 40 mins (moral will be high) but lets just say 98 hours plus 45 hours 143 hours in exchange for three and a half grand or 98 hours in exchange for 392.! not being funny but i can not imagine them sticking after only paying £8 for a £24 job logically if you picked them up yourself and charged them £35 on first clean you will have a higher stick rate,so you having a high stick rate is weird!

unless you use contracts of some kind before you knock out that first clean customers should say ,, Cheers for that we will call you if we ever need you", or thanks for letting us know that we can join the round we will let you know.

if you dont like doorknocking or leafleting and if most are willing to pay you 3x more and if it really does work and customers are sticking in your area , i guess you should keep doing it maybe take a loss on the first clean and employ just to get them done faster

i know for a fact it wont work in my areas and many areas cos
it would be THANNKS, YOURE A STAR , BRILLIANT JOB ,SPEAK TO YOU IN 3 YEARS 

Good luck thou!

p.s hope this post makes some sort of sence , its 3 am friday night , just got back from a night out with the mrs.! gn!

[Perfect Windows]

....
Well in my world, including solus delivery, a very high quality leaflet costs just under 8p.  Let's round it up to the full 8p.  So, I could send out 15,000 leaflets.  At my normal conversion rate of 0.43% that'd give me 64 customers.
....

Vin

Your missing 1 vital point here - the outlay to groupon is zero £££ - to do it your way means shelling out cash - something
that may not be available to everyone - therefore groupon appeals and may work
we were very close to doing a gutter clean promo - but after number crunching ruled it out

i do hope ( for the sake of others and the general 'community' of w/c's) that jo and kev do update us say in march as to how
groupon has affected/benefitted there biz

Darran

Darran,

Yes, I can see that.  Equally, a leaflet doesn't have to be the 3p I pay.  Plenty of people on here use much, much cheaper.  And 98 hours of delivering (much easier than 98 hours of first cleans) would get out about 12,000 leaflets.  I'm choosing to have someone else do them.

I'm not attacking the Groupon solution; it just seems to me (from the numbers) that there are MUCH cheaper/easier ways to get new customers.

Vin

[Perfect Windows]

hi vin, there is no outlay, we can take the gamble small or large jobs, luckily mine have been standard cleans, i said i have 98 custys from groupon, but only done 27, 3 tomorrow the rest have not booked in yet, also custys via groupon direct to my site, who did not buy the groupon deal, they just wanted a w/c 19 to be exact, but as already mentioned, i will see how it goes over the next few months,

You've really converted all 27 people who paid £8 into regular customers at £24?  If so, then I'm deeply impressed. 

A local dentist friend of mine did a deal on initial checkups and got almost no repeat business out of it.  He said it generated a bundle of very price-conscious one-off visitors.  It was just about worth it for him as he'd just started a new practice and was doing nothing at all for most of the day but he says he'd never even consider doing it again.

Vin

[Smudger]

i am be wrong, but i would assume that Jo's repeat customers are not paying £24 for further cleans.

if someone took the groupon deal and has say 6 windows/doors + conny you could quite easy sell future
cleans @ £14 a pop
remember the deal is for upto 24 windows/door + garage door ( who would go for a garage door wash 4 wky ? )
so you could juggle figures accordingly

Darran

[jouk45]

my normal prices round here are £8 and £10 for domestic house, now what i told the groupon rep was, i charge from £24 for a first clean, then the price drops to a regular maintainance clean, so the custys jump at the offer, then when i am done cleaning their house, i then say to them, as a one of special offer, i can clean their windows cills frames doors plus garage, every month for £8 or £10 and yes 27 have taken my deal, especialy after they see what we can do with wfp, you really have to take the opertunty of the deal to sell yourself, and i really do have the gift of the gab, but who knows, maybe a few months down the line, a few will drop of, then again matbe not. also, you are not running around just cleaning groupon cleans all day, you fit them in, as you re working in the area, i dont waste any time, i call or email the night before, saying i will be in the area, most leave their gates open for the backs, or have open planed, so easy access,

[Perfect Windows]

my normal prices round here are £8 and £10 for domestic house, now what i told the groupon rep was, i charge from £24 for a first clean, then the price drops to a regular maintainance clean, so the custys jump at the offer, then when i am done cleaning their house, i then say to them, as a one of special offer, i can clean their windows cills frames doors plus garage, every month for £8 or £10 and yes 27 have taken my deal, especialy after they see what we can do with wfp, you really have to take the opertunty of the deal to sell yourself, and i really do have the gift of the gab, but who knows, maybe a few months down the line, a few will drop of, then again matbe not. also, you are not running around just cleaning groupon cleans all day, you fit them in, as you re working in the area, i dont waste any time, i call or email the night before, saying i will be in the area, most leave their gates open for the backs, or have open planed, so easy access,

That clarifies it a lot.  I hadn't even thought of the £24 being a maximum.  I can see why conversion would be easier than I thought.

Vin

[John F]

my normal prices round here are £8 and £10 for domestic house, now what i told the groupon rep was, i charge from £24 for a first clean, then the price drops to a regular maintainance clean, so the custys jump at the offer, then when i am done cleaning their house, i then say to them, as a one of special offer, i can clean their windows cills frames doors plus garage, every month for £8 or £10 and yes 27 have taken my deal, especialy after they see what we can do with wfp, you really have to take the opertunty of the deal to sell yourself, and i really do have the gift of the gab, but who knows, maybe a few months down the line, a few will drop of, then again matbe not. also, you are not running around just cleaning groupon cleans all day, you fit them in, as you re working in the area, i dont waste any time, i call or email the night before, saying i will be in the area, most leave their gates open for the backs, or have open planed, so easy access,

sounds like a better deal than the first time you described it. that makes some sense. i suppose the trick is to dupe groupon into thinking you are more expensive than you are.

[Dave Willis]

But if you do that don't they take a higher percentage anyway?

[jouk45]

my normal prices round here are £8 and £10 for domestic house, now what i told the groupon rep was, i charge from £24 for a first clean, then the price drops to a regular maintainance clean, so the custys jump at the offer, then when i am done cleaning their house, i then say to them, as a one of special offer, i can clean their windows cills frames doors plus garage, every month for £8 or £10 and yes 27 have taken my deal, especialy after they see what we can do with wfp, you really have to take the opertunty of the deal to sell yourself, and i really do have the gift of the gab, but who knows, maybe a few months down the line, a few will drop of, then again matbe not. also, you are not running around just cleaning groupon cleans all day, you fit them in, as you re working in the area, i dont waste any time, i call or email the night before, saying i will be in the area, most leave their gates open for the backs, or have open planed, so easy access,

sounds like a better deal than the first time you described it. that makes some sense. i suppose the trick is to dupe groupon into thinking you are more expensive than you are.

i know a lot of you guys in england, get at least double what i make for a house, so yes if planed out carfully, even with groupon taking their share, you could earn good money, you make the deal, not groupon, its negotiable with them, the rest is basicly letting the buyers think they are getting a great bargain, just back from cleaning a big farm house, took me an hour, was very dirty, she is now monthly £15 but you need to be prepared to take the good with the bad, most for me has been reasonably good,

[Crystal-clear]

my normal prices round here are £8 and £10 for domestic house, now what i told the groupon rep was, i charge from £24 for a first clean, then the price drops to a regular maintainance clean, so the custys jump at the offer, then when i am done cleaning their house, i then say to them, as a one of special offer, i can clean their windows cills frames doors plus garage, every month for £8 or £10 and yes 27 have taken my deal, especialy after they see what we can do with wfp, you really have to take the opertunty of the deal to sell yourself, and i really do have the gift of the gab, but who knows, maybe a few months down the line, a few will drop of, then again matbe not. also, you are not running around just cleaning groupon cleans all day, you fit them in, as you re working in the area, i dont waste any time, i call or email the night before, saying i will be in the area, most leave their gates open for the backs, or have open planed, so easy access,

That clarifies it a lot.  I hadn't even thought of the £24 being a maximum.  I can see why conversion would be easier than I thought.

Vin

yes this clears alot up , i would tell gruopon its £50 then lol

[Pope vader]

first off  if it is getting you custy then great,  if groupon was where i lived i would give it a try,

an hour for a first clean?  i dont spend a hour on a first clean,   just stiff brush and up flow,  or a lot trying to justify the higher charge

[Crystal-clear]

no we thought his normal price was 24 quid you can assume that could be 40 mins.
its all cleared up now , houses are only £10 cant see it being much longer then 10 15 mins.

look maybe groupon is the answer who knows.

[Steve_c]

hard work lol  the deal was glass frames cills external doors incl garage door, normal price £24  for grupon custys £8, i get £4 now i know i am having to work a bit harder first time, but after that, the repeat business is mine, and it is paying of, no canvassing or door knocking, or fliers, no outlay,  your guaranteed the custys,

Mate if you think you will keep your new customers once you have done them for peanuts even if they say yes to a monthly bi-monthly clean your sadly deluded.