[Nigel_W]

Mike,

When I finish a job for a new client I always try to have a discussion about how often to clean and when would they like me to contact them again. e.g. 6 months, 1 year, 18 months. If they tell me 18 months it goes into my system and I will get a reminder to contact them on the appointed day. I usually email or text to avoid difficult conversations
I normally get  response of great thanks for the reminder - book me in or not yet contact me again in 6 months.

It keeps the contact going and seems to work well for me.

Nigel

[elliott cleaning]

..........I do not spend anywhere near £800 per month on advertising but what I do spend puts me over the v.a.t. threshhold by several times and my business could not sustain the % - turnover cost of your advertising.


Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

Peter
If what your turning over  sends you 'over the vat threshold by several times' you must be turning over a minimum of 220k. What Mike spends on advertising is shy of 10k - which in your case would be less than 5%.  Totally realistic for any business.  May I ask where all your expenditure goes that makes this sort of figure on advertising unsustainable for your business

[Tony Rowley]

Mike

I believe the answer to your question is NO!

Tony

[Simon Gerrard]

Mike,
You might have a full diary but it comes at one hell of a cost, when most of it should be costing you nothing. I think your problem is one of complacency. If you had things in balance then you'd still have a full diary, but without the £800 per month bill.

Simon

[wynne jones]

Mike,

When I finish a job for a new client I always try to have a discussion about how often to clean and when would they like me to contact them again. e.g. 6 months, 1 year, 18 months. If they tell me 18 months it goes into my system and I will get a reminder to contact them on the appointed day. I usually email or text to avoid difficult conversations
I normally get  response of great thanks for the reminder - book me in or not yet contact me again in 6 months.

It keeps the contact going and seems to work well for me.

Nigel

Spot on, and if you are charging good prices you aren't having to rush off to your next job.

[Nigel_W]

....... and to answer your original question ...I think customer loyalty is only partially affected by price.


It is affected by value for money and whatever that represents for your type of client.  My clients pay me relatively high prices but still consider me to be good value and are very loyal to me. I now only  work for repeat or referred clients . if I push the price too high they may go elsewhere but there are many other factors that might make them go away too. e.g. quality of work, personality, presentation, and on and on. We all focus too much on price - it is not always the deciding factor - in fact for my clients it is almost never the deciding factor.

Nigel

[Simon Gerrard]

I think price is only a factor if the quality doesn't match the price, otherwise people will always pay your price, despite cheaper cleaners.

Simon

[elliott cleaning]

Totally concur with Nigel and Simon. It is all about  'quality, presentation & personality'.

But then are we looking at it from only one angle.  Our business comes predominantly from reps & refs.  With most of my refs bookings, price does not even come into the discussion.

However, have we pitched our Market into a certain sector??

The other end of the Market may well be very price conscious and more Groupon orientated

[john sliman]

Mike you said that you spend a lot of time writing post cards to send out to previous customers there is a programme which is ideal for carpet cleaners to list customers and merge mail responses out to customers in minutes without the tedious job of hand writing post cards I obviously don't want to name the programme in case i am breaching forum rules.
john

[Robin Ray]

I agree with Nigel repeat work is so much more than price. Its all about trust once you have that people come back year after year. I don't think its something which can be learned on a course or conveyed by a leaflet or an add or a fancy website. Its just about asking what would I want to happen if I were the customer how does that individual customer need to be treated, what are their interests beyond the job in hand, how do I become the person they want to invite back in to their home and trust in their personal space.

[John Higgins]

Mike ask your customers
it might be worthwile in going back through your'e bookings from a couple of years ago. and call 20 to 30 of your
clients who haven not booked again with you  and ask them why. should only take a most a couple of hours.

good bad or indiffrent at least you will know why

[derek west]

maybe your doing such a fantastic job, and the carpets look so pristine that the owners are extremely careful, shoes off, matts at door etc... plus the fact that absolutely no residue is left so carpet aren't attracting any soil whatsoever and therefore are lasting years and years before they need another clean.

[Helen]

maybe your doing such a fantastic job, and the carpets look so pristine that the owners are extremely careful, shoes off, matts at door etc... plus the fact that absolutely no residue is left so carpet aren't attracting any soil whatsoever and therefore are lasting years and years before they need another clean.

You might just be right, perhaps leaving a 'measured' amount of detergent in the carpet might just result in more regular work from the same people. (not that I would advocate such methods)

[Tony Stewart]

Hi Mike
In marketing terms people who have used you before are much more likely to use you again. They have experienced what you do to the standard you do it and are probabaly very pleased with the result. As said before, why not take 150 customers from your list and send them a personalised letter. Not a leaflet but a letter. Again in marketing terms sometimes a leaflet (which many people associated with lower priced advertising campains for "instant" results) is less likely to work on the repeats but a longer letter is sometimes a better approach.
Send them a sort of 5 around letter saying that you cleaned their upholstery/carpets last year/18 months ago and give them te benefits of clean carpets etc etc. Don't make it tacky but you may like to offer them a welcome back offer of say 10% off if their cleaning bill comes to over £100 say. You could just leave it at 10% as you have the information on record as to what previous customers have spent anyway.
In industry terms a response rate of 5% is the norm and on repeat customer lists then it can rise to 10% if the customers are recent. By recent I don't mean last week I mean recent in the ready to buy stakes i.e. 12 months.
Try it you have a database to die for and I am sure with a bit of effort you will reap rewards.
I think perhaps with you (and I mean this totally respectfully!) you advertise @£800 a month and are rammed busy so it sort of works, so you keep going but it's called "churn rate", you need to use your customers to repeat a bit more.
Another Tony earlier mentioned 20% repeats which in my new business is what I identified. I know you guys are experienced carpet cleaners but I used to work in the media and direct mail for a PLC.

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

"Mikes is right it is legitimate to have a limited company and a sole tradership with both taking under the vat threshold. If you had 2 sole traderships then it would be different and you would be liable for vat."

PoppyCock.......Yes maybe if they were diferent type's of business, but not 2 cleaning companys!


"as I  have said in the past I'm an employee of the company, I also have a small business working independently as a sole trader which does the power washing side."

Mmmmm..... very dodgy ground........The only reason to do this is, is to avoid VAT.
The inland revenue are not STUPID.
This smacks of artificial separation as they are both cleaning companys.
I think you need to be carefull what you say on a public forum!

[Colin Day]

maybe your doing such a fantastic job, and the carpets look so pristine that the owners are extremely careful, shoes off, matts at door etc... plus the fact that absolutely no residue is left so carpet aren't attracting any soil whatsoever and therefore are lasting years and years before they need another clean.

You might just be right, perhaps leaving a 'measured' amount of detergent in the carpet might just result in more regular work from the same people. (not that I would advocate such methods)

Many a true word is said in Jest.... 

[derek west]

i was actually being serious, never seen eye to eye with mike but got a lot of respect for his passion for cleaning.

[robert meldrum]

   You might just be right, perhaps leaving a 'measured' amount of detergent in the carpet might just result in more regular work from the same people. (not that I would advocate such methods)


                                                                                                                                       This was common practice ( not necessarily deliberate ) years ago when the only products available were high foaming and soapy detergents.

The difference today is huge and I've found with return customers of the once or twice a year variety, that in general, the carpets do stay cleaner for much longer but, fortunately, people get careless and tracking will always occur so they still need attention.

[robert meldrum]

i was actually being serious, never seen eye to eye with mike but got a lot of respect for his passion for cleaning.

That's 'cause he's Big Mike.

[derek west]

i was actually being serious, never seen eye to eye with mike but got a lot of respect for his passion for cleaning.

That's 'cause he's Big Mike.

didn't realise you knew him that well robert, i'll take your word on that one if thats okay.