[Bartlomiej]

Hello everyone,
It may be a stupit question but how do you guys cope with pet hairs on the carpet and upholstery ? Would sebo 360 be enough to remove them off the carpet or should I invest in additional tool for pet hair only ?

Dont want to create another thread...I come across the company who cleans full 3 bed house for £80 !!! How do you compete with this. I kind of understand that all depends on the market but come on !!! £80 is it for real !? In my area the prices for 3 bed house are in average £120 does it sound right for you ? I once been quoted £278

Thanks in advance.

[Mike Halliday]

I’ve always though that static makes hairs stick to carpets & fabrics, wetness kills static so a light mist with a spray bottle then a brush will collect any hairs.

There are different levels of service each charging a different price,  you can charge £80 and give £80 worth of cleaning or you can charge £280 and give that amount of value.

Lower prices can put people off, when my wife and I book hotels & holidays the websites often give the option on how you want the choices listed...... low price to high price....; high price to low price..... most recommended ..... highest review etc..etc

if all people chose on price alone why give the other options? ( Personally we look at best reviews first) we never even look at the lowest priced hotels,  we know they will not match our expectations

This is how life is, price is  not the overriding concern of many buyers, it’s just the biggest concern to uninformed carpet cleaners

[Mr Dvae]

3 bed house for £80.?  It’s a loss leader advert, it gets the phone to ring, then you up sell. Many companies use this bait and switch method of advertising, they will hwe extraction your carpets and may not even include any chemical. They up sell by recommending a more comprehensive service, if you choose the cheap one and are not satisfied with the result,  it’s the customers fault as they went against the recommendation.  It’s a win win situation for the cleaning company, but a win or lose for the customer. It makes good money.

[dustee]

Guarantee at that price they won't pre-vac let alone have a decent extraction machine , so still leaving you with dirty carpets with the addition of now being pi$$ed wet through

[derikraven]

Re pet hairs............if all else fails try a good pair of trainers and do the Michael Jackson moonwalk  ( works for me )

[Mike Halliday]

The problem with the cheap companies is some of them try and do the best job possible it’s not their Fault they charge £80 it’s what they think companies charge, they spend their time on Facebook seeing adverts for really cheap companies and think that’s the going rate.

They earned £400 working in a factory and now think if they can earn  £100 a day £500 a week for 5-6hrs a day  they are living the dream. They convince themselves they are decent,  honest people who are charging the right price and those carpet cleaners who charge double or triple what they charge are ripping off people.

[COLIN BRIGHT]

i find a cheap rubber brush is the best for pet hairs, like mike says a quick mist and hairs are removed much easier. i have bought one of those " the best upholstery brushes in the world" or something like that, cost about £14 ish and its ok but no better than my old pound shop rubber  brush that after 10 years sadly worn out,
as far as the £80 full house guy.............DONT LET IT STRESS YOU... every area has these guy so let all the cheapskate employ them.. i concentrate on what i do and provide the best service i can, i charge probably £300-£500 depending on the house, not everyone will pay that but the ones that do tend to use your services again and again and also are more likey to recommend you.
i dont give a flying fig leaf about all the "competition" because in reality they are NO competition

[Bartlomiej]

Thank you for your kind response. I will look into some brushes thought I may need additional hoover for pet hair.
I will put the £80 price to the side and I focus on my prices then, it wont be as much as £300 bucause in our market I would not get a phone ring but it will not be £80. I am thinking more of a minimum £40 for the first room/area then £15/£20 for additional room (to start with) not sure if the market allows me to do anything higher than this but I am still looking into this and I hope i could get it a bit higher. Of course, carpet protection will be charged on top.
If you dont mind me asking what do you charge for end of tenancy ? Would you charge normal price plus some % on top ? I have noticed that most of the companies in here charge roughly £50 extra.

[COLIN BRIGHT]

personally i dont do EOT

[derikraven]

personally i dont do EOT

Why not, it's work isn't it?  Why should EOT's be any different from any other job?

[Mike Halliday]

I find EOT to be a ball ache, if the tenants paying they want the cheapest price possible so they can prove they have had the carpets cleaned, if it’s the letting agent then they want you to pick up the keys, they take ages to pay and want it doing to suit them.

The worst thing about letting agent agents is the stuck up receptionist with a superiority  complex who calls you, talks to you like you’re poo on her shoe and are at her beck & call.

When my phone rings and I hear.... ‘we have a property on......" I feel like just hanging up

[DB]

Interesting post..

First...Pet hair....a darned nuisance....rubber brush is ideal, a hand version of which I bought some years ago from a pet shop,

Pricing... one of my favourite  sayings is 'ignorance is bliss'
Years ago it was used as a derogatory term but not for me.... I haven't a clue what other cleaners charged in my area and if I don't know I can't worry about it.

Charging per room...many of you do it....but a room can be any size...I remember cleaned a 70 square yard lounge on one occasion...
Thank heaven I always  measured my jobs

[COLIN BRIGHT]

Personally, like mike, I find them a pain in the arse, besides I just don't need that type of work, after years of building up a business ,I like the easy life

[Mr Dvae]

Mike, the trick is to fart loudly in front of the receptionist.  They serve you straight away and they certainly don’t want you hanging around to get paid. Ha ha.

[Nigel Davies]

Great tip about the hair Mike. I used it today on brown carpet covered in Golden Retriever hair - all gone in seconds!!

[MarkSutcliffe]

I've got a car pet hair remover from ebay for a fiver.. works brill..

Sometimes the amount of hair won't ever get shifted.. one of those things..

Price wise is a rock and hard place....  Over 50 carpet cleaners in my local area, I reckon i'm in the top 15 ish price wise..

£90 for a 2 piece suite
£45 first room, £25 each after (upto 25m2),

Soon as i started charging by size rather than per room, sales dropped massively and conversion dropped..

I'm never going to be rich from it, but I'm also quite "comfortable".  However I live in quite a deprived area where  the average income is £19k, as compare to a national average of £27k, and unemployment at just under 6% with the UK being around 4.. Unfortunately these things all play a vital role..

FWIW I use a van based airflex storm with booster (2 years old), Sebo BS36 and all bio freindly chems from top UK suppliers.. no in tank no splash n dash and no upselling..

I'm happy with my business model though, I don't consider carpet cleaning a long term career though.

[john martin]

I've got a car pet hair remover from ebay for a fiver.. works brill..

Sometimes the amount of hair won't ever get shifted.. one of those things..

Price wise is a rock and hard place....  Over 50 carpet cleaners in my local area, I reckon i'm in the top 15 ish price wise..

£90 for a 2 piece suite
£45 first room, £25 each after (upto 25m2),

Soon as i started charging by size rather than per room, sales dropped massively and conversion dropped..

I'm never going to be rich from it, but I'm also quite "comfortable".  However I live in quite a deprived area where  the average income is £19k, as compare to a national average of £27k, and unemployment at just under 6% with the UK being around 4.. Unfortunately these things all play a vital role..

FWIW I use a van based airflex storm with booster (2 years old), Sebo BS36 and all bio freindly chems from top UK suppliers.. no in tank no splash n dash and no upselling..

I'm happy with my business model though, I don't consider carpet cleaning a long term career though.

Is that booster the Airflex pod ?  , i wasnt sure if it plugged into the storm as wall as the pro  ...    if so why are all storm uses not using the booster .... whats wrong with people 

[Sergio]