[Chris R]

Hello to you all,
I have been following the ongoing debate on the prices that we all charge and thought that you might be interested in my own experience.
For the past 2 years i have been offering my customers a choice of either hot water Extraction or dry Fusion carpet cleaning systems. I tell the customer that both systems will give you exactly the same end result, but the dry fusion system will be dry in one hour (about 4 hours for HWE). I charge 40% extra for the dry fusion system , telling the customer that the price difference is because of the cost of the chemicals used.
I have been amazed at how many customers will pay the extra 40% for a "quick dry". Sometimes I will go to a house that is, lets say, in need of some DIY work, and the customer will happily pay £70 to have the lounge dry fusion cleaned, rather than £50 for HWE.
I can tell you that the extra 40% makes a big difference to your wage packet
Hope this is of interest to you
Chris

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I think package selling has really caught on in the last couple of years.

Shaun

[Musicman]

With all the current posts about pricing it would be interesting to have a poll (now we have the facility) to try to establish the main reasons for clients making a choice of who to use.

My guess is that price will not come out as the top one.

Options could include; drying times, price, appearance of person and van, membership of professional bodies (NCCA, IICRC), being able to provide additional services such as suite cleaning.

Any other possibilities?

Alot of the time you may not know exactly the reason but you must have a pretty good idea.

For this to work you have to exclude repeat work or referrals as this wont help.

Can anyone with better IT skills than me put such a poll together?

[stevegunn]

I agree i use both hwe and Host dry cleaning system( i know) and most of my customers want the dry clean purely for the fact its dry and ready to use.They are also prepared to pay alot more for this.Cleaning suites they also pay alot more when i use the von shrader system i think most customers want quicker drying times rather than anything else.  

[Dynafoam]

Musicman,

If I exclude repeats and referals then I would exclude ALL of my business  

John.

[Ken Wainwright]

I'm only talking residential here, but I don't offer a choice. I've set my prices the same for HWE as for Dry Fusion. I use the most appropriate system for the job. This will take into consideration the environment, location, soiling type/levels as well as the carpet type. I've educated my customers that if a carpet takes, say, 5 hours to dry, so what? It's a small price to pay for having the job completed correctly and to the best overall advantage. All of our cleaning systems rarely create much of disturbence to home life, so an hour here or there usually isn't really that significant.

Yes I know, it's an unusual approach, but that can be me all over and over, and over........

Safe and happy cleaning:)
Ken

[Mike Halliday]

I have to agree with ken, if you are offering 2 different systems at 2 different prices then you are leaving yourself open to offering the customer an inappropriate system to make more money, (i won't go into the issue of lying to customers to increase how much you charge)

plus i'm assuming you don't explain this over the phone otherwise how can you arrive at the house and then tell them they can't have the fast dry option because it won't clean their carpet.

Mike

[Chris R]

If I get to a job and I decide that HWE will give a better result than dry fusion, (in that particular case), even though the customers asked for dry Fusion, all I say is that I recommend HWE in this instance. The customer will have no reason to doubt my professional opinion, because I am, after all, recommending the cheaper system. If I feel that dry fusion would be best, even though the customer wants HWE, I again explain the reasons for this, say that I will do it this time for the cheaper rate, but next time it would have to be the full(+40%) price.
I find that HWE is better on compacted dirt, very, very, small cluttered areas , and on carpets with soot stains.
I find that Dry fusion is the same on everything else, and better (safer), on belgian wiltons, poorly fitted carpets, dodgy door strips ect. Also on some stains that tend to wick back later with HWE.
No single cleaning system is right for every type of carpet, but with dry fusion and HWE on the van I never have to turn a job down,or give poor results
Chris
PS
My turnovers increased by £15000 since I started charging like this. Same yp ad, nothing else much changed. Works for me

[Derek]

This is developing into an interesting thread..

What does the customer know about carpet cleaning?

Surely it is up to us 'the professionals' to provide the information and determine the best way to clean a carpet to the best standard possible safely.

Surely we shouldn't let the customer dictate how we clean carpets...or should we?

What happens if the customer says they want one method and the carpet doesn't come up to expectations.. do you then say 'I told you so' and clean it again the correct way...charging for the inconvenience of course.

I shall have to watch this I am rapidly getting into the Mike Halliday mode of stiring up a debate  aagghh

Regards
Derek

[Mike Halliday]

Derek, you should have seen the post I was going to make : :  but I thought it was too controversial, and i didn’t want to show any dis-respect  to Chris, (especially after his excellent  response to my first post )

The answer  to the conundrum that using 2 different systems brings is easy, all we have to remember is why the customer picks up the phone and call us.

They say 'they want there carpets cleaning' they don't say they 'want the carpets to dry fast', or 'they want the carpet to smell nice'

So we chose the system that will give them what they want, not want we think they want (or what will earn us more money).

All we've got to be is honest & ethical


Mike  

[stevegunn]

I use two different adverts in my local press one offering hwe the other Host dry cleaning "No drying times as carpets are never wet" when the host advert appears i receive far more enquires than the hwe advert.Then i get comments like "it came up better this time and its dry" In my humble opinion you should always give the customer what they want.On really dirty carpets or upholstery dry cleaning is not the answer and this must be made clear to the customer.I for example carry out a demonstration using the dry clean system to show the result which as we all know is poor  then always continue the clean using hwe and charging the hwe price.Right or wrong my customers are happy with this scenario.

[Len Gribble]

Steve

If the customer is happy so be it, as long as you don’t lose your credibility.

Len

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Because most customers think we should all do the same cleaning perhaps asking the customer why they chose you, Chemdry advertise quick drying and it gave them a meteoric rise in the cc world so when they did there homework asking people what they wanted they said 'dry'.

A few years ago I did my own survey and customers distinguished dry with quality, so one of the best ways of getting potential customers to call you is to advertise a quick drying system, ask Mrs if she would like to choose and she will say 'the kids will be in for 3pm will the carpets be dry?' you can guarantee this with a df or host type system and it's more convinient system for her , but if it's a minger we she will need hwe.

I know that you will get more calls if you advertise dry in 1 hour because I have advertised like Steve and found a significant increase in this ads response.

Shaun    

[jerry]

i like the way chris is selling ....for me it is like buying a
a car be it on a different trim level cloth or leather seats...same motor... your just paying to sit on a bit of ol cows ass.....
do any of you guys do pad drying after hwe as an extra

[Derek]

Hi

I had a comment today from a customer ( I was cleaning curtains) following my cleaning of her carpet a week ago.

She said that her friend had come around and felt the cleaned carpet..."it's so soft" she said, "when I had my carpets cleaned the carpet was hard!"

Say no more!

Jerry... many cleaners do bonnet following a HWE clean to help with the drying also to help prevent wick back on some commercial polypropylene carpeting.

Derek