[Clean-Dri]

This happened aprox 2 weeks ago, just got over the shock to post it now....

 Urgent call 'can you come today..carpet cleaner let us down...rooms cleared..machines broken down...don't want them back  in here'

 Anyway gladly turned up to see them later that afternoon to find a large lounge carpet 20'x20' just a third cleaned... WET with obvious wand marks.

 Hadn't realized on the phone they had made a start then asked who came,  the response was ChemDry.

Knowing that their method of cleaning is usually low moisture (like ourselves) we
 asked if they were sure it was Chemdry and sure enough they convinced us it was. Apparently 2 guys started the work...then claimed something was wrong with the machine and then....gone. I assume a few things were said but we were quite surprised that even if their original equuipment had failed that they switched to wet and I guess this prompted the customer problem.

 Anyway our customer although sceptical about carpet cleaners from that moment we had managed to turn it around and clean her carpets beautifully....of course if we knew it was ChemDry I would have charged more! :

 

[Buster Ingram]

Why would you want to charge more? unless your name is Dick Turpin

My news agent does not run outside to see what car I drive when I go in to buy a paper!

Ever thought that charging the price you have will get you more recomendations.?

[Liahona]

Well said Dave, best, Dave.

[Buster Ingram]

 Dave,  I was waiting for you mate 

My point was, if you want to charge high prices then you have to stick with them for everyone.
Not the odd one or two, if you see my point.

I can see were the guy's coming from but doing things like that will always catch up with you.

But top marks for helping a customer out at short notice.
He could of used that as an opporpunity to raise his price a little, then it would have sounded more feasible.

Anyway who said your no.1 Dave.

[Liahona]

Dave, I knew you would get it. I charge everyone a lot of money otherwise it wouldnt be fair now would it? Sorry mate, I dont understand the no. 1 comment, please advise.........Best, Dave.

[Buster Ingram]

It was the end of your last comment, you said Best Dave

And I thought O R would recons that then

Regards
Dave

[Liahona]

Ok, got it now. It is just short for best wishes.I write enough as it is so shortened it to best, best Dave. P.S. I am not the best, I just think I am, go on you have to laugh.....

[colin thomas]

i think i'll go back to sleep, obviously some of you have a sort of code that you communicate by, when you get back to english, let me know.

cbt

[homenclean]

 i was once told by acustomer that they almost through the chem dry guy out of there house for trying to charge them £60.00 for 45 minutes work and another customer told me they quoted them £25.00 per dinning chair. Your prices have to match the quality off your work.

John

[CLEANCARE LIMITED]

i was once told by acustomer that they almost through the chem dry guy out of there house for trying to charge them £60.00 for 45 minutes work and another customer told me they quoted them £25.00 per dinning chair. Your prices have to match the quality off your work.

John

Not being funny but there's a spell check on the google tool bar. I only hope that letters you send out are better written then this.

Through should be THREW
There should be THEIR
Off should be OF

[Spot On cleaning]

Three months ago i did a job that had, two years previously, been carried out by chemdry.

In 2004 they charged the customer £300, i charged them £180 for a four bedroom house which took me 2 and a half hours on my tod with a tm. How do these people get away with it or do they know which customer has MUG written on their forehead.

Best, Dave 

[Liahona]

CLEANCARE, it should be "than this" and not "then this"
Spot on, would you rather earn £300 for 2 and a 1/2 hours work or £180 for the same? I would say you were the mug in this case.  Although 180 isnt too bad for the time involved I would rather make 120 an hour instead of 72. If it was me in your situation I would have charged them the same and just have done a better job. After all I pressume you do better work than the other "cleaners". Maybe instead of knocking the higher charges you would be better joining them. More for less, now there's a concept. Best, Dave.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Dave has a point.

It's not about ripping people off it's about saving for a rainy day!

Will the customers look upon you when you are quiet and say "ah lets give him a carpet to clean he looks poor this month?"

My mate works at HSBC and he gets £35000 a year, gets 6 weeks holiday, sick pay, shares, redundancy!! all for 35 hours a week, comes home puts his feet up.

Do your Maths and take into consideration all of your out goings and then..... machine brakage (with loss of work), depreciation, do you have 6 weeks hols?, YOU are always looking for the work he's not (stress) to get the same money do you think £45000 profit is a better target?

The bit that really gets to you is He thinks he's hard done to and thinks YOUR job is a piece of pz.

Earn it and live to fight another day.

Shaun

[Glynn]

Shauns right,
Q - Why are so many Carpet  Cleaners hard up ?

[Spot On cleaning]

Dave

I  didn't actually know that Chemdry had previously done the job until it cropped up in conversation after the work had been completed, but i take your point.

The trouble is, the area where i live does not have an enough affluent clientelle, but on this particular day, i pulled in £320 which in my area, i think is good.

I remember talking to the london boys on the Prochem courses who told me that as far back as 2002, were pulling in over £1000 a week then, so in the right area you can achieve what you want. I am happy with what i earn.

I might in the future target Bristol which is only 26 miles away now we have our 0800 number. There are a lot of affluent people there.

I also take your point about contacts. I came out of a customers house after cleaning their carpets and was approached by this guy to clean the carpets in a flat that he was working in. He offers a full maitenance package for four big letting agents, some of which i also work for.

He explained that by the time he hires a machine and pays his mans wage, it's better to get me in and the job is done better.He says that he will pass a lot of work my way so bumping into him was a fluke.

Going back to the four bedroom house for £180, the customer seemed to know a lot about tm's, and when i questioned her about it, she explained that she worked for the Nhs and on occasion has to call out another local business also running a tm for flooded offices. She gave me the address and contact name to approach should i be interested in this type of work and decide to offer my services. Aske why she didn't use the same company to clean her carpets, she said that they were £20 more than me. :

Dave

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Myself and Glynn are in a good position as we have enough clientelle to be rigid with our pricing but as you get more confident I advise you to raise your prices and you will make a good living ALL of the time.

TM's or rug doctors it's not rocket science but you do have to sell it as that!

Shaun

[Len Gribble]

Shaun

Your mate is getting ripped off no mortgage subsidy.

Len

[Shaun_Ashmore]

He's got no morgage

How's Leonard anyway?

Shaun

[craigp]

 its always interesting to work out all your exspense's take into account all holidays and deppreciation, EVERTHING, then come a figure for that a month, count your jobs for the last month, divide your exspense's by number of jobs so you can see exactly how much your average job needs to be.

needless to say when i did this over a year ago i realised my average job price needed to go way up!

[Damian]

Dave has a point.

It's not about ripping people off it's about saving for a rainy day!

Will the customers look upon you when you are quiet and say "ah lets give him a carpet to clean he looks poor this month?"

My mate works at HSBC and he gets £35000 a year, gets 6 weeks holiday, sick pay, shares, redundancy!! all for 35 hours a week, comes home puts his feet up.

Do your Maths and take into consideration all of your out goings and then..... machine brakage (with loss of work), depreciation, do you have 6 weeks hols?, YOU are always looking for the work he's not (stress) to get the same money do you think £45000 profit is a better target?

The bit that really gets to you is He thinks he's hard done to and thinks YOUR job is a piece of pz.

Earn it and live to fight another day.

Shaun

Surely Shaun you must break what your mate earns? You knocked out 135k 2 years ago mate!-personally i just work to keep kids!