[ianharper]

guys

just thinking about an old idea while answering another post and maybe the "house doctor" approach would work well for us.

go in and give quotes on all specialist areas of cleaning from carpets to tile to window frames, hard floors, tiles. we could be thousands on the value of any home.

just look at what the house doctor does, or Kim and co, that's got to be a very big reason to use us?

i have for some time thought that we should be moving to the specialist cleaner and away from being know as carpet cleaners, most people would not call use for leather let alone other areas that we can help with. and with little or no investment in new equipment.

we all know that houses are easy to sell at the moment, my next door sold in a day. but could people get more for a cleaner house? I think so.

and there are homes that don't sell for one reason or another. there are two on my estate. if its just because they are a bit run down we all know that just cleaning something will make it look much better.

I know that the house doctor has a percentage number that she advises seller to invest in run down homes. we should have and know what our would be for cleaning. and what value it will add.

people are more likely to spend if they know that they are going to get it back when they sell.

its an idea??

http://www.billericay-estate-agents.150m.com/

respect

Ian Harper

[lands]

The theory is very easy to agree with and as you say does not need much investment but how would you approach the marketing. Sounds to me like something that would work well done nationally so you could push the name and the idea because advertising a new concept is very difficult or expensive thing to do on a local basis  but if you could build a national frame work say 2,3 or 4 per county you could make it a cooperative that funds a national advertising budget with a central control for farming out the leads generated.

An idea like that might even get a mention on one of the programmes you mention and we could send one of our gurus on the show like Vanguard. He could wear a t-shirt with his new logo that would really raise the profile of it.

Pete

[carpetguy]

I think you will find some maid services are already doing this and have been for some time, but they rarely do the carpet or upholstery cleaning...............some try, and give up, but most will happily farm it out, to someone else.

We've worked with a couple of these companies for around 10 years and they provide a fair amount of work over the year

The problem is, do you want to be a " jack of all trades " or a premium priced specialist.

It's easy to think you can " do it all " but you might find the logistics much more complicated than you'd imagined and having people available, for occasional work.

[Ian Gourlay]

Not sure what is new about this idea.  Alltec for instance have been running tile cleaning courses for some time.

One of my original manuals suggested than when you do a in house quote look for additional work.

Which could include hard floors window frames patios patio tables conservatory's etc.


For a long time I was triple trades but as Rob says its can become hard to handle, so on his advise I know concentrate on the Core Business.

[ianharper]

Hi guys

thanks for your comments.

if you have lots of work then you would not need to do something like this, but with lots of heavy weights leaving carpet cleaning it worth a look at.

as far as jack of all trades you would not call a doctor that? he is a specialist in problem saving to his area. when i sat my city and guilds it had part for all areas of cleaning. you must admit that the demand for carpet cleaning is very weak, compared with other areas in cleaning.

In any carpet cleaning business you get work from different groups of prospects, each have their reasons for using us. being a proactive guy i would like to give people more reasons for using us.

we all should be putting out different message to market matches to each of the different groups that have a need and can be given a reason to use us. not just one general message.

as you know my new USP is bio-Eco. this does not stop me from talking to other groups of people. i think its this that stops cleaners using this USP because they thi that that's the only market they can talk to.

The reason that many maid service would farm any other type of work out is first, they have great demand for their service and don't need to take on any other type of work, and second they are not set up or would know how to approach these "specialist" type jobs. the reason that a carpet cleaner can earn £50 a hour is for this reason compared with the £10 or £30 per hr  that a cleaner can earn cleaning homes.

periodical work requires a cleaner that know the science to cleaning like us as the gap between cleans can be many years, and basic cleaning will not give results required.

sometimes we have to come outside our comfort zones to grow.

As far as doing it on a local basis, its easy. if you where selling your home you check out the local papers for prices and whats on offer before you agreed to have an estate agent around. this is where you would pitch. with a headline like.

"It might be easy to sell you home at the moment but, are you getting to top price?"

then you would go onto give the house doctor point of view leading nicely into cleaning and how it can add value to the price you get for your home.

Ian, what you are talking about is just good selling, as you know there are way to walk away from a job with more money, up selling say second areas, carpet protection etc, you can also do this by the amount of times you clean for that person.

if you was to clean the carpets in the winter and patio in the summer that twice as much money for the one person for no extra marketing expense.

In this case we are making them money. giving them a reason to use us. the more reason you give people the great you can serve them and the greater the demand for your services.

carpet cleaning has very high marketing costs. so anything you can do to keep these costs down must be good.

respect

Ian Harper

[Bertie Boo]

in my experience the houses that need this sort of cleaning are owned by people who don't notice/don't care anyway.

Would they pay to have a house cleaned for, essentially, some one else?

Cheers

Stephen

[carpetguy]

Ian ( h )

Your enthusiasm is great and if I had your computer skills I would NOT be on here chatting or reading forums.

There is still and always will be a vast market for carpet and upholstery cleaning, which, as you recognise returns considerably more, per hour , than house cleaning.

I regret to tell you that Doctors are not the specialists you seem to think they are, at least G P's are not.They have a broad training in order to recognise common symptoms, which they prescribe medication for. Some times they get lucky !

What you appear to be doing, is following a concept, rather than following a trend. The latter will usually pay as long as you are in early enough,

I admire your perseverence, but feel you would be better served focussing on your core business.

Put all the marketing knowledge you've gathered to good use, with your enthusiasm and energy, you don't need to be " gimmicky " just offer, exceptional value and excellent results and your phone will ring.

I f you " deliver "you will get repeats and referrals