[stevegunn]

Vanguard your not AKS are you??

[Paul_Ashworth]

I've found much to my expense that advertising in the local paper doesnt work ! if you advert costs £75 you need to take at least £300 + to make it pay,

[PaulKing]

There aways have been and always will be price shoppers, just rember that they are price sensitive and loyal only to that, so you will not get repeat business anytime from them.

They are the waste of time so get them off the line there might be someone who can apricate what you do waiting

[rich hand]

Do you think advertising:

Rooms from £15
Suites from £45

Takes the pxxs?

In working class areas this is by far the best way to get calls.
There are often small rooms we can put on the end of a job for £15 and I have done a 2 piece suite with wooden frame for £45 so im not telling tales either, however, usually my suite price is atleast £75 and rooms are lounge from £35 and bedroom typically £25. I just have to explain the reasoning when I get there.

[tomh]

intresting & how do they take it out ! thats almost double what you advertised ! do people think you have wasted there time & your's ? i am not knocking what you do just intrested

[the red carpet]

My opinion, this sort of advertising attracts the wrong sort of customers.
you will get more calls yes.

but you will also end up cleaning dirtier carpets, have more cancellations, have picky customers who expect the earth and are never happy and not get repeat business because there will allways be someone cheaper.
Also you end up with all those really awkward jobs were you get really trashed carpets, and there wafer thin foam backs that you know are gonna shrink or ripple if you go heavy handed on them and you also know if you dont there not gonna look any better :

wouldnt you rather clean nice quality carpets with low soiling in nice quality homes for people who apreciate what you do and are willing to pay you a reasonable price for your hard work, and are happy to come back to you time and time again?

[vangaurd]

steve behave yourself " but i can clear your loft aks will do a full house for 60.00 joke of the week have seen his ads

[tomh]

thats why i like it ! keep's the phone clear for my sort of custy  
i have found price resonable you work for resonable people & well able to get on with, price cheap & there out to have 1 over on you ! there well able to kick up a huge fuss over nothing just agro for peanuts is my veiw quite agree with you red !

[CVC]

At the end of the day like all things you get what you pay for, it doesn't bother me if a customer thinks my prices are too much, I would say we are pretty middle of the road price wise. Our pricing breakdown means people with bigger houses pay more. This helps us I think, a person with a small one or two beds home most probably has cheap carpets that you can whip out quite quickly and still get great results. Someone with a five bedroom house will more likely have more costly carpets, these customers will have more cash and more appreciation of the time, skill and cost of cleaning thier carpet professionally. Nearly all our quotes are done over the phone and I explain that the price may rise or reduce slightly upon full inspection. That way I am covered either way. I have no outlay spending time on an initial visit just to get a price, so I am quids in straight away. To be honest I have never revised a price once I got to the job. I have only had one complaint from a rust mark from forgetting to put down a cover under a table with metal studs, twenty minutes after we received the call the mark was removed from the carpet and the customer has been back many times since. I dont do a square metre price and his method works for me, I work out the time it will take. I average 50p to £1.50 per minute per job from which I can work out I am definately making profit. If a customer questions my price rather than get shirty I explain to them what I have just told you, educate your customer rather than be offended that they have looked else where. Also,  I would not use local papers, customer satisfaction is key for us and recommendation is free. We offer customers who recommend us to friends discounts on thier next clean, but we dont tell them that so we know they do because they want to and not so they save a tenner. Any numpty head with a green Numatic can put an ad in the paper or yellow pages,  I find people dont trust the sources so much these days. So keep smiling carpet cleaner cos that will get you more work too, one of our customers uses us because her old carpet cleaner was a miserable sod.