[derek west]

not sure what you mean by that mike but yeah errr! err! will do mate.

shaun
i was a market trader for 14 years, man and boy.
tescos asda and ebay are slowly strangling retailers in towns and citys, so got out while i had the money.

derek

[David_Annable]

Hi

I seem to get them all on one day, last Tuesday was price shopper day.

The Tuesday before was Charity/google/mobile phone sales with a smattering of Amex.

Lets see what we get tommorow.

Dave

[Shaun_Ashmore]

There are depressed areas all over the UK but that doesn't mean that there aren't good paying customers for an excellent service being offered, have you got Chemdry in your area?

Shaun

[JandS]

Why is it driving people mad.
Something like suffolkclean was asked to quote needs to be looked at especially as they have to factor in 90mins drive to quote and then if successful another 90mins to clean.
But if someone says to me lounge and dining room with rough sizes what's difficult about quoting them over the phone.
Should be thankful they are ringing in the first place.
You are there to serve them not vice versa.
Doesn't anybody  on here ring round for quotes when they want say a plumber to fit a new boiler?
And I'm sure we've all, at some point, rang other cc's to see what they're charging.
Just my thoughts    at least the phones ringing which means your advertising is working,

John

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I ring for quotes but dependant on what the person at the other end of the phone is saying to whether I want him to come round and quote, if it's favourable after I have explained what I want then yes they can come and give me a quote even if price isn't discussed, if they grunt and say a price cheap or not as I have no idea of other trades prices then they are not the person for me.

Shaun

[David_Annable]

Hi

If you quote anything that will be more than £100 in the home, and the rest over the phone that isn't a bad compromise.

For instance today a customer that i've been to before wanted me to quote a HSL involving a round trip of 20 miles, I prefered to quote it over the phone.

Dave

[Mike Osbourne]

I agree with Dave, but rarely when I quote on site for HSL do I just come away with that, even if I have to offer a real tempting deal. Hardly worth setting up for.

[derek west]

i prefer the small jobs, don't like being in one place to long and you always seem to do discounts for the big jobs, did 3 £60 quidders last wednesday, finnished by 1 o'clock and 3 very happy customers who'll tell 3 lots of friends and family, bulk advertising i call it.
derek

[Mike Osbourne]

You can do that witha TM Derek, but I'm still a poor little portie boy bucket in hand.

Personally I think you are missing a trick. Just ask what else they want doing, bet you would have made atleast another £60 if not a lot more.

[derek west]

don't disagree with you there mike, but i have a no pressure aproach to my business, i do what the custy wants and don't try for anything else, i know it goes against the grain of most on here but its just the way i am, if they want another carpet cleaning they'll have it done (by me cos i'm great ) when they want it, and i make a bit more cos its minimum charge again.
and like ive said before, take my hat off to you porty guys, all them buckets and lifting and stuff, thats 20 mins chatting to me custy that is, and a few extra brews. i'll keep it karate kid style, switch on, (clean,) switch off.
see what i did there! it should be wax on wax off but i put, awwwww forget it.
derek
well i thought it was funny.

[daysdeepclean]

On a few occassions I've gone to survey/quote at a location considerably far away from home and offered to carry out the work there and then.  I know it's nice to "pretend" you're booked up for the next 8 weeks but sometimes I think you should change tactics once in a while.

[Mike Osbourne]

I respect your approach Derek. Try not to think of it as putting pressure on custies merely giving them even more service that they are really glad you offered them. 

For instance, say they want the lounge and the hallway doing. As you come in the house you notice the stairs are facing you and  in the same carpet as the hall.

You do the job and go home. That evening custy looks at her beutifully clean hallway carpet only to realise how dirty the stairs now look. She turns to hubby and says what a pity that nice Derek chap didn't point that out, if only we'd known.

[Ricky M]

Derek do you not think in that 20-40 mins while they look through your presenter with before an after shots they will then ask how did you get that leather to look like new etc , and bobs uncle your another £90-£180 up minus what you give back !

Ricky

[Jim_77]

I would not go and quote over the phone either for just a h s l

The point is, it's not just a h/s/l you're going to quote for.

You're going there to win a customer for life, which is worth considerably more than the price of a h/s/l !!  You only have to sell yourself to them once, after that it's a walk in the park.

what's difficult about quoting them over the phone.

Selling your service based on quality, that's what's difficult to do over the phone but 1000 times easier after 15 minutes face-to-face!

Should be thankful they are ringing in the first place.

All of your marketing is wasted if you flush your enquiries down the toilet by not reacting to them properly.

You are there to serve them not vice versa.

True, but when you are in command of your own business, things are done on your terms.  That allows you to run your business successfully and profitably.  If you bow down to every whim and fancy of every prat that phones up to waste your time, you'll not get much profit in the bank!

And I'm sure we've all, at some point, rang other cc's to see what they're charging.

Wouldn't waste my time!  I know for a fact I'm higher than a lot of local firms, but I also know for a fact that nobody says about me to other cleaners the same as I've been told no end of times:  "The last guy I had only charged me half as much, but he was in and out in 30 minutes and you couldn't tell the difference"

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I quote almost everthing over the phone, partly because I cover a fairly large area now, preferring to drive 30 mins for a decent job rather than doing a rubbish local one.

In an ideal world face to face is best but you have to look at the wider picture, when I work 8 hours I want to be paid for 8 not 4 !

As for price shoppers after a while you get a sixth sense on what type of 'custy' you are talking too and whether it's worth bothering.

Cheers

Doug

[carlton care]

Talk to EVERYONE, you don't know what experiences the prospect has had previously and even if you don't win them round, on the day, they may have the money next week, or decide the job REALLY needs done.

[M.Acorn]

I am with Doug on that 1, i can usually suss out a customer over the phone,one of my first questions is where are you and where did you hear about me.Can then make a wrough guess,ie if they live in a nice location and not some run down area,they are not so likely to be price shopping !
I do tend to go in quite high though over the phone,I quoted for a job last week,1 set of stairs about a meter of landing and a lounge,said £120 ish over the phone,when i priced it up yesterday on my normal prices it came out at £86 so i said it`s come out at £100.Custy was happy and i got a £5 tip.
She has also taken a stack of my business cards as she has some friends who were waiting to see the results of her carpet before getting theirs done.

[JandS]

Seems like we'll have to agree to disagree Jim.
Me personally, I don't want to spend half my working week going round quoting for simple jobs that could be done over the phone.
Seems to me some of you are making an easy job hard.

John

 

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

As ever there is not a right or wrong answer and it's probably a case of go with the flow.

If you have enough business that you can book-in over the phone to keep you fully occupied (and handsomely re-numerated) during the week, then why should you need to go and quote? Once you have discounted the repeat customers and people who have introduced themselves as referrals then if you have been in business for some time then there may not be that many new customers to whom you have to "sell" at quotation.

With the customers who are new there are some you will win and some you lose. As long as it's more of the former and less of the latter then you must be doing something right.

And of course once you have arrived at a job you have booked in you will then do your survey and give yourself the chance to add extra work on/up-sell.

Obviously there will still be some times when you will need to go and quote and also if you do have time to spare then quoting should always be productive.

Personally I've always been busy enough to not require me to go and quote although there have been times when as the job has been briefly outlined I have realised that a personal visit is definitely required. We all know what is required to clean a standard 3 bed, inter-war semi and the only other reason to go and visit is to help the sale along and maybe get additional work whilst there.

So each to their own, and if it works for you and you're happy then that is the correct method. If it's not working or you want to generate extra income then consider some of the ideas here.

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Clinton

You are so right! I forgot that even up to say '97 mobiles were not a "given" and that you had to rely on messages/faxes/and popping in to the local BT phone box.