[Buster Ingram]

Here, here Dave,
And as for creating a new business for the sole purpose of charging more is ludicrous,  Susan  has being running her cleaning business for a lot longer than many have on here and  her family are well known in the area .  As I said in an earlier post all she needs to do is offer 2 levels of service,  One  using the portable system and the other with all singing all dancing T-mount system. Once the customer see what they get for the little extra by using the T/M the decision is made for them. Its all about selling the benefits of high power cleaning.
Faster drying, Deeper cleaning, Less mess, no buckets in your kitchen sink, and the list goes on!

[Joe H]

but Susan knows her area better then we do, and she says its not a money rich area in general.
So she feels she has to cater for them, therefore keeping the prices lower, but maintaining some healthy profit - no man and machine runs itself for nothing.

At the same time she is aware that their are those that can pay a higher rate - and she sounds like she wants to charge a premium for her service.

I thought the idea of having a different business name to cater for a certain type of customer was pretty sound. Even some members posting on this forum have more then one website with different names.  Why?

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Dave has 1 idea which I have used to great success but unless you go out and see the customer personally it can be confusing over the phone.

Another thing I did was to advertise loads and get work coming at you from all angles, you can afford to lose a good % of it but you will then get well paid work albeit at a cost but the extra profit should pay for the advertising, it also keeps you confident as when you lose one caller you know that you are going to get another enquiry, after so long you can reduce your advertising as these higher end payers will come back.

Susan look for quality places to advertise, ie Yellow pages and other directories, website, leaflets.

Shaun

[Buster Ingram]

In Wolverhampton were I have just come from. The high light of most peoples week was a Sunday morning at the local car boot sales. When I started my business 30 years ago there,  it was a very industrial area with big wages, then china was found on the map and all the industry sailed abroad. So I know where Susan is coming from to raise prices was like swearing at them. So I had a little chat to a few of the Joe polish guy’s and adopted their ideas and started offering two levels of service my prices went up slowly and the clients perceived value for money. The more they asked me to do  for them the more I charged. My ticket prices went up dramatically and conversely with other clients they stayed the same. The point to this exercise is I came home every day satisfied that I did not work for nothing. Those that paid little had little in the way of service and those that paid more had more. It was a win win situation. I never lost customer I just gave them what they wanted.
What we all have to remember is most people do not have a clue what is involved when having a carpet cleaned . It is only when we take the time to tell them and ask them what they want. Put another way a Kitchen planner does not go into someone’s house and decides how he wants the kitchen to look . No he asks questions and designs it around them. As I said given a choice many opt for the better service.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Cd do a 3 tiered system

Silver is clean
Gold is clean and protect
Platinum is clea protect and sanitize

Silver cost is say £100 for a carpet
Gold add £50
Platinum add £20

which one do customers usually go for?

A. The middle one

They are a clever lot, they have taken the package selling onto the next chapter.

Cue David.....

Shaun

[Buster Ingram]

Per zackley, like  I  said GIVE THEM A CHOICE!

[Buster Ingram]

If they bought apples the green grocers needs to know what type same with potatoes. So why is cleaning any different

[Shaun_Ashmore]

But you have to go out to see them though!

Shaun

[Buster Ingram]

Not always Shaun, 2 mins into a conversation on the phone you can tell what they want to spend and draw your concusions from there.
It all comes with practise

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I agree Dave to some extent but not on 3 tier, too confusing.

My mate offers clean and then clean and dry, he does rather well on the latter but also in off peak times he will push the clean and dry with a protector throw in, I think it's CFR he uses.

Shaun

[Buster Ingram]

I believe Billy offers a 4 tier system a quick  shag on the pile being the last one  :

[Mike Osbourne]

Cutting corners again, should really put a tarp down to avoid spillages. :

[Buster Ingram]

 I see you've meet Billy too then Mike!

[Mike Osbourne]

Yes but I paid for the Platinum service.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Too much information!!!

Shaun

[Buster Ingram]

Hence the lack of Tarp. I see very messy

[carlton care]

Dave

I'm surprised at your comment on it being ludicrous to have more than one trading name and style, it's done by many companies and the one that comes immediately to mind, is one of the most success stories of the past 20 years.

Kwik Fit............................who also own Budget ( which as the name suggests, targets the people who are the " price shoppers "

Just to take it further, Tom Farmer the man who built K F, set up another tyre and exhaust centre  recently and on this occasion, as a franchise.

There are many companies who operate along these lines, some retail and wholesale under different titles.

But, as you say, stupid idea, will never catch on :

[Buster Ingram]

Your right, but if you notice all these companies offer products. What we all offer is a service ! if the service is completly different from the one on offer then in my book that's fine. but to offer the same service at a higher price who are we kidding?
Sounds a bit like bait & switch to me.

Well madam if that price is to dear then why not use a sister co they are much cheaper.
yeh right!

[Buster Ingram]

Sorry to sound a bit brash but I have done all this before.

There are a few on here that have already gone down that road, and  acquired other peoples business when they have ceased trading. Only to find substantial price differences. I did it for 3 years when a friend of mine emigrated to France, he was £40 behind me on 3pce suites. Friendly sole as I am I covered his work while he decided what he wanted to do and I can tell you it was a ball ace. One day I’d be cleaning suites for £75 to £100 and the next day I’d be struggling to get £60 for the same size suite. And they were blacker too! That’s where I decided to introduce the two tier service.

[carlton care]

Been there myself Dave when helping out another guy who was ill. He advertised a lot and got massive volume, but was in the habit of subbing out 75% of the work and keeping the quality stuff to himself.

Others have criticised the two tier system on here, as dishonest.

I have operated under different names ( different systems ) and found it worked fine. OK it involved different adverts, which obviously was an added cost, but I knew when a particular phone rang, it was for the " dry system " based on One Step and Texatherm.

Nothing underhand, just marketing separate methods of cleaning under separate names, one of which extolled the virtues and advantages of " The latest technology " and carrying a premium price, the other, was continuing to serve my established customer base.

Nowadays I struggle to cope with one a day, nothing to do with c/c partly genetic ( on the cardiac side ) partly due to poor NHS treatment over the past 64 years.

Sorry Susan / Jason...............too much information, perhaps.