[chloejayne]

Had a cleaning company in my area phone up offices and finding out how much they pay for their cleaning, they are as well phone cleaning companies up and pretending to be customers and finding out prices.

They then, when they know the price write the the offices and undercut us...................watch out!!

[shelton]

This is why you shouldn't give prices over the phone.

If a 'customer' is serious, they'll allow you to do a survey.  Problem solved.

[martin19842]

hi there

if you surf round the net you will find lots of cleaning companies that have an online calculator, that when you enter a few details you get a ball park figure, for a price., so the info is openly available.

now lets be honest, anybody can stand in the high street, and sell £10 notes for £8 , all day long. but whats the point

its fine undercutting, but over along period of time it wont work, for either the client or the supplier, for one reason or the other

regards

martin

[vacman]

I wouldn't worry, because any commercial customer worth their salt would not change  their cleaners simply because they got a cheaper quote. If they do, the chances were that they were already considering a change. There is absolutely nothing you can do -except maintain high standards of cleaning and justify your existance- so don't let it bother you.

[martin19842]

hi there

i may in the kindest way have to disagree with the last comment, referencing the fact that commercial clients wont change for a cheaper quote.

whilst we are in an atmosphere of economic tightening, every company large or small are reviewing their business, and that will include the cleaning.  my advise is to stay as close as you can to your clients, and at the first sign of them reviewing, jump on it and ask if there is anything you can do to aid them.

regards

martin

[vacman]

Well i guess our own experiences are different then. Fact remains that worrying about people ringing up and undercutting won't change a thing.

I should of course not said 'any' commercial customer, because I know that lot of the big-boys will review their contracts and go for a low price, but these are not the same people who are going to be influenced by someone who just happened to phone up.

[Gilbert Sprous]

You will get competitors trying to get your pricing all the time.  I keep a file on any information I find, you never know it might be useful.  The best one I had is an email requesting an immediate quote because the contractor had let them down.  It was for dormitory cleaning at a university.  Pretty detailed with the amount of rooms, kitchens, hallways etc....  I came up with a quote but because it was close to the deadline, I called instead and unlucky for the guy he was on the phone and the voice mail came up so and so cleaning please leave a message.  I went to the site of the company and sure enough the phone line that the guy was using was listed on their website.  I actually thought about sending an invoice for my time.  Quotes to clients are free but for research I figure it should be about 60 per hour lol.  You just have to watch out.  As I said I do come across information on competitors, pricing, sales strategy and so forth and keep it on file, I do not activily try to find thier clients, but if I come across a situation where I know we are quoting on the same job I will dig it up.

Cheers

[Pristine Clean]

Had a cleaning company in my area phone up offices and finding out how much they pay for their cleaning, they are as well phone cleaning companies up and pretending to be customers and finding out prices.

They then, when they know the price write the the offices and undercut us...................watch out!!

Thats business! Its all about being competitive as possible. I am not saying I agree with it.

Lets face it, becoming a cleaning contractor is fairly easy. Getting the work is a little more difficult. But with perseverance its easily done.

And what other way are you, or anyone else for that matter going to be any better!

Is your work any better than mine? Is my work any better than yours? We can all be reliable. We can all be insured. We can all offer the same level of service and services.

So whats left? Oh yes the final thing PRICE So price is the only difference in the end.

I also have to disagree before any says! Oh because he was cheaper, he wont turn up, Or he wont survive or he is just no good.

So if someone will be cheaper on cleaning and can offer:

Reliability.
Superb cleaning!
Superb Service! and lots more...

Think about it, would you if you were on a budget go with the more expensive quotation? Or the cheaper one. And put the change, which could be several £100s or even £1000s pounds into a savngs account or put it towards another part of the business.

There will be more cleaning contractors than ever before with work shortages, there are more window cleaners because its easy to start, you dont need a Big bank account, just a few leaflets and an advert, and if you wanna be posh a sign written van. Then hay you are now one of the Elite cleaning contractors! Welcome aboard!

Once they have that.. all they need is a rough price! Before you or we know it they are taking over the world.

So maybe for those that are greedy, by that I mean over priced, maybe you should think twice! These guys that call up checking or beating your price will keep you on your toes.

Maybe you should hold back before ordering that Aston Martin just yet!

Dave