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We are going to try an instant estimate form on our website. We have had the best response from internet advertising when we post a price. I think a lot of people have no idea what floor care/cleaning in there home costs. We will of course include the terms and conditions as far as sizes of area and as we all know one persons definition of dirty and anothers can be very different so we will include the “based on the info provided.” I think in the current economy people want to know price first, benefits of selecting you second. We are not lowering our prices, just letting people see what our service costs. The Evil Empire(you know the guys in the yellow vans) seem to have success with this and I am a big believer in watching your competitors, not to point out what they do wrong but what they do right, there is a reason they are so busy as we know it is NOT their product or service so it must be marketing.
Give us a few days to get it up and check it out if you have some time, we would like any feedback. Positive feedback is good but negative is better, you cant change if you don’t see what you are doing wrong.http://www.heavensbestocala.com
Andrew
We, well my wife the brains of the outfit, has reorganized our estimator quite a bit. I think we have it about how we want it. I am worried about people just looking at it and not investigating why we are different from the steam soakers but we have had quite a bit interest in it in one day….although no calls. We will see.
Andrew
It’s kind of like an interactive game 😀 You click and watch the price go up. You click again and it goes higher. Fun.
Could you make it a range price? ie $220-$250 Seems a plus/minus ~10% would provide you with some wiggle room.
Along the subject of pricing I was reading the other day how its easy and we so often do, give mixed messages to our clients or prospective clients. We talk to them about quality and how great we are and then give them a price that isn’t consistant with that quality. We UNDERPRICE our quality. We in fact are telling our client that we really don’t believe we are that great and so we can’t charge enough. We say one thing but do(charge) another.
We will tend to charge along the lines of what we could afford not what our clients will pay.PS Nice web site
The estimator is something we have thrown around often as an idea for our website. The big Pro is that it can give a customer an idea on your price and they won’t have to bother you if they are just price shopping, especially if they only want discount pricing. The big Con is that they may not call you and you are now relying only on your website to sell your services and sell them only at the price listed on the estimator. Not sure if any of that made sense or not. I totally agree that we have to keep up with the big boys (i.e. Stanley) and they have an estimator on their site as well (I have used it as a comparison for my amusement after we have done a job to see how it compares). Most companies do not have estimators and I often wonder if they are not doing it for a reason other than they can’t/don’t want to spend the money to have one created. Likewise, setting yourself apart from the crowd is many times a good thing. In saying that, I ask if having the estimator so prominent on your front page is a good thing or not. It smacks them in the face (which sets you apart) but also maybe just focus their time on your site playing with the estimator which detracts from them learning about what sets you apart other than price. Would it be better to make them dig a little to get to it? Or does that defeat the purpose of having it in the first place to set you apart? So, I’ll end the rambling and say I don’t have a clue whether having one is good or not in my opinion and I am still debating it for us. Not sure if you even wanted this opinion or not, so let’s get to the estimator!
That said, I do like the estimator you have. 1 quick quip though, if I check the stairs, it doesn’t add anything to the price, so you may want to check that out. Overall, very good job on it. I’m sure all of us HB operators are checking it out now, so your hits are probably going to be inflated for a bit before you can get real time data.
Customers not seeing why we are different is a concern for sure. We are very lucky to have my wife, who does graphic/web design for a living so we can experiment with things some people can’t. We went back and forth as far as having it lead to a different page, goin to try it on the front page for a week and see the response. We love any and all feed back, that is why we posted this. We are just trying to think outside the box a little. We were seeing a lot of traffic to our website but the phone calls were not correlating so we wanted to add something to maybe turn those clicks into calls.
Andrew
Andrew,
I could not find the estimator on your site, I wasn’t sure if you had taken it down. I also now have an estimator and was wondering if you, Dennis and Dave could take a look and let me know what you think.
http://www.hbcoastalcarolina.com
Many thanks
Stefan and Sherry
Stefan and Sherry,
I just took a quick gander at your estimator. I really like it. I like that you have the option of hardwood/tile/carpet for each room. I think that makes it very simple for the customer and for you. Only time customer could have issues is if they have 2 rooms that they describe as the same (i.e 2 offices, or 2 bedrooms) that have different types of flooring, but I think that is splitting hairs. Overall I think it is very simple and I mean that as a compliment b/c too often we all try and add too many bells and whistles (KISS theory). One thing I will say is that I think you should add more to your descriptions for your two packages you offer. I am willing to bet you do a lot more than what you are advertising there, so make sure to sell everything you do (walk-thru with customer before to address any concern areas, pre treating spots, pre raking carpet before vacuuming if required, post spotting, post vacuuming if required, final walk-thru with customer, do spotter bottles come with either package?). These are just some ideas, and obviously not every step I listed is required for each job and some may only be on Premium Package, but if there is a chance it may be required and it’s a step you do, include it on there. Most of the soak and suckers due 2 things. First they spray their cleaning solution down, then they follow with a hot water rinse. Sometimes, I wonder if they even do step 1. It appears you are charging a healthy price (I like it), so make sure to explain why your packages are priced as such. You may have that elsewhere on your website, so I apologize if it is. Overall though, well done IMO.
We took our estimator down. In one week we booked one job, and they did not see the rather large $99.00 minimum and wanted me to do two rooms for $65(which I did). The reason for adding the estimator was we get a lot of web traffic, people clicking on multiple pages. Really spending time. I know some were competitors, marketers and so on but this traffic was not turning into calls. I thought maybe the estimator would help, it did not. I think we scared a lot of people of with our prices. I can not get a gage on pricing in our area. We, like most of you, have people charging $59 for a whole house and people charging .55 a sqft. I want to be closer to the high end, we just don’t seem to be reaching these people. I am sure I did not give it enough time, we did receive a lot of feedback, mostly “that won’t work”.
I do like the value and the premium package idea. We all try to talk people into the premium over the phone and generally end up giving the value package.
I think I pushed the estimator because I as a consumer would like it. It is quick and it helps me make a choice quicker. I guess I am not even my own ideal customer!!Andrew
Dave and Andrew,
Thanks for the advise, we are going to continue to tweak it so that it is exactly what we want and need. We aimed to be at the mid to high end pricing level for this new area so we can differentiate ourselves form the competition. Fortunately we are also the only low moisture cleaner in our 3 counties. I strongly believe that giving our clients as much information as possible is the way of the future for our business.
Stefan and Sherry
FWIW
I’m a beliver in that, for most people, price is a secondary issue. However, when people call always the first question they ask is, “how much does it cost for……”
If I answer that question then I have made cost the main issue. That’s bad. I don’t want to make price an issue. I want to atay as far away from price as an issue as possible. I want to them to talk about themselves and their home. I want to ask the questions and listen to their answers. I want the control in trhe dialog.
Unfortunatly with an estimator on the web site you give all that control away and you make price the issue. And as I said in an earlier post, it can give confusing signals to the client.I apologize in advance for not responding earlier, particularly because I’m torn between several things. A new or emerging operator not only needs more work, they generally take what they can get (within reason) and focus on price with value. A well seasoned operator will put almost all the focus on quality and value. If all the focus in the beginning is on price it becomes hard to increase prices even slightly each year without feeling like you will loose the customer base. An “estimator” could attract every competitor to see how they compare to your price. The best of sales rep’s will tell only “what they want to hear.” Words like “…% customer satisfaction rate, Dry in one hour, … years experience, certified, LMCCA member… Things that build trust, relays confidence, and reliability will build and sustain your business well into the future with steady price increases. Anything less then “happy satisfied customers” will get you no where fast. The future can be summed up by… “Your reputation is only as good as your last job.” Make that your foundation for everything. It is hard to give 100% after the 12th or 14th hour in the days work. Never forget your future depends on it. In today’s internet world a bad customer comment or two will greatly effect your business and undo years of your hard work in your fight for the top spots. This determination to … exceed customer satisfaction, under sell and over serve, cleaner of the year/decade etc., has got to be in your image, your persona. Then your business will grow and attract the business you really want.
Not really part of this post, however so many operators build their business around building their own name. This isn’t a bad thing until they want to sell the business and then the realization sets in that they have a hard time selling Heaven’s Best when they’ve focused hard on building their name instead.
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