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For those of us that charge per the square foot, one of the major drawbacks is giving, or learning to give, a fairly accurate quote over the phone when the customer doesn’t know their sq footage. I feel I am getting pretty accurate over the years, but can always improve. One thing I do to help me with this is to figure out what I would have estimated over the phone on “regulars” jobs when I clean them. While I’m vacuuming, I can run the numbers through my head based on scope of work and see how close I would have come to what the job actually cost if I would have had to do a phone estimate for it. Sometimes you’ll be amazed how close you get, other times you’re way off and learn what factors attributed to this miscalculation so you can hopefully not make that mistake on a real phone estimate.
Dave,
I agree that it seems to be fairly easy to get way off on a phone quote. Some of the questions I ask during the phone coversations are:1. What is your address (gives me an idea of home sizes and values)
If unfamiliar with the area, ask “is your home sm., med., or lg.
2. I ask if they would like the entire room cleaned or just traffic areas.
3. I ask questions on the soil and staining conditions (mainly pet urine)
If I hear a dog barking in the background, I price higher.
4. I ask when was the last time the carpet was professionally cleaned.
5. Size doesn’t always matter, it’s the condition that counts! 😆I believe it boils down to developing a “gut feeling” when visiting with them on the phone. Ask plenty of questions. You need to become a CSI Agent (carpet soil investigator)
CSI – Iowa; I think I like that as a new series.
1) Many new callers may not know the size of the rooms, but most know the total size of the house; that’s always a good start. I then ask for a description of each room. In our areas, it is safe to estimate an average bedrm at 130 sqft, mbedrm at 230sqft, living rm 400 sqft, dining rm 230sqft, hall 45sqft, stairs (we charge a flat rate of $60). 3) Once I get my total I will quote a range, the total sqft I come up with as the low, add 200sqft and quote that as the high end of the range. I have very good success with my system and if we were off several sqft, I will honor the price, however, note the correct amount for future cleanings (of course this is assuming we underbid the job).
If there are many doubts, I will recommend we schedule an estimate/job. We arrive, measure, if everything sounds good we are prepared to do job. Luckily, we don’t have many customers not wanting the job done once we are there and they see out inspection/pricing/cleaning process.
P.S. We always measure the entire room, even in the bedrooms where beds and dressers are not moved.
Try this if you are doing a whiole house
Get the total sq. ft of the house and divide by half. It usually is verry close.
I ask how much the total sq. ft. of the home is and then I ask what percentage of the house would you want cleaned. They usually give me back an accurate number sometimes I have to put them in check though. Usually its about 65% if cleaning the whole home, with traffic in bedrooms.
Same as Laura when in doubt free estimate when in the area.I like that CSI comment. 😆
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