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“yes, how much would you charge me to clean 1 room?”
I have been getting this call a lot lately, more so than at any other time. Don’t know if it is economy related or not. If you’re like me, you hate cleaning 1 room as you will not be in business long if that’s all you’re cleaning in each home (especially with current gas prices). How do you respond to such calls? Many times, it ends up they want 1 room, and a hallway, and maybe some stairs, but either way this, for me, usually falls under my service call minimum price ($100). As soon as I mention this, more times than not the conversation quickly ends. Now, I am not too upset at losing such a customer, but that said, I don’t like to lose any customers as I know they can all benefit me more in some way down the line. I know they probably have more I can clean and I always tell them I am willing to clean up to “$100 of carpet” so to speak to make it worth everyone’s time/$. I believe the value of what they get is much more than the $100 and I do tell them this, but I can justify it all day long why it’s that high, it still doesn’t change the situation.
Opinions? Or do you just wash your hands of these types of customers and move on? I’m by no means losing sleep or not paying my bills because of these customers, just curious what others think.
i try to tell people that I still need to unoad and set up ALL my equipment whether 1 room or a whole house. plus the cost of travel and insurance is the same no mater how much I clean, therefore we have a min chg of $79 which will cover 200sqft. more carpet, more cost.
the electrician has a minimum charge too.
what can you do?
Dave:
You are right; giving up these jobs is difficult. I too have dealt with a few calls asking for one room, one recliner, one love seat, etc. Our min charge is $125 (we will be raising that to $145 in 10/2008). I ask my customers about other work (upholstery, tile, hardwood floors, etc.) that may be included during our visit. Most of my good competitors also have a min charge (one at $175) and I educate them on our logic. Like Denise said; if we are cleaning 1-3 rooms our min time for unloading and reloading is 1hr and we need to justify our overhead and profit to stay in business. I have only lost a couple of jobs/year with is situation; however, would not change my min. charge or approach.
Hope this helps.
P.S. My min charge in Ogden, UT (new territory) is $100.
The first thing that I find out is if we have cleaned for them before. Once I land a customer I do not want them going to a competitor. This gives me a little more info when wording my conversation. We have a minimum of $95. With consumer spending about as low as it’s been in many years we have to not be bitter and take this into consideration. People do like to come home to clean carpets but right now they just can’t afford it like they could 2-3 years ago. We provide a luxury service. It’s either pay the mortgage or get the carpets cleaned. Thus the 1 room phone conversations. Probably there living room. I think we just need to weather the storm. In my area, a lot of companies are lowering their prices to try to stimulate sales. I stick to my guns and explain why we are more. Sell the benefits and they will book. If not then let a competitor run around town doing the 1 room jobs and fold his business in 6-12 months because of it. Then when consumer spending goes back up there will be less competition. I’ve noticed an increase in phone calls where the last company that cleaned for them is out of business.
You have to have a minimum..I tell people I charge $85 and they say thank you and hang up…YES…I hate one room jobs even at $85..unless I am in the area..in fact I turned down a three area job because it was not worth it with gas prices the way they are, this was a job they wanted done on a day I had nothing scheduled. I have been trying to book jobs to my schedule as much as posible in order to save a little gas, and it still hits the pocket hard..It is a tough time to be in a service industry….
I like Ron’s answer.
Gary,
You really think its a tough time to be in the service industry???? Don’t you find when money is a bit tight people clean rather than replace?
I think some people do that, but I definitely sense there is a “wait and see” attitude in the economy right now. It’s not even that they can’t really afford it, but really a more cautious approach. If they feel that they can cut back a little, they are opting to do it anywhere they can to be careful. On the minimum issue, I always answer that question with a response which includes how much cheaper it is to do more once I get in the door – and then offer examples! I start at $89.95, but I always point out that I can do up to three areas for $159.95! Usually that gets them – if not I’ll back off and suggest two areas for $129.95. Most commonly, I am doing 4 or 5 areas though. However I have noticed as I said earlier that some of my customers are cutting back or waiting longer.
I agree with Ron as well.
For the new operators….when we were new, 5 years ago now, I took anything that I could get, 1 room, 1 chair etc. I needed 1) to build a business customer base and 2) get experience.
One little thing I discovered was this. Most potential customers that have 1 room of carpet to be cleaned have more. Every operator here has gone to a job for 1, 2 or more rooms to clean and walked away with more.
Just a few minutes ago, I told a lady our minimum of $90 and she just hung up…she was desiring a price for 1 room. I instantly was a little angry…and then thought…1) did I want such a person in my customer data base and 2) did I need the experience of cleaning 1 room for something less than $90 (if I have learned one other thing in this business….when I went on 1 room only jobs…they were terribly filthy 98% of the time…worth at least $90.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Many good points here and I like what Ron said as well. I do make exceptions for repeat customers. I knock our minimum down to $90 for them, and will even do it for less if they are willing to work around my schedule so I can visit them when I already have another job in their neighborhood.
Dave, good point as well about the newbies in the industry. Early on it isn’t always a bad idea to take some of them just for experience and a little money. We actually did an offer when we first started where we would clean 1 room for free (up to 200 sq ft). If they only wanted that one room, that’s all we’d do. Most did more, but a few only did the one room. We wanted our foot in the door and we sent the coupons only to the very nice neighborhoods. Only got “burned” a couple of times. We still have many of those good customers (just did a $550 job for one 2 weeks ago). Also agree that many “1 room” jobs are pretty dirty.
Ron pretty much hit it on this one. We don’t lose many on the phone at $95 minimum, but I make sure that I give them the best possible value when I get there. I did a one room job today at 198 sq. ft. . I threw in stain protector and a large spotter. The customer was thrilled with all she got for $95.
Wow maybe my minimum is to low I was $65 dollars and raised it to $75 a week ago. I have two van crews and hated sending them to the small jobs. So I try to do those ones by myself. Most of my jobs are about 15 minutes from each other. However I also try to schedule jobs close together. It seems to be a little slower this time of year than it was last year. I am thought I was doing something wrong or different. Looks like I’m not the only one. The good thing about this is that maybe it will ween out some of the bad carpet cleaners and the market won’t be so saturated with carpet cleaners.
WOW some of you really have high minimums I have a hard time getting $85. And yes I do think it is a tough time for service people. I would have to say that of the service people I talk to, 85-90% say they have had a slower year. Our first 1/4 was horrible this year, The old saying that people clean instead of replace has’nt proven true for us. With fuel prices what they are now peolple are puting the money in the tank. The realty accounts have all but dried up for us, I can count on one hand the jobs from real estate agents this 1/4.
What is true in almost every business and investment portfolio…diversify, diversify, diversify!!!
The 1st Qtr this year beat last year and the residential and real estate transactions were way off…but commercial…off the charts.
We have received a huge influx from commercial work that never raised its head before and we are GRATEFUL!
Businesses are goo for our business and I am going after more…
Running 2 vans is difficult, since we are getting bigger jobs and can fit into 1 van.. Also saves gas…our replacement van will not…repeat will NOT be a full-sized van at all, but something much, much smaller and a miser with gasoline and I can’t believe that diesel is all that much better. An electric-hybrid of some type will work…but looking forward to $5-$8/gal is really tough and running 2 vans very difficult.
I am scheduling much tighter now than before…This is why we have high minimums, and quote over the phone at every opportunity.
I do thank the Lord that we do not run HWE…
Just my 2 cents for what its worth…
Yup, and I am very happy I decided on the V-6 when I bought my Chevy Express! The truth is we don’t carry much weight in our vans, so we don’t need a heck of a lot of power. It slows some on the hills, but who cares! I agree this is a great time to really beef up commercial work. First of all a lot of the low-ball steam cleaners are going under. Only those who survive will get to benefit from this! Commercial accounts will be very important in the months ahead – more than normal I believe!
I agree…I have 2 Ford E-150s V-6…about 2 cylinders too many. I mean to downsize into something smaller….real small. I am going to be looking seriously into hybrids. Perhaps a hybrid and keep a van then get into something smaller than the van. We do not need 80% of the stuff we take on a job, just too lazy to unpack and take what we need for a job or two.
And then when we finally get to drilling in Alaska and off the coasts in a responsible manner, or extracting oil from coal if the Reps/Demos allow, and the price of oil should plummet…we will be even more ahead of the game at 50+ mpg…
In the meantime, we are parking a van much of the time and running tighter scheduling. The life of the vans will be longer this way in any event.
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