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Just started cleaning hardwood floors. What are some prices some of you are charging????
Hey Randy
I charge .50 sq.ft. and I make sure they understand how slippery the floor will be for the next few weeks!
thank you !!! Thats a good start…
Randy,
We charge .75 psf to clean, wax and buff. While we do not do a lot of jobs, we have yet to have anyone be turned off by price. Good luck.
Randy,
We charge .75 psf to clean, wax and buff. While we do not do a lot of jobs, we have yet to have anyone be turned off by price. Good luck.
I sent out a proposal today with a price of .70 psf. We’ll see how it goes. If no bite then I may wait and drop to .65 psf. I noticed with some clients if you start off high, wait and then drop, they will usually bite and you still make more, or close to what you wanted. I won’t go less then .50 but if I can get between .50 and .70, I am a happy camper. It’s one of those with a thin layer of poly on it. John and corporate have been very helpful in educating me on the process with the poly coating on the wood. Thanks John and corporate for all you do. Cody, thanks for the reply about the poly wood floors that you made in an earlier reply under the poly topic.
Mike Nowlin
It has been about a year since my last post on this topic, and I am glad to say I just completed a 550 sq ft job at $1.00 a sq ft. The customer did not even blink she thought it was a great price for what she got!
I am starting out with 50 cents per square foot but not sure if it’s the best way to go, I am new so not much track record to go by but today I am pretty sure I lost a job because of the price, the lady is moving out and wanted all the carpet and hardwood floors cleaned and said the square footage is about 2600 square feet.
How much do you guys adjust if the client is moving out, it seems to me that they are less willing to spend money if they are moving so I need to learn to adjust when I learn they are moving out. I was kicking myself in the butt for not catching on until after she hung up but I guess that’s part of the learning process.
Cody is great and taught me lots of great stuff in the training class but it is still going to take time to learn just how to deal with customers on the phone and when to “SHUT UP”
Always try to set up a free estimate when faced with these larger jobs. Conditions vary so greatly. As a norm, I discount 25% for empty small home and up to 50% off for the 2600 sqfter’s. I would say you lost the job because you tried to save time and price it over the phone. After the customer has a chance to meet the clean-cut, good-looking guy that will be cleaning her carpet, the price issue tends to fade! 😀
it takes time and experiance to learn how to talk to customers, I used to find myself talking myself right out of jobs, I know, anyone that knows me would have a hard time believeing that! I learned that if you listen to the customer more and talk less, you will learn how to read them better. It just takes time.
This is more about phone skills then hardwood cleaning, but the before posts have triggered this memory…
Also when they say they have —sq ft, many times that’s the outside of home measurement sq ft of the home. Once when a person was moving out, they said they needed the carpets cleaned, For scheduling purposes, I asked for their square footage. You guessed it, they gave me the square footage of the whole house. When I got there, there was only carpet in the living room. I then had about four hours to kill. They only asked for cost per square foot. Live and learn.I haven’t started cleaning hardwoods yet, but for carpeting I find it easier for the customer to price by the room/area in residential jobs. They seem to like the simplicity of the ‘room price’ – and most of the time it turns out cheaper than if I had quoted by the sq ft. I wonder what type of charge could be used with this approach for hardwoods? Anyone out there trying this? For example: (3) Areas $139.95 Carpet OR Hardwood? Interesting simple pricing might just bring in some customers!! Let’s hear from some others – what have you tried?
I charge .50 and plan to keep it that way for the rest of the year and see how it goes. I agree with everyone that how you talk to the customer is very important and learning to shut up and listen is a big step. I have also found that my closing rate is better in person then over the phone.
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