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I know that people have probably posted this before, but I was wondering if others could post a comprehensive list of their pricing of their additional services. This would include everything from tile to upholstery. I know that we are all in different markets ,but it would help a great deal to have some comparisons. Thank you.
I use the same carpet pricing that I see on our corporate fliers/postcards ect.
3 areas for $99, additional areas $25 each.
Couch- $89
Love seat- $59
Chair/Recliner- $39
Tile/Linoleum- .25 a sq ft
Tile & Grout- .60 sq ft (I hate doing this so I may raise it.)
Protector .10 sq ft
Commercial- .12 a sq ft and up depending on how dirty.
Apartments- $69, $79, $89
Apartments for commercial clients- $40, $50, $60
Pet urine removal- $15 for first, $5 each after- up to the size of a dinner plate. I got that idea from Brian Sutton.
More and more I am realizing that the carpet pricing is just a vehicle to get you the job. Once you are in there cleaning and they see the results and you build a little rapport, it’s not hard to sell protector, book them for a couch ect. I have had 3 room specials turn into $300 jobs.
Thanks Neil. I really like the discount on the apartments. I haven’t bid on any yet, but I’ve sent out nice info packs to several just a few days ago and I’ll be following up on them this week. I have a job this week for carpet and a small tiled space of approximately 100 feet. I gave the customer the estimate of $200 for the carpet with a 10% discount for not moving furniture and $100 for the tile. That’s a $300 ticket and by far my most lucrative job. I wasn’t sure if my pricing on tile was high or low as I was caught off guard with the question which I shouldn’t have been. I had another question for you though. When you provide more than one cleaning service during the same job what order do you prefer to do them in? Do you find that it matters? For instance, when I’m doing upholstery and carpeting would it be best to clean the carpet first and then the furniture? I haven’t come across it yet so I don’t know if it makes any difference or if it’s just a matter of preference. Thanks.
Following up on those packets is imperative. Greg Miller has a great step by step process in the advertising forum. I always clean upholstery first because sometimes the extractor will leak small drops onto the carpet. Also once you clean and groom the carpet you don’t want to be walking all over it while you do the upholstery. If the upholstery is not on carpet, or is in a room they aren’t having cleaned, then I will do it first, because I don’t like cleaning it, and I want to save the best (carpet) for last.
You’re right about the upholstery Neil. I absolutely despise cleaning it, but I do ask for more money so I guess that I should learn to love it 8) . Now, I haven’t met a carpet yet that I minded cleaning. Maybe it’s because I’m still a greenhorn in the business. I guess I’m lucky in that the very thing that makes up the biggest part of my day is the one thing that I have absolutely no hang ups about. Not many people can say they love their jobs, but I’ll dare say that I’m pretty close. Let’s just say that I like it a LOT. Thanks for all of your prompt responses and I’ll make sure to check out Greg’s posts in the advertising section. Later.
I price as follows:
3 areas for $129.95 (450 sq. ft. max), additional areas $39 each (150 sq. ft. max) – when I am running a special. Otherwise, $.39 per sq. ft. I am a little bit flexible on the sq. ft. maximums, depending on the size and anticipated difficulty of the job.
I always give a senior citizen discount of 10% – sometimes 15% if they are over 70 and I can see the job will be fairly easy.
Couch- $99 – if it doesn’t have excessive cushions – more if it does.
Love seat- $89 if it doesn’t have excessive cushions – more if it does.
Chair/Recliner- $49 – $59 ($59 is for the very large/oversized recliners)
My upholstery prices do not include protector. I charge 20 – 40 percent of the cleaning price for protector on upholstery, depending on the overall size of the job.
Protector is included in my standard per sq. ft. price of $.39
Commercial- .18 a sq ft and up depending on how dirty.
Pet urine removal- $15 – $25 for first, $15 each after- up to the size of a dinner plate. I too got that idea from Brian Sutton.
If I have to break out my spot pro machine or upholstery mate for extracting spots such as ink, markers, rust, etc. it is a minimum of $10 per spot.
Coffee spills are $10 – $20 per spot, depending on the size of the spill.
Stairs are $4.50 per step for a standard sized step – this includes protector of course.
Area rugs are $1.00 – $4.00 per sq. ft.
By the way, I also hate upholstery because I have to be slightly bent over as I clean it. It kills my back. However, with my prices, I can average much more per hour when upholstery is included on the job. I have sensed much less price resistance on my upholstery prices.
As you are new, be careful not to read anything into my pricing plan that always includes protector on my carpet cleaning. I pretty much don’t clean carpets unless I am also protecting. However, that may not be the best way to grow your business fast. I definitely lose some jobs due to this. There is not a right or wrong answer on this, but you need to understand the difference and what may happen when you quote prices in order to decide on your pricing and be happy with it. My pricing is right for me now. However, I am considering establishing tiered pricing such as:
Renters’ basic cleaning only – $.32 per sq. ft.
Preferred – $.39 per sq. ft., which is what I quote now as mostly my only option. This would include protector. However, I am considering having this tier NOT include furniture moving or perhaps it will include just a coffee table moved at most.
Executive – $.49 per sq. ft., which will include the frequently requested furniture moving (sofa, LS, maybe a couple of chairs, other end tables, etc.) that you will learn to dislike as it really slows you down.
Call the tiers (or levels) whatever you want – Cheap, Medium, Big Spender; Silver, Gold, Platinum; the names I listed; etc. I am playing around with these levels at the moment and will implement something like this soon.
Search on some of these items and you will find plenty of discussion.
Good luck with your business!
Mike
Thanks Mike. I really like the tiered system. We actually had a tiered system in place, but decided to go with the flat square footage prices for now. As I grow with the business I’m sure that I’ll be rethinking some of my strategies. It looks like I need to charge more for stairs. I’m only charging $2 per step, but I think that I’m going to go up to $3 to $3.50. I believe that some ChemDry’s around here are charging $6 per step if I’m not mistaking so I think that my new rate for stairs will still be very competitive. Later.
Dan,
To further explain my reason for the tiers – I mainly want to start charging for furniture moving. There are multiple situations concerning moving furniture:1. You move a few pieces (or maybe a little more – sometimes the formal DR chairs for example) over to a kitchen/breakfast (or other non-carpet) area to get them out of the way. This may take you 5 minutes or so. The customer will move everything back later after carpet is dry. This situation isn’t bad at all. I feel no need to charge for this as it only takes a few minutes to move the pieces out of the way and the cleaning isn’t slowed down.
2. Same as number 1, but the customer wants/needs you to put everything back after you are done. I may want to charge at least a little more for this, depending on how many pieces.
3. The customer wants most everything moved in order to clean everywhere in a LR or den. However, there is no place to get it all out of the way. So you end up moving each piece more than once and you have to clean the room in small sections. This is a real pain and slows you down tremendously. Rather than charge for approximately 2/3 of the square footage of the room’s open areas, you charge for 100% of the room. However, it takes at least twice as long or more. I would rather simply get the 2/3 price and clean the open areas.
I have decided that I must get more for the 3rd situation. So I really want the 3rd upper tier. I probably won’t even show the lowest tier to homeowners. I am still working it out on how to list my charges and to distinguish between #2 and #3 because #3 is the real killer on time.
Question for those who charge by the room, what do you do concerning furniture moving? Is the per room rate the same no matter what?
Question for those charging by sq. ft., how do you handle this? If you don’t charge for furniture moving, do you just accept the pain as I have been doing?
Anyone refusing to move furniture? If so, how do you handle the requests?
Thanks,
Mike
I really feel your pain Mike. My early job this Friday is a classic example of your number 3. Although it is a very small and clean area there will be a sofa, love seat, and chair to move and clean under. The only problem is where do you move it to. The entire house is really small. I mean really small. Small to the point where I don’t know how they got the pieces into the living room to begin with. There really is no place to move the furniture to so I’ll have to move some, clean some, move…well, I think we get the picture. The only real beauty of it is that this job will take little to no solution and the actual cleaning will be a breeze. By the way, I charge 30 cents per square foot and deduct 10% for not moving furniture. I will move a set of dining room chairs or an end table or two, but nothing else for the discount. Well, that’s not entirely true because I did clean under a sofa for a very elderly woman because I wussed out. She didn’t even ask me to. I just thought it needed it and so I did it. Darn those sweet grandmothers! 😉 I’ve really got to toughen myself up! I borrowed from Brian Sutton’s idea of deducting an even larger percentage of a BR if the bed takes up an inordinate amount of the space. It’s usually about 50% of that particular room. This has only been done for their master bedrooms and only if absolutely no cleaning is to be done behind or under it. I hope this helps. Later.
Just reading these posts I think my back hurts! Ouch! I just don’t move furniture – and I tell everyone up front. I will help move dining room chairs or move the sofa a little forward or back but otherwise…. I just don’t do it!! Two hernia operations in my lifetime is enough. Too many years of moving heavy percussion equipment taught me a good lesson – avoid hospitals!! ha!!
I think that I’m just a glutton for punishment! I guess that I might as well get the most miles out of my body while I’m still fairly young (31). You’re right about saving your body from unnecessary punishment though Jeff. Especially with two hernia surgeries! Yowser! I will have to think about hiring a dependable employee before too long.
Jeff,
You are right to fear another hernia. I too have had two repair operations. They are incredibly painful after the surgery, aren’t they?I appreciate your input on how you handle furniture. Do you feel you lose many jobs due to your policy?
My largest customer base is seniors, so I worry about losing a lot of them by not moving their furniture.
As I mentioned, I am still thinking this over and have not decided exactly what to do. I also thought about a potential one-time additional charge for any heavy pieces (I mean most anything other than dining room chairs) they want moved. That additional charge would be for me to place furniture sliders under the legs. I would plan to leave the sliders and expect them to either remain or for the customer to put them back prior to my arrival for any cleaning. Otherwise, the additional charge would be applied again. I would still charge more due to the added time cleaning a room in multiple sections, but not for installing the sliders unless they were gone and needed to be placed again.
I came up with this idea due to a current regular customer I have. I have cleaned for them several times and they normally don’t worry about furniture being moved. However, their young son recently had a virus that migrated to his heart and ended up getting a heart transplant. As he will be taking immune system suppressants from now on, they wanted me to clean his bedroom prior to his return from the hospital. But this time, they wanted his bed, dressers, and everything moved. They were worried about any dust remaining under those large furniture pieces. Knowing they will want those pieces moved in the future, I picked up some furniture sliders and took them with me. Although it was a bit difficult to get them placed, it really helped afterwards. They not only make it easy to slide the furniture, but they also eliminate any moisture concerns for wooden or metal legs.
I guess there is no easy answer to this issue. Thanks for the input though!
Mike
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