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I noticed that some of us quote and even publish that price is inclusive of stain removal.
I’m in this for about 4 months and when I do get a call I do ask for a condtion description of the carpet and quote based on a standard structure I have developed and do stress that we are not a bait & switch operation and we stand by our quote.
HOWEVER, committing to price is inclusive of all stain removal seems to leave us open to over committing and under preforming or just having to spend too long on the job for the price quoted.
Please advise how you handle the phone quote issue in this case.
Being new and needing cash flow I have been reluctant to get into this too much with the customer for fear that they will get scared away thinking I will ask for more $when I get to their home.
Kurt – Welcome!
I have been doing phone estimates for approximately 10 years now and always quote a low-high range. Our rates are all inclusive & we do not have extra charges for spot, red, gum, etc. Our customers really appreciate this price structure. Once in a while, we may get a surprise larger, dirtier job and we do not go over our high quote. However, I have the techs write the regular rate on the invoice for future cleanings.
Best of luck with your business.
Kurt,
My 2 cents, and I run a 2 man crew which is why I do how I do. When I talk to a customer on the phone, I always ask if there are any problem spots, and then mention pet accidents, red wine, kool-aid, or coffee. These are spots that I know right away may require extra time. I do tell them that if they have these types of spots, there may be an extra charge for their removal. I also do tell that sometimes they come right out with our regular process (like the Mt. Dew code red I cleaned yesterday) and no extra charge is required. Charges vary on a case by case basis, but I can usually give them a rough idea what the extra charge may be by the description they give me. Now, that said, do I always charge extra if I do require a red dye treatment, coffee treatment, etc? No. Usually I will, but not always. If I am doing a job that is $400, there’s a chance I won’t add for that one spot as I’m already making money off the job and my employee can still be cleaning another part of the house while I’m spot treating. A job that is regularly $110? Yes, I’ll probably add another $15 on for that red spot as a job that small may require either my employee or myself waiting on the other to finish the spot clean and that costs me money (like the small 2 room job yesterday where my employee was waiting on me to finish extracting dog poop spots). I like to have the final decision on if extra is going to be charged in my hands.
I do believe that most people now what normal where and tear are. We work our business a lot like Dave does. I will ask them about their concern spots. I also will tell them the ones that usually give a little trouble, or you can re-word that, are the ones that leave a color behind because we are usually dealing with dyes. 98% of the customers understand.
If you include it like Laura does you will need to charge more per room of per sq.ft. If you include that in your price it might be a selling point and you may be able to say that our competitors charge extra for that.Just something else to consider.
I have found also, location sometimes is more important than the spot itself. I’ve had people say “don’t worry about it” when the spot is, for the most part out of site, and people would pay $60-$120 for the spot by the door way. (Because they are looking at replacing the carpet it the spot can’t come out.) $120 doesn’t even cover the labor cost of replacement.
I agree, asking about concerns before quoting a price can save you allot of …
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