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Now is a great time to shop your competition. With the price of gas, I’ll bet you see a lot of people raising their prices or adding a fuel charge of some kind. If you don’t raise your regular pricing rates, I would definitely at least consider raising your minimum trip charge, especially if you have a large territory to cover. Just my 2 cents…
Coit in Southern California charges a $17.00 “service charge” that can’t be discounted when they run a “40% off” special on carpet cleaning.
Lew
We raise our prices at least once a year. Our customers are trained to know that it will be higher the next time. I like to just add to the price of cleaning instead of an additional charge. I, as a consumer, like this better when dealing with other service people.
I don’t’ think that I like the “fuel surcharge” idea. Reason? If you hand over the invoice and it shows a service charge then the customer is going to put 2 and 2 together and know you are doing it to cover the increase in gas expenses. Then they’re going to think, “Damn, I have to not only pay for MY gas but THIS guy’s gas as well.” I would just as soon raise my prices then do this. Look, we clean on average 24 jobs a week. So that’s about 100 a month. If you induce a small raise in price, say $10 per customer then that is a $1000 per month increase in sales. For me at least. Just $5 bucks more that’s $1500. It adds up. The way I look at it is we have 2400 customers. Yes raising my prices will piss some people off and they won’t call back. Usually those are the jobs I don’t want anyway. So if 2% don’t call me back then so what. If 48 don’t call me then my loss of sales from those 48 for the next year will be about $4.2k, but the money I make from the small $10 raise will be just under $12k, not to mention I’m cleaning cleaner homes and becoming more efficient.
It’s a catch 22 however; consumers are spending less so raising prices may hurt you. I’m ALWAYS looking to add to my customer database so what do I do? On the phone the first question I ask the potential customer is, “have we had the pleasure of servicing you before”. If they say no then right now we are giving a 10% economic stimulus discount because of the economy/pres. Election year. They LOVE this. You have instantly built a relationship with that customer. They feel that they can trust you. They feel that you care. If they say, “Yes we’ve used you guys before” they get the normal price. This of course is a rebuttal to the famous question, “how much do you charge” which about 75% of the calls I get begin with.
I don’t like the idea of a service or trip charge to a normal in city limit job. Just raise your price and don’t have one. I have read that you can raise your price 10% and 20% of your customers and still make the same amount of money. I have raised my prices twice this year already.
I agree – just charge more for cleaning! I have raised my prices recently already. The only change I have made to compensate for gas cost is that I charge slightly higher rates for customers outside our city limits. I feel this is fair, and I never even have to tell the customer about it – that’s just the price I quote them. Usually 10-20$ higher depending on how far out I have to drive.
This topic should be revisited! That price of fuel is outrageous, and I have been thinking about ways to pass this on to the consumer. I hate to do this, and some may not call it inflation, but these people need to wake up. If the price of fuel continues to increase, everything will increase including carpet cleaning. Rather than adding a so-called “trip charge” to the invoice, I am going to add a cost in $5 increments depending on travel time to the services we provide. It will not be as obvious for the customer to recognize, and remember the customers we want look for value and not just a bargain!
I have not raised my prices yet. I feel that there is too much competition to do so. Also I feel that if my customers have been using me for so long that they deserve a price break. I will give them the price of the cleaning & say this is last years price thank you for your business. They all seem to like that. I also know that when I leave a customers house that their carpet is clean. I want the customer to feel like they got the best cleaning at the best price. I am very happy with my business and repeat customers, and am very fortunate to be busy in these tough economical times. This is working for me, when the times get a little better, then I’ll be raising my prices right along with it.
My increase has been working out fine, and I will make it up to them by giving them the “pickle.” In return, I may vacuum an area rug for them while moving my equipment right by it. They really seem to appreciate this and don’t mind the small increase.
There is no doubt that raising your price is scary ! But to me its even more scary to lower your price!!!! You have the right to create your own future in this business! Don’t work yourself to death for not enough compensation. If you don’t charge enough you will be out of business !Thats the cold hard fact of running any business,if you cant pay your bills then your done. I would encourage anyone who is struggling with this delema to seek the imput from our great owners and our Master,Cody .It is a good idea to alwaws know what the competition is charging ,but more important on what they do for that price.
Great advice! We are in business for a reason.
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