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In my case, I have an employee of mine implementing this most of the time. So mine is on a sheet of paper that I have the customer initial twice. Once to confirm that they have reviewed the additional services memo and once to confirm that they have received an addressed evaluation card. It’s bcoming a very valuable QC tool as well.
Also, I don’t want to leave it in the home. My though on that is that this is a special, time sensitive offer while we’re in the home. I think that it creates a sense of urgency for the homeowner to decide while we’re there. Now if we don’t have time to do one of these services, I’ll still give the discounted rate if they schedule it while we’re there.
I’ll get the sheet to corporate to post.
I sent the sheet to Ron H.
I billed another $70 so far today and booked another $220 job just by presenting the sheet at 1 job. Not bad for the price a a piece of paper.
It went off great. I think we all came home with at the very least, valuable renewed enthusiasm about our businesses. I know I did!
If I were to add a suggestion or two, I would dedicate more time to Q & A in the general sessions. It seemed that there was alot of interesting discussion the second day when the chosen operators had their few minutes and we weren’t able to finish some of those and other topics. I would also like more time dedicated to marketing discussion. That is always helpful.
As you said Cody, some of the most valuable time was the long intermissions. I would love to see the long intermissions continue for the next seminar.
Thanks again. Smashing success!
That’s a great idea. Half off!!! Gutsy move Maverick! But if it works, it works. THanks for the info.
I’ve been somewhat involved. It’s a referral network that homeowners use for contractors and service types of businesses. Angies list touts itself to be completely consumer driven with no advertising (endorsments) money skewing the results. I had someone give a lukewarm review of us on the site. It turned out that this person wasn’t a customer of ours (Maybe of a previous operator). The nice part is that I was able to write a rebuttal to the review explaiing this fact. I also have had great reviews on Angies list.
Sound like the next seminar should also double as the “Heaven’s Best Invitational” complete with kp and long drive competitions. I vote Brian to collect for muligans and the beverage cart girls should wear angel wings! 8)
Call any Title company. They have lists that you can buy for a few cents per name and they can sort them any way you like. The title companies do this for realtors every day. Make sure you get the homes with a good income for your area. Hope this helps.
After reading my post back, I wanted to clarify one point.
I didn’t mean to imply that you can’t handle your business. I am suggesting that you may be too busy for your existing number of tecnicians and vans. Add a technician. Add a van. This is what I meant by capacity.
Sorry if that was misinterpreted.
Hi Ron.
It sounds like the cancellations aren’t your problem. You’re scheduling too much business for one van. When demand is ahead of capacity (not a bad problem to have) you’re going to lose business if there is any hiccup in your schedule. It sounds like you may be losing business by not being available enough to service your potential clients. Cancellations are just magnifying that problem, it seems.
Like it has been said before, Ron; it sounds like it’s time for you to bring on some help. You’ve done a great job at getting your business rolling along and it seems like it’s grown beyond your capacity.
Cancellations are a problem, but by taking an adversarial approach to the customer, you may end up slowing your growth more than you had hoped.
Hi Ron.
It is frustrating, but asking someone to pay a fee for a service they didn’t receive is ridiculous. I’d never pay that. Not only will you never be able to collect, you’ll lose that customer and all their possible referrals forever. You should be thankfull that these people give you a day or 2 notice. At least then you have a chance to put someone else in that slot. Maybe it doesn’t always work out for the best, but things happen in peoples lives that are more important than carpet cleaning an your going to piss them off if you aren’t willing to acknowkedge that.
I am very sympathetic to your problem. Just understand that cancellations will happen. When they do, I think it is a good policy to be understanding and try to reschedule. I also agree that if you get stood up with no notice, delete that person from your customer list. We can’t afford to be running all over creation for customers as inconsiderate as that.
I use a commissioned employee and I think it works great for us. I’m in a metropolitan area and paying an hourly wage would kill me because of traffic and travel time. Also, I don’t have to worry about my guy milking the clock (I don’t think this guy would anyway) or taking “the long way” to jobs. On the upside, he does have an incentive to keep prices where they should be and I havn’t seen any cases of gouging.
Heed Greg’s advice, however. Look at your margins. You might find that 35% is a bit much to start with. My guy started at 20%, went to 22% after 90 days, and I’m looking at another raise based on good evaluation cards. If you start at 35%, what room will you have to give raises or bonuses? I realize our businesses are different and we are able to absorb different costs, but these are factors to consider.
Best of luck. It’s great when you can find good help.
Apartments are typically low margin, high-volume accounts. To price anywhere near what you’d charge residentially means that you won’t get the business. Your competing with the “cheap” cleaners most of the time. It’s ok in these type of situations to upcharge for additional work. However, you still shouldn’t charge anywhere near residential upcharge rates. I would suggest a minimum commercial charge of $60 for a studio or 1 BR, $65 for a 2BR and $75 for 3 BR. Obviously, these are for basic apartments without stairs. At these rates you can still bill $80 to $100 per hour.
