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That’s a tough one, because you don’t want to take a trip to somebody’s house to give them a $65 bid, and then not get the job. Even if you do, when you factor in the drive time you really aren’t making much. Try to get the dimensions of the cushions from her, and base your price on how long it will take you. If you include set up time I can’t see 3 large cushions taking more than 30-40 minutes to do.
@Ron Hollingsworth wrote:
@wilson wrote:
7 out of ten jobs we do are berber carpets.
that sucks
Berber is my favorite carpet to clean. I wish all my jobs were berber.
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.
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.
@bferris wrote:
What I meant was . . . you did your part by your explanation and the 20% off your current special. I thought you handled it well.
Gotcha, I think you were addressing me as the original poster, but that would be HBlexington^^^^
I was just a bit confused 😀
@bferris wrote:
Neil,
You did your part here. There are some customers that we don’t want or need.I’m not sure what you meant by the first part, but I agree with the latter of your post.
I take stuff like that personally too, it’s hard to separate it when you are self employed. This guy is an idiot, and as soon as he brought up being Christian I would have told him the conversation was over and to have a nice day- call another cleaner. It’s been too long, and you gave him a great price on the original cleaning.
I did a lot of door hanging when I first started up- probably 10,000 or so. I tried a few different offers and the best response I got was booking $500 worth of business on 1000, and it was during the busy season. I actually just booked a repeat from one of them so make it $625. If I were to do it again, I would pick an area of say two or three thousand houses and farm it. Hit them every month the same way Realtors do it. This is where I ordered mine from- http://www.copycraft.com/doorhangers.html
They have raised their prices a bit since I used them, but it’s still a good deal, and a better idea than running franchise express in my experience.
I had a customer write me a check that I was suspicious about a few months ago. It wasn’t on my bank and it was made out to Heaven’s Best, so I took it to their bank with my business license and my ID and they cashed it right there for me.
@Kempster wrote:
You used the Napper with no pad on it? Did you have to really hose the carpet down with FAE to prevent the Napper from burning it up? When you cleaned after applying the solution did you use the regular drive plate? What pad? I can attest to the absolute patheticness of the Rug Doctor. The only reason that I resorted to the RD before acquiring my franchise was due to being burned by all of the bait and switch guys. I apologize for all of the questions, but I guess that I’m way more of a visual guy. It sometimes takes me a little while to grasp certain things that are written down and then I see it only once and I get it right away. I really appreciate the feedback!
The only carpet I know of that runs the risk of burning is olefin, which this wasn’t, so I just ran it at a regular speed. I did hose it down a lot, but that was to break down all the grease. I used the regular drive plate and regular pads, then woven turf pads. I’m sure lots of other guys here can tell you their own stories about cleaning up after the rug doctor and other department store cleaning machines. I’m happy to be able to answer your questions. I’m still relatively new to this business so I’m learning as I go 😀
It’s a very short pile commercial carpet with no padding. I would guess it’s nylon, but I’m not an expert on identifying fiber materials. The owner was VERY happy. He tried to clean it with a rug doctor before he called me. The steps I used to clean it-
A very thick layer of FAE/101 with very hot water that I prescrubbed in using the dirt napper brush with no pad in it. I let it dwell for 15 minutes and then I padded without the brush. I did about 100 sq feet at a time so the pre spray wouldn’t dry. I repeated this until I was done. The whole job was about 950 sq feet, and it took me 4 hours and I used 30 or so pads.
