Per Foot or Per Room debate

[handdi]

we charge by the sq ft
measure the whole room .10 difference in open areas and for moving furniture of course no dressers or beds moved.
sq ft pricing get their address and put it in your browser
surprise you have the house value and sq footage of the house.zillow i think it is . and trulia.com are great sites
shoot we have a 6000 sq ft on the lake here and a single wide right beside it ya never know this has helped me out a lot.

 

[EDS]

We charge $50 per area cleaned up to 200sqft. No moving furniture and no up sells except traffic areas on upholstery.

 

[dgardner]

traffic areas on upholstery.

??

 

[hogjowl]

Body contact areas ?

 

[PrimaDonna]

Body contact areas ?

Now you're talking!

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Skid marks.

 

[Braden bell]

Sq. Ft. For us. I just knock some off depending on what I see. 10 by 12 bedroom with queen bed and dresser probably knock it down to 80 ft. Mondays mstr. Bdrm was 15 by 16 with only a queen bed and two nightstands that we slid out so no deduction

 

[EDS]

Got the idea from this forum...

 

[Wing It]

Time is money. Driving to the home, measuring it and then driving back to the office would take me on average about an hour. It makes more sense for me to try and come close on a price/room over the phone. If the home seems big then I go measure it or charge more per room.

 

[Barry-QDCC]

Per room pricing for me. 15x15 (225sq/ft) limit for one room. Most houses might have one or two rooms that big or bigger but the rest are small and I don't reduce the price for smaller areas unless they are less than 80 sq/ft - I just eyeball it for that price reduction. Hallways (up to 4 ft wide) are $1.00 per ft in length. Long story short I usually make $125 to $150 an hour. (Just think what I'd make if I charged Meg's pricing! )

When I got into the biz back in 1994 I bought an existing franchise (chemdry) that was pricing per room as were most other companies around this area at that time. I remember the most commonly advertised price was 2 rooms for $49. At some point I was convinced by some other franchised owners that sq/ft pricing was the way to go. Their most convincing argument was how good the "you only pay for what we clean" sounded to customers. So I switched over from room to sq/ft pricing.

I found these things out.

• Homeowners are lousy at estimating over the phone how much square feet they want cleaned.
• Most estimated high which caused the estimate to be higher than it should be - making me think we might be losing jobs due to giving out too high estimates. (YES I know you can go to the house to give pricing but that's not my business model.)
• We spent WAY more time on the phone talking to the customer trying to figure out the price.
• We Spent WAY more time at the house when we got there measuring things.
• In the end - Job averages were almost the same either way - Just way more time involved with NON-cleaning activities when using sq/ft pricing.

So I switched back and never have regretted it. So easy to do room pricing, customers understand it and overall administratively faster. - At least for us.

 

[Braden bell]

I would say to each his own but it really doesn't have to add time to the job. Customer walks me through the house. I measure each room. Electronic tape measure. A minute later I have a total. Signed and go to work. I will say that our area would not support some people's price structures on here

 

[Braden bell]

And Barry you nailed it. People have no idea how many square feet of carpet they have

 

[knoxclean]

We went from room pricing to sq Ft several years ago using Mark Kennedy formula. 3 package system .33. .48 and .58 a sq
We measure wall to wall on all the levels. At .33 we clean only open areas of carpet. When they ask why we measure wall to wall when we don't move anything we tell them our regular rate is .48 so we discount it down to 33 and measure wall to wall, its just easier to figure out rather then measure a bunch of open areas in each room. We get very little resistance with that.

 

[Mike Draper]

Ive always done sq/ft pricing. Went to per room. After 3 months my revenue was clearly taking a hit. Went back to sq. ft. pricing. we only charge for area we clean around furniture. On quotes I have a way of explaining to clients that 2 rooms and hallway ususally averages 350 sq. ft. but that is an estimate. Our business continues to grow each year so apparently its not hurting us to be sq/ft cleaners yet

 

[Mikey P]

Gargan what does .58 get them?


Your one truck that actually puts out hot water?









J/k..

 

[QDCC-Barry]

If you make more money doing sq/ft over room pricing (or vice versa) all that means is your price point needs adjusting on one of the methods. For me, when it worked out that either way the final job price to the customer was the same it meant my pricing points were balanced. I chose the pricing method that was quicker and easier for us and the customer - emphasizing the "us" part.

 

[ruff]

After all due consideration lets sum it up:
Both methods work. You can either make more or less money with each method.
Just be smart about it.

 

[Willy P]

 

[Mikey P]

Willy charges per dump.

 

[PrimaDonna]

I found these things out.
Homeowners are lousy at estimating over the phone how much square feet they want cleaned.
Most estimated high which caused the estimate to be higher than it should be - making me think we might be losing jobs due to giving out too high estimates. (YES I know you can go to the house to give pricing but that's not my business model.)
We spent WAY more time on the phone talking to the customer trying to figure out the price.
We Spent WAY more time at the house when we got there measuring things.
In the end - Job averages were almost the same either way - Just way more time involved with NON-cleaning activities when using sq/ft pricing.
So I switched back and never have regretted it. So easy to do room pricing, customers understand it and overall administratively faster. - At least for us.

So eloquently put. This says it all So easy to do room pricing, customers understand it and overall administratively faster. - At least for us.

Exactly why we do it the way we do....

 

[knoxclean]

Mike for .58 we move most furniture ( no hutches, beds, china cabinets, furniture with TV or electronics on it) clean all carpet, SG, sanitize and wipe down the baseboards.

 

[Wing It]

How do you sanitize wall to wall carpet? Do you just add an oxidizer to the prespray or do you follow the extraction by misting on a sanitizing chemical?

 

[daniel@procarpet]

I'm just curious what you are doing different than your compet

 

[hogjowl]

Microban Clean Carpet cleaner.
Call Pembertons.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

I do a combination of both pricing methods. Just depends on the job.

 

[Barry-QDCC]

Ive always done sq/ft pricing. Went to per room. After 3 months my revenue was clearly taking a hit. Went back to sq. ft. pricing. we only charge for area we clean around furniture. On quotes I have a way of explaining to clients that 2 rooms and hallway ususally averages 350 sq. ft. but that is an estimate. Our business continues to grow each year so apparently its not hurting us to be sq/ft cleaners yet

You do realize all that means is you weren't charging enough per room?

 

[Mike Draper]

You do realize all that means is you weren't charging enough per room?

Yes, thank you mr. obvious. The highest price cleaner in my valley ( zero res) charges 35.00 a room, up to 200 sq. ft. My price is double that. It doesnt work well on the phone to be double the next highest price in town. And most are half what zero is. It works out better for me to explain my prices in a different way to my clients.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Yow!
I'd like you to explain to ME.

 

[ruff]

I'm familiar with me. Who's ME?

 

[Mike Draper]

Yow!
I'd like you to explain to ME.

We take half the odd sq. footage and divide by the hallways or main traffic areas then X the sq. ft. - the furniture. Depending on what day of the week it is our formula is subject to change. When my wife is on her period everything doubles.