~~Anyone switch from room pricing to sq ft pricing or already charges sq ft?~~

[renegade_cowboy]

Right now I charge about $50 a room, but looking to switch to sq ft pricing. I have a great loyal customers and a very good reputation so I don't expect to much of an issue with a price increase, along with changing how I charge. My minimum charge is $147 so going to keep it in that area. I've already been told many times over the summer by customers how cheap my prices are.

What revenue increase did you see in switching, per job and so on?

Do you have sq ft price packages?

Anyone have experience in such a change?

How do you handle in home estimates and so on?

Is it doable having a multi truck operation and charge a higher sq ft?

I really don't want to go around giving estimates as of now, but going to change that when I get off the truck.

Your thoughts on this subject is welcomed..

Thanks

 

[Lee Stockwell]

If you are doing well at 50 per room don't rock the boat.

 

[bensurdi]

We've done it it both ways. You'll make more at sf pricing. I wouldn't consider us a multi truck operation yet but we stay pretty busy and keep an average of $1,300 per truck everyday. It's about time you raised your prices

Having higher prices lets you have more money for everything you want to do in business and personal life !

 

[Lee Stockwell]

We've done it both ways . The big issue isn't price or profitability, it's convenience.

People just want to schedule, price isn't the big issue unless YOU make it so. With unit pricing I can give a quick price guide and not make a second trip. I close over 90%.

 

[ruff]

I've never done per room pricing.
All quotes are phone approximation, not in home.
Not too hard to figure size on the phone, rarely off more than 10%

Works for me and seems to for my clients.

 

[XTREME1]

Ofer do you subtract beds and such?

 

[Royal Man]

I've never done per room pricing.
All quotes are phone approximation, not in home.
Not too hard to figure size on the phone, rarely off more than 10%

Works for me and seems to for my clients.

Same here. Clients are busy and just want a price estimate not a firm price. They also, don't want cleaning to turn into one trip for the price and another for the work.

Usually I close them out on the phone by saying, "While you are on the phone already together, Let's pick a date. What works for you?'

Stops them from price shopping and get the job the majority of the time.

 

[ruff]

Ofer do you subtract beds and such?

Greg, I don't.
As we all know, it takes longer to clean a room with lots of furniture than one that has a few, though the area being cleaned is larger.
I explain that to clients who ask and tell them that if they empty the room, we'll give them a 10% discount and still make more per hour. In over twenty years in business I know of loosing only a few clients due to that.

 

[Royal Man]

For me, I very rarly move all the furniture in a bedroom. If they are already having 2 or more other rooms cleaned. I clean the bedroom traffic area only for $20 and $30 for empty bedrooms + $$$ for walk in closets, Rotary scrubbing, teflon, deo etc.. 2 bedrooms by themselves (even for Traffic areas) start at $80.

Best thing is to price it, till you like it.

 

[Mardie]

Sq. Ft. in home quotes then they must call us to make an appointment for the cleaning if they wish for us to do it.(I do not book at same time of quote) unless they insist.
You can click on to my "Pricing Policy" for full details. www.naturalcleaningsystems.ca
The majority of my clients are true veterans at hiring CCs. and they appreciate the service of an in home quote.
I lose the odd one on the phone because they want a price on the phone but they are price shopping and i dont go their.
When someone wants a job done now! i also do not cater to them types unless it is an emergency or accident.
My clients seem to be very high quality respectfull people that i always enjoy working for. Never had a bad check.

 

[idreadnought]

I like sq ft pricing but I do in home estimates for most my customers. In home estimates give me a chance for the customer to invest time with me and for me to sell the job. Room pricing is much easier to do over the phone without estimates.

If you are making a good average on doing room pricing and don't want to do in home estimates then why change?

 

[Barry-QDCC]

I started in 1994 with room pricing. At one point I let myself to be convinced to change to sq/ft pricing. The ability to use "you only pay for the area we clean" marketing slogan sounded like a great business decision.

We did sq/ft pricing for maybe a few months and returned to room pricing, where I've been ever since. There is good and bad about either way of pricing but here are a couple of things that caused me to ditch sq/ft pricing.

1. Most people want to know how much it will cost. (yes I know there is alot of varibles). Unless you have the business model of going out on quotation appointments you must rely on the homeowner to estimate how big each room is that you will clean. They are NOT GOOD at doing this. They usually over-estimate. You usually have to "talk" them thru the estimation process - this takes much more time than counting rooms. If after all this talking the customer comes up with 1000 sq/ft - and you charge say , .50 per sq/ft your quote will be $500.00. But the problem is that because they over estimated by 200 sq/ft, your estimate is $100 more than it should be. How many customers might you lose by estimating HIGHER prices than you really have?

2. After all was said and done the invoice differences between what was priced at room pricing vs. sq/ft pricing were not much. It was basically a wash, but we spent so much more time on the phone talking the customers thru the estimate that I felt it was better to return to room pricing.

Everyone is different, and ask 100 carpet cleaners this question you have and you'll probably get 100 different opinions but room pricing has worked for me and it looks like its working for you. You don't really say why you want to change. Why not just raise your prices? Or tighten up the rules on why you might discount off your pricing. Do the math on what a price increase of $5 per room would be. That might be easy and less disruptive to your business.

 

[Royal Man]

I personally can't see how clients would put up with having to make an appointment for the estimate and then another for the job.
As a marketer I'd rather strike while the iron is hot and price and reserve the appointment all with-in a minute or two on the phone.

I value my client's time and most of then are not that hung up on price.

I also, value my time and frankly. I don't have the time to do in home estimates.

Most prospects want my company before they even call. And certianly after I talk to them a little they are easy to close.

Why let them cool or possibly get estimates from other companies? It doesn't make sence to me when they are so increadible easy to roll in on the phone.

 

[Mardie]

I personally can't see how clients would put up with having to make an appointment for the estimate and then another for the job.
As a marketer I'd rather strike while the iron is hot and price and reserve the appointment all with-in a minute or two on the phone.

I value my client's time and most of then are not that hung up on price.

I also, value my time and frankly. I don't have the time to do in home estimates.

Most prospects want my company before they even call. And certianly after I talk to them a little they are easy to close.

Why let them cool or possibly get estimates from other companies? It doesn't make sence to me when they are so increadible easy to roll in on the phone.

I get 98-99% of every in home quote i do.Never had a no show for cleaning. Had one no show for doing a quote. I can not say enough about the quality of my clients. I believe it comes from the way i market myself. ie. in home quotes.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

I get 98-99% of every in home quote i do.Never had a no show for cleaning. Had one no show for doing a quote. I can not say enough about the quality of my clients. I believe it comes from the way i market myself. ie. in home quotes.

an Internet sensation in our midst...

 

[Ron Werner]

I started in 94 with per room pricingas well, coming from dept store cleaning. I guess had I raised my per room price I would have done better. But after a talk on marketing by Mike West after a class, he convinced me to charge by sf. I've never gone back. I do free in home quotes. This saves me time and agravation when arriving on site with my truck. They have everything prepared and I know where I can park. His plan was simple, price the whole room sf, then subtract 20-40% based on traffic areas or empty, CHarge top dollar to move everything. I remember when I went from 33 to 40 cents, that was a big jump. But I made two two quotes and got both jobs so I was on my way. Now I'm at 55. A 200sf room is $110. It would be hard to sell that over the phone even if you were a Royal salesman.

 

[Mardie]

I started in 94 with per room pricingas well, coming from dept store cleaning. I guess had I raised my per room price I would have done better. But after a talk on marketing by Mike West after a class, he convinced me to charge by sf. I've never gone back. I do free in home quotes. This saves me time and agravation when arriving on site with my truck. They have everything prepared and I know where I can park. His plan was simple, price the whole room sf, then subtract 20-40% based on traffic areas or empty, CHarge top dollar to move everything. I remember when I went from 33 to 40 cents, that was a big jump. But I made two two quotes and got both jobs so I was on my way. Now I'm at 55. A 200sf room is $110. It would be hard to sell that over the phone even if you were a Royal salesman.

That would be imposible to sell over the phone to some one that does not know you or heard of you.
I found that with all my repeats that i do not have to do phone or in home quotes for these people. They just call and book it.

 

[Jim Martin]

I have done area pricing since day one.....I have no desire to go to sqft pricing........there is really no right or wrong here...its just your personal preference.....

 

[Mardie]

an Internet sensation in our midst...

 

[Desk Jockey]

I get 98-99% of every in home quote i do.Never had a no show for cleaning. Had one no show for doing a quote. I can not say enough about the quality of my clients. I believe it comes from the way i market myself. ie. in home quotes.

Sounds like you need to get more quote opportunities. More opportunities will allow you to close more work more work would keep you off MB.

How can I help you get more work?

 

[Royal Man]

That would be imposible to sell over the phone to some one that does not know you or heard of you.

Just not true. If you have the right marketing in place people just get that hung up on price. If price is their main concern you may have to review your marketing and make adjustments.

Plus, As an Owner Operater how could you ever have the time to do in home estimates?

With driving time each would take an hour or more, when it may only take 1 1/2 hours to clean.

For metThis would have to be factored into the price and raise them by 30% or so.

 

[ruff]

Everyone is different, and ask 100 carpet cleaners this question you have and you'll probably get 100 different opinions but room pricing has worked for me and it looks like its working for you. You don't really say why you want to change. Why not just raise your prices? Or tighten up the rules on why you might discount off your pricing. Do the math on what a price increase of $5 per room would be. That might be easy and less disruptive to your business.

Barry is right. Everybody does what works for them. And there does not have to be a difference.
So, for a per square foot charger like me, I could sum up the total of all the jobs I have done, divide by the numbers of all the rooms I cleaned and that will be my room price.
Mathematically it will average out to exactly the same. Less time on the phone, etc.

Both methods will work just fine.

 

[hogjowl]

I have pretty much done nothing but in home estimates and s.f. pricing during the 25 years I have been doing this. There have been one or two times when I experimented with doing phone quotes in the past, but I always went back to s.f. pricing via in-home estimates for first time customers, and since I always kept records of their measurements, I would phone quote subsequent cleanings for them, but the price was always based on actual s.f. figures for their particular homes. With the exception of my first five years in business, I have always been an owner operator, so it was no big deal for me to go out twice for a cleaning event. I think sometimes it is forgotton on these boards that most advocates of s.f. pricing are one horse operators like me.

As I have grown older, I find that I am less and less willing to spend as much energy related to many things in this business, and I find myself often times quoting even new customers over the phone these days. I can do this without much problem because I have the experience necessary to closely determine the room sizes and lay out of many houses in my area based on the neighborhoods they are located in. This is because my market is small and I have been in every neighborhood many times over the years. The guy above who made the claims of closing 98% of his estimates may be blowing smoke or not, but I can tell you that in smaller markets, where people know you, someone with a good personality and average sales skills CAN close a very large percentage of estimates when done in the home. (After meeting some of you, I can see how his claims could be met with some skepticism, based on what I am sure must be your personal experiences.)

Personally, I don't see how any business running multiple trucks can make a go of in-home estimates, and I suspect almost every advocate of it are one horse guys, as I stated above. Having to pay a salesperson to go give the estimate has to be a fairly large chunk of the gross, even for those high priced businesses of bulletin board lore. Not to mention the shear number of extimates involved in keeping a fleet of trucks busy 5 or 6 days a week, 12 months out of a year. It just does not seem practical.

 

[Mardie]

Sounds like you need to get more quote opportunities. More opportunities will allow you to close more work more work would keep you off MB.

How can I help you get more work?

I would love to give you a reply on your comment but i am having trouble making any sence of it.

 

[hogjowl]

I would love to give you a reply on your comment but i am having trouble making any sence of it.

It's "sense", doofus.

And, if you had any, you wouldn't be arguing with the little brown dude.

 

[Mardie]

Just not true. If you have the right marketing in place people just get that hung up on price. If price is their main concern you may have to review your marketing and make adjustments.

Plus, As an Owner Operater how could you ever have the time to do in home estimates?

With driving time each would take an hour or more, when it may only take 1 1/2 hours to clean.

For metThis would have to be factored into the price and raise them by 30% or so.

You showed us some of your pricing for rooms and it is not even close to Rons 55 cents sq. ft.price. When broken down it looks to me like you are in the price shoppers market. If it is so easy with the proper marketing as you have said why are you not getting 55cents a sq. on average or are you.


As an owner operator with 2 exellent employees it allows me some freedom to operate and play with Richard on the worlds greatest forum.

 

[Desk Jockey]

As an owner operator with 2 exellent employees it allows me some freedom to operate and play with Richard on the worlds greatest forum

LOL

 

[Mardie]

It's "sense", doofus.

And, if you had any, you wouldn't be arguing with the little brown dude.

Looks like you just scored some brownie points from your alfa.

 

[Royal Man]

You showed us some of your pricing for rooms and it is not even close to Rons 55 cents sq. ft.price. When broken down it looks to me like you are in the price shoppers market. If it is so easy with the proper marketing as you have said why are you not getting 55cents a sq. on average or are you.

Being closer to .40 and not having to spend time on estimates puts me at around the same place for time spent per job.

Different strokes. Do what you want. I don't see anything gained for by driving to their house to do something that can be done just as easily over the phone. Waste of time for me.

I don't need to go to their home to bash steam cleaning to gain a job.


As an owner operator with 2 exellent employees it allows me some freedom to operate and play with Richard on the worlds greatest forum.[/QUOTE]

 

[hogjowl]

Looks like you just scored some brownie points from your alfa.

I see jImMy nowhere in this thread.