Yes Mike, we were by FAR the most expensive RESIDENTIAL cleaner in the area. I think it is important to make this residential distinction because we ran our commercial work on a totally different philosophy. We were happy to get in there and root and grovel around like pigs at a trough for commercial work IF we could make our profit figures. However, our residential pricing was sacrosanct and high end. (Commercial work and restoration gave us the financial backbone to be choosy with residential.)
If so, how long did it take you to get there? It isn't so much how long it took to "get there" as how long did it take me to see the light even BEFORE I started trying to GET THERE. Once we jumped on the "prestige cleaning" band wagon my guess was two years till we had converted the flock. (Or they had left in sticker shock. but very few did.)
Do you have a YP ad? Yes, we did Yellow pages but since we had a small market the ads were not expensive.
How do you deal with price shoppers? Actually as you raise your image and prices the word gets around and we seldom had issues. A good phone script that "converts" the "people-who-ask-about-price-because-they-don't-know-what-else-to-ask-about" is essential. And yes, e-mail me if anyone wants a copy of what we used.
If not, do you want to be? N/A
What will it take to get you there? N/A as I sold the company almost sixteen years ago and am semi-retired. (Even though Sioux says if you count my internet time I probably put in a full time week.)
Are you willing to give up your "Low rent" clients? Absolutely. "Pareto's Law" is so true when it comes to customers. 80% of your net profit will come from 20% of your clients. And the inverse is true. You will also encounter 80% of your problems from 20% of your clients. Guess what- much (but not all) of the time these people will be the low end customers.
Steve Toburen CR
Director of Training and internet gadfly
Jon-Don's
Strategies for Success
PS Where do you come up with all these ideas for threads, Mike? this is a good one.