Can someone go over with me marketing/advertising 101??

[duckster]

Duckster, do you have a sft limit? What's the average time it takes to do a whole house?

McDonalds concept

Coffee shop mentality, nothing wrong with that. First restaurant my old man owned"
2 Eggs, Fresh Hashbrowns, toast and jelly and a 6oz glass of oj = .99
He made a lot of money from repetition so whatever works for you.

I remember mom watering down the oj when we weren't looking.
Excuse me mam but the oj seems a little watery?, Humm, I don't know about that!!

Albert

Blame the oj on rain
No sqft limit, law of averages. Some are seeing a better sqft price for sure. Avg carpeted areas total approx 700 for me. And nearly everybody figures to move the furniture themselves or feel guilty about the price and say just clean the open areas which we all know speeds up the job and gets you to the next one sooner. Because I put the coupons on the blocks I want to clean I decide what is too big.

I do have upsell room. If they want green chemicals it is more than the usual stuff that would melt fat off the contestants on Biggest Loser (jk) and even more for a total restoration which includes using a Hild shampooer machine as a power agitator followed by the Rotovac. And of course some homes I can justify selling teflon while others have furniture I can shampoo.

Sometimes it is like being the hobos that would come by my parents house when I was a little guy. One task turns into a full day and what started off as a quick bite to eat turned into lunch and dinner plus money for the road. I had one job recently that started off with 3 bedrooms and a hall. Before I was done, I had the whole house and furniture. They just kept adding on and we went into a few hundred on that job.

How professional you try to act, how polite you are by saying Mr and Mrs rather than a first name, approaching the customer from a position of humility just seems to compel some customers to feel for the 'feel good' they are getting from you. I swear a few would like me to move in just so that feeling won't go away.

We are truly in a rewarding profession where each of us can feel good about how we helped people feel better about themselves today, whether that comes from how clean their house now looks or how we sincerely made them feel special in the process.

 

[breezer]

smack

duckster ,sounds to me you use alot of bait & switch. upsteal. I have never had a call back. With all the jobs you do I am sure you have your share of them......

 

[duckster]

Re: smack

duckster ,sounds to me you use alot of bait & switch. upsteal. I have never had a call back. With all the jobs you do I am sure you have your share of them......

Call it what you will. Upsell is what happens when you buy a car too. Fact is I am making sure the customer understands her options has the information to make an informed decision. Let me guess. "Would You Like Fries With That" is bait and switch when a burger chain has their super-duper burger advertised on TV for $1? I think not.

I have had only ONE callback in the last 2 years. Heavy urine problems needing a different treatment than was tried the first time. We did successfully flush it out and neutralize the damage done by her dog. And, she referred someone to me 2 weeks later.

Bait-and-Switch is advertising a product or service that you do NOT have or intend to provide - in an effort to switch the prospective customer over to a higher priced item or service. Since I WILL GLADLY gain a customer at the special price who will possibly produce repeats at the regular price and referrals at the regular price - I am not practicing bait and switch.

When you arrive at a customer's home do you give them teflon for free and clean stains for free? Aren't those upsells? Quote per sqft or per job flat pricing and NO IT DOES NOT INCLUDE upsells. These premiums are recommended services, not required. I do not set unrealistic expectations or perform any work not agreed upon at any price not approved before getting anything other than my body out of the van. If the job does not fit my model I would rather turn down the job (yes, it is legal and I would do it if the carpet was ready for the dumpster as a favor to the propective client) than accept it at a higher price. But I will do everything in my power to make that person happy. My customer think I am a magician. I can tell from their faces. And they tell me they never expected it to look that good. Dad taught me that if someone is paying you to do a job, you have an obligation to do it to the best of your ability. Agreeing to accept the money means a full 100% given to that task. But Mama didn't raise no fools. Never give more than you are being paid for.

I can't value a customer if I do not value myself. Right? And I cannot work for people who expect more than what is reasonable based on the norm for a vast cross section of the buying (keyword) public I have as customers. Those folks thank goodness will quickly become some desperate fools time and energy wasters.

If you estimate by line items, every line with the exception of the one for basic cleaning is an upsell. Or is it bait-and-switch? Depends on who you ask I guess.

 

[Mikey P]

Darn!


I need to check out this room more often...

 

[alazo1]

I actually sent out 1,000 postcards last year for a cheap whole house special (149.00). It was very specific. The mail list was a zip code close to my home, 1500 sft total home space, single story, easy access neighborhood, 3 br's, hall, dinning and living room. No furniture moving. I did a few of them and took a little over an hour. Maybe I should commit to doing it a few more times.

Albert

 

[danpauselius]

Upsell = Food

Did a job this morning, $486 for the cleaning. She seemed concerned about the price. I offered her Scotchgard at 1/2 price (about 13 cents a foot). Job total $510 and a happy customer who feels she got a great deal. Took a hair over 3 hours.

Upselling is CRUCIAL to our bottom line.

 

[duckster]

Upsell = Food

Did a job this morning, $486 for the cleaning. She seemed concerned about the price. I offered her Scotchgard at 1/2 price (about 13 cents a foot). Job total $510 and a happy customer who feels she got a great deal. Took a hair over 3 hours.

Upselling is CRUCIAL to our bottom line.

Exactly what I think. The sales BEGINS when we enter the home and continues long after the job is done. It is MARKETING and ADVERTISING that got us through the door.

 

[danpauselius]

Oops, that was $468

 

[B&BGaryC]

Darn!


I need to check out this room more often...

Too late to save me Mikey. I just sent out 60,000 post cards advertising $35.00 whole house specials. I changed the business phone number but the crafty bastards tracked me down somehow!!!!

I am booked for 5 jobs a day, 5 days a week until my 74th birthday....

 

[Trevor Truitt]

I think this thread could have been a lot more productive if it hadn't gone off on a "whole house-college football" tangent.

Start your own thread if you want to bicker instead of ******* up someone else's, pretty please.

 

[Trevor Truitt]

Hey Rescue, if your still around

What do you have in the budget for marketing each month?

I can think of a lot of things that could get your phone to ring tomorrow or next week.

Flyers, obviously, are the easiest and cheapest. Pre-Holiday touchup offer with a low-low price is one of the safest bets for not losing your bank roll right before the slow season.

Follow up these jobs with five arounds, or hit the entire block. Think about getting referrals from these folks. And start hitting them up again in the spring.

melissadata.com some good free resources for finding good neighborhoods to solicit.

Maybe someone would be kind to post where to get a good flyer. Ken Raddon i think is one.

Ask others here to send you some of their's.

I have literally a thousand marketing pieces that I have collected over the years from other cleaners. 95% of them look like garbage.

Either buy a flyer, have Wayne Miller custom design one for you, or do it yourself with LOTS of feedback from this site.

Don't sit down at the computer tonight and crank something out and think you are good to go. You aren't.

And the duck said he skipped houses when he saw the people outside. I'd go introduce myself and give them a card flyer whatever.

You can't touch gotprint.com for postcards. 5,000 postcards, glossy color front b&w back for $130 plus ship ($20?). Less likely to hit the trashcan than a black on colored paper flyer.

Custom postcard from Wayne or other, guessing $150 plus printing for $150 = $300. Hit the street with them and I'll bet you see a positive result.

I'm sure somebody will disagree, but it is one plan that can work when your back is against the wall.

 

[duckster]

"Don't sit down at the computer tonight and crank something out and think you are good to go. You aren't. "

And you are who in the marketing world? Wrote a book, teach an accredited college course? I would love to know your qualifications that make a statement like that have any validity. In fact, it has as much truth when generalized as saying "all asians are terrible drivers because they can't see over the steering wheel".

When you say "you aren't" are you having a moment of self-examination?

 

[Trevor Truitt]

When you say "you aren't" are you having a moment of self-examination?

I realized long ago that no amount of time and effort could enable me to produce a marketing piece, or even a business card, that would approach what someone, by God given talent or lots of training and experience, could make in an hour.

I have literally a thousand marketing pieces that I have collected over the years from other cleaners. 95% of them look like garbage.

I should have said 98%. That is closer to the truth.

Despite my serious handicap of not having tenure status, I am smart enough to know that you and me and every other cleaner* on this board should have some help (a lot of help) with their marketing.

*There are a few exceptions. Wayne Miller and Jeremy ? come to mind.

You can be a cheerleader and tell people "You can DO IT!!" all you want, it isn't going to make it so.

 

[Trevor Truitt]

I'm sure I only hit that button once.

 

[gimmeagig]

I'm just starting out and I need all kinds of thing marketing wise.Who is Wayne Miller and how can I get in touch with him?

 

[Trevor Truitt]

Roxy~

Wayne Miller is a cleaner who posts here and on ics, has marketing cds available and does some custom work (web sites and other).

You can find him here or thru his site pdqpostcards.com

I suppose one reason I am biased toward Wayne is that he really shows you what his material looks like before you buy.

I think he still has one free postcard on his site that you can try out if you like.

 

[Ron Werner]

After reading the post "What do you charge for heavily soiled carpets ???" viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32294&p=356523#p356523 and this one again, I've a challenge figuring out where Duckster is marketing from. He mentioned the McD's attittude, sell to the masses and make a little off each one, yet from the website, he's changed and gone the Chris Ruth's path.
From going from $89 house pkg to $99 for one room, VLM at that.
I'm just wondering about how he finds the profitability in both , how it compares, change of mind over the past couple years? or is the $89 whole house pkg still in the arsenal?