The bait and switch is cancer to any industry. People justify it as it's business. You are preying on people who don't know about what they are buying. It happens in HVAC, auto repair and car sales. People want someone they can trust. When you go get your hybrid repaired and they tell you the flex capacitor is bad, how do know what they are selling you for 3k. So I wonder how the guy that does thebait and switch in any business feels after his grandma on a fixed income bought a 4k rainbow vacuum financed for 6years at 25%.
We all want to make money. Honest money is the hardest money to make. We don't want to be viewed as loser high school drop outs that tell grandma that soap is an extra $10 a room. I wish Tom King would make a sales program. He knows how to ethically sale and it shows because he started with a Bane and now has multiple business's. This is what I do for a living and bait and switch gives my industry a bad name and gets us on the local news as thieves. Treat people how you want people to treat your family. Just my 2cents.
Ok but today's buyers are better informed thanks to this thing called the Internet, they're less likely to suckered and they're very unforgiving.
If a customer is responding to an advertisement that's low they're not a customer you want.
I want the customer whose done they're home work checked reviews and is more interested in a good job.
The coupon cleaners are almost nonexistent in the L.A. Market in the 70's thru to about 2005 there were 3-5 ads at every house every week.
I'm not sure who started it but my dad and 4 brothers started Millers Carpet care in 1974 they're first ad was 5 rooms $60.00. In the L.A. Times that ad brought in a crap load of calls. My family's been in the cleaning business ever since.
I can tell you this I would much rather be on the job responsible for the out come, then behind a desk answering 50-80 calls a day.
The one thing I do in business and did when I worked in the coupon industry, was try to be as informative as possible.
It's a free estimate there are existing conditions, were cleaning for the client trying to improve their situation.
I never buy a customer's problem I solve them.
When I went straight pricing on my own I had a no size limit 5 rooms $79.95 in 2000, that included pretreat and steam and furniture moving I was convinced as some are here that I didn't need to vacuum because my 10-20K machine was clearly better than a vacuum???
Today we Vacuum first , hydroforce pretreat
CRB/ Steam, or R/E. Move most furniture drop fans and hand out shoe over.
It may not as extensive as some but we're up to $35.00 pre room with 200 sq ft limit and we do everything we can to give a price before we start , no surprises.
I think being honest and fair and doing your best is all any customer can ask for and if you work hard and respond to every call back with a visit and not an excuse you'll be decent at this business.
