How was your May?

[Brian R]

Heavy month for me in more ways than one. Ton of business.

Bottom line is up 50.2%. Coolio


I'm booked through June with about 3 jobs per day, 6 days a week. Yes, that is booked for me because that's more than I want to do in a day.

I've got Full Circle signed up in the Dallas area again.....that's another thread.


I'm projecting June to be a "money in the bank and keep it there" month. shiteatinggrin




How was your May?

 

[Ken Snow]

Why not figure out a way to do more- being booked for a month out is scary to me. Hire peeps, sub work etc.

 

[Brian R]

Why not figure out a way to do more- being booked for a month out is scary to me. Hire peeps, sub work etc.

I'm just cruisen Mr. Ken.

It's almost like it's just an exercise routine. lol

Maybe I'll get serious and find a good sub in the area.

 

[dday]

Why not figure out a way to do more- being booked for a month out is scary to me. Hire peeps, sub work etc.

Hi Ken,

As you know I have nothing but respect for you, so this is not meant as anything more than noting a point of view or perspective from which you yourself do not operate: For a single truck owner/op with no desire to grow into a multi-truck Hagopian-like operation, it is better to be booked out several weeks than only several days.

An owner/op's customers will typically wait longer for him because in many ways, he is the service.

So, while being booked out a month is scary to a multi-truck operator for whom carpet cleaning is sold as a commodity service, not being booked a month out for some owner/ops could be just as scary, though for different reasons of course.

You, the multi-truck operator, would be afraid of losing business due to impatient customers not willing to wait a month.

The more boutique-like owner/op would be afraid of losing his house because he does not have enough business, i.e. income on his books.

I think both are right, by the way.

As always, I wish the best for you and yours,

David

 

[Out of Character - 0]

I would wait a month to have Brain wipe my carpets cleaner. And as David said "he is the service", much more than his method.

:mrgreen:

 

[Desk Jockey]

If it were me I would call someone else no matter what the service, if you tell me you can't take care of me for a month. :x I might wait a week but seriously any more than that and I'm asking if anybody knows of someone else that does that service.

No matter how good you or I am, we are just talking about carpet cleaning.

While the next guy may not be as good as you, he certainly could be. ????

Sure you care, but don't most owner op's, if they buy the same solutions and use the same machine and care about what they do, will the customer really be able to tell a difference?

This is not intended as a slam, but I think you're fooling yourself if you think most people will understand you can't get to them for a month.

Even your most loyal customer who is willing to wait for you HAS to be disappointed when they hear they have to wait a month. That's just not good customer service.

If your van breaks down and the mechanic says it will be a month to fix it, are you willing to wait?

You trust your guy, he is a mechanical genius at diagnosing and repairing vehicles, everyone one recommends him. But are you willing to wait or are you going to ask your circle of influence and see if there is anyone else that is good at repairs? :shock:

Again this was not intended as a slam, but hopefully more of an eye opener.

Good luck!

 

[Jim Martin]

on an average I stay booked a week and a half to two weeks out.....anything past 2 weeks I start loosing people....

 

[joey895]

I don't get how you guys do it. It seems everyone that calls me needs me asap. Even customers I've been working for from the beginning (about 4 years now) are very disappointed if they have to wait more than 1 or 2 days and people who get my number from the phone book or internet forget about it they almost always expect same or at least next day service. I'm always amazed at the 3 pm calls that expect same day service and sound soooo disappointed when I can't get to them. I guess they expect that I'm waiting by the phone for their call.

I know I don't expect any service provider to come out dame day unless it's an emergency and then you can bet I'll be paying for it.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[bob vawter]

i ALWAYS had same day service in my ads......a lot of 'em WILL wait till tomorrow tho if it's early.......

 

[Brian R]

The type of jobs booked are jobs paid for so I'm not really worried about it.

If I was pushing hard, Yes I would hire or sub. I just am not worried about it that much.

If anyone is booked out more than a month on a simi regular basis and they are looking for more customers then they need to get help.


Rich will agree that I need help in a bad way....just not carpet cleaning help. Ivebeensold

 

[John Olson]

As brian pointed out these are his groupon customers. They arn't "real" customers :mrgreen: They don't have a choice..now....sucks to be them..

 

[Desk Jockey]

Seriously Groupon is a whole different animal. They will wait for that, just because of the great deal they got.

 

[Brian R]

Not Groupon....but close. !gotcha!

 

[Desk Jockey]

Ok New-pon. :roll:

:mrgreen:

 

[Jim Martin]

I don't get how you guys do it. It seems everyone that calls me needs me asap. Even customers I've been working for from the beginning (about 4 years now) are very disappointed if they have to wait more than 1 or 2 days and people who get my number from the phone book or internet forget about it they almost always expect same or at least next day service. I'm always amazed at the 3 pm calls that expect same day service and sound soooo disappointed when I can't get to them. I guess they expect that I'm waiting by the phone for their call.

I know I don't expect any service provider to come out dame day unless it's an emergency and then you can bet I'll be paying for it.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

dont know......we get one.....maybe 2 a month that want a same day cleaning.....if I could comfortably squeeze them in I probably would do it..but normally I don't have the spot.....

 

[Brian R]

Ok New-pon. :roll:

:mrgreen:

 

[lust1kiddo]

Personally, I like 2 a days for 6 days..that's about it. Im a small O/O with a porti..this doesn't include rugs picking up and dropping off.
It would be super tough to find a guy to do the work that I do. When its your ass on the line, you do what it takes. Most people wont if its not. I am only booked about 1 week or so out..maybe a week and a half, tops. Now going to try and pick up some commercial stuff to add a little juice..that's about it for this year.

 

[Bee Busy]

May was an awesome month! Best month since restarting the business in Sept 2010. Have managed to finally get the tile/stone work 60% to 40% carpet clean/repair work, with tile/stone leading in totals shiteatinggrin . Before it was more like 75-25 carpet to tile/stone :x

 

[smastio]

If it were me I would call someone else no matter what the service, if you tell me you can't take care of me for a month. :x I might wait a week but seriously any more than that and I'm asking if anybody knows of someone else that does that service.

No matter how good you or I am, we are just talking about carpet cleaning.

While the next guy may not be as good as you, he certainly could be. ????

Sure you care, but don't most owner op's, if they buy the same solutions and use the same machine and care about what they do, will the customer really be able to tell a difference?

This is not intended as a slam, but I think you're fooling yourself if you think most people will understand you can't get to them for a month.

Even your most loyal customer who is willing to wait for you HAS to be disappointed when they hear they have to wait a month. That's just not good customer service.

If your van breaks down and the mechanic says it will be a month to fix it, are you willing to wait?

You trust your guy, he is a mechanical genius at diagnosing and repairing vehicles, everyone one recommends him. But are you willing to wait or are you going to ask your circle of influence and see if there is anyone else that is good at repairs? :shock:

Again this was not intended as a slam, but hopefully more of an eye opener.

Good luck!

Kind of agree... today I will post another blog on my site about service provider marketing or lack there of. Here a snippit from it:

We live in a Me Now, You later, On My time World. Marketing must be available when people want it and how they want it, and more and more it must be in real-time. People don’t want to play communications tag with you; they have lives to get back to. In their eyes – if you aren’t there, someone will be! Don’t kid yourself experienced reader of carpet cleaning – TIME TRUMPS LOYALTY.