I HATE This

[Willy P]

A commercial customer that shoots a fair bit of work my way wants her house done. BIG house, very wealthy family.5000 plus of just carpet, loads of heavy stuff. Plus a few furniture articles. She wants:
A - Build it into the price of the three business's I just did
or
B - Free
B, I don't think so. A is really not ethical for either of us. What do you do?

 

[John Olson]

Does she own the buildings you clean? Is she the one writing the checks? Will she be signing a contract agreeing to the price increase of the buildings?

If she wants to pay more to have her buildings cleaned and you decide out of the goodness of your heart to clean her home for free I see you dancing on the edge of grey but not fear of falling over the line.

Now if she doesn't own the buildings and she isn't the principle party signing and writing the checks then hell no. You wold be party to embezzlement if you raised the price. Cleaning for free would just be a kick back. I cleaned many customers homes for free when I was in the JanSan field.

 

[joe harper]

Does she own the 3 businesses...?

Or is she just looking for compensation for the referals..?


I am too SLOW...Exactly what John said... LIKE!

 

[Ken Snow]

X2

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Give her a fair price in line with the work you've already finished for her. If you do it "free" it would imply you've already overcharged her on the commercial work.

Tell her you don't care which account the check comes from to pay you. I will often leave the left side of the invoice name field blank and put "c/o Ms. Crook" or whatever her name is, on the right side.

Let her know that the "commercial price" you gave her was substantially less than your residential rate.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Give her a reasonable discount, after all she is a referal source for business but not free, free is for donations but never clients.

 

[Mardie]

I always give my commercial client's the same sq. ft. price for their residential as i do for their commercial work and explain the difference in price and the amount of extra work it takes for residential so they know they got a good deal.

PS. If she is not thrilled with this just bite the bullet and let her go f--- herself. Do not let her punk you out.

 

[Ken Snow]

We generally do not give anyone a sq ft price for anything- just a price based on size, soil conditions, time of day and day of week to be cleaned etc. Let them figure out the sq ft price if they want.

 

[Art Kelley]

What does she look like? Maybe you could take it out in trade?

 

[Ken Snow]

Art's the Man!

 

[ruff]

Art's the Man!

Not so much THE man.
Just your horny, sweaty, --- on his mind run of the mill man.
Who just happens to be more in touch with his feelings about it. eat yor heart out Werner

 

[mirf]

If someone is in the position to send referrals that turn into jobs and they wish to be compensated for this I would pay them a fair finders fee. If I could do it in cleaning were I make my margin of profit instead of cash so much the better.

How large were the jobs?

Are they repeaters?

I would never add it to another clients bill!

 

[sam miller]

I'm of the opinion people refer cause I'm good, I have one realtor who send me a few job 5 to 10 a year I'll give her 10 percent off but I dont have alot of room to play at $30 per room.

 

[Shane Deubell]

What are we talking about, $1k $5k, $10k?

Considering our govt spends $100's of millions on studying the effect of penile enlargements on chimps, personally would not feel bad about putting it on the business and spreading it out. Corrupt and useless people do not deserve my respect.

 

[Able 1]

I'm in the same predicament: I cleaned 40 units for this guy last month and he pays above the normal rental rate(most of them are real clean), and I was going to clean the 5 BR's he had scheduled for FREE! Thing is when I got there it turned into a "could you clean this, and this..." mostly upholstery(sectional and 4 chairs), also 6 rugs..

The job turned out to take 4 hours instead of the hour I was thinking it would take. Normally this job would have cost him over $600, so I'm not going to eat it! Maybe I will just invoice him on the normal price and give him a %50 percent discount?? Not really sure? He is one of the biggest property owners in the area and I might only have a 1/4 of them and they are all real nice!

 

[John Olson]

Send him the bill with a 1 time perfect customer discount at the end. He will get the point and be more appreciative of how much you've done for him. It will be a cheap investment that just might get you the other properties.

 

[Able 1]

What are we talking about, $1k $5k, $10k?

How about 40-50k, what would you do then?

 

[Able 1]

John Olson" data-source="" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">

Send him the bill with a 1 time perfect customer discount at the end. He will get the point and be more appreciative of how much you've done for him. It will be a cheap investment that just might get you the other properties.

I think your right John..

Though this job was a PITA, they were not ready, kids running around in the rooms that we were trying to clean... I just bit my tongue, and said to myself "we'll just get through it". Really the thing that has spread me to his other properties is the managers talking.. Just thinking he could make it that my company is the only company that he wants on his properties,THAT would be a dream come true.. LIKE!

 

[rhino1]

If she is the biz owner, then I would do it, she's just looking to deduct the price. If she is an employee then that would be stealing, no way around it. I wouldn't be a party to that on any level.

 

[Ken Snow]

If she is the biz owner, then I would do it, she's just looking to deduct the price. If she is an employee then that would be stealing, no way around it. I wouldn't be a party to that on any level.

It is stealing either way- if not her business then it is stealing from the company, if it is it is stealing from the IRS.

 

[rhino1]

I'm a carpet cleaner. If I'm told that she wants the invoice made out to her business, I wouldn't argue or give her tax advice.

 

[Brian R]

What do you pay for advertising costs? Have those costs been compensated by all the work you do for this customer?

If you're not paying any ads to keep this customer or any new carpet she throws your way...Then you can allow for costs of cleaning her house.

Right up the receipt as a loss and deduct it (Talk to your CPA) as advertising costs.

Charge full price as to make it worth your while.

Buy doing her house for "free" you are not only keeping the work coming you are also working toward new work if there ever is any.

Tell her you would like to see more work sent your way when at all possible...Referrals as well.


You should "Love" this Willy. Gives you a chance to come out even better in the long run.

 

[Mardie]

I'm a carpet cleaner. If I'm told that she wants the invoice made out to her business, I wouldn't argue or give her tax advice.

When i am doing a personal residential job for a commercial client that owns the business,i have no problem addressing the invoice to the business.

 

[idreadnought]

I'm in the same predicament: I cleaned 40 units for this guy last month and he pays above the normal rental rate(most of them are real clean), and I was going to clean the 5 BR's he had scheduled for FREE! Thing is when I got there it turned into a "could you clean this, and this..." mostly upholstery(sectional and 4 chairs), also 6 rugs..

The job turned out to take 4 hours instead of the hour I was thinking it would take. Normally this job would have cost him over $600, so I'm not going to eat it! Maybe I will just invoice him on the normal price and give him a %50 percent discount?? Not really sure? He is one of the biggest property owners in the area and I might only have a 1/4 of them and they are all real nice!

Let me get this straight. He paid you really good to do 40 units? And your worried about the an extra 3 hours you spend saying thank you? Not to mention that you will most likely get 40 more units from him. I would love to have your problem because my solution is a no brainer.

I have actually been asked to clean for a referral source that sent me some really good clients. Wanted a recliner cleaned and their living-room. They didn't ask a price but I could tell they were price conscious because they didn't want the bedrooms cleaned. Well they left me to work and I cleaned all they asked for and I cleaned the bedrooms for free. I also cleaned their couch for free. When he returned he was very appreciative and asked what I he owed me for the work he contracted me to do. I told him nothing. I appreciate all the work he had sent my way and it was my way of saying thank you.

Turns out it paid off very well. This referral source a year later refereed us to our largest commercial job ever. 30,000 sq ft.

I love to do free work.. It makes me so much money

 

[FLYERMAN]

Um, here in the great state of Utah the you-know-whats always write a company check when they get their carpets cleaned at home. It happens so often I don't even say anything any more.

But in answer to your question; I would clean her house for free and I don't care what her position is at work.

 

[FB7777]

I have a retailer and a property manager that each give me over $30K in work a year

I buy them lunch, bring coffees and do work for them for free

Throw an employee in there for a day and you're out what? $200 tops?

I guess if you're booked solid yourself and you're thinking of all the money you COULD be making while taking care of a golden customer then I see where you're feeling like you're being taken advantage of

For me, it seems like every time we do something 'nice' for our best customers, they spend or refer more

 

[Ken Snow]

X2

 

[Brian R]

Is your X button worn out yet Ken? lol


Yes, free can be very profitable...Especially if you don't complain about it.

 

[Able 1]

Yes, free can be very profitable...Especially if you don't complain about it.

Is that Groupons big sales pitch? LOL Don't worry Brian, I know what I'm doing here.. LIKE! I think this years advertising will be about 2% of the gross and kept all my prices the same(no hack Groupon deals for me) J/K .

 

[joe harper]

Is your X button worn out yet Ken? lol






Ken makes a good living...off other people's IDEAS...

I guess you could say he has a "NOSE" for it... :idea:

Being a "YES MAN"...is a very tough job... -sniff


ps ..EVEN the ..."X2"...isn't his idea... eat shit!
I often wonder if he has his own...KaRaoKe machine...???? J/K