I'd love to raise my average..need some ideas..

Mikey P

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Going back a few years I can see we were headed for a close to $400 average than the economy tanked as well as the $3.00 to clean and seal tile and grout phenomenon..

2005-$314
2006-$361
2007-$397 (but close to 100 less jobs that year)
2008-$381
2009-$365
2010-$347
2011-$356
2012-$342
2013-$359 (so far)



Our in town minimum is $150 and we do far too many of those
We don't sell much carpet protector (-$4k this year) for two reasons, not a HUGE believer and our .50 a foot cleaning price is about all they can afford
We usually bust ass all day just to get home before dark so trying to up-sell additional services isn't always doable..

This year we should finish ahead by about one months additional income (8% increase)


If I ever really want to get much bigger/more profitable we'll have to speed up our process, the anal retentive pre vacuuming, mechanical pre scrubbing and slow rinse/many dry pass method is really slooow..
As an example, the guys did two jobs yesterday one for $550 another for $1050, I on the other hand worked alone and did a $350 and a $320 and they beat me home..
Not too mention how worked the solo guy gets whether it's my old ass or my son, 2 to 4 jobs by our lonesome just plain sucks once you're use to having a chimp.

If demand keeps up I'm pretty much forced to get another employee for the second rout so we get get in at least an additional two jobs per day.
Talking to Full Circle who answers our phones, we lost more jobs this year to availability than high price. This by far has been our busiest year call wise. Living in Obamaville has it's perks. An improved outlook on current affairs as well as our top placement on Yelp has been a bawbsend.

So I guess I start training a new tech in January and make it clean to who ever is driving the other truck to look for upsell opportunities more (bonus needed?) and I'm rambling...sorry...some times I just need to writ theses things down to make sense of it all..



I'm really looking forward to MF to be able to discuss this sort of stuff with you AM presenters in person.
 

Steve Toburen

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...so trying to up-sell additional services isn't always doable..
Mike, I think your problem is highlighted in the phrase I isolated above. You are trying to "up-sell" AFTER you are already on-site and AFTER the day is already jam-packed. The key is to "pre-orient" your clients on the services you offer BEFORE you show up on the job. One of my favorite sayings is, "They can't buy if they don't know what you can do."

So how to do it?

1. One way, Mike, (and a huge benefit of you personally getting off the truck) is to do pre-inspections on your first time customers. This was my area and it definitely was my best use in the company. Many times I walked out of the house with a job ticket that was three to four times higher than it would have been with an over-the-phone quote. Plus of course we were able to book enough time to do the whole job instead of jamming it in.

2. You can also automatically email customers a "How to get ready for your big cleaning day" checklist and include on it a list of the additional services you offer with links over to a landing page for each service. You'll be amazed how many people will call you back in an hour or two and say, "I didn't know you guys also did..." (HERE is how we recommend doing this.)

3. And of course I don't know how Full Circle does on mentioning additional services over the phone but that is worth a shot too.

Best wishes,
Steve

PS I'm with Shane, Mike. Those are very respectable averages. However, I know your cost of doing business is higher too. (That high class Cabernet ain't cheap!)
 

Ron K

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Mikey have you ever thought of a Pre_Vacuum crew?? Maybe some gals or part timers you can train to Vacuum with your Curbies...their called that cause you always see them on the Curb!
Just a thought.
 

GCCLee

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That puts alot into perspective Mike. My ears perked up quite a bit : )

Not that anyone could pull off being your classification of suk mopper, it def gives an underlying platform to shoot for. I am quite sure the last time I was this excited, I ended up with a daughter!

Testimonial for This Board Time:
Did a new commercial account last night. 1 of 5 Great Clips Hair Salons in 3 cities close to us.
The thought of this place and what we pick up here, made the atmosphere and job performance amazing!
They Love Us !!

Thanks Guys
Chris

Become a Supportive Member of Mikey's Board Today! The ROI is Unflipping believable....

I don't get jack for saying that either, it's the Truth!
 

dealtimeman

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All jokes aside, that is worth looking into. If you could have a salesman go to job before you, vacuum well, identify and possible upsell/ any problem areas. I think would save you time and make you money.

Now, how this could be implemented correctly is an altogether different task as to keep everything flowing smooth and not up selling to a point that you can't finish scheduled jobs for the day.
 

Art Kelley

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All jokes aside, that is worth looking into. If you could have a salesman go to job before you, vacuum well, identify and possible upsell/ any problem areas. I think would save you time and make you money.

Now, how this could be implemented correctly is an altogether different task as to keep everything flowing smooth and not up selling to a point that you can't finish scheduled jobs for the day.
I think you would need to be careful with that one. I do like the idea of a prevacuum person or crew. I know that is big part of Mikey's schtick and why he charges $300/hr.( I rarely prevac). I think it is absurdly inefficient to have a $300/hr laborer (Mikey) running a vacuum which the customer or their maid should have already done beforehand. But to have a commissioned salesman doing the prevacuuming and a hard sell would be annoying to the customer and very likely turn them against your company. (They might even cancel the cleaning.)
 

Royal Man

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I you want to learn how to up sale. Read and implement Tom Hopkins training to your staff. Then do role plays in this he mornings brfore they go out. They can learn the propper way to sell ( by asking the right questions)without pissing off the client.
 
F

FB7777

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I you want to learn how to up sale. Read and implement Tom Hopkins training to your staff. Then do role plays in this he mornings brfore they go out. They can learn the propper way to sell ( by asking the right questions)without pissing off the client.
I'm gonna send you my new sales book Brokum

"Stop creeping out your customers and pretending you know what you're talking about"

It's the perfect read to Curl up on your Lay Z Boy in your trailer enjoying a steaming hot cup of STFU
 
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I was looking at the best way to increase efficiency and one of the glaring time consumers was prevacuuming.. we ask the customers prevac before we arrive and we will prevac at no extra charge if its going to affect the overall cleaning.. you know lots of dog hair and so on. The most of our jobs are in decent shape, we charge about $50 a room.. going to bump it up on the flip side of winter.

FOr the extra work load it might be a good idea to get a floating van that can do their next job when your crew adds on big.
 

Royal Man

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I don't think most client would want to waste the time for cleaning to become a two phased project. Cleaning isn't that big of a deal for most. No different than getting your car serviced. Most of my client leave when I get there.
 

Mark Saiger

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Everything you are experiencing is exactly our same concerns. We did not loose but maybe 2 jobs I think this year due to not getting to them when needed. We lost more to the price shoppers, but not too many once we explained what they were going to get for the price with not price gimmicks.

With 2 Truckmounts and 3 of us, I am the "lone dog" on some smaller jobs. It does take a lot longer to do a job vs 2 people. I can tell you on the appropriate jobs, having 3 people is unbelievable when we all know how to do the dance!

With us getting rid of our restoration part of the business, we plan to use the monies from the sale of my listed equipment to pay off debt that was incurred to do restoration. That also includes paying off 2 vehicles so we have less monthly payments. All my restoration equipment was paid for with cash, so I never incurred debt on it and I do not owe anything on it. We figure Less debt and payments means a more comfortable situation each month for us. We are also working to increase our profit margin and feel the restoration side sometimes was just keeping "Our" money tied up on restoration projects too long with no interest gained and sometimes, no money recovered.

For us to take on another worker would currently mean less profit margin and there are certain times that another helper isn't needed. Especially entering into a slower time.

I am going for all the carpet cleaning possible since it seems currently everyone else is battling for the restoration and leaving all that carpet cleaning type services on the table. I'm going to gobble up every bit of it!

I too definitely look forward to networking with others about this at Mikeyfest!

Mark Saiger
 
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Steve Toburen

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An interesting take, Mark. That is what is so great about this business- everyone gets to tweak it to fit their situation and lifestyle.

Steve

PS Now that you are not going to be a "competitor" don't forget to reach out to your local restoration contractors and offer your carpet cleaning services to them.
 

ruff

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Our in town minimum is $150 and we do far too many of those

Not a solution to the general subject and depending on your attitude towards minimums (some think they will become higher paying clients. In my experience most never do).
Raise your minimum. That alone will increase your average and make these tiny jobs somewhat more profitable. My minimums are higher or substantially higher, depending on ease or difficulty of the set up.

However, I do not want to work for less and in my experience these clients rarely become good paying clients. Therefore I raised my minimums a long time ago.
 
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Vivers

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Those are some wonderful averages Mikey and I don't think you need any help.

I just got back from Vegas and could use some gambling tips for sure! And I don't mean not gamble. Hahahaha
 

Russ T.

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Selling protector alone is probably the quickest fix. It's hard though when you're not completely sold on it yourself. I'm not sure I am either, but I wish I was. I feel like I'm an excellent salesman when I believe in my product and can educate my customer. 10 minutes spraying protector isn't much at a job assuming you are grooming anyway. Maybe build a bonus program into the sale of protector SPECIFICALLY?


The Clean Machine
 

Jimmy L

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Fred your cutting sarcastic remarks to Dave brought visions of you slitting his wrists and throat with a dull knife.

And unlike others who would probably say it caused them to spit out onto their keyboard......it made me lose control of my bowels and blow out diareaha.

And need I say......curled my toes?
 

GCCLee

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And unlike others who would probably say it caused them to spit out onto their keyboard......it made me lose control of my bowels and blow out diareaha.

And need I say......curled my toes?

Good thing ya still got some Judson Juice fur yur britches : )

Goat A$$ !
 

TomKing

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your averages are awesome!

I would look at starting to have your own CSR.

Your paying to have the phone answered but who is handling the changes and creating the local connection to your customers?
Having someone on your phones making outbound calls and doing follow up will free you up to do the pre sales calls and marketing it will take to go the next step.

If you are gong to go to a 2nd full time truck you are making the choice to push to 4-5.
To keep 2 full time you have to have 3 sometimes. You will also need a third truck mount. Trying to run 2 fulltime without a backup will be chaos. We did it 2 summers ago and life was terrible.

3-4 is a constant push and your averages will probably drop some.

How could you expand with some higher profit services?
 
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Royal Man

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Fred your cutting sarcastic remarks to Dave brought visions of you slitting his wrists and throat with a dull knife.

And unlike others who would probably say it caused them to spit out onto their keyboard......it made me lose control of my bowels and blow out diareaha.
R
And need I say......curled my toes?

Fred is as dependabale at preceding my posts as a giant stinky fart erupting after a terrific bowl of chilli.
 
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Royal Man

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I'm commenting after not " preceding your posts"

Dumbass

Either way not needed. I was recomending a great sales training method ( Tom Hopkins) that most here could also learn from. A snarky comment by you doesn't add anything to the discussion.
 
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FB7777

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I'm envisioning a bookshelf full of sales books in the Brokum household

If only you'd crack the bindings you could be more than an Internet marketing guru
 

Barry-QDCC

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Mikey have you ever thought of a Pre_Vacuum crew?? Maybe some gals or part timers you can train to Vacuum with your Curbies...their called that cause you always see them on the Curb!
Just a thought.

I can't see this working. When I pre-vacuum I move smaller furniture forward to vac then clean behind it. Would you leave these items pulled out for the hours that it will pass before the cleaning crew comes to clean? Seems like a very big inconvenience for the customer.
 

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