Let's just say (for example)

[Jamesh921]

that you give a property owner who has 25 houses a discount and you agree to clean any of his houses (up to a 3 bedroom) for $75.00 for each house. And let's say you clean 10 houses a year for him (which would = $750.00 for the year).

And then let's say that one of your yearly clients finds out that you are cleaning those 3 bedroom houses for said $75.00 but you are charging her $200.00 for HER 3 bedroom house one time per year. Now, she says she wants the same deal.

Would you clean the carpet in her house 10 times in one year for $750.00????

Just asking,
James

 

[John Watson]

Would you clean the carpet in her house 10 times in one year for $750.00????
By your numbers probably not, By my numbers, You bet your sweet bippy I would, Its called a maintainence plan, Using your numbers it looks like this, $200 for 1st clean $50.00 per month for next 11 months for maint touch ups in TA's only plus spills and spots they can't clean with the spotter you sell them. You use a bonnett process for the maint plan.

My numbers for a 1000 sq rental house is $300, Resident house $500 1st clean $100 a mo for 11 mos equals $1600 per year. I would also continue at the $100 rate as long as they kept the contract in force with no deveations. No extra charge if we needed to HWE.. We normaly have a $125 min. Love to have 30-40 of these..

 

[Mike Draper]

Nope!

 

[Bob Foster]

Good grief, $75? So was that Robinson or Cole you were talking with?

 

[Brian R]

I can honestly say I have never cleaned a 3 bedroom home for $75.00 unless it was a special gift to a great customer or prop mnger.
Yikes.

Oh, and I can honestly say that I have never had one of my subs or other clean a 3 bedroom house for $75.00.
Double yikes.

 

[Bob Foster]

$75 is ridiculous. $200 is tolerable for open and empty. Occupied should be higher than that by a bunch but then I don't know your market or circumstances.

 

[rhino1]

# 1 I would want to know HOW she found out what your rate was for the property owner. He's not doing you any favors if he's bragging about how cheap he's getting it done for and I would shut that down right now.

#2 I would want to know what her expectations were for what the cleaning would entail. Would she be flexible on scheduling her cleaning (could you do it on a slow day or when you have a cancellation?) Do you have to move a bunch of crap? Can you get the job done in an hour or less?

If she is willing to accept flexible scheduling, then you turned a $200 customer into a $750 customer without spendig a dime to market to her. You also have the chance to get more work (upholstery for one) on a slow day. Why not? I would do it until it didn't make sense.

Don't listen to much of this price B.S. It is a bit low, but if you get a customer/job for free that somebody else is paying $50 for, then they would have to get $125 for the same job to make the same money as you.

 

[Jamesh921]

Yea, I knew I'd take some flack for the numbers I posted but like I said "for example". Also, what someone in Wisconsin or New York charges would be a whole lot different than someone in south Texas or Florida. But that's beside the point. I really just wanted to see what kind of responses I would get. That's all.

James

 

[dgargan]

Wow $75 for a 3 bed rm house. I wouldn't even do that when I started 15 years ago because I couldn't make any money on it. I don't care how bad the economy is or what part of the country you live in you need to know that your service is worth much more than that.

Maybe I was just too dumb of a business man to know how to live off prices like that? Don't get me wrong I'm not a high roller pricer like Mikey but I get a fair wage to clean carpet. Have you tried SFS to get some business ideas on how to take your business to the next level?

 

[Askal]

I remember my first carpet cleaning job 30 years ago was 45 for a living room and hall. .12 per sf. It's just amazing how the production has increased. We now do .12 sf commercial jobs and make good money.
Al

 

[daniel@procarpet]

The real issue here is traveling to 10 different job sites, 10 equipment setups, the costs associated with that (fuel, chemicals, maintenance), and the physical labor for 750. You will make a little money but not decent money. If you are getting 200 to clean a three bedroom residence, why do the rentals so cheap? I would raise my price. Just a small price increase can make a big difference over time. If you did the rentals for 125 that would be 1250 dollars. You could knock them out over two days and actually make good money. Just my opinion.

What are you going to do when you need tires, brakes, parts for your equipment etc. That needs to be factored into your price and in most cases is around 5 percent of your gross or higher if your job average is low.

 

[Fred Homan]

You sound like a HACK!!!! :shock: $75.00? OMFG!!! :shock:

 

[carpetcleaner]

The issue isn't how much you charge, that's for you to decide. The issue is why so much of a discount for the property manager. If you are making $ @ $75 for the 3br house, why not give her the same price if she is doing the same volume of cleaning?

 

[Jamesh921]

OK, I appreciate all the responses and all the different veiwpoints, but this wasn't meant to be about low-ball pricing. I used that pricing as an "example", remember? So, to get us off the low-ball pricing and get to the point, let's change the prices from $75 and $200 to $750.00 and $2,000.00.

So, if you clean ten 3 bdrm houses per year for a property mngr @ $750.00 per house = $7,500.00, would you then agree to clean Mrs. Smith's house 10 times per year for the same $7,500.00?????
Instead of making a one time invoice of $2,000.00 per year, you would instead be invoicing her for $7,500.00 per year but you would be cleaning her house 10 times each year instead of once.

Now, would you be willing to do that??


Thanks,

James

 

[Bob Foster]

I don't believe the deal should be extended to tenants. Only to the PM when they give you the job.

Unless that was the prior agreement. The spread is too far apart anyway. Was the tenant an occupied unit?

 

[floorguy]

soooo what constitutes a 3 bdrm house??

how many total rooms??

is the din carpet?? is the kitchen?

liv and fam??

now i have a $100 min, and if its JUST 3 BED ROOMS, and if i am in the area I may do it for $75..

soooooooo what is a 3 bed house?

 

[alazo1]

I would tell her the pm gets volume pricing. But if she wants to clean 10 times, sure why not. It would be easier to clean her place because it will be light soil, as mention, bonnet most of the time, hwe once in a while.

Albert

 

[dealtimeman]

i would do exactly what albert said and if she doesnt like it oh well. Volume pricing is just what it is. if there is no VOLUME then there can be VOLUME pricing. There are very few customers that would even bring this subject up in the first place.

 

[Scott Rogers]

"And then let's say that one of your yearly clients finds out that you are cleaning those 3 bedroom houses for said $75.00 but you are charging her $200.00 for HER 3 bedroom house one time per year. Now, she says she wants the same deal.

Would you clean the carpet in her house 10 times in one year for $750.00?"


Assuming you are making a profit and not loosing money on the deal then yes, but with a few stipulations.

1. signed contract paid in full in advanced. (750 paid up front is worth more then 750 over the course of the year)

2. Cleanings would only include furniture moving once a year, traffic area after that till the contract renewal time.


I do think 10 times a year is a bit much, but if she wants it give it to her. You time on that job will be much shorter then the initial cleaning because it will not have a chance to get deeply soiled. Chem cost will also go down.

Locking in that customer for a year means advertising dollars can be focused on bringing in new customers, not wasted trying to get current customers to call you instead of that new low ball add they just saw.

Do not underestimate the advertising power your well lettered truck will have parked in her drive way 10 times a year !! you will pull in neighbors and other referrals.

My contracts are 4 times a year or 3 times a year, paid in advanced. My contracts cover my add budget for the year, the more contracts I sell the more I can spend on adds.

 

[Jamesh921]

This was not a real-life situation. It was just a question to see what kind of responses I would get and to find out if it could be done successfully.

What I found out is that some guys on here, usually one-man operators with very low overhead, can probably make a little money doing a 3 bedroom house for $75. If your van & TM is paid off, you have a high volume of repeat clientel with a successful referral program and have very low advertising costs, you can probably make some money at this price.

But, if you're a larger corporation with several employees, pay rent or a mortgage on a building, are making van pymnts, TM pymnts, have several YP ads running, are paying a professional bookkeeper and advertise on TV you probably can't make money @ $75 for a whole house.

However, SS is apparantly making money @ $89 for a whole house or they wouldn't still be in business, so I guess that blows my whole theory out the window, huh. :?

So, that brings me to my next question;

If most larger companies can't make money @ $75 or $89 for a whole house, how can SS do it??

It's not that they upsell with high-pressure sales pitches. I've asked custys (about 5) who've used them in the past and they "all" said that there were no upsells on the cleaning they got from SS. They also said they were happy with the cleaning they recieved from SS.

I also know a guy who used to work for SS and he said that VOLUME was the reason they could stay in business. He now owns his own CC business (not a SS company but his own company).
As an aside - he also said that their chems were awesome but didn't know who they got them from. Anybody know what those chems are and where SS gets them???

Anyway, so what are your thoughts (or experiences) with what I just said???? If SS can do it successfully, then where does that leave us? And how do we compete with them if most of their clientel is happy with the cleaning they got from them??? Your thoughts??


Thanks,
James