need your help

[FB7777]

My business is in the dumper, with winter coming I just called my agent to take my 2nd truck off the road. Massachusetts health care is rising at 15% / year my premium just jumped to $1450 a month!

Job tickets are slightly down, volume of jobs is down 20% but my commercial cleaning side is getting killed!

I've increased the frequency of my mailings to existing customers this year ( I anticipated a drop-off and thought this would be a solid preventive measure )


As far as fulltime employees, its the wife and I and one other technician. I let go of one parttimer a couple months ago and one is leaving in a few weeks. Which is actually good, because my fulltimer can fill in so his hours stay up.

Its tough out there, I haven't experienced anything like this in my 20 years in business.

I haven't advertised via direct response in over 10 years, what are some avenues that you would pursue?

Please share with me some of your marketing ideas... thanks!

 

[XTREME1]

Fred,
I am guessing your a pretty civic person in your community. I would reach out to your core group of friends that you volunteer with and start beating the pavement again.

You have had a successful business for years now and I am guessing that the vibrance of talking up your business may have left a little. I have volunteered at different events these last few weekends and I talk it up. I park the beast where everyone can see it.

it was park for lunch at the polls and when I was volunteering at night at the polls for Marshfield Grad Night Live it stayed there for hours. I made a bunch of contacts.

As you know there is no magic pill but it may seem obnoxious but my groups make fun of me quoting my tag lines and they always introduce me as the owner of Xtreme Carpet Cleaning.

I know it isn't much help being told to get off your ass but that is about it.

 

[Jim Martin]

We haven't really threw any type of marketing together in a while but ....we are getting set up to pin point our existing clients..It is easier to sell yourself to people who already know and trust you then to someone who has never used you before....We are going to really push how important it is to maintain your carpets and how it is cheaper to clean rather then replace.....We are debating on doing another lap top give away...the last one went really well and gave up a good push in the referral area ....It is going to start getting rough out there and we are looking at all different ways to start getting pro active not really knowing what is around the corner.....

 

[Bob Foster]

A "GIVE and TAKE" promotion. (thinking of trying something like this)

I TAKE all the dirt off your upholstery and carpets and from now til December 25th I will GIVE 10% of your invoice (less taxes) in your name directly on the spot by cheque to a registered non-profit charity of your choice.

 

[prouddadx3]

I have three kids and myself, my insurance is pretty good and I pay about $400 a month. I used to spend $1,200.00

Have you posted your company on Google local and Yahoo local. It is free and i get jobs every day from it. You could exchange links with other carpet cleaning web sites which will boost your page rank. I think that would be a good new topic. You could also offer 1 room free to all your existing customers with a referral. I feel the crunch with being a single dad. Let me know if I can help.http://www.colorado-carpet-masters.com/carpetcleaningBoulder.htm

 

[Larry B]

I see this alot on here and dont understand why alot of you spend so much time on people you have already serviced. Not wanting to be rude but a reminder once or twice a year I understand but you can never stop looking for new customers.

If you offer your best service they will remember to call you when they need you again. Even if your busy now and you cant service everyone that day sooner or later you will all run into this problem of needing work. Spend 50% (just a number) of the money you advertise with on finding new people and the rest on your old customers.

 

[Greenie]

Trade in your Butlers for Vortex and it will take care of it's self.

 

[hogjowl]

Call me.

 

[davegillfishing]

Trade in your Butlers for Vortex and it will take care of it's self.

you must be nuts..someone must have blown you to say that..
so mikey how does greenie taste??

 

[FB7777]

A "GIVE and TAKE" promotion. (thinking of trying something like this)

I TAKE all the dirt off your upholstery and carpets and from now til December 25th I will GIVE 10% of your invoice (less taxes) in your name directly on the spot by cheque to a registered non-profit charity of your choice.

Bob a kinda like that idea... thanks! In the spirit of the holidays, that will work well.

As a token of my appreciation, I am sending you the 1st and 2nd season box set of MASH

 

[ronald pantelas]

Fred, Nothing wrong with commercial. Head that way . Its a pain to work all three shifts. You can do it for a while, not as much professional competition. Ron

 

[cu]

call marty...he has a v to sell you it will bring the custys

and while your on your puter email joe p and tell him your in the weeds and need a week with him and the virgin boss
do as i have told you and by this time next year........YOU WILL BE BDCC for sure

 

[hogjowl]

cu is just about as humorous as danny

but, at least, we can understand danny

 

[Becker]

Fred, this is tongue in cheek right.

 

[Mikey P]

You need a Clean And Dry franchise.

 

[Curtis Pennington]

Lay your help off and do it all by yourself. You gotta pound the pavement its not gonna come to you,commercial accounts are the ones to go after,your profit is not as high but you will get work.

 

[Jim Martin]

I see this alot on here and dont understand why alot of you spend so much time on people you have already serviced. Not wanting to be rude but a reminder once or twice a year I understand but you can never stop looking for new customers.

If you offer your best service they will remember to call you when they need you again. Even if your busy now and you cant service everyone that day sooner or later you will all run into this problem of needing work. Spend 50% (just a number) of the money you advertise with on finding new people and the rest on your old customers.

Because your existing client are your best cheerleaders... lets say you have a client base of 800...
you have a better shot at getting new clients from those 800 who know and already trust you then sending out 1000 post cards to people who have never even heard of you before....

 

[XTREME1]

Here is the thread about my give and take

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14382&hilit=boys+girls+club

it is a little different than Bobs idea because I got the charity and members mailing list from the club so the people were already invested in the charity

 

[FB7777]

thanks for all the great advice... I implemented several of the strategies and can now proudly report that my numbers are 5 % higher than last year and will no longer have to take my van off the road.

Foster, your idea didn't work for crap so I will not be sending the MASH box set after all.


oh, the new name of my company is Boyle's Clean & Dry

 

[Larry B]

[quote="Larry B":1w9h20h2]I see this alot on here and dont understand why alot of you spend so much time on people you have already serviced. Not wanting to be rude but a reminder once or twice a year I understand but you can never stop looking for new customers.

If you offer your best service they will remember to call you when they need you again. Even if your busy now and you cant service everyone that day sooner or later you will all run into this problem of needing work. Spend 50% (just a number) of the money you advertise with on finding new people and the rest on your old customers.

Because your existing client are your best cheerleaders... lets say you have a client base of 800...
you have a better shot at getting new clients from those 800 who know and already trust you then sending out 1000 post cards to people who have never even heard of you before....[/quote:1w9h20h2]

Jim I understand that but at the same time your customers can only get you so many new customers. People die, go broke, move & just decide to try others. If you stop looking for new sooner or later you will end up running out of new customers. I completely see why you keep in touch with your customers but to think that will carry you forever is just nuts. Its just a fact of life that people will talk more about the 1 screw up you make than they will spreading the word about how good you are.

Talk to any long time small business owner and they almost always tell you to never stop advertising.

 

[FB7777]

Larry, I see your point as well.

I think what Jim is ultimately trying to get at is that by consistently targeting your customer base ( in my case its 1,500 regulars) you not only get them but also their family, friends, work associates etc.)

No one would argue that you will lose customers through various forms of attrition, but you will gain new people by referral when mailing to your customer base.

You are tapping into your customers network as well as reminding them to call you.

I mixture of both will work better, I'm sure. But a heavy dose of database marketing will have a far superior ROI to direct response advertising to non existing clients.

 

[prouddadx3]

Hey cleaners,

To find new customers for free, go to Google and Yahoo Maps and register your business for free. You will pop up on the map right on top of the page before the regular listings. I had 2 calls today from local maps. To find the map easily type in carpet cleaning and your city in the google search bar. Their is a place on the map that lets you add a new listing. If you do a carpet cleaning Boulder search you will see my website listed third. The other cool thing is that you don't even need a website to be on the map. You really can't go wrong and free jobs are free jobs.

 

[Larry B]

Hey cleaners,

To find new customers for free, go to Google and Yahoo Maps and register your business for free. You will pop up on the map right on top of the page before the regular listings. I had 2 calls today from local maps. To find the map easily type in carpet cleaning and your city in the google search bar. Their is a place on the map that lets you add a new listing. If you do a carpet cleaning Boulder search you will see my website listed third. The other cool thing is that you don't even need a website to be on the map. You really can't go wrong and free jobs are free jobs.

Thats good advise. We are number 1 in our area.

 

[Brian R]

Keith wrote

Have you posted your company on Google local and Yahoo local.

I just did both. Thanks for the tip.