Prices....

[B&BGaryC]

A lot of cleaners are scared and dropping prices even as their expenses go up. A few new companies are flooding the market with lowball prices advertised on huge cubevans. I was getting a lot price conscious customers, not happy with a basic cleaning at a discounted price....

I don't think I changed anything I did, but this week, instead of discounting a 28c/foot cleaning to 25c/foot cleaning and being told I'm expensive, I have sold every cleaning for over 65c/foot, some even at 85c/foot. I did one on friday for a dollar fifty a foot. They are not even that dirty. (The $1.50 job was urine though) I argued with these people that they were buying service they didn't need. ('cept the urine job) Didn't change their mind, they wanted everything. I got one for tomorrow, two small rooms and a short hall for over two hundred dollars. That's a 65 dollar job in this town.

"I'm not saying that it won't look better and be much cleaner and stay cleaner and fresher longer, I just want you to know you could go with a standard cleaning and still be happy with the results."

They don't care. I guess as long as I warn them, their friends can't tell them I ripped them off later...

 

[hogjowl]

Thanks Dave.

 

[Scott S.]

i have cleaned a couple of carpet that you could replace with new with the prices i have charged. commercial glue down is what it was. and no one else in the area wanted to clean it because i was so messed up. did it and now currently do it once a month at a slightly lower price.

 

[steve r]

Thanks Dave.

good one

 

[d-day]

Thanks Dave.

I don't get it.

 

[B&BGaryC]

I think that's a shot at dave rampage. Don't know the guy that well though.

 

[d-day]

I must have missed something while I was away from the boards.

 

[truckmount girl]

Dave Rampage always talks about how successful he is and how much he charges....

Take care,
Lisa

 

[Rambo]

We did one last Friday for a $1.20 a square foot but that was not carpet, it was laminate floor cleaning. Carpet cleaning around here is still .22 to .28, I wish you would move to my area so I could use you as an example of why I need to raise my prices LOL

 

[d-day]

Dave Rampage always talks about how successful he is and how much he charges....

Take care,
Lisa

Forgive me if this sounds sarcastic ... that is not my intention. And I do not wish at all to stir some sort of controversy or bb-drama. And perhaps I'm naive or just plain numb-skulled, but does this mean that it is a bad thing to be a successful cleaner who charges enough both to pay himself a decent wage and to make a decent profit for his business? Or is it ok to be successful, but not ok to talk about it? I went back and searched DR's posts on ICS and he seems to have his act very much together.

I actually found his posts very inspiring.

Respectfully,

d-day

 

[XTREME1]

then the cleanboard is a better place for you to hang I bet. No disrespect but if you can use his tutelage that is where you will find him.

this isn't ICS search the posts here

 

[truckmount girl]

[quote="truckmount girl":3s6l27s4]Dave Rampage always talks about how successful he is and how much he charges....

Take care,
Lisa

Forgive me if this sounds sarcastic ... that is not my intention. And I do not wish at all to stir some sort of controversy or bb-drama. And perhaps I'm naive or just plain numb-skulled, but does this mean that it is a bad thing to be a successful cleaner who charges enough both to pay himself a decent wage and to make a decent profit for his business? Or is it ok to be successful, but not ok to talk about it? I went back and searched DR's posts on ICS and he seems to have his act very much together.

I actually found his posts very inspiring.

Respectfully,

d-day[/quote:3s6l27s4]

It's not a bad thing at all. I was just letting you know what they were referring to. I think some think that he's not as successful as he portrays himself. If you found his posts inspiring, that's great, we all need all the inspiration we can get. I've met Dave and think he's a nice guy. I've no idea if he's as successful as he says or not and really don't care either way.

Take care,
Lisa

 

[hogjowl]

The point is, we've seen the high priced posters come and go over the years, with the majority fading away in a manner that revealed the lies they were telling. I've had one tell me he was looking for a part time job driving a lemo because he was struggling, all the while he was posting on ICS about his 75 cents a sf pricing. (This was in the early 90's.) He's no longer around.

I've seen another who posted his high prices and he suffered a natural disaster on his home and didn't have the appropriate insurance.

Another had to take a loan to go to his grandmothers funeral.

We all know of one who worked at night as a hotel clerk. He was the biggest guru around back then.

You may be legit, and if you are, I'm proud of you, but you gotta know where we're coming from.

This ain't our first rodeo.

 

[d-day]

interesting stuff ... and again, I wasn't trying start controversy. In the end, I find that price per square is really not the important number to me. I focus on gross margin and average daily production - these mean more to understanding where I am and where I'm going than the pennies I charge per square.

That being said, I charge 200 pennies per square.

I gotta run now, as I'm late for my closing shift at MickeyD's :wink:

 

[Brad_Smith]

David what market do you focus on. I remember before you fell off the face of the BB you were doing some of Ken R's stuff and some higher end stuff. My question has nothing to do with the thread just curious for personal reasons.

 

[B&BGaryC]

If you notice above, I am not talking about how awesome my prices are, I have a base price of 28 cents a foot... I am talking about how the customers I have been getting recently are seemingly stuck on me charging them more, and buying more service and having an even more thorough cleaning done. It's not my prices, it's my customers wanting to pay more. (Just recently though... I'm not saying it's a trend)

Besides. My division only breaks even. That's an improvement. It was a liability and a money pit before they hired me. It kills me to know any and all profit they might have goes directly into my paycheck, but at least I am not costing them money.

I have doubled the amount of money coming in, and for that, we break dead even. It's easy for my boss to overlook that when he has literally millions of dollars flowing through the disaster restoration side of the business. It still bothers me though.

 

[XTREME1]

don't get your thong bunched up your a$$ Gary. I think the joke was a little tongue and cheek and then D-Day started question why people were posting what they post. Most on the BB know you(online) and you are the furthest thing from a braggart.

I am sure Marty DGAS

 

[B&BGaryC]

I'm not getting worked up. Maybe I should have added one of these at the end...

 

[randy]

interesting stuff ... and again, I wasn't trying start controversy. In the end, I find that price per square is really not the important number to me. I focus on gross margin and average daily production - these mean more to understanding where I am and where I'm going than the pennies I charge per square.

That being said, I charge 200 pennies per square.

I gotta run now, as I'm late for my closing shift at MickeyD's :wink:

LoL, that was good.

Now I have to go practice for my role in a upcoming PBS documentary on what happens to carpet cleaners during a depression.

Thank you for calling Dominos, will this be for delivery or carry out...

Disclaimer: No disrespect is intended or directed towards employees , or affiliates of Dominos pizza World wide LLC We all realize most of you guys are smarter than many IICRC certified carpet cleaners.

 

[d-day]

David what market do you focus on. I remember before you fell off the face of the BB you were doing some of Ken R's stuff and some higher end stuff. My question has nothing to do with the thread just curious for personal reasons.

Hi Brad,

I don't really think in terms of "high-end" or other socioeconomic market segmentation any longer. I have been offering three packages - a budget "turn on the chem meter and let the emulsifier flow," a mid-level IICRC regimen cleaning, and a "spit shine each individual fiber" premium package. I offer the right quality for each prospect.

In the winter, I use a variation of Ken R's "Whole House Special" and put out a price offer based on each of the three packages.