What do you charge extra for?

[rhino1]

Do you charge extra for treating pet spots or odors that can be fixed with a simple pet odor product or simply replace your normal prespray at no charge?

Do you upcharge for running an emulsifier or heavy pre-spray on trashed homes?

Have you added a fuel surcharge for all jobs?

Do you charge for scrubbing the nasties or just throw it in?

What about furniture moving - do you move everything requested, small items only, or nothing for free?

I am trying to get an idea as to what the normal consumer could assume is meant by carpet cleaning. My idea of an average carpet cleaner would be one that would apply a pretreatment to traffic lanes and spots, followed by a clear water rinse. Some furniture moving might be included - depending on the price, but limited to couches chairs and tables. Not an awesome cleaner, but adequate.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

My average cleaning includes...

Consultation
Prevac
Pretreat
Preagitate
extract
post groom
use of air movers

I also move standard furniture, use safety cones around my van, use corner guards, drop cloths for hardwoods and leave safety signs on all walk off areas. I have a 31 day guarantee and charge per room.

If they want protector I charge half the cleaning cost , with odor removal it depends on how I classify it. A vast majority of the carpets I clean are not the nasty type and dont charge extra if it is...

 

[Mikey P]

Do you charge extra for treating pet spots or odors that can be fixed with a simple pet odor product or simply replace your normal prespray at no charge? NO

Do you upcharge for running an emulsifier or heavy pre-spray on trashed homes? NO

Have you added a fuel surcharge for all jobs? NO

Do you charge for scrubbing the nasties or just throw it in? Some times we charge a nickle more for RE

What about furniture moving - do you move everything requested, small items only, or nothing for free? FREE

I am trying to get an idea as to what the normal consumer could assume is meant by carpet cleaning. My idea of an average carpet cleaner would be one that would apply a pretreatment to traffic lanes and spots, followed by a clear water rinse. Some furniture moving might be included - depending on the price, but limited to couches chairs and tables. Not an awesome cleaner, but adequate.


But we charge .50 so we can toss in stuff like that

We do charge for heavy Deo and Tefon.

 

[Dolly Llama]

we charge enough in res to do most things at no additional charge .
the exceptions are miles of filtration soil, excessive red stain removal (a few spots are no additional charge, a several rooms full are)
or water claw urine treatments

if a res is so trashed it actually needs restoration/salvage cleaning, they'll be thrilled with our "regular" cleaning

most furniture gets moved and replaced in lving rm/family rms.
Tier pricing for wall to wall or open areas only in bed rms


..L.T.A.

 

[Brian R]

These answer everyone is looking for is "yes"

Some charge before the charge that they don't charge but they still charge for it....They just charge everyone.

 

[Ron Werner]

In that respect Brian, yes, I charge for what I do and I'll do quite bit before I need to add on.
If its a simple deo, I'll throw it in. If it requires a deodourizing presoak or subsfc treatment, that's extra.

I don't charge extra for stronger prespray but if the place is really trashed and I know it will take extra time, I'll charge a little more.

I include furniture moving, up to a point. If I have to move "everything", ie small stuff etc, I'll tack on some but most times they've moved all that so I move the main furniture. Sliders and sticky tabs make it a lot easier.

 

[FredC]

.........

 

[Brian R]

There's a fine line between overcharging some of your customers and throwing stuff in for others.

A person should be charged for what they are getting...Not what they're not getting.

Again... a fine line and a sure argument.


If you're charging enough to be able to throw in let's say....Deo....Shouldn't the customer that doesn't need it NOT be charged enough to be able to throw that in?

Do you ALWAYS throw something tangible in?? Not just the extra smile etc.

 

[ruff]

I charge extra for what is not normal soiling.

If their painter mistook their carpet for his cleaning rags (telling them that water will remove it) and I have to remove quite a few paint stains- I charge extra.

If for the last three years they've rented a rug doctor and totally saturated the carpet and I have to restore it- I charge extra.

Adding a scent to your cleaner is not deodorizing, it is masking. No extra charge. However if the normal pre spray does not take the smell out and they want a true deodorization- I charge extra.

No charge for moving furniture within reason.

Teflon- extra.

 

[Ron Werner]

There's a fine line between overcharging some of your customers and throwing stuff in for others.

A person should be charged for what they are getting...Not what they're not getting.

Again... a fine line and a sure argument.


If you're charging enough to be able to throw in let's say....Deo....Shouldn't the customer that doesn't need it NOT be charged enough to be able to throw that in?

Do you ALWAYS throw something tangible in?? Not just the extra smile etc.

does that work the same for the "by the room" pricers? Do they charge more for that 100sf room or less for the 200sf room?
When you give a promotion, does that mean you've cheated the customers you serviced BEFORE the promotion came out?

Set a price so that "IF" you need to "add" something or you need to come back for some reason, you haven't lost your shirt.
If you're charging 50cents/sf or even 30cents, you know how much you're willing to do for that price, and what you won't.

 

[rhino1]

I think a room pricer can get screwed in a hurry. I have measured some homes for comparison and have found that we do some as low as .10 sf. That's seriously low. In every home I measured I found that it would cost the customer more even at a low rate of .25 I have yet to find an instance where the customer would have been better off being charged by the foot.

 

[Ron Werner]

or an instance where the cleaner has not been short changed

 

[lance]

Brian, when you were little did you play with a rubber ball and it hit you in the head most of the time?

Give serious answers not silly ones.

Here's one for you brian.....do you charge extra if the job will take twice the time because it is twice as dirty (as a regular job)?

Rhino, the average cleaner (not on this board, that is important) does open areas with little furn. moving and pre-sprays and then rinses. The above avg. cleaner scrubbs the traffic lanes and moves more furniture (couches, recliners, etc.) and all of the above but takes more time to get better results.
I doubt very many avg. cleaners pre-vac or ask about carpet protection. They are more concerned with getting done and onto the next job.

To be above average have a couple of different cleaning available to the customer. if you have three they will usually pick the middle one. Basic, premium, and platinum. You choose what you want to offer and how much time you want to spend for doing a good job.

 

[rhyde]

My cleaning is 100% free I don't charge a penny!


However, a small gratuity is recommended if you want me to leave your house or give your rug back

 

[Billy]

This is a very hard question to properly answer for me because we don't really give firm pricing without seeing the job therefore not all of our jobs are at the same pricing per sq'.

We charge on a sliding scale based on the scope of the job in most cases & when we don't do that it is by the hour which I really don't like doing.

Only real up-charge is Protector.

I don't believe in Fuel, Uniform, equipment etc charges. IMO those are all a cost of doing business & should be included in all pricing because in reality we all know in business nothing is really FREE no matter what we say.

Now we also charge a sliding minimum charge as well as we now charge for most estimate only potential jobs.

So we have
1. A wall-to-wall base per-sq' (rugs are also per sq'), linear footage or flat rate charge that does go up based on the scope of the job.

2. A Hourly rate when nothing else works.

3. A Minimum charge based on area of service because we have no real set in stone Service Area & will go where ever the $$$$s are in most cases.

This method allows us to give a Final price quote with only one client choice add-on which is Protector.

 

[Brian R]

Here's one for you brian.....do you charge extra if the job will take twice the time because it is twice as dirty (as a regular job)?

I have a price for cleaning. If the job it dirty the price sticks. If it's an easy job I discount.
When I run deals I stick to them...But those are deals

I charge extra for pet urine or heavy debris.

With OP most jobs take the same amount of time because we vacuum first.


You can get down to the penny and figure we use more chems on some than others etc....so there's no getting away with being perfect.

 

[rhino1]

We started to offer additional treatments and options when it comes to presprays and rinses. With costs rising every year it was either that or raise rates on everyone. Surprisingly nearly everyone chooses to upgrade from the basic cleaning and even seem excited to have choices for a better package.

 

[Ron Werner]

Can you give an example Chris?

 

[rhino1]

One we offer is called THE BOMB It is a pre-spray boosted with citrus and oxi. Then depending on the situation, we use either an emulsifier, acid, or oxi rinse. Recommended for heavily spotted and soiled carpets.