Try competing with this crap

[Bob Foster]

 

[CleanEvo]

These guys are trying to put guys like you and me out of business during these slow times, when the economy picks up, so will their prices.

I wonder what their "low regular prices" are?

 

[Scott Rogers]

those are good rates compared to the atlanta market.

 

[Bob Foster]

These guys are trying to put guys like you and me out of business during these slow times, when the economy picks up, so will their prices.

I wonder what their "low regular prices" are?

These guys have been running these basic prices for years.

 

[XTREME1]

I get $85 for 2 rooms and a hall regular price
$55 3 seat sofa
I run 4 rooms $99 on occasion

 

[Royal Man]

"I run 4 rooms $99 on occasion"


And you're giving me crap for 4 rms @ $130.00

LOL!!!

 

[Brian R]

As long as they are doing crappy work or bate and switch then it makes the good guys look better.
People will only get screwed once on something like that....well, some people.

 

[XTREME1]

I wasn't giving you crap for your pricing I was giving you crap for telling people to raise their prices when you charge close to the same.

With the coupon on your website at the time 4 rooms and ahall would have cost me about $115 same as my lowest price ever

 

[CleanEvo]

These guys are trying to put guys like you and me out of business during these slow times, when the economy picks up, so will their prices.

I wonder what their "low regular prices" are?

These guys have been running these basic prices for years.

So what are their "regular low prices"?

They're like Sears out here, they advertise $29 per room and then pressure the custy to spend at least $300. I had one senior customer who called them last year and they got $600 out of her with "high pressure" sales, needless to say she didn't call them again.

 

[Bob Foster]

These guys charge an "environmental disposal" fee around 10 or 15 bucks.

There is no such thing as a disposal fee here in our area as it is legal to dump it down the sewer.
On and on.

These guys are running 3 of 4 trucks.

The only conclusions I have:

They have really well compensated upsellers who also happen to know how to clean a little.
or the prevailing attitude
Some people would risk a crappy carpet cleaning job than risk paying too much, after all how bad could these guys screw up my carpet anyway because its just carpet cleaning?

Same people that go to Supercut and get their hair cut for cheap because it's cheap.

 

[Able 1]

I do the 2 rooms and hall for 80.00 and 4 rooms for 130.00, but the free protector is crazy that shit is expensive!!! In Canada I would think that these prices would be more of a shock though...

I currently pay $52 per gal. of protector that makes 5 gals., I would say 1 gal of teflon MAKES me only around $100 of profit. I really don't push protector but I do have it on my van all the time. I schedule my jobs close together and protector is just a pita for me.

 

[Kevin. McCreary]

Why compete with them? Double your cheap ass prices and quit working so hard.
You wont have much competition anymore. I gave up along time ago looking
at what coupon cleaners charged. There are people dying out there to pay more
for better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your probably just to afraid to ask for more.

 

[Bob Foster]

Exactly Kevin. That's what I do. But I still hear about these specials from inquiring customers and often have to counter their perspective.

A cheap ass is a cheap ass.

 

[Kevin. McCreary]

It really gets old explaining to people why you charge more, but it pays the bills.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

Instead of worrying about what every cleaner in your area charges as I know you probably don't, focus on giving your customers the service they want and at a price they feel is fair while still making a decent profit. If a customer wants only the traffic areas cleaned, you can bet I will give them a better price. My prices are not high, but I guess that is why I don't advertise and get so many referrals. I have been using Service Monster for about 8 months now and every month my average job is around 180 dollars. I know I could easily double that, but I don't push deodorizer/sanitizer or deep scrub etc like I did when I first got into this business. I just clean the carpet with no hassel for the customer and they reward me by telling all their friends and calling me back every 6 months. I must be doing something right because I meet cleaners everyday who envy that I own two sweet truckmounts with clean setups and tons of equipment all paid for not to mention several houses completely paid for and rented out, boats, and other stuff paid for in cash and I feel financially secure at 26 years old. I am not bragging. I am just stating you don't have to be the highest priced cleaner to make a lot of money. I don't see anything wrong cleaning 4 average size rooms using a low moisture cleaning method to maintain carpets between deep cleanings. You guys act like they are going to prevac, move furniture, clean with nice truck-mounted equipment for 99 dollars. Of course they are not. If they do, then they will always be a ten dollar an hour worker.

I personally believe there are only two different carpet cleaning packages to offer a customer.

Package 1. Customer moves furniture and vacuums before you arrive. This is self explanitory. You should be able to charge a cheaper price. Have a minimum job amount and stick to it.

Package 2. You vacuum and move furniture

Everything else such as protector, post pad, speed dry, pet treatment, rotary cleaning etc. are all add ons and should never be used to differentiate different cleaning packages. These can be added to either package.

 

[Ken Snow]

Ugly ass ad, but my prices are similar and we're in close to 200 homes a day. That is pretty mid range pricing in our market, the low price cleaners are more like half that.

 

[Kevin. McCreary]

Sure you can be profitable with lower prices, However you just have to have a sharp pencil and don't expect to have 60 to 80 % profit margins.

Most cleaners don't really know how to run a business, so they "clean carpets" at high profit
margin to make up for costly mistakes they don't even know they are making.

 

[Bob Foster]

Ugly ass ad, but my prices are similar and we're in close to 200 homes a day. That is pretty mid range pricing in our market, the low price cleaners are more like half that.

Its my understanding that this guy owns three or four operations all pretty run the same and some are larger operations.

Here is a copy of his Alberta advert. For one of his other ads so you see he has it down to what appears a stable business operation.

 

[Bob Foster]

Sure you can be profitable with lower prices, However you just have to have a sharp pencil and don't expect to have 60 to 80 % profit margins.

Most cleaners don't really know how to run a business, so they "clean carpets" at high profit
margin to make up for costly mistakes they don't even know they are making.

Couldn't agree more.

 

[Brian R]

Why compete with them? Double your cheap ass prices and quit working so hard.
You wont have much competition anymore. I gave up along time ago looking
at what coupon cleaners charged. There are people dying out there to pay more
for better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your probably just to afraid to ask for more.

Sounds like you were on the howard P. Webinar last night.
:wink:

 

[Bill Soukoreff]

Alberta Carpet Cleaning is like Canadian Tire. People only use them once. These companies thrive on a sucker is born every minute mentality. For the amount they advertise and if did actually do decent work for the price they should have way more than a few trucks. They get a lot of rental work when people don't care and just need a receipt. They can have that market as far I am concerned.

Here is a sample email of what I get every week from someone who got burned from them and now has to pay to get a real job done:

Hi –

Garth @ XXXXXXXXX told me about you the other day –

We’re their Computer/IT consultants – and I was telling him about a not-great experience with ACC (Alberta Carpet Cleaners) –

I had them in a couple weeks ago, and from reading your pages, sounds like I got the ‘splash and dash’ routine. They took forever to dry, and were crunchy.

I was concerned about 2 rooms in my house, my home office, and a bedroom upstairs that used to be a home office. Well, they didn’t manage to clean the rooms very well, which was the entire reason I called them in the first place.

The ACC guy kept muttering something about ‘wear’ – well, yes, they are worn a bit, but not so much that I thought they couldn’t get the dirt out from some foot traffic.

 

[Guest]

Don't worry about these companies; if their equipment isn't paid for they will be out of business in a year. That is the beauty of owning out right your equipment; I can wait these sucker head out if need be; but I am so busy I barely have time to sleep!!

 

[Guest]

Those coupons aren't shocking to me. That's what the guys around here charge.

 

[XTREME1]

Sure you can be profitable with lower prices, However you just have to have a sharp pencil and don't expect to have 60 to 80 % profit margins.

Most cleaners don't really know how to run a business, so they "clean carpets" at high profit
margin to make up for costly mistakes they don't even know they are making.

Maybe your the one running your business wrong. I have a pretty good grasp of business. Former V.P. with a national company and President of a local company profiting millions. My margins are incredible with my low price point. You should take a snapshot of your business and review everything. The driving cost in this business is labor and advertising. Don't bother saving on chems, equipment etc

 

[Ron Werner]

I stopped worrying about Nationwide years ago. It all depends on the tech. If someone tells me they used NW and they did a good job, I tell them to write down the name of the tech and ask for him specifically the next time, IF he's still there.

I have a client that I am quoting right now, actually I've had many clients, that had NW and they are tired of the splash and dash style of cleaning. What they charge for 4rms and hall, lets say 500sf, is $99 on sale, $181 regular, I would charge around $275. What I tell my clients is that these guys can come in and clean quickly, they will say "and would you like this or that applied" and before they know the price is higher than mine. Challenge is, they might charge for that $275 job but they give a $99 job.

Oh, these guys are given 2 weeks to learn before sent out on their own. In those 2 weeks they can teach them how to clean or how to sell. They are taught how to sell. I was told that by a cleaner that used to work there.

 

[handdi]

why not say i have no competition
we are the highest priced cleaner in town
ANd i bet theres a reason for it also
people are always goin to pay for good work
some will not

we have a guy in town advertises in the yellow pages 2rm for 8 bucks
well this year one of his competitors cut it to 65 for 2 rms
what a idiot both of these guys have been in business for sometime

the best we get is when customer says we thought we would try a higher priced cleaner
and when we are done they really do apprec the good job instant gradification

 

[Ron Werner]

good thinking!!

 

[John Watson]

They used to come down from Vancouver BC to Watcom, Skagit and Snohomish countys.. Yes they are taught sales sales sales!!!

They get $0 of the special prices,This all goes to the main office for scheduling and advertizing.. They have to pay for their fuel, chemicals and supplies which comes out of any upsells they do. Oh yeah, All of their wages come out of the upsells also..

 

[Brian R]

Good lord

 

[Guest]

Why is the most expensive guy the best??
and the cheapest guy is shit??????


I tried to be the HIGH DOLLAR cleaner, and yes I did make more money on the jobs I did
but also to make a $100 more dollars on the jobs, I had to pass up $15k to make that $100

I advertise a 5 roomer for $150 and do 5 a day and my repeat business last month was 74%

At a big company like that and Kens its all leadership!
And we all agree that Ken is a great leader!