Hey! My addy is
sm012g5170@blueyonder.co.ukI must add that to my profile (it says hidden).
It is an impossible task to quote 'blind' though i know a lot of places do say "2 bed is £xxx, 3 bed £xxxx" etc.
It is rude to ask BUT if you find out who the client had before you then you have a fair idea how much they will pay. If anyone i meet says they had Molly Maids then i know that they've been paying at least £30 plus VAT for a weekly call as that base figure seems the 'norm' for MM in my area.
For all new clients I simply do not want to go anywhere for less than £30 a time now. My old price was £25 so £30 is my 'new' £25, and £25 has become my absolute bottom line wont-get-out-of-bed-to-clean-up-a-pee-pee price that i quote for smaller jobs or anyone who i'm doing a 'discount' for.
I dont know how but i make the work fit the time i have allowed and if you are good and throrough you can 'rotate' the less frequent jobs (or even miss some when you are pushed for time) and do them when it suites you. I will never cease to be amazed at what folk DONT expect you to do.
You need to remember this:
Times have changed and a gossipy old lady who comes in once a week to 'help' is a thing of the past. People know this and accept that even if their job is smaller they may have to pay not a lot less than a bigger job.
If needs be (when you are busy this is) avoid very small jobs. I clean for an optician and after a year of doing his house i went to clean the practice as well. Easy job, nice staff, took less than an hour, £10 thank you very much, then i thought "poo! what am i supposed to do for the next 2 hours?" A year of that and i gave it up. I said that i couldnt charge more BUT at teh same time i was 'missing out' on a bigger (better even?) job. He understood.
People will pay more for someone who brings their own stuff. It is never easy when folk cancel bookings (esp at the last minute) but keep in mind that no one does this unless absolutly essential. As such i personally never charge for cancellations and, far from encouraging folk to cancel as a regular thing, it has made them more loyal and open and honest to me. This is my experience, others may have equally vaild counter claims to make.
I really belive that you just cannot afford to get peoples backs up, i think when you have spent weeks and weeks getting the customers house up to standard do you really want to lose them and start afresh with a new client?
I also rarely quote verbally because as a customer i HATE getting verbal quotes as i need time to allow the information to sink in and, if the price is obsurd, grab hold of a nearby item of furniture before realising a whole loads of words that i only ever use when people dont indicate when driving round islands. i always always alwasys tell people i will write to them and say there is NO pressure. Email me and i will send you a copy of what i send out.
If you say you will write then make sure you do, i hate it when you wait for a quote, and wait....and wait...and wait....you will rarely get an immediate phone call as people will want to get other quotes, they will want to sort out and tidy up (how many of use have been to see a right poo-hole only to find that people have recarpeted/tidied up/decorated since we last went?), in other words send your quote and FORGET ALL ABOUT IT. People will call if they want you. Rarely is it i dont get a job, even if its weeks or months after you saw them before they call you. If you dont get a job then NEVER assume its because of price as it most likley isn't anything to do with it.
If people are willing to pay for a service then they will pay as much as is sensible to get a good service. One lady who had an agencey for donkeys years was paying £19 a week (i later found out). she cancelled her cleaners when she was made redundant, then couldnt get them back. I was recomended to her and I quoted £25 per week. I got the job and after 6 months she said that she was going to cut me back to once a fortnight because -her words- i was doing a much better job and she really didnt need me every week. A victim of my own sucess maybe, but she really didnt need a weekly as she lived alone and made little mess. In any even i managed to find someone else to fill the other weeks when i wasnt there.
As a side thought she said though the other cleaners were ok she did like the fact that having me meant she knew she'd get the same person each time and she liked the fact i had all my own stuff (it really allows you to do a better job).
Bertie