[derek west]

just had a phone call from a dry cleaners, they have 3 shops and want a cc to recommend to there clients, does anyone get work like this and is it a lot or just trickles, also is there a catch, ie will she want me to use her for curtains and stuff, or commision, i'm going up to see her monday so any interesting advice would be grateful as ive never been approached in this way and being new, any knowledge is good knowledge.
derek

[markpowell]

Derek,
I have been cleaning rugs for my local dry cleaner for the past 2 years, i give them 10% for each one they pass my way. I paid for the advertising board in the shop i get around 6 rugs a month.
Cant see them passing curtains you way as they can clean them, themselves.
mark

[Jim_77]

I'd say it would be a case of taking the rough with the smooth.

They're likely to push problems your way.

If you think about it, this business owner hasn't sat bolt upright in bed one night and thought "How can I show selfless good will and make someone else's business more profitable?"

Their motives will be entirely self-centred, but there may still be a chance to profit from it.

If you only ever listen to one bit of advice, listen to this bit:  Don't get pulled into the trap of doing cheap favours.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

We have a dry cleaners shop and I get loads of work from it but the staff are told to push customers cards.

I think I'd be asking

1. how did they get hold of my number
2. why me ( there are 100's of cc's) a bit negative but watch for the scam
3. what's in it for them
4. what can I do for them a/ bring in work for them
                                         b/ give them commission
5. do they do hire machines? less and less are doing this because of the loss of the machine also customers are getting wide to faulty machinery and what they can get from you also the insurance is a problem as I've been told by 2 separate people.

Potentially it could be a good earner.

Go and do the meeting and come back to us as I have a few good ideas for you.

Shaun

[derek west]

mark
i meant she'd want me to pass my curtain jobs to her exclusively, or something along those lines.
jim
she gotme off the internet, she had a cc but he retired, all she said was send us some leaflets so we can give them to our customers but i'm gonna go up and see her.
shaun
sounds good if you get a bit of work, love to know these ideas before i go see her.
derek

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Not wanting to wet your appetite too much but to push your services the most you need to offer a reward scheme, if you put cards in teh shops then ask the shop assistant to offer one to every customer that walks in, when they do ask them to write teh shop assistants name on your business card and you will reward them with £5 for every booking you get. Make an A4 sheet and put it up on their notice board so they don't forget.

Shaun

[gwrightson]

I get custy passed to me when people ask if they clean rugs,
they have my cards on the desk,
I offered 10% but they are just happy enough to be able to point them in the right direction, dont get a great deal , but hey evrey little helps

geoff

[derek west]

untraceable by the one who's names on the card but i'm the kinda guy that would pay up, if they get me work and i pay them they'll try even harder, it makes sense.
cheers shaun, thats a good idea, was gonna offer the owner £5 quid a payed referal but individual competition between employees may work better.

personal quezzy shaun, how many jobs a month,

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I don't pay commission as it's MY (well her) shop, it's expected, couldn't tell you as I don't keep track.

Shaun

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Hi Derek

Two thoughts. One, you may get the odd curtain job where a custy can't/won't bring the curtains into the shop.

Secondly, some dry cleaners will do some rugs. However what they pass onto you will be the bigger rugs and/or difficult ones.

You need to ensure you don't end up wasting your own time. Ideally if a customer is making enquiries at the dry cleaners about rugs then you need to have their details passed to you so you can contact the customer directly so you can view the rug and discuss the ins and outs and probably collect/return direct to the customer.

If the dry cleaners become involved then it slows everything down and you may find that custy's won't want to pay your prices.

I'm not sure if this explains precisely what I'm trying to say, but I want to convey my personal experiences when I almost got into this situation.

I had a dry cleaner who was willing to pass work my way. But his shop was 15-20 minutes away which was a time and expense hassle only to find that it was (often)a fairly small rug and allowing for some commission element it wasn't worth my while or the custy thought the price too expensive. The one thing I didn't want to do was give specific prices to the dry cleaners to quote to customers which would leave me no room for manoeuvre when I eventually saw the rug. After all the dry cleaning staff had little/no knowledge about the potential problems of rug cleaning or identification.

I don't want to put you off the idea but just thought I would share my experiences and concur with Jim about his thoughts.

Roger

[kinder clean]

Q's for Mark (Powell)

Do you give the dry cleaner a price list that he can quote from?

What if you get a silk persian or something thats worth a fortune, would you turn it down?

Have you been on a rug cleaning course and if so who did you use? 

Cheers Paul