Hi Mark,
To answer the second part of your question:
What’s your price point strategy for domestics in an increasingly competitive market?
Competition – what competition?
I cannot remember the last time I took any notice of what my competitors were doing because they are an irrelevance to me and I’d suggest to everyone else.
Before you think I’ve gone mad, let me explain.
When I first started I had a tiny portable machine and so did others around me who bought the same or similar and soon there was ‘competition’ to consider. No one actually knew what they were doing, there were no training courses, no forums, you just went out and following the basic instructions that came with the machine and hey presto, you were a carpet cleaner. Dye Bleed, Shrinkage and massive drying times soon resulted in complaints, re-cleans, refunds and utter frustration. Meanwhile, if one guy was charging £x for a lounge carpet the rest would all go cheaper and so we competed on price because we all scared ourselves into believing that if we didn't put in a lower price than the next guy he would get all the business....wrong!!
I decided there had to be a better way and by now training courses had become available and I booked myself onto a Prochem training course in London and 2 days later went home with a complete set of new, more powerful, more professional equipment and thanks to Ron Tilley’s inspirational approach and his 12 step cleaning process, with a new, professional attitude to carpet cleaning. From now on, I decided my competitors would have to compete with me on quality, because that is actually what carpet cleaning is about.
So I stopped quoting over the phone and went out and surveyed every job in advance and found that even though I had doubled my prices I got nearly every job. And, even more importantly, found that because I was delivering quality my customers started recommending me, which multiplied the number of customers I had. Bingo!
All on the back of price?
No way, on the back of quality at the right price.
So forget get the word competition, it is a distraction, an irrelevance and just by thinking about the competition means you aren’t thinking about the only thing that really does matter and that is making certain that what you do for your customers today, tomorrow and next year is first rate, despite the price you charge, (which by the way should be your price and not one imposed upon you by a competitors pricing) then they will consider you their carpet cleaner, the guy they go to every time they want their carpet cleaned because he does a great job at a value for money price– bingo!
That is not to say that you don't have to be competitive, but you can blunt the price for price comparisons your customers make by making your offering in some way different to your competitors, so that the price of what your offering can't be directly compared to that of your competitor. In my early days I did this by offering a 12 step process when the rest hadn't even thought of a process, so what I was offering was different, unique and therefore couldn't be compared directly in price terms because there was the perception by the customer that they were paying a little more but were getting much better value for their money.
So in the end it comes down to being in some way or other distinct, different, unique and instead of standing in the crowd - stand out of the crowd!!!
Sorry if it’s a bit long.
Simon