[Marti]

Attracting new business is always a headache (in some cases) so sometime ago I adopted the Carpetright policy, that is to mark up to mark down...and the phone started ringing (new clients)!!

The customer believes they're are getting an extremely good deal & I'm still maintaining my margins....

Anyone else tried this approach?

[benny d]

It seems to be a good sales tool.
I guess most business do that to some degree or another.

[JandS]

Go on, what is it??

John

[Phillip Mold]

Easy, double your price and then offer a "special offer", 50% off.


simples     

[Mike Halliday]

until one of your existing customers sees your 'special offer' and rings hoping that although she paid £100 last time is expecting to only pay £50 this time... then she sees it just a con  : :

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Carpetright have the worst reputation in the carpet industry due to their pricing policies - if you want the same then carry on  :

[Adam P]

i hardly think one carpwet cleaning business is going to get a nationwide reputation as one that marks up to mark down. i think it's a good idea and one that works well when done right. although carpet right have a nationwide reputation which you may not like, at least they have a NATIONWIDE reputation and the money that comes with it i'd hardly say it's hurt carpet rights business

mike: it's easy to go against the customer if they say same price as last year as you can say your price have gone up due to new equipment, increased costs etc, but you'll be happy to give same deal as such and such.

you can also say that you can do a great deal on your website because you have no advertising costs, but then you don't do deals on advertising in certain mags as they need to pay for the advert, but then also you do deals on other mags as they get a lot more work.

[robert meldrum]

There's a legal requirement that has to met when offering specials in Retail. The marked down items must have been advertised  /  on sale a the higher price for 28 days before the discount is advertised.

[james roffey]

When i was looking for a new fitted kitchen we went to several well known shops who were surprise surprise, having a big sale i got sick of the tactic of marking up then giving a huge discount so much so i walked out because the salesman just would not tell me the price without going through the speel.
Ended up at a small family run business which did not have a discount ended up paying the same, i laugh at the sales for those companies now as they are always on with up to 75% off sales ends Tuesday what a load of cr.p
I suppose a lot of people fall for it though but you may lose your customers trust, especially the old customers as Mike pointed out

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

i hardly think one carpwet cleaning business is going to get a nationwide reputation as one that marks up to mark down. i think it's a good idea and one that works well when done right. although carpet right have a nationwide reputation which you may not like, at least they have a NATIONWIDE reputation and the money that comes with it i'd hardly say it's hurt carpet rights business

mike: it's easy to go against the customer if they say same price as last year as you can say your price have gone up due to new equipment, increased costs etc, but you'll be happy to give same deal as such and such.

you can also say that you can do a great deal on your website because you have no advertising costs, but then you don't do deals on advertising in certain mags as they need to pay for the advert, but then also you do deals on other mags as they get a lot more work.

Who's talking about a NATIONWIDE reputation ?- you only need a bad reputation locally to have an impact.

But if it works for you then great, go for it. Not for me though.

[Sam Davies]

Say you quote for a lounge go in at 100, if they say god thats expensive you say ,that is to clean it and scotchguard it,to just clean it is 50.If they agree with  100 pounds.happy days.
Would that work
Sam

[Adam P]

i hardly think one carpwet cleaning business is going to get a nationwide reputation as one that marks up to mark down. i think it's a good idea and one that works well when done right. although carpet right have a nationwide reputation which you may not like, at least they have a NATIONWIDE reputation and the money that comes with it i'd hardly say it's hurt carpet rights business

mike: it's easy to go against the customer if they say same price as last year as you can say your price have gone up due to new equipment, increased costs etc, but you'll be happy to give same deal as such and such.

you can also say that you can do a great deal on your website because you have no advertising costs, but then you don't do deals on advertising in certain mags as they need to pay for the advert, but then also you do deals on other mags as they get a lot more work.

Who's talking about a NATIONWIDE reputation ?- you only need a bad reputation locally to have an impact.

But if it works for you then great, go for it. Not for me though.

what i mean is that the only reason it harms carpet right is because they're known by most households in the uk, where as a carpet cleaning company wont be known by most households in their area. i honeslty don't know a single person who's had there carpets cleaned so imo the reputation as a business that marks up to mark down is not going to be as much as an issue as it is a bonus by a long shot. i understand your thinking by saying it's not for you and in fact right now and never in the past has it been for me either, i'm just saying to go against it because of "reputation" is daft in many cases.

sam: good idea. that way you can always come down with "extras" the customer didn't want any way so that it sounds like you're still doing same great service and you aren't just trying to con them.

robert: i think this isn't a problem for us though as retail is different to offering a service so our prices can be up and down all the time for various reasons, e.g. you've got an empty week so you do a discount, or a busy month then you'll up prices but also offer a discount on top if the customer is close to cleans you're doing etc. it's fair to say this can happen so not something you can stop

[robert meldrum]

My response was to the comments about the retailer Carpetrite and I fail to understand why anyone thinks their marketing damages them. Those marketing methods have been used for decades as they work !

If you have an offer on your leaflets you will double the response.

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Robert

Their marketing methods work because people are gullible.

If a carpet is reduced by 50% then a further 20%, anyone with half a brain should be asking themselves " well how much were they making in the first place ?"

A friend of mine is interested in a carpet from them at £7.99 m2, supposedly reduced from £15 m2.

I had a look at it and it is worth exactly what they are asking - about £ 8.00m2

Now take the vat off of that and a 50% mark up, because that is what they are making, at least, and you are left with a carpet that they are buying for around £ 4.50 m2 - in other words crap !

But because they had it on offer for 28 consecutive days in a store up north they can abuse a loophole in the law.

Yes their marketing works for them, from the days of Harris Carpets (when I worked for them) through the days of Queensway and now Carpetright.

If you want a decent quality carpet at the right price, combined with service and quality installation - go to an independant.

And that goes for anyone from Carpetright, PC World, DFS etc;etc.

[peter maybury]

We have people doing this in our area and although they are doing a terrible job they are turning over a lot of money and have made life harder for the established businesses.  I do strongly object to it as a marketing tool but unfortunately people do fall for it time and time again as they are motivated by greed. I even have my regular customers metioning that there is somebody in the area doing half price cleaning as if they are expecting me to charge half the price that I normally do. They do not have the sense to look at the prices these firms are charging as they work out similar or dearer to my normal prices.
It is a bad way of doing business but it works because the public at large is not very bright and will always go for a bargain.
Personally speaking if you do go down that road you can expect a less intelligent type of customer and probably end up working on lesser quality products.

Petet Maybury

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Totally agree Peter

Take DFS as an example - buy this sofa, was £ 899, reduced to £ 399 ! - really ? Is that out of the goodness of their hearts ?

These sofa's come over on sea containers from China and cost them £ 50 a pop !

The general public are gullible - I was gullible years ago, because I didn't know any different - as I've got older I now value customer service, quality products, combined with value for money - not to be confused with CHEAP !!

[robert meldrum]

Steve

Amazed you remember the pre Queensway days !

[Adam P]

ok just so people don't get lost in this thread and argue over 2 different things, i assume when Marti was talking about mark up to mark down he didn't mean the same amount as carpet right, just the same way, so say on a carpet clean worth £100, he'll say something like it's £111 but 10% of for first clean so £100, which is much different as then that sounds like a legitimate reason to offer a 10% discount, and not to obviously con people, so no harm from it to anyone's "reputation".

you don't have to mark up by 50% and then down by 50% as that is a bad sales technique in my opinion as like you said Steve you have to wonder how much they're making

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

ok just so people don't get lost in this thread and argue over 2 different things, i assume when Marti was talking about mark up to mark down he didn't mean the same amount as carpet right, just the same way, so say on a carpet clean worth £100, he'll say something like it's £111 but 10% of for first clean so £100, which is much different as then that sounds like a legitimate reason to offer a 10% discount, and not to obviously con people, so no harm from it to anyone's "reputation".

you don't have to mark up by 50% and then down by 50% as that is a bad sales technique in my opinion as like you said Steve you have to wonder how much they're making

yep agreed