Martin, two brands of sugar one cheaper than the other, sounds like one carpet cleaner cheaper than the other, in other words price related.
The secret is to up cell your business, do the very best you can and possibly a bit extra and charge your customer for the privilege, if it is the right type of customer they will appreciate it, and recommend you to others, as others have mentioned peoples stop spending in a recession, but eventually they realise that it is better to look after what they have than replace.
Of course that is where we come in, the professional carpet and uphold cleaner, nothing to do with price just a good honest clean
if you do it right they will recommend you, and you won't have too worry so much about little glitches in your takings.
And out of interest, we have had steady work since 4 January, not saying it might not dry up, as carpet cleaners you never know from