[brett walker]

Hi everyone

I have 200 houses on one of my estates at 6 pound a house i am thinking of changing from trad to wfp ustairs only because its 7 climbs of the ladder just for tops.

If i change from 6 pound to 8 pound do you think the 2 pound increase is too much?

Pure Evolution
Brett

[williamx]

In a word yes, a 33% price increase to some customers will seem a bit excessive.  Why not increase your price by £1.00 and then every January increase your prices by 50p to a £1.00.

If you can train your customers that the price will increase every year, then this can only benefit you.

[stuart webster]

It depends on £ per hour, £6 seems low.

Have you too much work? If so bang them up, £8 is still a good price.

[Sir Squeaky]

If they need to go up, put them up for that reason alone.

You shouldn't be charging more for wfp. It's apparently quicker.
The customer will feel ripped off.

You can't charge people more just to pay for equipment.
I've got plenty of £6'ers and I fly through them.

Wouldn't mind if they were £8 though! :

[Sarah Sarill]

Hi Brett,

Sometimes its not just a case of a simple price increase because.....

For us a contributing factor to each increase % is how important that house is to us Ie.  Is it in a cluster we dont want to reduce.  Are they easy houses to do, how long have they been using us.

More importantly price increasing in our area is pretty much dependent on how much our competitors are charging and how much EXTRA to them we can get away with without loosing too many customers (who will go if the price difference is big enough).

We would rather have a cluster of medium priced houses than a similar quantity of more profitable prices houses you have to drive to. Its costs to drive, its costs petrol and wear & Tear etc.

Only you know the reality of w/c in your area and only you know your customers and what you can get away with.

Finally on you know if you can afdford to loose any accounts AT ALL. 

Tough one Brett - good luck, regards 

Sarah

[Moderator David@stives]

Obviously if you are thinking about it ,they are too cheap.

I would just go for it and put them up

Dave

[Moderator David@stives]

Ps 7 climbs up a ladder definately too cheap

& chances too kill yourself per house is worth more than £6.00

Dave

[Sir Squeaky]

I thought you were already a wfp user anyway Brett.

Why are you up ladders?

I certainly wouldn't be if I'd spent good money on an alternative.

[neil100]

I would put them up to £7.50. Tell the customer you will hold that price for two or three years.

If you hold the new price for three years it averages the price increase to 50p a year. Which is the miniunium you could put the price up in round figures.

The customer will be happy that they are getting their frames done as well as knowing they have a fixed price for the next three yrs. Sometimes putting the price up every year works against you as the customer allways feels the price is allways going up, not how much it is going up bye.

In three years you do it all again. thats how I do it and I only ever losse odd customers.

I have just put all my prices up 20% cos I have gone WFP. I lost £40.00 of work but have gained £200.00 of new work.

Nel.

[stuart webster]

Please DONT promise to hold the price for 2 or 3 years.

You will get stuck with underpriced work.

Increace your round size, then put the price up to cull any who only have you because you are cheap.

If you have to think about it your too cheap.

[neil100]

I dont see what problem their is in holding a price for two or three years.

I put my prices up by 10% in JAN 2003, I promised to keep them at that price for two years, which I did.

I have now put up my prices by 20% JAN 05 I have promised to keep them at that price for three years. My prices also went up in 2001 by 10% which I held for two years.

So in 5 yrs my prices have gone up by 40%, I'm not falling behind the inflation rate, so in real terms my wage is wideing the gap on a positive side between  a pay rise to keep pace with inflation.

I also agree with Sarah that you have to take into account what other w/cleaners are charging around you. If you dont a good size round will quickly disappear because of your own greed and people undercutting you.

I beleive in fairness all round to my customers and to myself, I dont want to fleece my customers, I want to provide them with a quality service and earn a fair living to boot.
26 years as a W/cleaner and going strong. My prices have gone up more this year because of the investment I have made in WFP, which my customers are going to help pay for, They now get thier frames cleaned for peanuts, the money they now save on that they are going to pay me to clean their cladding and facia boards.

I could  put my prices up just by 5% or  6% every year,But by doing it every 2 or three years I can put the price up more and get  slightly more money each clean,

THINK ABOUT IT.


Nel.

[stuart webster]

It sounds as if these houses are too cheap to start off with.

I agree with you, once the price is right, every 2 years is fine, non of my customers compalin.

However, I had to be brave, and increase them to a reasonable rate first.

If they are not at a good price, it becomes a pain to clean them for 3 years, underpriced.

You will also pick up new customers, these need to be priced at the rate you will charge in 2 years time.

Your new work will become the standard rate, to which you will increase the rest.

The Bear

[neil100]

I suppose the bottom line is what you average to earn per hour.

In some parts of our Emmerald Green Isle their are going to be those who earn more then others. As a rule of thumb I earn an average of £20.00 an hour between years 02 & 05 on my own, I earn more when someone works with me which is most of the time.

That is very good for this area, A lot of S/E w/cleaners are around £12.00 an hour in this area.

Now I am fully expecting in Feb when I start my second cleans with WFP for my avrge earnings per hour to be £30.00 on my own. Come summer they could be £40.00 an hour.

Now thats the average for a 40 hour week too.

Nel

[brett walker]

Thanks everyone for your views

Personally i do think they are worth 8 pound each wfp and they are so compact i just valued the views from the forum.

Half my round the big accounts are all wfp and good priced 15 pound onwards, but we have been using ladders on the 6 pound houses did'nt want to change all over straight away because of running in to the problems with wfp.

Im having to change over now because my helper who does the ladder work is taking the p**s and having more time off.  I think they call it  " bone idle "  with young ones these days, you just cant get the staff.
I myself are restricted to limited ladder work due to an op on my knee, WFP keeps me in a job


Pure Evolution
Brett

[pjulk]

Why not increase the prices on your round every year but only a third of them every year.
so imagine your round in three parts this year you increase part 1, next year part 2 and the following year part 3.
Then start again.

This way you always have well priced work.
The customer don't think its to bad as they are only getting a price rise every 3 years.
But you income is increasing each year for the same amount of work.

And for the few you lose each year due to price increase will be more than made up for the extra money you will be earning.

Got to be a winner all round

Paul

[Moderator David@stives]

I increase every year and dont loose any by doing so.

That tells me i am still to cheap for my area so i push 20% a year or more.

dave

[neil100]

You must be rolling in it then Dave.

What do you average per hour in the sunny South West?

Nel

[Moderator David@stives]

lowest  £20 highest  £45