[benny d]

I was wondering what you all do after doing a quote and the custy says I will call tonight after discussing with my husband, or wife etc etc.
Do you call back that evening, or the day after, or if they dont call you, they obviously have gone elsewhere?

If they say you were too expensive , what do you say or is this a waste of time as because if they dont call you when expected, they do not require your services.
Tnx
Ben

[Spot On cleaning]

Ben

In my experience i have never phoned back after giving out a quote. Maybe people will think this is wrong, but i do not want the customer to assume i'm being pushy or to think that i am desperate for the work.

To phone back a customer may antagonise them as some people cannot negotiate on the phone, so will say in anycase that they will call you back to give them some decision time. Other customers may assume you are short of work and beat the price down.

I went to one customer to price a suite the other day and he told me straight away i can get it a lot cheaper. No skin off my nose so i walked away. I like to think that if you don't charge enough for your service, you will get so far into the job and realise this and rush the work to try and claw something back.

The very first suite i cleaned in 2002 took me five hours in the end, because the customer used to sit in it with his greasy overalls on. A few hours into the job and i was cheesed off. A low price of £45.

I finished the job to the death, customer pleased, but learned a valuable lesson.
This is why i can't understand the cleaning of someones carpets for free in six months if the price is not high enough.

Just my opinion

Dave

[nick p]

hi ben

i always phone back in about 2 days give them a little bit of time to talk it over i have got a fair bit of work aswell doing this and been thanked for saving them a phone call

cheers nick p

[Spot On cleaning]

Nick

If this works i will try it. I have lost a couple of commercial jobs recently and did think about ringing them to find out whether acceptable or not.

I was wondering though what you would say if they said they had a cheaper quote. Would you haggle.

Dave

[nick p]

hi dave

i very rarely haggle you may have to sometimes with commercial with domestic i just go over the quality and process that we use  usually works unless they were just a price shopper anyway and they always go with the cheapest and the prices they want to pay aint worth doing

cheers nick p

[benny d]

Thanks alot for the info. I will give them a call tomorrow evening and see what happens. 
Ben

[fibresafe]

Follow up call on commercial quotes is an absolute must - if you don't someone else probaly will.

[andrew chrysler]

A follow up telephone call is usually a very good idea. It can jog the memory of a busy person who may have meant to phone you back but didn't have time (or your mobile was out of range and they don't like voicemail). Even domestic customers will not object to a pleasant voice enquiring "were they happy with your quote"

If a customer says "too expensive" you can try to justify this by talking about pre treatment, scotchgard, etc, but instead, why not offer a reduced rate, provided that the customer books a "standby" appointment (ie you will definitely call in the next 7/14/21 days (longer period the bigger discount) and will give the customer the appointment 1 day ahead......... use these discounted jobs to either fill up quiet days, or to replace last minute cancellation/postponements.

Basically, it's just what the low cost airlines are already doing.

Alternatively, if your standard quote includes scotchgard or pre treatment, your discounted price could be for a "standard" clean.

Again, looking at airlines, you have "first class" "business class" and "economy" and the customer expects less in economy..... why not offer 2 levels of cleaning service.

Now, before anyone says "I'm not lowering my standards" remember that the "gold leaf" service (or whatever you call it) not only maintains your standards but draws the client's attention to them.............

"bronze clean" would be your cheaper service (where the client must pre-vac for example) ....... well if the client is shopping around for a cheap price, they will assume that all the other prices they get are for "bronze" standard, and may well come to you, at a dearer price, for the extra service they percieve they will get in the "gold leaf" service

[FibreTech]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/A-CARPET-CLEANERS-AMAZING-SECRET-REVEALED_W0QQitemZ5671514285QQcategoryZ11702QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
There's a follow up letter for sale.


Ive left the link in but please do not put links in for this kind of item in future.

As there is no way of knowing who owns the rights to the documents on offer.

Plus members are trying to use the Forum for Commercial Gain.


I real.ise you are not the sellar of the Guide.. and being helpful.

Mr Boxall has posted a statement in the contract clean ing section.

I will probably delete the link soon.

[andrew chrysler]

Dear Mr/Mrs xxxxxxxxx

Thank you for recently enquiring about our carpet cleaning services.  It was a pleasure to meet you and I hope that our quotation is of interest.

You may be collecting several quotes before choosing your carpet cleaner, and I would like to inform you that not all carpet cleaners are the same.

We do not promise to be the cheapest, but we believe that we offer excellent value for money.

Our modern xxxxxxxxx equipment represents several thousand pounds' investment, but by making this investment we know that we can offer an excellent standard of cleaning. Items such as high pressure sprays clean your carpet deeper than many cheaper machines, whilst the powerful extractor motors leave your carpet dryer than inferior machines.

We use xxxxxx chemicals, which are a range specialist shampoos, each suited to a different task. It would be cheaper to use one standard "universal" detergent, but the results would not be as good.

Of course, equipment and chemicals are no good without well trained and experienced operators. We have xxxx years of experience and hold the xxxxxxx institute certificate of excellence (or whatever). We regularly attend training courses and seminars to keep up to date with the latest developments in cleaning technology.

Our training and experience, together with our investment in state-of-the-art equipment and our insistence on quality chemicals, guarantee you our best possible work.

We believe that this is worth a few more pounds when comparing quotes, but to help you decide, here are a few more quotes from our satisfied customers.

"ABC cleaning are just fantastic" JW, anytown

"I tried hiring carpet cleaners, but it was hard work and the carpet always dirtied again within a few weeks. ABC did all the hard work for me and my carpets are still sparkling now, several months later"  FT, t'othertown

"We changed to ABC cleaning for our hotel in 2002 and we have been delighted with their work ever since"  Hotel Manager, seasidetown

"I recommended ABC to all my family and friends. Now I am happy to recommend them to everybody" GH, middletown

(Obviously you put your own customers responses here)

I hope to hear from you soon, and look forward to proving to you just why ABC cleaning is the best choice you can make.

Fred Bloggs

Proprietor, ABC cleaning

--------------------------------    ---------------------------------------
THERE YOU GO, YOU CAN HAVE THIS LETTER FOR FREE. IF IT WORKS FOR YOU, MAYBE YOU MIGHT LIKE TO DONATE A COUPLE OF POUNDS TO YOUR LOCAL HOSPICE....THEY DO A WONDERFUL JOB.

I WROTE THIS LETTER MYSELF, THERE IS NO BREACH OF ANYBODY'S COPYRIGHT AND YOU ARE ALL WELCOME TO USE IT, AMEND IT OR WHATEVER.

[Steve Chapman]

that's very charitable of you andrew, it's nice to see someone giving something free to help their fellow carpet cleaners!
Cheers
steve

[benny d]

I rang the lady back expecting to be told to take a hike. But she went with the quote and did the job today 

BTW Andrew Thanks for the letter looks good!

[david_m]

 hi benny

 been reading this post with great intrest
 the only coustomers i call back are comercial after giving a quote

 never really bothered calling back domestic coustomeres
 from now on i think i will start doing this after reading your post.

       well done

            davy

[AJCleaningServices]

... YOU CAN HAVE THIS LETTER FOR FREE. IF IT WORKS FOR YOU, MAYBE YOU MIGHT LIKE TO DONATE A COUPLE OF POUNDS TO YOUR LOCAL HOSPICE....THEY DO A WONDERFUL JOB...

Andrew, thank you for the posting that letter, you are doing a great thing (I mean charity). 

I have noticed that Steve is raising money for his charities funds, so should you.  This website should enable people to donate to your choosing charity from their desktops.

All the best,
Arthur