[ben smith1234]

Garry- no I don't think so I can ask them

[peter maybury]

Mike they do not have that many vans on the road but give the impression that they are bigger than they are. But as you know Mike a truckmount can do a lot of work. I do not see their vans about that frequently recently.
I am not a big organisation but I do a lot of volume work.
Over the years I have taken on many of their customers.  I have had a few situations where I have done stain removal following their visits. One in particular was a tenant who had had his carpets cleaned the day before handing the property back. After they had left, the customer went up stairs to find some small existing ink stains had run into big stains. When he contacted smart clean ( this is not long after they had left), he was told they were too busy to return. The person in question was worried about losing his bond.
My biggest problem with growth is finding contentious people who will uphold my name and reputation it is a nightmare and something we are all up against.
I really do go the extra mile to try to provide a superb service and like to think that I have a better than most customer loyalty rate than most.
Peter
Peter

[ben smith1234]

Garry- this is the reply I got...

No URL you can log in to yourself but there FTP details to log in using an FTP client

[TheWindowManChris]

Mike they do not have that many vans on the road but give the impression that they are bigger than they are. But as you know Mike a truckmount can do a lot of work. I do not see their vans about that frequently recently.
I am not a big organisation but I do a lot of volume work.
Over the years I have taken on many of their customers.  I have had a few situations where I have done stain removal following their visits. One in particular was a tenant who had had his carpets cleaned the day before handing the property back. After they had left, the customer went up stairs to find some small existing ink stains had run into big stains. When he contacted smart clean ( this is not long after they had left), he was told they were too busy to return. The person in question was worried about losing his bond.
My biggest problem with growth is finding contentious people who will uphold my name and reputation it is a nightmare and something we are all up against.
I really do go the extra mile to try to provide a superb service and like to think that I have a better than most customer loyalty rate than most.
Peter
Peter

To keep good service with staff.

One business I heard about does following when you get a welcome pack and on first page it says.

If your not happy in the way that the garage deals with your problem call our Managing Director Home Number on XXX  and it work so she says!   She says when somebody say 'I am going to call your Managing Director'  They might actully call the Managing Director!

[garry22]

Garry- this is the reply I got...

No URL you can log in to yourself but there FTP details to log in using an FTP client

Ben,

1/You log in with the ftp details. FTP stands for "file transfer protocol". It's a sort of universal way to move files on and off a server.

2/ Download the files (using the FTP client - that's free software)

3/ Edit and the save files (using any editor, from Dreamweaver to again, some free software).

4/ Load the edited files back up to the server (again, using the FTP software).

It's pretty easy to do. The editing will only really be changing titles etc. You just have to make sure that you keep a complete back up of all the files in case you drop a big goolie somewhere along the way.

[peter maybury]

Marketing is a very important aspect of this business but if you do not have the ability to do a first class job then do not bother. If you can only advertise inflated prices and stupid discounts to dupe people into using your service. But are not providing a good service, then you are no better than the conmen that we see on cowboy builders and rougue traders etc.
To my mind if anybody can offer a constant 50% discount week in week out, year in year out then the advertised prices are not realistic in the first place. Short term this will hoodwink people but if they see this happening over a period of time, they become wise to it. It is like the jokes about carpet right and dfs and why the office of fair trading is looking into them.
Some people have very good websites and use adwords probably because the need to, my sites are a mess, I do not have time to spend on them and if I had websites as good as others people I would not have the quality of staff to do the job that I want to give my customers.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[ben smith1234]

Marketing is a very important aspect of this business but if you do not have the ability to do a first class job then do not bother. If you can only advertise inflated prices and stupid discounts to dupe people into using your service. But are not providing a good service, then you are no better than the conmen that we see on cowboy builders and rougue traders etc.
To my mind if anybody can offer a constant 50% discount week in week out, year in year out then the advertised prices are not realistic in the first place. Short term this will hoodwink people but if they see this happening over a period of time, they become wise to it. It is like the jokes about carpet right and dfs and why the office of fair trading is looking into them.


Some people have very good websites and use adwords probably because the need to, my sites are a mess, I do not have time to spend on them and if I had websites as good as others people I would not have the quality of staff to do the job that I want to give my customers.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

Our company are far from being cowboys

[Steve9]

I worked in sales for many years for a lot big well known companies.

At one particular place we offered 45% off list price as our standard price.

I thought it was ridiculous! Why not lower the list price and offer 5 or 10% (to equal the same discounted price) to seem a bit more realistic!?

But, for whatever reason it worked and 80% of people felt they were getting a good deal (I thought they were a bit silly but it helped me hit targets so I didn't complain!)

For me personally the 50% thing off isn't for me. I'd rather do something different to all the other CC'ers doing that 'deal'. But I wouldn't say these people belong on rogue traders! It's just a business model they've chosen to go by and I'm sure it works in a lot of cases!

[Hilton]

I dont think the general public, me included, are taken in by 10% off or what ever % it is anymore, its so old hat

10% off what exactly ?

Its lazy marketing in my opinion.

[neil 47]

i have been advertising on fb and i can assure you the 50% off works , all they are interested in is the cheapest job.

But jobs that come from the websites will pay more , i've found that once they have read the content they have made there minds up to use me ,
I know this as they will leave me answer phone messages and ring back more than once .

so content is what you are afte,r and get them to  trust and like YOU.

Also ranking high is easier than you all think but you have to treat it as a ongoing job , when your organic ranking drops below 3rd place no one will call.
  I have a couple of websites i can tell by the number of call i get that my ranking has improved .

for me I would concentrate on putting videos on your site after uploading onto utube then write some articles and help people, give them free information ie stain removal tips , your ranking will then improve build links in a natural manner and as mike says get your photo up there and address.

Good luck Neil

[garry22]

This thread (and in particular, that web design company) has really annoyed me.

They seem to be stuck in a time warp, doing things that were effective a long time ago but not now. Looking at their site, they appear to be the proverbial "jack of all trades" as mentioned above.

What grates is that (not for the first time) a carpet cleaner with very little internet marketing knowledge (and why would they have?) has been effectively ripped off and treated shabbily afterwards. £ 600.00 should be plenty enough for a basic site. I would expect some more advanced stuff in that price range.

[ben smith1234]

This thread (and in particular, that web design company) has really annoyed me.

They seem to be stuck in a time warp, doing things that were effective a long time ago but not now. Looking at their site, they appear to be the proverbial "jack of all trades" as mentioned above.

What grates is that (not for the first time) a carpet cleaner with very little internet marketing knowledge (and why would they have?) has been effectively ripped off and treated shabbily afterwards. £ 600.00 should be plenty enough for a basic site. I would expect some more advanced stuff in that price range.

This is exactly what I'm feeling. We should be getting a lot more than what they have done for us.
Now they don't want to know as they are too busy with other jobs

[ben smith1234]

Also I have been asking for an invoice for over a week now and the designer who sends them is ill so can't send me an invoice.
Starting to really get on my nerves now!!

[ben smith1234]

Garry- this is what the web designer is so say going to do now...

Adding keywords in to page URLs and to page titles, creating heading tags with keywords for the titles of each section of each page, separating each page from the original home page template so each page has its own set of meta keywords and meta descriptions, adding keywords in to page content relevant to each page, changing the names of the images on each relevant page so that its relevant to the page content, adding back links in to each page for relevant pages, updating the links on each page for each associated page as well as a few other bits and bobs

[TheWindowManChris]

Also I have been asking for an invoice for over a week now and the designer who sends them is ill so can't send me an invoice.
Starting to really get on my nerves now!!

Happens all the time.   I now approached the scheme of  You don't invoice me, I don't pay you.   

I would say you been robbed however just take it as a learning experience and for future experience about writing up a agreement with stuff like this which is always important.

I would of said something like 'Any amendments required to the site as per poor design for SEO or User Interface will be corrected for £0.00'   

I know one large supermarket charges its suppliers if they made a error on a invoice or anything.

[peter maybury]

Ben
I have not called anybody in particular a cowboy.
All the time on this forum we get people who are that ignorant of our industry they think that they can get a few tips on carpet cleaning from this forum and then buy a pathetic machine like a rug doctor of a puzzi machine and just wake up the next day as a carpet cleaner.
I have no problems with people that have invested in training, good equipment and are dedicated to providing a good service for their customers. These people bring no disrepute on our industry. There are however a lot that do and I am happier not to be associated with these people.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[TheWindowManChris]

Ben
I have not called anybody in particular a cowboy.
All the time on this forum we get people who are that ignorant of our industry they think that they can get a few tips on carpet cleaning from this forum and then buy a pathetic machine like a rug doctor of a puzzi machine and just wake up the next day as a carpet cleaner.
I have no problems with people that have invested in training, good equipment and are dedicated to providing a good service for their customers. These people bring no disrepute on our industry. There are however a lot that do and I am happier not to be associated with these people.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

The RUGDoctor?  Please don't get me started on the RugDoctor.   They just move dirty about the floor!

[wynne jones]

OK so let's get to the bottom of this. Forget the 50% issue that's not relevant.. yet.

Do you have any analytics from your previous site to compare to where you are now? Probably not. All you know is the phone stopped ringing and when you looked on google you were nowhere right?

At the moment I suspect your getting no hits at all because you are nowhere in google and that's because when you changed your layout google can't make out what you are all about and even though the domain name is the same the content isnt specific and you have been dropped like a stone. This happens a lot when people by websites that rank well, then change them and wonder why its gone to shyte over night.

The very first thing I would do is ask your web guy if he is using webmaster tools for the site, make sure google knows what the site is supposed to be about and make sure via wmt google knows in no uncertain terms. He should know how to do that.

Also ask him for Analytics for the main keywords you want. In sales you have a cycle, orders are at the end of that cycle. You want to know where along that conveyor belt you are falling down.

The other option which may take you backwards initially, but why not get him to reinstate your old site. He's sure to have backed it up, won't he? LOL. 

[ben smith1234]

Wynne- I have acces to google analytics and webmaster for my site.
But can't remember passwords etc for the old sites ones.
I check everyday on the stats

[ben smith1234]

Wynne- this is the search queries on webmasters


   Query   Impressions   Clicks   CTR   Avg. position
bcs cleaning   30   <10   -   6.4
bcs cleaning services   <10   <10   -   5.3
bcs carpet cleaning   <10   <10   -   10
gutter cleaning services   <10   <10   -   320
carpet cleaning gloucester   <10   <10   -   100
bcs cleaning maintenance   <10   <10   -   9.0
pub carpet   <10   <10   -   23
conservatory cleaning   <10   <10   -   22
roof tile cleaning   <10   <10   -   49
1-9 of 9