Had to chuckle to myself.
Many of you know I live in a very affluent area; with a lot of wealth being flaunted about. Its not uncommon to see Ferrari's and even more so McLaren's driving about through Knaphill and Woking these days especially as Knaphill is almost directly next to Hook Heath one of the most exclusive areas for housing and country estates outside Guildford.
I am fair with my pricing; and i have built up a good reputation for being fair no matter how big or small the property is. To me it doesn't matter if you have a large country mansion or a 1 bedroom starter home; i don't "add on" a bit to my rate because they are wealthy nor do i offer discounts to those whom are struggling. My rate is my rate and that's it; only thing i'm interested in is 1)Do they want them cleaned? and 2) Are they going to pay?
There is this lane that i have in the Hook Heath area, with many properties i clean. Some are monthly, some are bi-monthly and some are quarterly. I got a new inquiry from a quarterly recommendation yesterday that is a an existing small-ish £50 job.
I show up at the property, and she opens the door "Hi Marc" she goes "you have been very well recommended by many on this road" "why thank "you i said.
I have a look at the property; its minging! Green algae all over the older part of the property; they obviously had a lot of building work done because another 2 thirds of the property has been added on the back with a conservatory (bit old fashioned now in my opinion; but there you go). So i ask her and her husband what sort of frequency would they like?
"well we would like you to do a clean and see how it goes from there!"- Strike 1 for them as far as i'm concerned
Ok I said, "ill give you a price for a one-off clean and then options for monthly, bi-monthly, and quarterly cleans" - I can see their faces changing from being a rather positive "we are in control of you, and you are privileged to have us ask you for our custom" to a more detached "Ok he perhaps is going to be not as easy as we expect"
So i price up the 1st clean and it comes to £165 in total.
Then after a quarterly clean option of £60; Bi-Monthly £48; Monthly £38
"to be honest Marc we think that is way too much" Why? I ask? Well we were thinking about £50 for the clean and if we were happy with the job we would call you to arrange another clean? So i said" how long do you think it would take you to do the work yourself?, the penny dropping "well yes i can see its a lot of work" exactly i said. What makes you think that spending hours and hours scrubbing the windows, getting them perfect on the 1st clean for 50 quid is a fair and reasonable price to pay? Embarrassed a bit, they could see my point.
I then stated that i have to make a certain profit per customer; and that i am running a business to make a profit for services exhanged.
They fully understood; but by then I could see that it was a no go from their point of view.
Honestly speaking what were they expecting? Me to turn up in a flat cap; happy to agree to a cup of tea and a few shillings and the privilege of being in their company as payment or what?