[Ggh]

The retention rate for Facebook customers isn’t super good, for me anyway. Cheap though!
I quite like meeting people in person and quoting, it’s good for both parties to look each other in the eye.

[robbo333]

I think you have let yourself in for...

a lot of wasted time to be honest!

Hope it works out for you.

[jo5hm4n]

I think you have let yourself in for...

a lot of wasted time to be honest!

Hope it works out for you.

Maybe.  Will find out soon enough.

Tell you what.  I will post all the results here, from customer signups to gocardless conversions.  Might even do another update in 6 months to check on retention of these customers.  Just to show what kind of quality/retention is or isnt possible from free ads online.

Will see how it goes!

I'm not concerned either way as both vans are virtually maxed out with work as is.  Just wanted to replace a few drop offs recently that was all.

[jo5hm4n]

The retention rate for Facebook customers isn’t super good, for me anyway. Cheap though!
I quite like meeting people in person and quoting, it’s good for both parties to look each other in the eye.

I hear this all the time.

My retention rate from 3 years of Facebook Customers the data i have collected has shown me that the retention for me has been better than canvassed customers.  Infact for us its been the best retention we have had from any method of advertising.  Doesn't seem possible really be the data on our end speaks for itself.

[jo5hm4n]

Lol do 50 quotes in two days , unless they are all very close together which I doubt they are that’s impossible, also  what’s the point in loosing 2 days work looking at that amount of jobs you could easily be earning £300 a day so that’s £600 loss 😂😂😂😂😂

I dont work on the tools anymore thats what my staff do.  Ive got several businesses so im basically in the office every day anyway.  All quotes will be done online.  Don't need to waste my time driving to each job, all quotes get done online so theres no loss or downtime at all 

How do you accurately quote a job without seeing it ??

There are multiple methods i use, but i'm not giving all my secrets away just yet! 

The obvious one though is google maps that helps alot.  Also the easiest way to accurately quote a job is to just overquote.  Theres nothing worse than turning up to an underpriced job.  Quoting online easiest way to eliminate that problem is just to go in with high prices to account for uncertainty of not seeing the job etc..

Works everytime for us, infact most of the time we end up with tons of overpriced jobs.

From my experience google maps are very outdated properties have had extensions and conservatories added years ago but it doesn’t show on Google maps as they arnt updated regularly, if you over price every job I doubt you will get many , also it might not be over priced if there is something that you are unaware of you could still be put of pocket, been there and done that , getting customer to send pictures is good but  sometimes there are still things that you don’t realise are there until you turn up , also I feel it’s more professional to turn up explain to the customer what you will do ., the personal touch always works well , we regularly get enquiries from ones who have had work done by others and it’s not been done right or they  haven’t done something if you see them there can be no confusion, that’s my take on it .

There are ways around most of the issues.  First of all when we get an enquiry we send them a set of questions to answer.  These questions give us about 90% of the information we need to give out an accurate quote.  Even on the times where customers dont give us the answers, or if google maps is outdated maps or unclear images, then we anticipate this in advance and include this in the quote.  For example.  The price will be £20 for a 4 Weekly Clean.  If you have a Conservatory/Extension it will be £6 extra etc....

That's just as an example.

Also even if worst case scenario of say 1/10 new customers we turn up and the job is underpriced, we just knock on the door introduce ourselves apologise that the quote we gave was slightly inaccurate due to xyz at property that we were not aware of and the new price is xxx.  Apologise and tell them we will understand if they do not want to engage or take up our services.  99% of the time they say yes there and then and problem solved.

Quoting in person is ALWAYS the best way to get customers.  However it's just not needed/necessary.  If you have 20-50 quotes to do like Stoots has said, it's not worth the time to go and spend 2 full days quoting these jobs.  You can bang them out in 4 hours online at home and even if you win less quotes who cares?  When you have enough leads coming in like we do, our goal is not to maximise conversions, our goal is to get the best possible result from a customer.  In other words making sure the price is bang on.

Take this week for example.  I was only expecting to get about 20 enquiries, but thanks to what happened with my adverts ive got atleast 60 enquiries.  That means now i can charge even more per enquiry.  I will naturally lower the conversion rate and weed out the trash by going in with high prices.  Get less conversions, but way better priced work.  Instead of quoting 60 enquiries and getting say 40-45 customers, ill just go in with really high prices and get say 20-25 customers but at better prices.

Hope that makes sense.

I know its not for everyone, but personally going into Facebook ads literally transformed our business.  We filled up a second van in 4 months time from scratch just on facebook ads alone.

You just have to do it the right way.  I see lots of people doing it wrong.

As i say its not for everyone, which is great, if it was the market would be so saturated i would not get any results at all on there, neither would Stoots lol. 

[NWH]

It’s not about the amount of work you shouldn’t be interested in how many jobs you have that’s the least important thing,correctly priced with easy access in and out with no that was quick for the money people.
Anyone can go out and get enough work to run round all day long like a fool for little,if you know someone that’s cleaning houses for a tenner a pop and you go round and say I’ll do it for 7 you’d probably get most of his jobs.
I hear it all the time I’m snowed under with work mate yeah yeah I haven’t got time to stop for a tea,what he’s not telling me because I know is that 90% of it is C**P.

[Splash & dash]

Lol do 50 quotes in two days , unless they are all very close together which I doubt they are that’s impossible, also  what’s the point in loosing 2 days work looking at that amount of jobs you could easily be earning £300 a day so that’s £600 loss 😂😂😂😂😂

I dont work on the tools anymore thats what my staff do.  Ive got several businesses so im basically in the office every day anyway.  All quotes will be done online.  Don't need to waste my time driving to each job, all quotes get done online so theres no loss or downtime at all 

How do you accurately quote a job without seeing it ??

There are multiple methods i use, but i'm not giving all my secrets away just yet! 

The obvious one though is google maps that helps alot.  Also the easiest way to accurately quote a job is to just overquote.  Theres nothing worse than turning up to an underpriced job.  Quoting online easiest way to eliminate that problem is just to go in with high prices to account for uncertainty of not seeing the job etc..

Works everytime for us, infact most of the time we end up with tons of overpriced jobs.

From my experience google maps are very outdated properties have had extensions and conservatories added years ago but it doesn’t show on Google maps as they arnt updated regularly, if you over price every job I doubt you will get many , also it might not be over priced if there is something that you are unaware of you could still be put of pocket, been there and done that , getting customer to send pictures is good but  sometimes there are still things that you don’t realise are there until you turn up , also I feel it’s more professional to turn up explain to the customer what you will do ., the personal touch always works well , we regularly get enquiries from ones who have had work done by others and it’s not been done right or they  haven’t done something if you see them there can be no confusion, that’s my take on it .

There are ways around most of the issues.  First of all when we get an enquiry we send them a set of questions to answer.  These questions give us about 90% of the information we need to give out an accurate quote.  Even on the times where customers dont give us the answers, or if google maps is outdated maps or unclear images, then we anticipate this in advance and include this in the quote.  For example.  The price will be £20 for a 4 Weekly Clean.  If you have a Conservatory/Extension it will be £6 extra etc....

That's just as an example.

Also even if worst case scenario of say 1/10 new customers we turn up and the job is underpriced, we just knock on the door introduce ourselves apologise that the quote we gave was slightly inaccurate due to xyz at property that we were not aware of and the new price is xxx.  Apologise and tell them we will understand if they do not want to engage or take up our services.  99% of the time they say yes there and then and problem solved.

Quoting in person is ALWAYS the best way to get customers.  However it's just not needed/necessary.  If you have 20-50 quotes to do like Stoots has said, it's not worth the time to go and spend 2 full days quoting these jobs.  You can bang them out in 4 hours online at home and even if you win less quotes who cares?  When you have enough leads coming in like we do, our goal is not to maximise conversions, our goal is to get the best possible result from a customer.  In other words making sure the price is bang on.

Take this week for example.  I was only expecting to get about 20 enquiries, but thanks to what happened with my adverts ive got atleast 60 enquiries.  That means now i can charge even more per enquiry.  I will naturally lower the conversion rate and weed out the trash by going in with high prices.  Get less conversions, but way better priced work.  Instead of quoting 60 enquiries and getting say 40-45 customers, ill just go in with really high prices and get say 20-25 customers but at better prices.

Hope that makes sense.

I know its not for everyone, but personally going into Facebook ads literally transformed our business.  We filled up a second van in 4 months time from scratch just on facebook ads alone.

You just have to do it the right way.  I see lots of people doing it wrong.

As i say its not for everyone, which is great, if it was the market would be so saturated i would not get any results at all on there, neither would Stoots lol. 

I hear what you are saying , but it’s a fine line between all jobs being very well priced and getting a bad reputation for trying to rip people off the ones that don’t take you up Facebook is horrendous for slagging people off especially if you are local to them it can do a business irreparable damage , Ime not suggesting you are ripping people off but that could be there perception and what they put in social media , we are all different in our approach to running our business and that’s the whole point in doing that we are able to do what we want . I think area also has a large effect on how is best to get customers and number of competitors , we have minimal competition so get lots of enquiries through the web site we don't advertise or canvass haven’t done for well over 15 years word of mouth in the local community puts a lot of work our way as well . I wouldn’t want to turn up to a job and have to explain to the customer that we have priced it wrong and need to adjust it , I feel by visiting the people we are able to sell the service better gaining higher prices , I am selective with what jobs I will quote on there are certain areas I won’t bother with and certain types of properties we don't want to do , so out of 50 enquires  I might reduce that by 50% or more just by those factors . Like you I don’t need anymore work just a few replacements for ones that have moved , died , cancelled etc so can afford to be selective , again there arnt enough cleaners to go round hear and ones struggle to get someone, that works well  and I know Ime very luck with that , a friend of mine was moving down from the midlands at the start in the pandemic and asked me to get him a few jobs in less than 6 months I had 450 that we took on for him up and running , then due to the pandemic the sale of his house and the one he was buying fell through and now we are struggling to do theses extra jobs , I have sold a few off but most are in the same boat hear with to much work already so arnt interested in buying a round . 

[DJW]

I don’t have time to go out and quote.
It interferes with the hours and hours I spend on here.

[Ggh]

The retention rate for Facebook customers isn’t super good, for me anyway. Cheap though!
I quite like meeting people in person and quoting, it’s good for both parties to look each other in the eye.

I hear this all the time.

My retention rate from 3 years of Facebook Customers the data i have collected has shown me that the retention for me has been better than canvassed customers.  Infact for us its been the best retention we have had from any method of advertising.  Doesn't seem possible really be the data on our end speaks for itself.

Work canvassed by yourself? Or a pushy canvassing company?

I guess if it makes money then it doesn’t matter. The thing I dislike about using Facebook for advertising, is that fact that you’ll never reach some of the best work, large houses owned by oldsters, that are generally good payers. Instead, it seems to be busy mums that are attracted to the ads.
I must admit I’ve only had about 200 leads, so perhaps a small sample to judge from.
I’ve found leafleting better for retention, but maybe that depends on where you live? Here, we don’t get much junk Mail, so a leaflet is less likely to go straight in the bin.

[jo5hm4n]

The retention rate for Facebook customers isn’t super good, for me anyway. Cheap though!
I quite like meeting people in person and quoting, it’s good for both parties to look each other in the eye.

I hear this all the time.

My retention rate from 3 years of Facebook Customers the data i have collected has shown me that the retention for me has been better than canvassed customers.  Infact for us its been the best retention we have had from any method of advertising.  Doesn't seem possible really be the data on our end speaks for itself.

Work canvassed by yourself? Or a pushy canvassing company?

I guess if it makes money then it doesn’t matter. The thing I dislike about using Facebook for advertising, is that fact that you’ll never reach some of the best work, large houses owned by oldsters, that are generally good payers. Instead, it seems to be busy mums that are attracted to the ads.
I must admit I’ve only had about 200 leads, so perhaps a small sample to judge from.
I’ve found leafleting better for retention, but maybe that depends on where you live? Here, we don’t get much junk Mail, so a leaflet is less likely to go straight in the bin.

Both Really.  Better than when i used to go Door knock canvassing back in the early days which i did for a few years.  Also better than when using a canvassing company too.  Just in general better retention.  I attribute this to not putting people on the spot and them signing up impulsively on the door and then cancelling later on.  With online we find more people that actually want a cleaner longterm.  There are tons of leads online that do just want one offs too, but its so easy to isolate those leads from the good ones, or just go in with a high price and eliminate them from the off.

There are positives and negatives.  Negatives are definitely that from facebook you don't get lots of the lovely elderly customers who are good as gold that you pick up from door knock canvassing.  Those customers who pay cash every time and are so reliable for year and years.  We get much less customers like that.  However on the flip side, we get tons of enquiries from customers who work full time jobs and are never at home, pots of money and happy to be on gocardless we never even see them.  Also suprisingly we have picked up almost a dozen decent commercial jobs since advertising on facebook.  Im talking jobs that make an easy £80+ per hour which ive had on the books for 2-3 years now.  Never managed to get jobs like this when canvassing normal door to door.  These jobs are just a bonus from the facebook advertising, they dont really pay the main bills.

Also another strange thing i've noticed from Facebook Advertising is that literally all of our biggest jobs on the books have come from facebook.  We have lots of houses now that are £50-£100 a pop good as gold and i could never get those before when canvassing myself.

Maybe i'm just one of the lucky ones who seems to get good results from facebook ads lol

[Smudger]

how big is your customer base ?

Darran

[Splash & dash]

how big is your customer base ?

Darran

In his first post about this I think he was implied  around 300 ??

[Phil J]

Never tried a FB campaign can anybody on here actually organize one for me?
Thanks, Phil

[Smudger]

how big is your customer base ?

Darran

In his first post about this I think he was implied  around 300 ??

Cheers splash - don’t need to know anymore 👍

[jo5hm4n]

how big is your customer base ?

Darran

Used to be 600, but as time has gone on we replaced with higher priced jobs so turnover the same but now sitting comfortably at 500 customers.  Not looking to expand the business just floating now.