[maxcarpets]

I have over the last few years slowly increased my prices to a fairly good level without problem, however I have noticed that since my last price increase in Jan work seems to be slowing. My question is, in your opinion is this just the time of year or is this due to the economic slow down and maybe not the best time to have an increase.
To test this I am having a 15% sale in May as May is always slow for us, if the sale makes us busy than I think price is becoming a major factor.
More proof of this is I had a call from one of my regular customers last night saying they had a leaflet through the offering a lounge clean for £20.00, I did it last time for £49.99 she asked if I could beat this but I declined and explained about costs and insurance etc, she said she would give them a go anyway
Is it time to think about reducing prices?

I look forward to your responses on this.

Justin   

[davep]

Do you advertise your prices on leaflets or website?

[M.Acorn]

Have kept mine pretty much the same in the 4 years i have been running,still get people moaning i am too expensive though ! .28p per sq ft on wool .25p on polly ,there are people around this way that charge .34p.
I got a letting agy contract a couple of years ago as their previous carpet bloke upgraded to a t/m and put his prices up.
Just picked up another letting agy with 500+ houses on their books they will want a % of what i charge prob 10 or 15% but i will alter my price to cover this  ..
I want to keep putting £ into the business,looking into the RX20 or the rotary drimaster as my next big purchase,anyone use either of thease machines ? do they have any pitfalls ? i am assuming i couldn`t use them on long pile carpet ?
Got an info pack from the states yesterday and they both look top notch,does any other company make a comparable machine ?

[maxcarpets]

Davep

I advertise prices on leaflets sometimes if I want to have a sale, not on website.

Justin

[davep]

Why is that Justin?  I am thinking of putting prices on site, after all the customer wants to know them..  What are the downsides of this?

[maxcarpets]

You have to be very cheap otherwise people will not even bother to contact you.
I only do it in slow Months Jan, Feb, May & Sept I put a price on then have a special offer I.E 10% or 20% discount throughout that month.

Cheers


Justin

[davep]

So if someone calls you and you are still not as cheap as the other quotes is it your salesman skills that get the work?

I think people will like the idea of a price page as its transparent that there are no extras, and after all people dont really enjoy phoning around.

May be wrong mind!

[maxcarpets]

I agree keeping as a simple to use service is best, but I'm not getting into that as I was attacked for this opinion not so long ago.

Justin

[prodry]

I am in the process of removing the prices from my websites. They do get lots of work but I am now putting up my prices by upto 200%. Working on the basis that I will do less for more.

The big problem with price lists is even though you put a minimum booking amount on the page. They still ring asking for a bedroom to be done at £20.00 even though our minimum is £65.00.

Also you loss all scope for getting higher prices. Its makes you sick when they say somrthing like you are charging £100.00 for the work the other quote from chemdry was £400.00. You know that you could have got double or three times what you have got as they have priced it themselves from your price list.

Price lists on leaflets and websites have kept me very busy over the last few years. However I am feed up having to work like a dog to earn a crust.

[John Kelly]

Advertising prices on websites or leaflets gives the customer an instant comparison to your competitors. The idea in this game is to build up, over a period of 2-5 years a customer base of excellent customers who want to use your services on a regular basis and who you want to work for.
People who buy on price alone are never loyal to you as they just go to the cheapest offer everytime they want something done.
Just think of the women who has just been quoted £250 to have her suite cleaned by a franchise. She may think this is a little expensive and may try and ring around a few other cleaners to compare. Now if she rings you and you say you will do it for 40 quid is she going to use you, not on your nelly.
If you'd said a 140 then you are in with a chance.

[davep]

Prodry, So does your price for a lounge for example differ depending on who has phoned you?  If you want a high price then put that on your site, you can explain your pricing on the site at the same time?

[prodry]

Problem with price list is you have to honor prices so not much hope of getting better prices. Some dont even look at the price list before calling and when I quote them they are shocked as to how cheap I am.

I am finding that I am getting lots of price sensitive customers with my low prices. Like end of tenancy. Used to get much more high end/good prices before I put low prices on sites.

I have been getting plenty of work. Last week I did 7 jobs in one day (4 empty and I had keys). £645.00 of work. I am 28 years old so I feel that I am in no way struggling money wise and the price lists have done there job.  I thought about putting higher prices on the sites but then I could alienate to ones that do want a cheap job done.

I have a truckmount and doing an empty house with polyprop carpets doesnt take more then 2 hours. So having a per room rate for that type of job compared to a nice house doing just the lounge and stairs (ie lots of expensive things to move and a nice wooven wool carpet) taking 2 hours.

Using a per room rate price:

Pricing high then the whole house job will be put of by the high total price

Pricing low then the person with the nice house will be put off by the cheap rate and you know you could have got more for the job.

I would be good if I could put two prices one for soap dodgers and one for Mr & Mrs Middle-class. 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Prodry if you are getting regular work from your website why not just put your prices up by £5 each item on some of the small items put them up £2-3 so you can reach the £65 with less carpets cleaned.

Shaun

[davep]

Or sate terms like price may vary if no furniture/type of carpet, i agree with your points but dont want to price someone i a nice area more than someone in a more deprived area for the same size job, only if it takes longer..

[Kinver_Clean]

I stress that you only get what you pay for--if you want a rubbish job pay rubbish prices. I have raised my prices again this year.

I have found that although I am reasonably busy it is quieter this year. Probably due to ever rising household costs. They can put up with a dirty carpet for a couple of weeks longer. If every one did that there would be no work for two weeks.

Trevor

[mark_roberts]

If you drop your prices you either cut corners or make less money.  Do painters or plumbers give discounts?  No they dont but what you can do is give volume discounts.  That way the saving for the customer is based on your time saving on a bigger job.

Lets be honest the difference in the household bill for a month is only a few pounds unless you mortgage is huge so for those customers this affects are probably low end anyway.

I think the real issue is a loss of confidence with all the doom and gloom talk on the news every night so people are holding back as opposed to being less wealthly.

Mark

[Fintan_Coll]

I never advertise prices and never will.

[john rees]

I have never advertised prices either, as soon as you advertise price you take away any reason for a customer to ring you as they will just compare you with another cleaner who sells on price alone.

                                     All the best
                                                       John

[murky]

Prodry,

I did a house in your area (Church Langley) this week, £80 for an open lounge stairs and landing.

Slightly furnished, TM in through the back gate just over an hour to do it. And I am going back next week to do her neighbours.

With respect how you can go from Colchester to say Harlow for £75 to do lounge, hall, stairs and landing is beyond me.

With fuel, a  TM, Insurance etc etc

Alan Sugar would say you are a busy fool.

Murky

[from edge2edge]

I am with John on this one.You probably just wont get the oppurtunity to sell yourself when they ring as a result.