[Paul Redden Countryfresh]

How about " What's more important to you....a cheap price or value for money? 

Jim love the dentist line...will def use that.

Got time to mail this due to my 'no phone call, no show customer 

Cheers Paul

[Straker Cleaning]

Jim's approach is same as the one i have adopted (will be adding dental analogy now though  ) ............ i have told people that my customers are not price driven but quality driven ............... they come back to me as a result of my results 

[Ian Gourlay]

Simon

Are you friendly to your customers as occasionally you have been known to be grumpy

So First a Friendly voice

Do you try and  and see carpet

Do you explain why you need to go and see

So you get there

Hopefully you will not then be in Price shopping  mood

Because they wll see the quality of your Machine

you can impress with the years you have had in trade

You have had articles published in Trade mags which you take with ou.

You show pictures of the ships you  have cleaned

But you need to demonstrate that cleaning houses is just if not more important

To be honest I thought you only cleaned ships and big commercial places

You must e a good salesman because if not how did you get the contracts in the first place


If after all that they say no they are price shoppers

[Ian Gourlay]

Sometimes in desperation I have said I will come and do the job at the end of it you will be able to judge the quality of my work and then you pay me what you think the job is worth

[Joe H]

Ian

and the end result is.......

[carpet_care]

a pocket full of loose change 

[Mike Osbourne]

Sometimes I let myself down.

Today I was busy, a bit stressed and not had my 7 hours.

After the second How much? I got another one and she just said how much to clean a lounge carpet? So I said like a shot £65! She then went a bit quiet and said oh, er can I get back to you? I then said of course you can, in fact there's a guy in the admag who for another £4 can clean your whole house why don't you give him a ring. Oh, well thanks click.

Who knows could have been a goldmine, but I'll never know. Attitude is just as important as knowing what to say. 

[Ian Gourlay]

Ian

and the end result is.......

They are usually dumstruck

I then work towards getting an appointment to view

[PaulKing]

I do find that there a sixth sense with price shoppers.

But by far and away the best thing you can have is a nice lady answering the calls, calmly at a desk not a sweaty carpet cleaner full of technical knowledge in someone's house.

On average I hear twice a day " the girl on the phone was really nice when i booked"

Haven't got the heart to tell them she's a granny! or my wife. but they both book 9 out of ten, so as for me I'm changing nothing, we are just going to keep being nice. And the days I'm doing the phones I just try and keep up.

[Steve Weatherley]

How do I deal with price shoppers? The same as all my other enquiries. I quote the same price per square metre to everyone. If they dont like it then thats fine because they probably aren't the type of customer I want. We are in this to make a living and hopefully a good living so it's no good rushing round doing 6 or 7 jobs for peanuts every day - I prefer 2-3 jobs with nicer customers who appreciate that the cheapest price does not always give the best result.
In my part of England the average income is much lower than many other parts of the country and I'm up against a few switch and bait cleaners quoting £15 per room etc but I feel that they have a different market place to me so I dont try to compete.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

It's a good point Steve makes, someone  wanting a cheap clean is not and never will be a potential customer for me, so I have lost nothing by them saying , 'must speak to my husband"

Cheers

Doug

[Joe H]

Why do "we" make such a big deal of price shoppers for carpet cleaning service? A pain I know but....

We all do it - dont we?
When I am looking for a new TV (for example) I will walk round the shops looking at models and prices - salesman asks "can I help" - I reply "just looking" - I am sure he gets fed up.
Then I trawl the internet sites for models/prices.

but "we" dont normally advertise our prices so how is anyone to know what we charge without asking?
they dont know the difference between this machine or that machine - so we have an opportunity to sell our quality service.
Having done that - I am not suprised (but always disappointed) they say "just going to ring a few more".

Its a pain but I have to accept their decision - I cant be rude to them but I can inform them "yes, you may well get a lower price but I offer a top quality service" (or such words to overcome their conversation stopper "just going to ring a few more") and keep talking.

Got one yesterday, conversation went more or less as above... and away he went. It was stairs and landing (no hall - laminate), min price job of £45....... and he went away to shop around. Not come back to me so presume hes got a lower price OR someone else has quoted similar or maybe bit more and hes thought "this is the going price, may as well take it".

Maybe next time.

[stevegunn]

Was at one on Tuesday in Gosforth who had rang myself,deep clean,revita and safeclean.Price was not an issue as she had paid £600 to safeclean down in London 3 years ago,asked how she decided who she booked her reply "your websites were better".

The best thing was she had rang the most expensive cleaners as opposed to the £20 a carpet merchants so she had a good idea it was not cheap.

[PaulKing]

did you go out to quote the job steve ?

[Matt Lindus]

I thought it would be blatantly obvious who the undesirable enquires are from. I can paint an almost exact picture and lifestyle of someone in my head just from their opening sentence. Not wishing to offended, but many carpet cleaners are low earners (not all but many) living an almost mirror image to the people you don’t want as customers. Therefore the ability to pick up on the undesirables customers for these people is impaired slightly. Not wishing to offend.

Watch out for males, young ones especially who use the word 'Mate' far too often. We politely retract and end call ASAP.
Gruff sounding women (Smokers) who are very abrupt in phone mannerisms and untactful in there approach. Again end call ASAP
Young females age 20+ who have a nervous phone mannerism and make lots of price related enquires.

All in all you can use your own judgement to decipher who you have on the other end off the line and make a calculated decision as to whether you pursue these people or not.

Remember to listen carefully making calculated decisions in your mind, ask lifestyle related questions related to work that also helps you build a personal picture of the person you have. Then quickly come to the decision to accept or decline.

Matt


   

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Why do "we" make such a big deal of price shoppers for carpet cleaning service? A pain I know but....

We all do it - dont we?
When I am looking for a new TV (for example) I will walk round the shops looking at models and prices - salesman asks "can I help" - I reply "just looking" - I am sure he gets fed up.
Then I trawl the internet sites for models/prices.

but "we" dont normally advertise our prices so how is anyone to know what we charge without asking?
they dont know the difference between this machine or that machine - so we have an opportunity to sell our quality service.
Having done that - I am not suprised (but always disappointed) they say "just going to ring a few more".

Its a pain but I have to accept their decision - I cant be rude to them but I can inform them "yes, you may well get a lower price but I offer a top quality service" (or such words to overcome their conversation stopper "just going to ring a few more") and keep talking.

Got one yesterday, conversation went more or less as above... and away he went. It was stairs and landing (no hall - laminate), min price job of £45....... and he went away to shop around. Not come back to me so presume hes got a lower price OR someone else has quoted similar or maybe bit more and hes thought "this is the going price, may as well take it".

Maybe next time.

Good post Joe

[stevegunn]

did you go out to quote the job steve ?

No just priced over phone.

That's the beauty of being up against like minded professionals

[murky]

Clinton,

That guy who called him self Prodry (I think from Harlow)  used to put his prices on and was allways busy, he was doing £300 a day sometimes he said.

Hes not been on for a while, he said he was going to take his prices off as he was running round like a headless chicken.

Probably knackered now and given up.

Murky

[Mike Halliday]

I've held off from answering this question because to be truthful I have a very blarsay attitude towards priceshopper and that is blow them out as quick as possible. I use a similer approch as Matt, I make a judgment call based on verbal information

the title of this topic is DEALING with price shoppers not CONVERTING  price shoppers the best way to deal with price shopper is to add 30% onto your price and tell them that!! at least the next carpet cleaner they call will have a better chance of getting the job at a sensible price:D