[Mike Halliday]

how many times do you answer them? do you just return their email or do you email them again a few days later or a week later?

and are your enquiries from ignorant people  who just write how much to clean my livingroom? or my suites not too dirty, how much would it be?

is it some thing about email that means the normal etiquette of communication goes out of the window

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Usually if they don't leave a telephone number then I delete it, I will contact them over the phone but I must admit alot of these aren't ready to buy the ones that call you are ready buyers.

Shaun

[deep-cleaningukltd]

Hi Mike,

If the enquiry is from someone who has provided their details I will respond, but not with prices. If the enquiry just has a name i.e. Dorris, it's normally from another CC trying to find out my charges and will not get a reply.

[Steve. Taylor]

The problem with email or text is a question just leads to another question.
on your contact page you could ask them      please leave your name & number if their keen to have the work done this should not present them with any problem if not chances are there tyre kickers.

[Mike Halliday]

this is the email I received today and my reply;

I have two rather large sofas which require cleaning.

Can you let me know roughly how much it would cost?

 Cheers

Dylan


my reply...

Hi Dylan.
 
the cost depends on the type of material, how big they are and how dirty.
 
it always better for me to give a free home inspection then I can give you a solid price rather than just an uneducated guess.
 
this also allows me to give you an indication on what we can achieve, we want you to be 100% happy with the result so its better to give you an idea right from the start on how clean it will be on completion,
 
but don't let this put you off!! we are experts in fabric cleaning & usually exceed our customer expectations
 
why don't you give me a call  on 0800 2989079 and I'll pop along and give you a free quote.
 
I look forward to hearing from you.
 
best wishes.
 
 Henry Halliday Jnr
 
ps;  did you receive our £10 off January voucher?

am I wasting my time give such lengthy replies? should I just ask them to call me to discuss the cleaning in person

[deep-cleaningukltd]

Mike

No I don't think your wasting your time. If we give the option of sending an email then we should (unless obvious time waster) respond. Don't see any problem with your response either, ball back in their court, cost you nothing.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

If you have a standard reply you could cut and paste it and just change the rest, I did see a cc who on his form submission page asked for the persons details and then a pull down for carpets, upholstery, rugs etc etc but gave no space for details and it was up to you to follow it up.

I have on my form submission a space for tel no. and best time to call (which tells them I will)

Shaun

[Steve. Taylor]

Theres nothing i can see wrong with that reply you could ask them to leave there nunber as well as giving yours

The thing that always makes me laugh is when they say oh i didnt want to bother you
My reply if nobody bothers me then im unemployed.

[Jim_77]

Lengthy??!  That's a brief post-it note by my standards

I agree you should never give prices by email, and Shaun is right that unless they call or give you their number they're probably time wasters.

It's easy to send an email to 20 carpet cleaners, imagine how long it would have taken in the old days to ring 20 up and get 20 quotes!

[Shaun_Ashmore]

It would be interesting to see how other guys who get the work from email quotes do it. There's a guy who's a fast tracker could be Kevin Barber and do £15000 a month.

Shaun

[Neil Williams]

Mike, have you been copying my e-mail replies  because this is much along the lines I send back.
the cost depends on the type of material, how big they are and how dirty.
it always better for me to give a free home inspection then I can give you a solid price rather than just an uneducated guess.
this also allows me to give you an indication on what we can achieve, we want you to be 100% happy with the result so its better to give you an idea right from the start on how clean it will be on completion

I tend to play them along for a while not giving a price until I'm satisfied that they are serious in getting the work done. If they can't be bothered to answer my questions then I know they can't be bothered with getting it done properly.
Last week I 'fished' one along for a full suite clean as I proved to her that we know our stuff on various materials and methods. Then when I sent her the price £90 and 15 miles away she didn't reply again 

E-mail enquiries in general are price shoppers and a waste of time chasing.

[Jim_77]

maybe she thought you were too cheap

[Neil Williams]

maybe she thought you were too cheap

You'd have to be a top notch salesman along the lines of marc d  to get anything above that figure in this area.
On the phone I've heard people faint when I've said £90 before

[Jim_77]

Well maybe the phone is the problem Neil     I refuse to believe nobody could sell a suite clean for more than £90 in your area, there are probably half a dozen firms charging up to £160 or more!

Do you try to go out and quote for most jobs?  Why not try it out?

Maybe try to quote your next 10 suites in-home at £130, see how much money you make compared to quoting 10 suites at £90 on the phone.  By typical standards you'll win a few less BUT it should work out roughly that you do less work for more money!

In Basingstoke you've surely got to be angled in towards London for a lot of your work?  You've got a kind of triangle made up by Staines, Reading & Farnham which must have a really good demographic.  It is a little tricky but if you can work in your quotes on a round trip they don't actually end up costing you too much time or money.

Obviously a lot of people work in the day so they're not home.  I often have one evening like a Monday or Tuesday where I'll book a few quotes around tea time, so you can economise time and fuel by doing a round trip.

Basingstoke itself is a commuter town isn't it?  From google maps it looks like there's a big chunk of those nice estates full of 4 bed detached houses with an Audi and a BMW on the drive.  Prime market!

It says under your photo "To solve a problem confront it... so stop digging".  If you think about it, isn't it a problem leaving at least £50 behind every time you clean a suite?  Confront it by taking radical action

"nobody can get those sorts of prices round here" is a comfortable lie that a lot of business owners dig themselves in to!

Sorry to be so direct, I know you'll probably be defensive about this but I really do think you're worth a lot more than you charge!  Why not give it a go?

[Paul W Jones]

I've had quite a few jobs that have come directly from my contact form but I find that most tend to be price shoppers.  If they don't provide a telephone number I'll send an email asking them to provide one or, alternatively, for them to call me.  Funnily enough the ones that come through late at night tend not to turn into jobs!  One thing that does annoy me though is when you provide a quote by email and then follow it up most people can't be bothered to respond to let you know if the price was competitive or not.

[Neil Williams]

Sorry to be so direct, I know you'll probably be defensive about this but I really do think you're worth a lot more than you charge!  Why not give it a go?

No problem Jim, I'll happily take advice, tips and the proverbial 'kick up the backside' from people with the experience that you have.
A lot of what you said is correct but some parts weren't. Basingstoke isn't quite as rich as some people think. For every estate with Audi's and BMW's on the drive we have 1.5 estates which you wouldn't want to walk alone at night.

But getting back to the topic heading, I think we'll stop in it's entirety giving out any prices by e-mail, at the very least it will be by phone.

[Stu.Clem]

Liking the sound of those  no price replies.

Though - the job I did last Friday came from my website contact us form – it went like this,

“Hi, am interested in a quote please for carpet cleaning at a property recently acquired
It is a terraced property in Middlesbrough 5 smallish rooms plus staircases
Could you provide a rough estimate please?”

Knowing January  is quiet I kept estimate prices cheap  to get the work – my reply was:


“Hi Keith
 
Estimate will be a rough estimate as I have no sizes to work with, tho one thing I will mention is 5 carpets and Staircase will attract some discount.
 
Total around £100 - £120
 
Please remember you can compare the price of a like for like carpet, but you cannot compare the quality of unkown service providers  - I am not the cheapest splash  n dash  type cleaner -  what you will get is top value for money and a proper result.
Thanks for your enquiry.”

He then foned me and I quoted  £140,  He explained the rooms were all small but very dirty so I said I  needed to see the job so went to quote and got the job for £120 cash.   He was over the moon that I saved his carpets and he will be calling me again. He also let me know his other quote had been  £50 and that the bloke didn’t seem at all professional like me....
The job was a small terrace that they had converted into a 4 small furnished bedsits and 2 staircases (was a clean around furniture)  It took me just over 3 hours and the before and after pics  of one of the staircases was so good its now on my web homepage   

regards  Stu

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

If the client leaves a phone number then I will phone them and thank them for their e-mail enquiry, then continue with my questions.

If they don't leave a number then I treat the enquiry the same way as if it was a phone enquiry. I go into a lot of detail, sell the benefits and give as accurate a price as I can from the information provided.

It takes 5 minutes to type it out and, if nothing else, it sets me apart from the guy that replies with a one line answer.

Steve

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

If you respond with a one line, no punctuation reply, then you will get nothing.

It's like any other enquiry, if you deal with it professionally then you have more chance of success.

I picked up a thousand pound job just by email, the first time we spoke was when I turned up to do the job!

Cheers

Doug

[Shaun_Ashmore]

What % do you get Steve when you do an email reply compared to a tel call?

Shaun