Unable to get customers at 4 weekly

[Dan Paton]

Out of curiosity. What form of advertising got your 63 customers without canvassing.


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[PureShine]

Out of curiosity. What form of advertising got your 63 customers without canvassing.


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15 - Adwords

36 - Facebook

6 - Leaflets (Dropped 850 total)

5 - Recommendation

1 - Walk Up

Around 4-5 weeks of advertising

 

[Dan Paton]

Keep that up mate along with knocking and it'll build up in no time.


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[Tuffers]

Customers are generally  a bit daft when it comes to this, if i offer 4 weekly at a tenner or 8 weekly at 15 most will go for the 4 as they think its cheaper :1f603:  ..they only see the amount and dont see the long term price. 

Well yes you are shooting yourself in the foot, because the main advantage of 8 weekly is to increase turnover, if you are charging the same and it takes longer (slightly) then you are decreasing turnover.

To be honest what i generally do now is not charge 50% more, i might say for just 2-3 pound extra you can go 8 weekly if you like.

Its all about saying it in a way that makes it look more appealing. 

I picked up a job last week local to me. She had moved from a 2 bed semi and paying £10 every 4 weeks to a 3 storey job. I priced it at £25 every 8 weeks telling her that she was paying the same as before over 2 cleans but only paying an extra £5 to have the very top windows cleaned on top. She jumped at it. I feel I was the winner in the deal!

 

[steve garwood]

6 or 12 weekly, and absolutely nothing else ?

 

[PureShine]

Iv thought about doing the canvassing a lot of times, just not sure if it will work. struggling to get any more than 7 jobs done in a day at the minute. Im still taking way too long, soon as im upto speed I will be leafletting a couple of thousand each week as will do saturdays and sundays too for a while. Iv got those custys but have done 180+ quotes. I am thinking im too high and maybe not getting as much as I should/could due to this. I started out thinking price high, allow enough time to do a top job everytime but now im seeing most of my round is at 8 weekly. Whereas if i went cheaper on my 4 weekly I could have doubled the amount of work and earnings even with the custys I already have. Albeit a bit more work, but still more money overall

I picked up a job last week local to me. She had moved from a 2 bed semi and paying £10 every 4 weeks to a 3 storey job. I priced it at £25 every 8 weeks telling her that she was paying the same as before over 2 cleans but only paying an extra £5 to have the very top windows cleaned on top. She jumped at it. I feel I was the winner in the deal!

what would you have priced it as at 4 weekly mate?

6 or 12 weekly, and absolutely nothing else ?

Steve when you do a 12 weekly clean does it seem a bit like a first clean? I dont mean a right minger of a first clean. Do you charge higher at 6 or 12 weekly than if you were at 4 or 8 weekly?

 

[Tuffers]

£15/£18, the thing is it's part of a small new development of 10 houses of which 3 are social housing, 6 are private 3 storey and one 4 bed detached. All social houses are occupied but I'm not bothered if they come on board, 4 bed is occupied and have leafleted with no response and only one 3 storey is occupied which I have and they are all in a row. 

 

[PureShine]

£15/£18, the thing is it's part of a small new development of 10 houses of which 3 are social housing, 6 are private 3 storey and one 4 bed detached. All social houses are occupied but I'm not bothered if they come on board, 4 bed is occupied and have leafleted with no response and only one 3 storey is occupied which I have and they are all in a row. 

If you can get a few of them that'll be nice and compact little area.

From what you stated price wise Im defo now of the mind set i need to lower the price I already give by a few quid and offer that at 4 weekly, rather than increase my 8 weekly price as currently been giving them the same price wether 4 or 8 weekly, but at the price iv wanted and justified at 8 weekly, when have got them 4 weekly its been a bonus. not enough 4 weeklies tho. Going to lower the price as of tomorrow and see how it goes for a week or two

 

[Minty]

I know what you mean mate, but im flapping as I already run the risk of losing the customer due to being so high with the quote. Sort of feel like if I gave them my normal price and that was for 4 weekly then at 8 weekly a higher quote or if only offered 4 weekly at my normal price Id lose pretty much all quotes. I was out today doing an 8 weekly, bloke comes homes from work next door and asks how much mate. I told him the price and he frowns at me, he said oh it would just be a one of thing then if thats how much its going to cost, i said if its a one-off then it'll be double the cost... he looks at me n says 'are you f**king crazy?' haha

Minty the link just says the link is generated. Not an actual profile. I cant find a website or anything for it either mate

Type PMC Enterprises into Facebook search bar it shows a mobile number

 

[steve garwood]

Iv thought about doing the canvassing a lot of times, just not sure if it will work. struggling to get any more than 7 jobs done in a day at the minute. Im still taking way too long, soon as im upto speed I will be leafletting a couple of thousand each week as will do saturdays and sundays too for a while. Iv got those custys but have done 180+ quotes. I am thinking im too high and maybe not getting as much as I should/could due to this. I started out thinking price high, allow enough time to do a top job everytime but now im seeing most of my round is at 8 weekly. Whereas if i went cheaper on my 4 weekly I could have doubled the amount of work and earnings even with the custys I already have. Albeit a bit more work, but still more money overall

what would you have priced it as at 4 weekly mate?

Steve when you do a 12 weekly clean does it seem a bit like a first clean? I dont mean a right minger of a first clean. Do you charge higher at 6 or 12 weekly than if you were at 4 or 8 weekly?

No it's not like a first clean after 12 weeks. I charge roughly 25% more for 12 weekly. 

If they ask for 4 weekly, I simply tell them I can't do it, too busy to go backwards and forwards, and to be honest, I really don't want any more work so I'm overpricing now to put them off. I'm not showing off, been doing this over 20 years now in the same area so it gets to the point where I have too much ?

 

[adamangler]

. Iv got those custys but have done 180+ quotes. I am thinking im too high and maybe not getting as much as I should/could due to this. I started out thinking price high, allow enough time to do a top job everytime but now im seeing most of my round is at 8 weekly. Whereas if i went cheaper on my 4 weekly I could have doubled the amount of work and earnings even with the custys I already have. 

Ive learnt a few things about price.

When I started I wanted to be at the top end of prices in my area. (I'm not expensive and probably cheap to a lot of guys down south) I'm around 12 quid as an average...nothing special i hear some guys say.

But in my area prices were generally in the 5-8 pound range for average houses and some at bit less!

The thing with price is its only relevant to the area you work.  Its no good coining on here and taking price advice from people in other areas. Your local market dictates the price.

When I advertise my prices on facebook in only pick up about 2 in 10 of quotes given. Now if you read marketting material it tells you that you should be getting about 50-70% of quotes accepted. 

I've stuck with my prices and refused to budge and slowly but surely it's started to pay off.  I'm at 250 plus custys now but it's been hard work. I know for a fact I could have been full a year ago had I given in to cheaper prices. 

In hindsight, I shot myself in the foot. If I were to do it again I would start out lower get the work then start refining when full. 

Another thing that comes into play when you have more experience and more confidence is that those houses that you quoted say 15 quid for that were taking you 30 mins you can now do in 15 mins and realise that you could have charged a tenner for them and had a lot more custys. But real speed only comes when you have more more,  when you have more work you have to get through it quicker, you also don't care so much about being perfect so you become a bit more confident and **** with your cleaning, a bit more slap dash. But when you start you are paranoid when you stop.caring do much you realise you can go a lot quicker still do a good job and get no complaints.  

 

[Clisty1989]

Ive learnt a few things about price.

When I started I wanted to be at the top end of prices in my area. (I'm not expensive and probably cheap to a lot of guys down south) I'm around 12 quid as an average...nothing special i hear some guys say.

But in my area prices were generally in the 5-8 pound range for average houses and some at bit less!

The thing with price is its only relevant to the area you work.  Its no good coining on here and taking price advice from people in other areas. Your local market dictates the price.

When I advertise my prices on facebook in only pick up about 2 in 10 of quotes given. Now if you read marketting material it tells you that you should be getting about 50-70% of quotes accepted. 

I've stuck with my prices and refused to budge and slowly but surely it's started to pay off.  I'm at 250 plus custys now but it's been hard work. I know for a fact I could have been full a year ago had I given in to cheaper prices. 

In hindsight, I shot myself in the foot. If I were to do it again I would start out lower get the work then start refining when full. 

Another thing that comes into play when you have more experience and more confidence is that those houses that you quoted say 15 quid for that were taking you 30 mins you can now do in 15 mins and realise that you could have charged a tenner for them and had a lot more custys. But real speed only comes when you have more more,  when you have more work you have to get through it quicker, you also don't care so much about being perfect so you become a bit more confident and **** with your cleaning, a bit more slap dash. But when you start you are paranoid when you stop.caring do much you realise you can go a lot quicker still do a good job and get no complaints.  

i wouldn't day slap dash, id say more efficient, but I do agree. Once you realise your standards are a lot higher then there's you don't panic as much and therefore you speed up.

 

[adamangler]

i wouldn't day slap dash, id say more efficient, but I do agree. Once you realise your standards are a lot higher then there's you don't panic as much and therefore you speed up.

Yeh what i mean is at first you tend to over clean, for fear of doing a bad job and losing customers, when you get more work you become a bit less worried about losing a customer so you tend to speed up and find that you can go faster and still do a good job. 

what you realise is doing a 100% job takes twice as long as doing a 95% job and generally customers are not as picky as we think.

 

[PureShine]

No it's not like a first clean after 12 weeks. I charge roughly 25% more for 12 weekly. 

If they ask for 4 weekly, I simply tell them I can't do it, too busy to go backwards and forwards, and to be honest, I really don't want any more work so I'm overpricing now to put them off. I'm not showing off, been doing this over 20 years now in the same area so it gets to the point where I have too much ?

What your saying is a good point. Id love to be at a point where I had too many customers, im way off that. I notice a slight difference in time when i do a 4 weekly compared to an 8. So yes i suppose it would only be a slight difference between 8 and 12

Ive learnt a few things about price.

When I started I wanted to be at the top end of prices in my area. (I'm not expensive and probably cheap to a lot of guys down south) I'm around 12 quid as an average...nothing special i hear some guys say.

But in my area prices were generally in the 5-8 pound range for average houses and some at bit less!

The thing with price is its only relevant to the area you work.  Its no good coining on here and taking price advice from people in other areas. Your local market dictates the price.

When I advertise my prices on facebook in only pick up about 2 in 10 of quotes given. Now if you read marketting material it tells you that you should be getting about 50-70% of quotes accepted. 

I've stuck with my prices and refused to budge and slowly but surely it's started to pay off.  I'm at 250 plus custys now but it's been hard work. I know for a fact I could have been full a year ago had I given in to cheaper prices. 

In hindsight, I shot myself in the foot. If I were to do it again I would start out lower get the work then start refining when full. 

Another thing that comes into play when you have more experience and more confidence is that those houses that you quoted say 15 quid for that were taking you 30 mins you can now do in 15 mins and realise that you could have charged a tenner for them and had a lot more custys. But real speed only comes when you have more more,  when you have more work you have to get through it quicker, you also don't care so much about being perfect so you become a bit more confident and **** with your cleaning, a bit more slap dash. But when you start you are paranoid when you stop.caring do much you realise you can go a lot quicker still do a good job and get no complaints.  

I take all of what you say on board there mate. I am told quite a lot im more expensive than others in the area, i dont know wether thats true or wether the custy is trying to get me to come down on price. I do want to build quicker, in fact I need to, im on a bit of a ticking time limit at the minute. I used the 4 weekly prices and 8 weekly today. Won all 3 quotes at 4 weekly so im happy about that. Id love to have 250+ custys, life would be much easier than it is now thats for sure.

Yeh what i mean is at first you tend to over clean, for fear of doing a bad job and losing customers, when you get more work you become a bit less worried about losing a customer so you tend to speed up and find that you can go faster and still do a good job. 

what you realise is doing a 100% job takes twice as long as doing a 95% job and generally customers are not as picky as we think.

I do over clean, i think it all the time. I find im taking forever when i get windows with hydrophobic glass, doesnt rinse as well so I find myself having to little by little drop down tiny bits at a time to feel I have rinsed enough. Its like I have anxiety about spotting, very sad I know. Just trying not to lose custys

 

[Skxawng]

I do over clean, i think it all the time. I find im taking forever when i get windows with hydrophobic glass, doesnt rinse as well so I find myself having to little by little drop down tiny bits at a time to feel I have rinsed enough. Its like I have anxiety about spotting, very sad I know. Just trying not to lose custys

It sounds strange but I find if im getting overly finicky and taking ages (usually after I've been doing 1st cleans) I wear sunglasses and I'm faster as you cant see the detail as well so you clean it more as you should in theory rather than getting bogged down chasing all the drops down.

 

[PureShine]

It sounds strange but I find if im getting overly finicky and taking ages (usually after I've been doing 1st cleans) I wear sunglasses and I'm faster as you cant see the detail as well so you clean it more as you should in theory rather than getting bogged down chasing all the drops down.

Hahaha this cracked me up. made me laugh but makes total sense. cheers for this, i might just actually try it. see the sort of speed I should be at thanks

 

[Neilmnwc]

 
Ive learnt a few things about price.
 
When I started I wanted to be at the top end of prices in my area. (I'm not expensive and probably cheap to a lot of guys down south) I'm around 12 quid as an average...nothing special i hear some guys say.
 
But in my area prices were generally in the 5-8 pound range for average houses and some at bit less!
 
The thing with price is its only relevant to the area you work.  Its no good coining on here and taking price advice from people in other areas. Your local market dictates the price.
 
When I advertise my prices on facebook in only pick up about 2 in 10 of quotes given. Now if you read marketting material it tells you that you should be getting about 50-70% of quotes accepted. 
 
I've stuck with my prices and refused to budge and slowly but surely it's started to pay off.  I'm at 250 plus custys now but it's been hard work. I know for a fact I could have been full a year ago had I given in to cheaper prices. 
 
In hindsight, I shot myself in the foot. If I were to do it again I would start out lower get the work then start refining when full. 
 
Another thing that comes into play when you have more experience and more confidence is that those houses that you quoted say 15 quid for that were taking you 30 mins you can now do in 15 mins and realise that you could have charged a tenner for them and had a lot more custys. But real speed only comes when you have more more,  when you have more work you have to get through it quicker, you also don't care so much about being perfect so you become a bit more confident and **** with your cleaning, a bit more slap dash. But when you start you are paranoid when you stop.caring do much you realise you can go a lot quicker still do a good job and get no complaints.  

I'd agree with that, I'm in LINCS & pricing isn't that high here either.
I've been debating whether to shift 4wks to 6 and keep the 8wks but it'll clash too much. I've also begun adding 50% on to new 8 wk quotes. No one has complained and most accept the increase. They don't always see the yearly saving though.
A lot of it had to do with confidence in delivering the quote. When I wasn't confident it showed and I ended up kicking myself when they took the 8 wk at the same price. I try and spend a little bit of time chatting before I even talk about money.




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[Dave B]

I'd agree with that, I'm in LINCS & pricing isn't that high here either.
I've been debating whether to shift 4wks to 6 and keep the 8wks but it'll clash too much. I've also begun adding 50% on to new 8 wk quotes. No one has complained and most accept the increase. They don't always see the yearly saving though.
A lot of it had to do with confidence in delivering the quote. When I wasn't confident it showed and I ended up kicking myself when they took the 8 wk at the same price. I try and spend a little bit of time chatting before I even talk about money.




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That is the main issue when guys are newer to the trade

I used to worry about what the customer would think when pricing a job especially add ons like fascias etc

Nowadays i just tellnthem the price i want and the ball is in their court

I may lose the odd one due to price but the ones i get more than make up for it

Happy days lol

 

[Neilmnwc]

That is the main issue when guys are newer to the trade

I used to worry about what the customer would think when pricing a job especially add ons like fascias etc

Nowadays i just tellnthem the price i want and the ball is in their court

I may lose the odd one due to price but the ones i get more than make up for it

Happy days lol

You live and learn, I've done a few fascia cleans and come away aching all over for less money than I'd have got from window cleaning. It doesn't happen now though. Price for me and convenience for the custy not having to do it themself.

 

[dmw]

I still use the old sales technique of having a good chat about this that and the other

and when eventually talking about "the price", stating the cost of the job and then say

absolutely nothing and leave the awkward silence.

Nine times out of ten they break the silence and agree. Took me a while to get used to

that method though.

 

[Clisty1989]

I still use the old sales technique of having a good chat about this that and the other

and when eventually talking about "the price", stating the cost of the job and then say

absolutely nothing and leave the awkward silence.

Nine times out of ten they break the silence and agree. Took me a while to get used to

that method though.

i also do that, or the other one I do is a bit of a cheap trick that I pull out on the tighter people. I see a £60 job and ill say "usually its £80 but as its you ill do it for £60" or somethin long those lines. They think they're getting it cheap and I get the price I want. If they try and barter I say "can't do it for less, ill make nothing after cost of chems, fuel expenses etc". Or if they ask for gutter and they have a conny ill say "gutter will be £xx and count roof would be £xx but if you do them together ill do you a 20% discount". What I don't tell them is that I've marked up the work by 20% first. Works every time for me. It's all about confidence.