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targeting condensed work

paul alan

Well-known member
Messages
666
Location
north wales
Has anyone been doing this with success?

I am after more condensed work in certain areas, there's loads of work there, I think there must be a way to get these customers to go with our service.

What Incentives do you offer these customers?

 
Haha fair enough. Never heard it referred do as condensed! First thing that sprung to my mind was misted panes
emoji23.png



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Condensation 

 
A chap over a few miles away from me offered an introduce a friend system. If the customer introduces someone else who signs up for regular cleaning they get a fiver off their bill. Seems to work for him. I only found out because one of my customers was approached by his neighbour about it. Must work for him because he's one of the bigger companies, has a couple of vans and has been going for years. In principal its a cracking idea, gets your customer doing the work for you.

 
I don't offer any incentives at all and have built quality compact rounds I also know another local lad who has done way better than me as he wanted to employ someone and achieved this in under a year and they work flat out every day, He leaflets and canvasses but I assume you are already doing that @paul alan 

Now I am not a naysayer and I have no doubt that incentives do and will work such as above £5 off for each referral or a free 3rd clean for new sign-ups, How did you go on with your letter idea a while back I thought that was a great idea 

 
I have certain estates that are like gold mines, lots of nice easy houses to clean that pay well. Usually these estates have a facebook residents page. Put a nicely worded advert from your personal profile, not your business page, and make sure your profile picture is a family photo or something similar that gives them the impression you're genuine. When I have done this I have had 8-9 jobs right off the bat, plus more from walk ups from these new jobs. It takes so long to get compact work, especially with so many other start-ups, but it gets better year by year and now I can have the odd day where van hardly moves. However, I have a lot to work on, and  plan for things to get even better. I do have days where the round is spread out more than I'd like so have room for improvement.

I personally haven't offered incentives. I don't doubt they'd work, I'm just tight and can't bring myself to work for less than I want! 

 
I don't offer any incentives at all and have built quality compact rounds I also know another local lad who has done way better than me as he wanted to employ someone and achieved this in under a year and they work flat out every day, He leaflets and canvasses but I assume you are already doing that @paul alan 

Now I am not a naysayer and I have no doubt that incentives do and will work such as above £5 off for each referral or a free 3rd clean for new sign-ups, How did you go on with your letter idea a while back I thought that was a great idea 
I got nothing at first.

But since then I have had 2 new ones, not bad considering I only trialled it on 50 houses.

Usually I  get 3-4 off a thousand

 
It is a tough one. We did offer a similar discount to above ^ (refer a friend system)
For the first year say. It didn’t really work for us but we are in a pretty saturated area so maybe that had something to do with it. Also round here the size of houses varies dramatically so if they expect the same or similar prices to their friends it just isn’t do-able when ones living in a simple two up two down & their friends are living in 4/5 beds with extensions and loft conversions etc.
does it work for the high street shops in crisis? Everywhere you go now the sales are permanently on or “20% off” signs everywhere. It’s a sign of tough times and they’re probably on the verge of closing doors. If a business model isn’t working you have to adapt/change.
Self employment is supposed to be “the land of opportunity” and you’ve got to have a bit of the Alan Sugar about you.
I now quote prices that we can can “profit” from, and have also found a “niche” -first cleans & ad ons. People know we are good at them and know that we charge good money for our work. The phone doesn’t ring constantly but when it does ring it’s usually someone who’s prepared to pay appropriately for a job well done based on someone recommending us. i’m not too bothered about having high volume work anymore (in an area as saturated as ours its hard to achieve from the start). Fewer, better priced houses is the objective.
Todays cost of living is to be feared and respected so “be bold and brave” i reckon.



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Just to add, I have never offered a money off incentive. If they mention that a friend or neighbour may be interested I normally say there will be no first clean surcharge for either of you if you book in at the same time, they nearly always go the same frequency of their own accord.

I think it often comes down to where you are too. @Iron Giant, you target work in a specific town with a population of around 20k, the work is naturally going to end up relatively compact without the need for much of a push, if you have to travel 15 minutes between villages the need to compact your work into individual villages is more difficult and more of a focus. I do a lot of travelling for my work, currently working on moving people around and matching them up. I might go to the same village twice a week, currently i'm fine with that as long as it is for at least 2 customers at a time, next year i'm gonna push to make that 3.

I am finding the biggest factor is time and consistency. I am picking up people where I have cleaned their neighbour for the last year. A couple have said they have waited to see if I keep showing up as most come and go when they please. Another few have simply not bumped into me before. Just keep showing up and eventually you will get there!

 
Just to add, I have never offered a money off incentive. If they mention that a friend or neighbour may be interested I normally say there will be no first clean surcharge for either of you if you book in at the same time, they nearly always go the same frequency of their own accord.

I think it often comes down to where you are too. @Iron Giant, you target work in a specific town with a population of around 20k, the work is naturally going to end up relatively compact without the need for much of a push, if you have to travel 15 minutes between villages the need to compact your work into individual villages is more difficult and more of a focus. I do a lot of travelling for my work, currently working on moving people around and matching them up. I might go to the same village twice a week, currently i'm fine with that as long as it is for at least 2 customers at a time, next year i'm gonna push to make that 3.

I am finding the biggest factor is time and consistency. I am picking up people where I have cleaned their neighbour for the last year. A couple have said they have waited to see if I keep showing up as most come and go when they please. Another few have simply not bumped into me before. Just keep showing up and eventually you will get there!
Yes I know I am fortunate in that respect, But it has taken a long time to get where I am thankful they  haven't stopped building houses in the last 8-9 years otherwise it would have been a different 

 
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Compact means different things to different people. To me it means having a street or estate were you do at least 80% of the property’s on there with maybe another cleaner doing the odd one or two. Back in the trad days on the compact stuff you would park your van/car up at 8 in the mornin and you wouldn’t see it again till either dinner or home time. Compact to me means all within walking distance. Things are a little different when using wfp as your van has to move with you. Imo if you have to drive around your days work then it’s not compact.


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Compact means different things to different people. To me it means having a street or estate were you do at least 80% of the property’s on there with maybe another cleaner doing the odd one or two. Back in the trad days on the compact stuff you would park your van/car up at 8 in the mornin and you wouldn’t see it again till either dinner or home time. Compact to me means all within walking distance. Things are a little different when using wfp as your van has to move with you. Imo if you have to drive around your days work then it’s not compact.


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Don't stand for it dave, bang him out ?

 
Don't stand for it dave, bang him out [emoji23]
[emoji23][emoji23]even though I’m a little old school I’m just not that way inclined although their is method to the “patch guys” madness. It always used to baffle me when a van/car used to pull up on a street/estate were i did the majority and they’d get out and just clean one house then off they go. Back in the day we used to give stragglers like that to other windies that was already on the street as we always thought it pointless. Things have changed a lot in recent times and thats just the way it is. Some cleaners even have whole rounds based on that type of work.


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[emoji23][emoji23]even though I’m a little old school I’m just not that way inclined although their is method to the “patch guys” madness. It always used to baffle me when a van/car used to pull up on a street/estate were i did the majority and they’d get out and just clean one house then off they go. Back in the day we used to give stragglers like that to other windies that was already on the street as we always thought it pointless. Things have changed a lot in recent times and thats just the way it is. Some cleaners even have whole rounds based on that type of work.


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I think it’s the only way you can really get going now mate, starts off all over the place and over time you pick up more and more in similar areas. I’ve done a bit of moving around recently to so they all match up on the same day, that helps to compact it a bit. In some streets I’m that windy that does the one house, I’m just waiting for the other windy to fall down.... either people move or one cancels and I’ll be a regular face they trust [emoji23][emoji23]


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