I'm curious as to how ya'll price commercial projects when you take frequency of cleaning into account in an attempt encourage as many profitable cleanings per year.

For example...

The common halls in a retirement home 5,000' sq.

how much for a one time shot?
bi-annually?
3 times a year?
quarterly?
monthly
bi-monthly?
weekly?

Prices for HWE and Encap.

Thanks,

Bob Huddleston

hiyas Bob

welp i charge the same for Encap as i did for HWE...cleaner carpet is cleaner carpet in my mind.

i used to charge differing rates for frequency but have stopped doing that for the past 10 months or so. i used to hand the prospect a contract with varying rates to entice them to get on a schedule. for me it didn't work. the majority did not stick to their schedule and i ain't taking anyone to court...

i find charging the same rate and not putting anyone on a "contract" basis, i still clean my clients carpets just as often.

i also feel this takes away alot of the focus on price and puts it back on my providing them with cleaner carpet.

works for me and i know that the other way works for other folks here.

thanx --- Derek.

I also charge the same for HWE or Encap.I agree with Derek. Clean carpet is clean carpet no matter how you do it.I also agree that you have to be careful about scheduled cleanings. You need a good contract that stipulates a pro-rated price structure so you don't lose money if the cut you off.And be prepared for legal action if they do cut you off and won't pay the pro-rated agreement.

How do you do it Rick?

I'll start by saying that I am in Florida, which is not one of the highest priced regions of the country. Now I'll run through the way I have worked pricing - I use a sliding scale approach that I formulate as I inspect the carpet and measure the account.

For a small "one trick pony" cleaning, such as a 2,000 - 3,000 sq ft doctors office on Main Street - the price is going to be between .20 - .30 per sq ft. The variable is in how challenging the job will be. I will factor things such as clutter in the cleaning path, how soiled the carpet is, etc. Now for that same office that will be cleaned more regularly (like quarterly), I can afford to discount the job a little. That same office will be down closer to .20 per sq ft.

Now let's step up to a medium sized job 3,000-7,000 sq ft "one trick pony" job... Now we can look at a lower rate of around .15 - .20 per sq ft. Again the variable has to do with how challenging the cleaning will be. If we were to clean it on a more frequent basis (like quarterly) then we can afford to slide the price down a couple of cents per sq ft.

As we get into larger jobs the price can creep down VERY GRADUALLY. On very large jobs that are maintained on a regular basis (over 20,000 sq ft) we can dip slightly under those numbers. As the square footage increases and the frequency of service increases we'll get down into the .10 - .15 per sq ft range.

For extremely large jobs that are maintained on a regular basis (over 30,000 sq ft) we can gradually drop the price below .10 per sq ft (reduced at a rate of tenths of a cent). The lowest I will charge for a very LARGE job that gets serviced on a regular basis is .07 per sq ft.

The sliding scale approach to pricing is how we do it, because one size doesn't fit all when it comes to bidding commercial accounts. If you'll play with a variable pricing strategy you should be able to pick up some good accounts.







Rick Gelinas
rick@excellent-supply.com

Bob, Are you the one who used to sign on as the Coffee Man out of Memphis area?

i believe Bob H is "Mr. Coffee".

ayep, it's me

Thats very helpful to someone who is just starting out and trying to find his nitch based on his experience and his equipment availabilities.

Would you say its good to metioned the sliding scale to SOME degree to the potential customer to help win the account?? Or will that work against me?





Thanks
Your Servant Alex