IN the last week I have had three different customers try and waffle me on my price. 2 commercial jobs and one resi. I did the Resi yesterday and took some money off because it was a friend of a friend of mine. As I was doing the work I just kept wondering how these other companies can make a living on low prices. Then while I was cleaning it hit me as I found all the corners the last cleaner cut. I have been doing this for 5 years and my price is my price.

To everyone out there..stick to your guns. Their is a reson someone is cheaper than you. quality work deserves quality pay. I had a commercial estimate last night and the women said my price was double the last cleaner. I explained to her what she was getting for her money. She kept going back to the price..WHY DOUBLE? I left the conversation like this. You said the last cleaner was much cheaper than my company. Then WHY did you call me?


Ralph

Great post Ralph. I love hearing how others stick to their price also.

Kevin Pearson

Liked your post Ralph. I have considered asking these ignorant "tightwads" if they want our unprofessional price for unprofessional work or do you want our professional price for professional work.

Stick to your guns. I despise tightwads.

We offer three types of service: Fast work, cheap work and good work. You can have any two of the three! If you want it fast and cheap, it won't be good. If you want it cheap and good, it won't be fast. If you want it good and fast, it won't be cheap.

Even beter! Cut out the ad from a bait & switch company in those neighborhood grocery mailings and laminate it at Office Max. Then when I price a cleaning and get any kind of hesitation on the price, I show them the ad and suggest they call them. The ad I use offers any three rooms for $9.95 a room. Then in very small print (which I hi-lighted) "Soiled carpet may require pre-conditioning at .20 sq ft." If they take the number I wish them good luck and move on. (Actually I've never had any one do that.)

Bill

I keep it simple, " just like the car wash has options and differ so do carpet cleaners have options, $5.95 car wash spray water drip dry, some dirt still remains, $ 7.95 better car washe have aggitation, better cleaning agents, spped dry and look superior . Same with our carpet cleaning."

Knowing your numbers is a must, of course, to be able to actually KNOW what you can work at price wise, but aside from that, I suspect most guys go through the same metamorphosis I did. When I first started out, I tried to be cheap. After finding out that I was going broke, I tried raising my prices a bit, but went to the package price program. I still offered the cheap option, but going to the packages got me more upper level customers. This rocked on for a few years until I got established and now I'm too fat, comfortable and pissy to haggle anymore.

I just give my price, they have two options.

Take it.

Leave it.

Hmmmmmmmm. pretty fat fancy words there from master marty - tell us more about this here metamorphosis of yours, I have a feeling that soon you will be going through one more......

Hey Ken,
I'd drop the cheap & good part. Thats what they want.