Pricing/strategy/any help appreciated

[TYMAR]

Hello all

Am bidding on an account for the janitorial tomorrow. I'm meeting with the President of the company. When I arrived for my walkthrough, they also requested a bid for carpet cleaning. Here are some of the details:

2650 SF of total carpet
Basement is owners office, 924 SF maroon tight cut pile. Only access is by steps.

The rest of the carpet, 1726 SF, in the facility is on ground/main level with 14 steps and 1 landing leading up (the steps and landing are not included in the SF. I typically charge $3/step and $5/landing. It is CGD, dark blue with tan and gray specs. The areas consist of: Lobby, 2 hallways, conference room, 5 offices

It is vacuumed every day and seems to be in very good shape. It's a finishing business (powder coating, various coatings, etc.) Overall, the facility is very clean, including the warehouse. Mats are used at all entrances. The facility and carpet look pretty clean. The carpet was new in '09, and it's been over a year since they had anything other than vacuuming done to it. I'm in MN, so we are not dealing with snow/salt.

Now, do I just quote them a price for one time/once per year. If so, what per SF?

Do I quote them different options, twice per year, quarterly?

Try set up a monthly? If so, how and what to charge for different areas and frequency of each area. I do have the CMS program, but have yet to use it.

Is the 2650 SF total too small to make it worth setting up a monthly maintenance.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I have a meeting with the President tomorrow, Wednesday, 12/11/13.

Rick, any suggestions, strategy. Would it be better to talk to you on the phone?

Thanks guys!

[sdills62]

i'd charge $ 0.18 per foot plus some for the steps and landing. This includes a prevac. It should take you 3-4 hours. If it is a must have go $0.15 per foot. Pitch a quarterly or semi annual cleaning of the halls while you are at it. Offices can probably go for a year between cleanings. Sell the "protect your investment" and "first impressions" if the company has customers in those areas. Good luck.

[encapman]

I agree - .15-.20 per sq ft for that smallish size sounds about right. And $2-$3 per step is what I'd suggest. Hope you get it.

[TYMAR]

Thanks guys! So, are you saying to price it at .18, for example, for a one time cleaning, and then still use .18 for the maintenance situation?

[encapman]

Yeah, because it's small. You can't give bargains for something that size. They probably won't even do it all that regularly - maybe once a year (and that's not maintenance). Small accounts don't normally turn into something worth making a big fuss over. Just clean it, get a fair price, and remind them when it's time to clean again.

[TYMAR]

Thanks for the advice again, and thanks for the patience with some of the basic questions I have. It's always good to know I can post onto this board and expect to get some genuinely great advice! I'll see how this goes.

[encapman]

Happy to help

[Jarrod]

Don't make the same mistake I made a few years back. I once went to bid on a job, the owner made me all sorts of promises about giving me monthly and quarterly work if I did a really good deal for him. The carpets were trashed and I was hammered down on price with his gold carrot that was promised in the future. Like a sucker I did the clean at a crazy low price after we had negotiated future pricing maintenance. Guess what!!! When it was time to clean the carpet a month later he said he did not want it doing. Worked like a dog for next to nothing. Found out later it was a trick he pulled with all the contractors he ever hired. The lesson is to price every job as is, a one off. If you do a good job the repeat work will happen with a simple phone call.

[P Cleaner]

Hey Jarrod, I have a long lists of land lords property managers realtors I will share with you and I do not estimate Chinese restaurants I will save time and gas.
19 years and counting I have dealt with most in the area.LOL!!!! P cleaner

[Jarrod]

I think every Chinese restaurant I have approached they claim to do it themselves in house. But on visual inspection it looks like it has not been cleaned in years. ????? As far as the gold carrots goes I no longer price first jobs with discounts for future promises. Had one customer last week that was way overdue with payment pretty much forced me to do one more job in order to be paid up fully. I did get paid in full. But it is sad some customers play manipulative games. Cleaning carpets is the easy part. It's the customers that are sometimes the problem LOL.


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[Black2WhiteCarpetCleaning]

I price at $0.10 per sqft no matter what.


Black2White Carpet Cleaning

[NJP]

I agree with Rick on steps. I also wouldn't go less than .10 sqft. JMO

[TYMAR]

I got the bid, both janitorial and carpet cleaning. I didn't really want the janitorial part so I went in very high…..wouldn't you know it, they went for it. Ultimately, I would like to move to carpet cleaning full-time.

I want to thank you guys for the advice and suggestions. I went in with the .18/SF. I sat in front of the President and used the worksheet in the CMS. We went through different scenarios and he went with a maintenance program. I suggested frequencies for the areas and he upped the frequency on most of them! I'm cleaning all the carpet in January and will clean various areas quarterly for the rest of the year. Some being done quarterly, some annually and some every six months. We discussed monthly invoicing and then decided on being billed when work is done.

I currently have a BrushPro 17 and an Oreck Orbiter. What would be the best way to attack this? The carpet is in very good shape (vacuumed every day) with no visible stains/wear anywhere. Walk off mats are used at every entrance and cleaned regularly.

Would I: Obviously pre-vac first

1. Spray with DS2, work in with CRB and be done.

2. Spray with DS2, use Orbiter with Microfiber bonnet

3. Use Punch, work in with CRB, dwell, spray DS2 and use Microfiber

4. Would I use Punch in entries and traffic lanes, or everywhere, or not at all.

5. Would I use MF bonnets all over or only on entries and traffic lanes.

Also, what about the spray system for the CRB? Cost? Worth the money? Does it work with any battery sprayer? backpack or other? I just can't afford to get a $400/500 battery sprayer at this time. Any suggestions?

Thanks gentlemen for the previous help, and also in advance for the upcoming help/advice!