How to get the job and be honest ( the perfect speech)

[leofry@1966]

weather its giving a job bid or talking to a residential client on the phone, I am trying to get the job but also want to be honest with them...example

I cleaned TILE at a police station last night that had never been cleaned and it was dirty, now i cleaned it up and it looked mmm 85% better but truth is it would be cleaned a two more times, so do you so which option is best

tell them this is a restoration cleaning and work on it for about 8 to 10 hours charge them $800 to $1000 (which by the way i don;t think they would bite on that )

or to tell them we need to get you on a maintenance program and be upfront with them telling them hey its not going to be perfect the first time but after about the 3rd cleaning you will see a huge difference...

[encapman]

Here's a little run down on what I've said to customers through the years.

I like to illustrate it for customers this way....
"If you took a fresh clean white shirt and wiped down the engine of your car, the shirt would NEVER come perfectly clean again no matter how much it was cleaned. It has been ruined."

I'll then explain that neglect, whether it is carpet, hard floor, or any other surface is their fault not ours. Neglect falls outside the range of what we as cleaners can rightly be expected to accomplish. To define neglect you can give the example that if they never changed the oil in their car it would eventually be ruined. Similarly, by neglecting to maintain the carpet, floor, whatever, the customer has become responsible for the less than perfect results since they've essentially allowed it to become ruined. And then I'll sometimes conclude my little speech with a friendly smile and say we try hard but we can't perform miracles with something that's been damaged due to neglect; bonafide miracles passed from the earth 2,000 years ago.

[Derek]

Well said Rick.

[leofry@1966]

very well said Rick

[Ed E]

Rick is on target.

I think we all want to do a good job, but we have to be careful not to "own" the customer's problems (neglect), and make them our issue. I try to manage expectations such that I under promise, and over perform.

I tell people I am not a miracle worker, although I do serve one...

[NJP]

Yep Rick, you said it!!!!!!!!!

[rlord]

Rick Is spot on with his example. Back when I did residential and commercial (only commercial now) most of my dollars came from Tile and Grout and color sealing. I always told the customer that with just a cleaning they could expect a 80-95% improvement depending on the stains that have impregnated into the grout. If they wanted it to look like a new floor they could color seal the grout. This was told upfront before we even started and they could decide to colorseal or not after we cleaned.
It always amused me to see cleaners do a couple residential jobs, throw down some cleaner hit it with a turbo and it comes out great, all of sudden their T&G experts and can tackle anything then they run into big problems, in a location that has put wax or mop and glow on the floor and hand grenades and gasoline won't get it out and you really have to know what your doing.
Also never assume you know what the customer is willing to pay, we're color sealing a Bank now and I went in carefully explained everything, showed them pics of previous jobs, offered references and gave them a quote which was quite high. Selling the job and showing them we knew what we were doing was everything.