I did a drive by this morning

Chinese lady calls me 3 weeks ago I normally give ball park over the phone quotes
this one I had to go out to see for myself.

Of course their carpet is not dirty because they take their shoes off.
So I put shoe covers on to walk on a filthy carpet. LOL

Tons and tons and tons of questions about this spot and those spots bla bla bla
what kind of chemicals I use. do I have a 12 step cleaning process.

Just a simple 5 rooms and a hall for 200 bucks nothing special.

( NO I'm not moving all your furniture for that price )

So she decides on a date far in advance?????

None of my customers plan that far in the future.

I just knew I was the first cleaner out to her house and did all the ground work for her to then start shopping.

I was right she calls late yesterday to cancel the the cleaning I ask so when would be a better day to clean. Long pause OH my husband is buying new carpet!

So this morning I go by the house and you guessed it there was a carpet cleaner parked in the drive way. Some one   I don't know unmarked early model astro van no truck mount, Saw a older myteeeee portable next to the front door.

Why lie to the cleaner she had no intention of ever using my service.

I only have this happen when a customer I don't know wants a carpet cleaning weeks or a month in advance. They get all the 411 from me then have the time to use all the info to shop for a cheaper cleaner. They always cancel.

That's why I don't do house calls. You get the number over the phone. If you lie about your rooms sizes, price goes up. Either way, I lose no time or sleep over these people.

I run into this a lot around here, but the key to preventing it is by taking the extra time to educate the customer on why it matters who they have do the cleaning.

She went with the cheapest price she could find, because she thinks that all cleaners are the same...just different price. We know that couldn't be more wrong, but she didn't get that education.

You convinced here of what you could do to solve her problems, but you didn't convince her why only you were the right choice to do it. Well, that was probably because she wasn't listening...had the "I'm cheap" goggles on the whole time.

She got what she paid for, so you still won.

Yep, I almost never do onsite est. Two trips IF I do the job. To old to lift a finger and give them the sells pitch I've given 1000's of times(see, I didn't even want to spell 1000)., maybe it's a cherry job....maybe not. Got to comb hair(what little I have, deo, clean shirt, whole 9 yard thingy.
*in Jan got a call and I just couldn't picture what she was describing to me. Then she said 5k SF house and' moving out'. I'll be there like stink on a ****.
Wow, 2700sf of not dirty at all carpet. That was a sweet job. Still don't do onsite est.

Matt