Recent pricing increase

at the beginning of this year we decided that it is difficult to cover all expenses and actually make good money charging $150 for most jobs. either you have to upsell a lot, or do a lot of jobs in a day. Our expenses are reasonable but at times have been a little higher than we like. So we just bit the bullet and put out some much more expensive deals listed online.

I got to say man, this business gets so much easier. The amount of trashed homes is so much less, the haggling customers pretty much never call nowadays... no cheap asses with colored stains everywhere.

I used to be so worried about having competitive pricing because so much of what you see out there is "115 for 3 rooms" "175 for whole house"

after taking a moment to talk to a few of our latest customers the general consensus I got from all of them is they are very skeptical of those deals since they pay so much more for every other service on their home so they fall back on the idea in their mind that carpet cleaning industry is full of scams.

I still get occasional calls for smaller jobs but they are pretty quick and help fill gaps in the week so its worth it to do a few. We used to be the 6 jobs a day crew bouncing all over town, now most every day of the week is 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. Upselling is so easy and hardly trying, all you have to do is mention you clean tile and upholstery and it seems to work so much more often than with 150.00 customers.

I would get 1/6 maybe when cheaper deals were listed, now its like every house at least something


If I could go back and start over I would never list a deal anywhere near 150 bucks again, aim for 300.00

I might even start putting up one near 600.00 just to see where the limit is.


not bragging just giving insight from a cleaner that recently made a big change in pricing, I know markets are different in different areas etc, but maybe someone on here is thinking about it just not quite sure if they will still be busy enough. Theres a good chance you will be, and youll have a whole new type of customer calling.

Good for you. I agree with above. Why kill yourself. Starting out in business, almost have to take on every kind of job. As your business grows, it is constantly changing. Pricing has to be one of them. But of course, they have to trust you and you need a good reputation.

Told ya!   lol

Advertize cheap, and attract cheap!

Out here im dealing with people advertising $75 whole house and 3 rooms for $60. It's hilarious when they call and I give them an honest price and I can actually hear pain from them on the phone. I don't advertise prices and I get a variety of different folks calling. Some are worth going into detail with and selling them a great service, some are not. I've been considering advertising higher rates to reduce the number of cheap asses calling. I just don't want to waste my time with them.

I am just getting back into carpet cleaning in a serious way. Waiting on my Truckmount which should be built in a week or so. It is an EZ 18/36.
I feel this is great starter machine which can do some serious carpet ,tile and grout as well as tile and grout cleaning. I will be completely debt free when I start. 2003 Chevy truck which has 120000 miles on it runs strong and should be good for another 75000 miles or so. My son will be my partner and my nephew will be the only employee. I wish to get them work and earning money  but will not give in to ridiculous prices out there. I hope to get them quality residential and commercial work. Back in the 1990s to about 2001 we were charging about 21 cents perfoot for carpet cleaning . Charged 15 cents per foot for carpet protector. We made money at those prices but common sense tells me that with gasoline so much higher as well as all other working and living expences have increased.
My question is in general about how much should we charge for carpet cleaning ?  I was thinking 31 cents for residential carpet cleaning(includes reasonable furniture moving). 1000 feet would give us around
$300.00. Is this a reasonable and profitable starting point? And tile and grout is something I have not done very much of. How much do you guys charge for that?
Also what is a good square footage price for commercial carpet cleaning?

I'd guess you might be in the ball park at .31 sf for your location.......but honestly don't know for sure.

For most residential jobs now (with fuel @ $4+ a gal),  I charge .36-.40 sf.  There are times I will go down a little lower, like if it's a lot of sf, say 1000 or over I might go .30-.32, and then times where higher than .40 sf is necessary, for example in a condo, where access is a PITA I might go .44-.50 sf.


I also charge per sf for T&G cleaning and sealing.

Usually I'm right at $1. sf, but again just like with carpet, sometimes a little lower or higher, .75-1.25 sf. Sealer is about .20-.25 sf less than cleaning in most cases..

Hope this helps, Jan!  

Jan Sullins wrote:I am just getting back into carpet cleaning in a serious way. Waiting on my Truckmount which should be built in a week or so. It is an EZ 18/36.
I feel this is great starter machine which can do some serious carpet ,tile and grout as well as tile and grout cleaning. I will be completely debt free when I start. 2003 Chevy truck which has 120000 miles on it runs strong and should be good for another 75000 miles or so. My son will be my partner and my nephew will be the only employee. I wish to get them work and earning money  but will not give in to ridiculous prices out there. I hope to get them quality residential and commercial work. Back in the 1990s to about 2001 we were charging about 21 cents perfoot for carpet cleaning . Charged 15 cents per foot for carpet protector. We made money at those prices but common sense tells me that with gasoline so much higher as well as all other working and living expences have increased.
My question is in general about how much should we charge for carpet cleaning ?  I was thinking 31 cents for residential carpet cleaning(includes reasonable furniture moving). 1000 feet would give us around
$300.00. Is this a reasonable and profitable starting point? And tile and grout is something I have not done very much of. How much do you guys charge for that?
Also what is a good square footage price for commercial carpet cleaning?

Pricing is always a difficult thing to answer as every situation is different. I don't offer specials and never advertise with coupons as it only attracts customers that are basing their decisions solely upon price. Price is always a factor, but let it be the last factor you discuss.

I like to say that the best tool on the truck is you. Make certain that "you" are the first thing in the customers door. You can be an average cleaner and still be loved by your customers if they like you, so be charming. Heck, I used to go to an old barber that would almost scalp you once out of every 5th visit, but the guy told the best stories and was just a great person to be around that I still came back....and tipped every time. Any service business is the same way.

Another example was that Raccoon job a couple of weeks ago. I spent an hour talking to the couple's father at the jobsite and he made me a nice iced tea when the job was finished. I only charged them my minimum and gas for being out of my area which made the wife really angry. She called me and chewed me out for over 10 minutes until we compromised with hiring me to clean her Father's house (full price) and then offered me the use of their cabin on the lake on the weekends that they were't using it. How many of those "99 dollar whole house" guys do you think get keys to the cabin?  

I was charging .38 cents per square residential, but then I changed to flat pricing for each room type. It came out to about the same rate and made it much easier to estimate and get the customer to visualize it. For example, I charge $38 for a standard bedroom up to 10x10. It just makes it easier for the customer to understand it than showing up and measuring everything...it still remains 38 cents per square (actually more when you consider furniture and objects in the room).

I also make a point of throwing in a freebie item in the pricing so they see some kind of discount value to my bid. For example, I don't charge for hallways and I don't charge for minor stains. When they hear that, they realize that I am not trying to squeeze every dime out of the job that I can which often lowers their guard enough for me to get the upholstery or tile as well.

Good luck with your new plans and keep updating us with your progress. It is exciting to see good people succeed.  

I have to agree per room pricing is much easier, simple for cust to understand, and of course much easier to quote over the phone.  So sometimes I ask myself, why do I make it so much harder for myself by charging per SF and not giving prices over the phone?     

Around this area, most cleaners quote per rm prices over the phone,  but very rarely do they actually do the job for that price they gave over the phone.....yep, the 'Ol Bait n Switch.

And that's one of the main reasons I don't price quote over the phone. I like to sell my honesty from the first contact, and tell new customers on the phone, that I Do Not operate that way, but rather prefer to come out and look at the job, measure and then give a firm, accurate price quote. So there's no surprises or BnS type up sales when dealing with me. The other big reason I do it that way and don't charge per room prices given over the phone, is I can't truly sell myself over the phone, that's best achieved with face to face contact in the customers home. The odds are much higher I'll get the job if I give the price in person, and not only that but odds are I'll also get more money.

I believe from experience that the chances are better of getting a job for $300 by selling it in person, over giving the same customer a price of $200 over the phone for the same job.  Most just move on by calling the next guy......I'm not sure I explained that in an understandable way, but can't think of another way to put it.

There's no shortage of the "next guy" around here, the competition is insane. Matter of fact, I know of 6-8 other cleaners/co. that are literally in a 2 mile radius of me!  

Of course the other disadvantage of going to every job to quote it is I do regularly waste me time, fuel and it just cost me money.  But I do know overall I come out ahead doing it this way.

Davey said:

"I can't truly sell myself over the phone, that's best achieved with face to face contact in the customers home. The odds are much higher I'll get the job if I give the price in person, and not only that but odds are I'll also get more money."

Exactly, the best tool is you and success comes from that personal contact.

Didnt realize i started this thread until I scrolled to the top.    

Were still charging a lot more than last year and actually are busier,   still gets lots of customers telling me our competition charges much more.    

Last job of the day yesterday the lady says,    "you know,   companies that dont charge enough tend to go out of business,    your competition is charging a good amount more than you are"  

Her job was 180 for a ground floor condo,   2 standard bedrooms upstairs,   stairs,   and 1 regular living room downstairs thats it.    45min job.   empty with brown carpet that was vacuumed by house cleaners

I told her our first job   9am-12:30 was 438.00,   second job was 1:30-3:00  362.00,   then hers for 180.00         She still thought we arent charging enough.     We cleared just under 1k for the day which I think is pretty good considering our expenses are pretty low.  

I asked her what about the groupon companies?   havent you seen what a lot of them charge.    

She simply said gross no thank you.        

still not sure if she was talking about the quality of work,   the appearance of the cleaners,   or what?

I'd agree with her, but obviously I haven't seen the job. But it does sound priced low from your description.

Remember kids, if you start high you can always come down.......but if you start low, it's much harder to go up.

Think of when you bought your last new car, did the salesman give you his lowest price to start with?......No, you have to haggle to get that.
And if your customer isn't able to haggle with you to get the price they're looking for, so you can get thew job, then it's your job to be able to spot that and offer a better price to get that job if you want it.

Sales 101, start high!!!   

hers was not a big one, 45min for 180 I think is pretty fair and not a rip off. The hacks around here would have done it for 80 bucks easily and been happy

Personally, I don't care what the hacks charge to do their $hitty job, but more focus on what it takes me to do the best job possible for a fair price for the cust and myself.

I'll leave it at that, because like I said I didn't see the job.

I'm just saying if your customer is saying you aren't charging enuf, you're leaving money on the table........and the reason I said start high and come down.

As always, just trying to help.

Unfortunately our business is degraded by people charging package deals. This goes back to the infancy of our business. Many customers were trained to believe that the bait and switch model is the norm. If you look at plumbers or electricians whose trades are much older than ours ( truckmounted carpet cleaning started in the late 60's early 70's), they would never dream of charging a set price for their services only to try and increase their ticket by up selling. I am thankful for the competition that charges these "package or "by the room deals. It sets my company apart from them. Every market has 2 types of consumers- those that shop price and those that shop quality. It usually has nothing to due with income and more to with intelligence. I almost always want to see the job, meet the people and discuss the particulars. I CHARGE MORE, I charge what it takes to do the job right each and every time with out rushing. I don't want to "hurry up, because were not making enough money on this job". You and you alone need to decide how you are going to charge and how you are going to run your business. I almost always give estimates in person, I then explain that I have been cleaning carpets for over 30 years, I won't be practicing on their carpet. They get to meet me, and decide for themselves whom they want in their home. Another thing- I do not give them the price when I am at their home. I get their email, process it on quick books and attach it to their email. If they do not have email ( less than 1%) I will hand deliver it or mail it to them. This way I have their email, it makes life so muck easier in future dealings. Customers prefer to do business this way. When they call me for future service I may send them an email to schedule the appointment, more convenient for them and me. Plus everything is in writing no calls like this- "I forgot to write it down, when are you coming? I never contact them other than to schedule appointments or once a year a send out an email to all my customers to remove their garden hoses from their frost free water bibs/spigots to prevent damage and flooding in their homes. One more thing- having seen the work to be done I give PRICE QUOTES not estimates.

Thank you to all who posted on this thread in answering my question. I have truly come to love this forum. As far as I know there just isn't another forum where everyone is so helpful. I am sure you all know the forums I am talking about so I need not mention names. But in truth it is too much BS and interest in personal agenda than to be positive and show personal interest in there fellow carpet cleaners. I have asked mostly basic questions and never have I been talked down to or made to feel stupid in any of the answers to my questions.
So I wish to thank all of you. I feel that this forum is a extremely valuable resource for any who are sincere about being among the best in this industry.
Again thank you!

Jan

Jan Sullins wrote:Thank you to all who posted on this thread in answering my question. I have truly come to love this forum. As far as I know there just isn't another forum where everyone is so helpful. I am sure you all know the forums I am talking about so I need not mention names. But in truth it is too much BS and interest in personal agenda than to be positive and show personal interest in there fellow carpet cleaners. I have asked mostly basic questions and never have I been talked down to or made to feel stupid in any of the answers to my questions.
So I wish to thank all of you. I feel that this forum is a extremely valuable resource for any who are sincere about being among the best in this industry.
Again thank you!

Jan

We are givers not takers