New customers complain

I got a call from a new customer last Friday asking if I could clean a rental house of theirs. They told me that I was referred to them by another customer (local property manager) as a guy who did "awesome work". Compliments aside, we booked the job for yesterday without requesting an estimate. She told me that she "knew I would be fair" on the price and that the place was empty except for a new refrigerator that was delivered sitting in the living room.

I finished the job in the morning. Two 8x10 bedrooms, short hallway, 21x11 living room, berber kitchen of 8x6 and 11 steps to the basement and I moved that refrigerator to the proper location in the kitchen. I even set up blowers to dry the place as there was going to be some furniture being delivered later in the day. No stains surprisingly, but some normal traffic patterns and the grease build up in that kitchen Berber to contend with. The bill came to $220, which I felt was pretty cheap, but I am still trying to build a presence in this new town, so that is what I went with.

Today, I get an email from the property manager that referred me to these new customers telling me that they were suffering sticker shock over my bill and asked if I could cut the bill in half? What planet are these people from?

I am trying to decide what action to take on this one. The property manager is upset (told them I would be cheap obviously) and the new customers are upset and one of them happens to sell real estate for the area.

Right now, I intend on telling them to suck it up and pay the bill....I don't need cheapskates referring me to other cheapskates, but I am still trying to get a better grip on this new city (I still see a couple of other cleaners passing through the town on occasion).

My second option is to have them get estimates from other neighboring cleaners to get a realistic comparison on price with the understanding that to be apples to apples, they have to match my work standards to include pre-vacuum, pre-condition, drying, and moving that refrigerator.

Dang, I thought I was cheap actually and left several business cards behind expecting more referrals...I guess that is a dead end.

Even with the amount of trust you have from the new client, from your existing, this may be a good reason to always ballpark a price for people. I think you did it pretty cheap, because I would have been more. My bill would have been just over 300. Pet or red's would have taken it higher.

If your referrer was talking you out like you were a 4.99 a room guy, it's on him. I would NOT cut my bill, but instead get my money and cut the losses. The new customer seems like a knot head. So does the person telling people you work for beer money.

Ask them if they are going to cut the rent in half, because you think it's too much. And I would talk directly to the people you did the work for, and not use your referrer as a go between.

$220 is waaaaaay more than fair! They asked you to cut it in half? Lol! What do they do when a renter says, "hey, times are tough, could you cut my rent in half?"

Another good idea, email them a link to this thread.

So they value the job that you did including the moving of the fridge at 110.00? That's not a customer that you want. Is that what you would have charged the guy that referred you? Most people people that don't talk price would have thought that to be a fair price.

I don't know what the PM told them on price, but he obviously led them to believe something that was way off reality.  When I clean the apartments, they are a flat $150 for small apartments that take less than an hour from start to finish.  

I agree with you all, thanks for the support.  I felt I was pretty cheap on this one already and don't plan on dropping price.  It just means that this referral string is a dead end....no doubt better off.  I just want to educate these people and maybe they would have seen that they received a fair price from the start and save future referrals.

I guess I should have forced the cost discussion from the start.  Customers that are concerned about price usually tell me so from the beginning, the rest already know where I fall on pricing and don't even ask.

I guess this one fell into a third category...concerned about price, but not talking.

Sometimes you just run into those folks who thinks a carpet cleaner should be paid $10 an hour. Just can't be helped. I especially hate it when they are living in a million dollar home and start asking for discounts and I had em done for less last time BS.

Really tho you should have given them some idea of price before hand. I won't start a job unless I got the ok on at least a price range. Most people have got the wrong idea on what it costs to do this type of work. They are thinking rug doctor pricing but they dont have to do it. Get real lady.

Fuzzsucker wrote:Sometimes you just run into those folks who thinks a carpet cleaner should be paid $10 an hour. Just can't be helped. I especially hate it when they are living in a million dollar home and start asking for discounts and I had em done for less last time BS.

Really tho you should have given them some idea of price before hand. I won't start a job unless I got the ok on at least a price range. Most people have got the wrong idea on what it costs to do this type of work. They are thinking rug doctor pricing but they dont have to do it. Get real lady.

I'm with Fuzzsucker, I usually insist on upfront pricing. No surprises for them or me. I know it's hard to do but in the end everybodys happy.

I think we all agree, that at least giving someone new, an idea of price, may have avoided this situation. I'm guilty of doing just what Rob did, and that's not to say I'll never screw up again.

This is why I put systems in place, or a process, if you will. Putting something in place, that we repeat each time, helps avoid uncomfortable situations.

Hope it turns out to be a positive situation for you Rob, even though to this point, it hasn't been.

I agree...lesson learned on this one.

My wife is really good at this, better than I am. I get to these jobs and people are prepared to pay these exorbitant amounts of money. I'm like wow, ok, uh. If I lower it a bit they know I'm honest- customer for life there.

Let's see: $220. Cost of keeping my doors open...(30%)= $66.00
If you half the bill, the cost of doing business does not change.
Sooo, $110 - 66 = $44 left to you. Whoppy!

So do you have an idea of where your pricing is, in relation to other CC'ers?

And, there are many that will compete for your business; based on a low price. Im not one of them.

My carpet cleaner wrote:Let's see: $220. Cost of keeping my doors open...(30%)= $66.00
If you half the bill, the cost of doing business does not change.
Sooo, $110 - 66 = $44 left to you. Whoppy!

So do you have an idea of where your pricing is, in relation to other CC'ers?

And, there are many that will compete for your business; based on a low price. Im not one of them.

My cost of operation is actually closer to 35% due to insurance rates on the contractor's insurance, but the point is completely valid. I would be working for beer money as it was stated earlier....not what I do.

The good cleaners in this area charge higher rates than I do, but the problem is that the former guy who serviced this town was a dirt cheap and lousy cleaner. He would knock out a house like this in 30 minutes and charge $100 with the results what you would expect. I guess the town needs some time to adjust. They were very pleased with the quality of the work and said some nice things about that, but they thought they were getting it for cheap.

Good for you, for sticking to your guns!

I would not lower my price either, my price is my price and if a customer isn't happy with it then there's plunty of other guys that will to work for nothing basically they can call.

Only thing I do different is, give a new 1st time customer a price before doing the job so they know what to expect, and to prevent this type of thing from happening.

I heard that I don't give a hoot what other cleaners are charging my cost to do biz has nothing to do with other cleaners are charging.

I do offer a 10% in some circumstances, two homes cleaned the same day, military, police, firefighter all get 10% off.

I just received this email from the property manager that referred me to this customer.

Please remember that (Property owner) still thinks that all pricing is still in the 70’s.
Please make this an exception to your rule.
I will get you more work in the future at the apartments.
You can adjust your apartment price in the future & he can take-it-or-leave-it.
Don’t make exceptions to your rule for me. I’m not happy that I got caught up in this anyway.
His wife rents that house & should be accountable for all billings.
I know you’re worth it & they should appreciate your expertise.

cant believe they expected you to move a fridge that they carelessly left right in the middle of the carpet you were there to clean.     then you move it for them and they freak about the bill...

I would not lower your price to please a customer that you probably dont want in the future

if they dont know the difference between you and a rug doctor then theres no point in explaining it

Well, I would echo what everyone is saying here but on the other hand you're also trying not to burn a bridge here, so what I would do is I would tell every party involved that I can't give 50 % discount, that's out of the question, be firm but polite, what I CAN do is to give 10 - 20 % off ( whatever percentage you feel that you're not losing $$ on that job ).
I would give them about 15 % just because it will bring the price down to around $ 190 if I were you, it's human brains, if you give 10 %, that will bring it down to $ 198, in their mind it's like $ 200 but if it's $ 187, their mind is like oh it's well under $ 200.
But make sure that ALL parties understand that this is a ONE time deal only and that you won't be able to do that again in the future, if they're cheap than they won't call you again which is their loss but at least they won't be talking about how high your prices are to everyone they meet.
Price issues is not pleasant to deal with but it's by far the least annoying in my opinion compare to other issues ( e.g. customers that never happy with your work quality, you break something at their house and they claimed it's a family heirloom, etc ) you guys know whatever else can arise from this field of work.
Good luck Rob, hope you come out of this as a winner.

milspec6 wrote:I just received this email from the property manager that referred me to this customer.

Please remember that (Property owner) still thinks that all pricing is still in the 70’s.
Please make this an exception to your rule.
I will get you more work in the future at the apartments.
You can adjust your apartment price in the future & he can take-it-or-leave-it.
Don’t make exceptions to your rule for me. I’m not happy that I got caught up in this anyway.
His wife rents that house & should be accountable for all billings.
I know you’re worth it & they should appreciate your expertise.

Way I see it, these folks want it cheap. Either they have a habit of NOT doing cleaning, or they are used to paying beer money. I'd bet if it's either case, they aren't going to be using you in the future anyway. Someone will do it for beer money. Lowering your bill, IMO, is just throwing away money.

I will be calling this customer today and inviting them to call the other cleaners in this area and ask if they will clean that same house for $100.

Maybe the dial tone will tell the story better than I can.

I can argue with them all day, but in the end, it will be the sales pitches of the other companies that will support me better.

just explain what bait and switch is and they will understand the price. If they say the last guy did it for 50% less, then you say why didnt you call him again?

ACpower1 wrote:just explain what bait and switch is and they will understand the price.    If they say the last guy did it for 50% less,   then you say why didnt you call him again?

Exactly.

I guess I could offer to provide a full refund by tearing up the invoice....and returning their dirt plus moving the fridge back to the living room. I think I would like that option a great deal. Then they can hire the $100 cleaner to fix it.

ACpower1 wrote:just explain what bait and switch is and they will understand the price.    If they say the last guy did it for 50% less,   then you say why didnt you call him again?

I've asked that many times before, and also asked if they were happy with the last company's cleaning.........those lying customers don't seem to like those type questions very much.

Funny, most try to play it off as if they were happy with the last cleaning, but funny thing is they didn't call them back? LIARS I TELL YEA!!

What I really hope to learn from all this is which came first?

Did the previous cleaner (nobody says anything good about the quality) find out that the town were cheapskates and therefore dumbed down his service quality? Or did his low quality and cheap price dumb down the customers expectations?

Thus far, I get lots of compliments on the quality, but they all want it for the previous cleaner's prices. Much of this was due to there only being one local cleaner for the last 10 years...their exposure to others were very limited and that may have stunted their cleaning knowledge.

I need to figure that issue out so I know what the area will support.