Enter the Haz-Mat season

Now that the winter will arrive on Tuesday, carpet cleaners are starting to go into hibernation. It also means that the haz-mat jobs start showing up for me since nobody else will take them.

I have a property manager that called me to ask for help with a rental where the renters had large dogs that lived in the basement along with a couple of cats that lived upstairs. Sounds like all animals just made the place their own private bathrooms with the basement being a real mess.

Needless to say, all the carpet, pad, tack strips, and trim need to come out followed by a sanitizing and seal job before they can install new materials. Treating the ducts and air will also be required. I don't mind these jobs at all except that I don't do the rebuild, that is for a general contractor to deal with.

The issue is always the price....I am not cheap when it comes to haz-mat jobs and property managers are so there is normally a problem. I will never understand why PM's ever rent to bad tenants like that in the first place nor do I understand why people live that way. I guess they really deserve each other.

Well if you're the only one can and will be able to do the job, sounds like the PM can't really be too cheap, they don't have any choice, do they ?
Down here I learned that no matter how steep the competitions are, I would never match prices, last time I do just that only for 2 pieces of furnitures out of 6 pieces total, turned out to be a nightmare, it was a good invoice, that's why I'm willing to match only for the 2 pieces, I was beating myself up for doing that.
Even in the winter when competitions are dropping prices like crazy, I usually just tell people to hire my competitor, I don't need any headaches and stress and neither should you, especially with those hazmat job, too risky for your health and well being.

I agree, I don't price match anything. My belief is if the customer is comparing prices in the first place, they will not be a loyal customer nor will they appreciate what I do differently.

On anything haz-mat related, there is only one price...mine. I never need a risky job that bad as to work for cheap.

Some times; I repeat- sometimes, they are asking about price because they don't know what other question to ask, to start the conversation.
I've had multiple times where they ask "can I match or beat...."?
I say "no". Afew times they still book with me.
Sometimes they ask about price, so they can prepare\be ready to cover the cost.
-in bio or other situations, you need to help them understand WHY it's going to get expensive. Let them know there is no "spray it down and suck it up, cheap option".
List some of the procedures you'll be doing. Cut out carpet, rip up tac strip, treat this, seal that..... Sir, does all that sound like it will only be afew $100??
* I had a cheapo landlord several year back. Small water damage from leaky water heater. 3-4' intrusion on to the carpet, very little along the wall. I told him what I would do to dry it. He wanted it cheap; told him something like $250. He was shocked!! He called service master or Servpro; they were twice that! He call back asked me to do it. I told him "now I have to make another trip over there to do it. He offered another $50 for the extra trip.
Now, there are people that will check with everyone to find "el cheapo",
Sometimes it's best to let them know "I don't think I'm the right Co. for you".
¢¢

Couldn’t have said it better Matt, I’ve had very few customers asked if I match prices and even when I said no, they still schedule with me, and the great thing about our experience is, we know when to throw sales pitch and when to just feed them to our competitors, of course sometimes I’m wrong, I thought they are pure price shoppers and it turned out they are not, or vice versa but 90% of the time I’m right just by talking to them for a couple of minutes.

Good for you for being firm Bob.

Well said Matt, and very true. For me, the red flag goes up when they start with price instead of asking what needs to be done?

My Brother still complains that I tell them too much detail and scare customers away as a result. He never explains anything at his boat shop, they ask him to fix something and he hands them the bill when it is done. I have never seen one of his customers ask for any of the details.

Maybe I should learn how to repair boats instead and join him?