bashing groupon carpet cleaning deals

I feel like there is 100x more marketing done to try and sell a pipe dream cheap start up carpet cleaning business to people out of work or in need of a break from their 9-5

But not nearly enough info bashing companies that offer groupon deals,     there should really be an organization of real carpet cleaning companies that refuse to work for less than 200.00 minimum.      Sounds funny but its true,    there is so many unsustainable companies out there and its just a ridiculous cycle.

one pops up,   buys a vlm package or rotovac portable package    

offers groupon 3 rooms for 45 bucks,   gone in a yr maybe 2 if they are lucky

people buy the deal,  get the carpets cleaned to what they think is the norm

company gone,     new one pops up doing the same thing.    


starting to lean towards no longer offering any kind of coupon up front like Davey has said he does,   and actually teaching the customers that up front coupons are ridiculous but were not sure if this is reasonable


not sure if this is a good approach though,   whats better?    offering decent coupons that dont kill you and are sustainable?    or the cost of doing an estimate on every job and trying to charge a lot more.     doing estimates can really take a dump on your freetime and can be costly,   especially when the customer just after finds a cheap deal and it happens to work out for them because the carpets were never really that dirty.

right now we have a 280.00 for 8 room deal that is selling decently but not like our 4 rooms for 159 was.

I don't do any of those discount deals really with the exception of a veteran discount. It confuses people who call and the first thing they ask is if I was running any specials. When I say no, they act like I just kicked their dog.

The way I view it is that every cleaner has to make a certain amount of money to stay in business. If I highly discount my services, then I am losing on the ticket AND paying advertising costs which makes the loss even worse. So, to stay in business, I would have to turn that discounted job into a bigger ticket through additional sales or by cutting over-head (quality), both of which take added effort and can alienate you from the customer if it is viewed as being too pushy.

The greatest number of negative reviews a cleaner gets has to do with the high-stress sales pitch and that causes a bad reputation which then will cause you to lose clients and yet more money. Now you are in a death spiral as you are losing in all aspects and get desperate enough that you run even more specials at even lower prices.....it is happening all the time in this industry.

No specials means no pressure sales on the job and no loss of quality. That means better reviews which means more clients and that means successful business.

milspec6 wrote:I don't do any of those discount deals really with the exception of a veteran discount.  It confuses people who call and the first thing they ask is if I was running any specials.  When I say no, they act like I just kicked their dog.

The way I view it is that every cleaner has to make a certain amount of money to stay in business.  If I highly discount my services, then I am losing on the ticket AND paying advertising costs which makes the loss even worse.  So, to stay in business, I would have to turn that discounted job into a bigger ticket through additional sales or by cutting over-head (quality), both of which take added effort and can alienate you from the customer if it is viewed as being too pushy.

The greatest number of negative reviews a cleaner gets has to do with the high-stress sales pitch and that causes a bad reputation which then will cause you to lose clients and yet more money.  Now you are in a death spiral as you are losing in all aspects and get desperate enough that you run even more specials at even lower prices.....it is happening all the time in this industry.

No specials means no pressure sales on the job and no loss of quality.  That means better reviews which means more clients and that means successful business.

Although I agree with this statement, there's only one problem that you may not have in your situation Rob, 2 words, winter and competition, I found that in the winter there's a whole LOT more price shoppers, in my market I have to compete to a couple hundreds cleaners, the way I see things on the winter is instead of sitting at home, if I can work and make at the very least half of my regular rate, I would do it and at the end of the month, my pocket and my bank account will thank me because by taking those jobs, it can add up to a couple thousand dollars at the end of the month, and regarding groupon cleaners, someday groupon, living social, etc will learn that the loss is greater by working together with those cleaners than the ones in business for several years with good reviews in place cause unlike those guys we're not going anywhere.

I think the most important thing in this business is to stay far far away from ever being seen as a price chopper company.      Although it is difficult to do.

It seems that when you involve yourself in that battle its very hard to get out of it,  and it is a blood thirsty competitive situation.    

So I think you have to look at what they all have in common to figure out how to beat it.  

Heres the check list of how to get away from the competitiveness and charge a lot more  

-They all do as many in a day as possible because they are making close to nothing after expenses.

-They all hurry the jobs

-They dont move furniture,   maybe a little

-They most likely dont scrub out and clean filtration lines,  but rather just say "those wont come out"

-They dont do repairs

-They dont remove all stains and repair what they cant remove

-They probably dont use corner guards

-They definitely dont use something to protect wood floors from hoses (usually they dont scratch I know,  but what if the next guy uses them and you dont?)

-They always look like they are in a hurry (customers hate this, but you may not know they do)

-They usually look like they are doing this just to make a quick buck and not dedicated to the industry

-I know some around here dont clean the risers on stairs

-Some advertise that they pre vac,  but if they do 8 jobs a day how smelly is their vac?

and heres the one someone will hate me for saying.....

-They use VLM,   and thats why we will only use it when its absolutely necessary.    I just cant get over the image of being the same as a guy using a floor buffer...  and when I try and look through the customers eyes the perception of value just isnt there compared to someone pulling up with a "mobile cleaning plant"  (I like that term lol)

The rest falls under the category of generally not clean looking...   including the vehicle inside and out,  the tools,  the shoes,  the everything.  


There is a few things on this list that we dont do and I think they are small but make a big difference in someone thinking your worth 400  or your worth 125.    

Add to this if you think there is anything I missed,   this checklist is super important because you just cant sustain anything running around doing cheap jobs.   Its hard to cover all your ground doing jobs for anything less than 200.00, that is seattle market where cost of living is a little higher,   but we have NO shortage of $45 for 3 room deals being offered by over 100 "companies"

ACpower1 wrote:I think the most important thing in this business is to stay far far away from ever being seen as a price chopper company.      Although it is difficult to do.

It seems that when you involve yourself in that battle its very hard to get out of it,  and it is a blood thirsty competitive situation.    

So I think you have to look at what they all have in common to figure out how to beat it.  

Heres the check list of how to get away from the competitiveness and charge a lot more  

-They all do as many in a day as possible because they are making close to nothing after expenses.

-They all hurry the jobs

-They dont move furniture,   maybe a little

-They most likely dont scrub out and clean filtration lines,  but rather just say "those wont come out"

-They dont do repairs

-They dont remove all stains and repair what they cant remove

-They probably dont use corner guards

-They definitely dont use something to protect wood floors from hoses (usually they dont scratch I know,  but what if the next guy uses them and you dont?)

-They always look like they are in a hurry (customers hate this, but you may not know they do)

-They usually look like they are doing this just to make a quick buck and not dedicated to the industry

-I know some around here dont clean the risers on stairs

-Some advertise that they pre vac,  but if they do 8 jobs a day how smelly is their vac?

and heres the one someone will hate me for saying.....

-They use VLM,   and thats why we will only use it when its absolutely necessary.    I just cant get over the image of being the same as a guy using a floor buffer...  and when I try and look through the customers eyes the perception of value just isnt there compared to someone pulling up with a "mobile cleaning plant"  (I like that term lol)

The rest falls under the category of generally not clean looking...   including the vehicle inside and out,  the tools,  the shoes,  the everything.  


There is a few things on this list that we dont do and I think they are small but make a big difference in someone thinking your worth 400  or your worth 125.    

Add to this if you think there is anything I missed,    this checklist is super important because you just cant sustain anything running around doing cheap jobs.   Its hard to cover all your ground doing jobs for anything less than 200.00,  that is seattle market where cost of living is a little higher,   but we have NO shortage of $45 for 3 room deals being offered by over 100 "companies"

Wow, hmmm, I don't move heavy furnitures, I also don't do repairs and don't or can't remove certain stains ( e.g. old cool aid stains that's been sitting for years and been scrubbed with resolve a hundred times ), I also don't always put corner guards and I do 6 - 7 jobs a day on summer but I still make $ 200 / hr or more, what did I do wrong ?   

probably nothing if your getting 200/hr

I think im mostly talking out loud to myself in this thread lol. I dont think moving heavy furniture is a good idea, you would have to charge so much and were not moving companies... those areas can wait until they move out.

how do you do 6-7/day and get 200/hr? 1 hr jobs that pay 200 I would guess but there is still drive time.

I like to stick to 1 maybe 2 jobs a day for a $3-400 ave. Whenever possible.

I'm too old and don't have the energy to be doing a lot of smaller jobs per day.   

hows the r6? is that track dedicated or are the lenses taped off in the pic?

do you ride leguna seca? been meaning to ask ya

That's the 20k 50th Anniversary '06 R1 LE... ............the one that was race ready out of the crate, and only 500 of which were made....it was Number 100/500.  Factory Ohlins suspension F/R, Marchesini Wheels, 183 HP and all the trick bits.   

It was a fun bike, but I no longer have it. It was mostly used for track, but I never did make it to Laguna to ride......went many times to watch MotoGP, and GP racing in the 2 stroke era tho.....I Rode mostly Willow Springs, Button Willow, Pharump, NV.

I have some pretty good videos of on-board track riding, if you're interested in seeing them, I'll post the links??   

ACpower1 wrote:probably nothing if your getting 200/hr

I think im mostly talking out loud to myself in this thread lol.     I dont think moving heavy furniture is a good idea,   you would have to charge so much and were not moving companies... those areas can wait until they move out.

how do you do 6-7/day and get 200/hr?      1 hr jobs that pay 200 I would guess but there is still drive time.

That's easy, you have to have an experienced employee that's NOT paid a minimum wage, pay them well and they will hustle for you ! You also have to have a good size blower and a system in place, when we get to the job site, I greeted the customer and do a walk through as well as explain things, set expectations, etc, while I'm doing this, the tech is doing the set up, hook hoses up, getting solutions ready, etc, once I get out, start the machine and get started right away, pre spraying, moving some furnitures if needed, and as soon as that's done, the tech started the hwe, I'm standing by behind him with invoice folder ( prep the invoice ) and solvent for spotting, and as I'm preparing the invoice I'm also pulling the hoses for him, he'll steam the areas under the moved furnitures first and while he's steaming somewhere else, I'm moving furnitures back and put plastic tab or foam blocks under them, the key is whoever do the extraction does not stop working, keep cleaning no matter what, if customer started talking to him, I'll take over the wand, vice versa.
Our productivity is about 1500 sq ft / hr includes moving furnitures, spotting, etc.
We don't always charge per sq ft, if the apartment is too small, we will charge based on room count.
We're definitely not the most expensive around here, Davey probably charge more than us :-)
Now things are a lot different when I'm working solo, not even close to that rate, and in the winter when things are really slow, or my biggest client that manages 40 apartment buildings that we clean corridors and stairs for, you have to take a pretty big pay cut because it was a steady business of once every 3 months.

There is no better way to increase productivity. Not having an assistance slows you down big time.

Mo wrote:There is no better way to increase productivity. Not having an assistance slows you down big time.

Agree completely. Like Dp said, never let that wand stop...I prefer to be on the wand while the tech pulls hoses, handles gum, spots, presprays, etc., but the concept is the same. I can't match 1500 sqft/hr...closer to 1200 probably, but that is a big gain over going solo at about 700 sqft/hr.

I've never had a competent helper, whats the trick to finding one??
  

Davey Cracker wrote:I've never had a competent helper, whats the trick to finding one??
  

I heard firemen is a great one, since they're off 3 - 4 days at a time, but there's no trick really, if they're lazy, no matter how much you pay them, they're going to drag their feet, I absolutely hate those types, I usually put them on a 3 months probation before I actually hire them, and I'll work with them personally through out the probation months.

I gotcha, 200/hr gross. That makes a lot more sense. Would be really hard to make 200/hr

Nice bike Davey, ya the videos would be cool. I never did the Gopro thing, but I think I can dig up a video of a guy following me with one at a NESBA event.

Ive only ridden pacific raceways and portland, both are rough tracks... pacific top speed is only about 160 on the front straight, mostly hair pins and elevation changes.. which makes it fun because I was never really into the super high speeds.

Were you riding street at the time of the pic, I noticed the pilot power 2cts unless those are soft compound hard to tell. 2cts were my favorite tires, nice and melty on the track and still good on the street.

I also sold my bikes, 06 gsxr 1000, and 01 aprilia rsvr I loved them but the gf hated them lol of course.

we have some sweet farm roads around here that are nice and quiet and the farmers are pretty cool