Who calls their past customers ?

I had someone called and offered their services of calling my past customers to try to get them to schedule cleaning for $ 20 / customer that scheduled, I told them politely, thanks but no thanks, I decided to call them myself cause I literally don't have anything to do today, looked up January 2015 which is 2 years out, I figured that's a good starting point, we averaged about 20 customers / week then, called about 70 people ( the rest of them either repeat customers that use us on regular basis or the phone line had been disconnected ) and guess how many I managed to schedule ? A big fat zero !
I thought I was going to be able to get at least 1 or 2, I spent almost 2 hours calling them, that makes me thinking that company charge $ 20 / customer ? That's a steal !!
I'm considering hiring them but then I have to give them access to my customers info, that is a deal killer for me, at this time and age, even full name and address can be sensitive information.
Have any of you try to do this ? And how well do you score ?

Same thing happed to me DP. I think people are sick of sales calls. I figured it  wouldn't be that bad cause it wasnt cold calling . but I don't think I made more than 5 calls

The pros could probably close more because they,ll keep calling and not get discouraged like I did.

Like I ran into in that lake community, nobody answers their phones any more unless they know the number. We do because we are in business, but in private lives, cold calls will not get you business.

I am starting to think Mo has a good idea with locating developments out in the boonies and sending them flyers that you will be in the area twice a month or something if anyone wanted to sign up for cleanings.

There were 87 homes along that lake, I have plenty more to go, so I am taking a case of door hangers with me this week when I go back.

I did some calling last few days. I have several PMs I do work for. Heavy winter has been dead. So I checked in with a few to "see if they have anything developing".
I find out my #1 PM has dropped me. After 20 years of being the guy. $6-9k a year.
Office girl has a boyfriend who just started a CC. Maids service has a porty, they are trying to offer more inhouse services. And I didn't cut the musturd on afew jobs, and the staff was making it hard for Jim to stay with me.
I've lost 3major PMs in last 6 mo. This hurt the most. 20 years. I told him I understand, wish he would have mssgd me when I missed the mark. We part friends

That's a punch in the gut Matt.

If they just starting offering carpet cleaning theres a good chance they wont be around in another couple of years. Its easy starting a caret cleaning business. The tough part is sticking around more than a couple of years.

That can be a blessing sometimes Matt, but it still sucks for that to happen after all that time. If you don't mind the suggestion, take the new cleaner to lunch, offer him some advice on what the industry is like, leave him your card and wish him luck.

This will accomplish a few things:

1. Word will get back to the office and your stature will grow.
2. His eyes will be wide open and realize that it will take a lot of investment of time and money to make it work.
3. If he quits or fails, he will likely call you first to let you know.
4. If he ends up a prodigy and lands some big fish, he might be able to throw you some work.

I would guess that 99% of people that will read this will consider this stupid advice and prefer to flip the guy off while urinating on his tires, but I have a good feeling about this suggestion.

I'm also with Bob on that advice, it's so easy to make enemies but it's a LOT harder to make friends.

Mo wrote:That's a punch in the gut Matt.

If they just starting offering carpet cleaning theres a good chance they wont be around in another couple of years. Its easy starting a caret cleaning business. The tough part is sticking around more than a couple of years.

I'd say the punch was lower
And maid services come and go. Then they have ? To clean carpets?

No enemys in this small town. Its 40 min N. Of me, but a lot of good paying work.
Honestly, new guys last 2-3 years. Then they realise how expensive it is to run a moble business from home.
The new guy acually has a auto repair biz. So when he sees it take to much time and &#*#% only this much is left....

I just started emailing past clients today. I'm cleaning glass in a couple of weeks.

I get much better response from people with an e-mail or text, then I ever got trying to call them. Most everyone lets it go to voicemail and it's a gamble if they call you back.

My experience is most people don't want to verbally communicate over the phone anymore. In some ways, that's fine with me. When I'm busy doing something, I hate having to stop and answer the phone.

That is definitely the trend with phones. People have gone from having a phone to a text device....that might be the future, no phone, just texts.

I will still say that my best success is always face to face. My close ratio is highest in-person followed by phone, email, and text in that order.

Then again, I am presently playing phone tag with a bank President wanting to schedule a cleaning, so maybe there is something to be said for texting.

That's so true James !
Well things are starting to turn around a little bit this week, we have 11 jobs scheduled so far and 3 of them is a very decent size jobs, one of them is my monthly commercial job which is tonight, almost 2 grand, thank God.

Your "slow period" would be a boom week for me. I only have 4 scheduled so far for the remainder of this week.

Most people come to me via my website. The copy on my site pretty much sells them if they want my services or not. All that is left is for a them to get a price.

The nice thing about cleaning glass, is there isn't much to sell them on other than how many times a year to clean. They either like the price or they don't. Of coarse I offer upsells like high reach dusting, but they don't need time to think about it.

Speaking of pricing, I think I need to raise mine. The last 4 houses all gave me large tips (over 30%) so I must have been a lot lower than they expected / used to paying.

Freemind1 wrote:Most people come to me via my website. The copy on my site pretty much sells them if they want my services or not. All that is left is for a them to get a price.

The nice thing about cleaning glass, is there isn't much to sell them on other than how many times a year to clean. They either like the price or they don't. Of coarse I offer upsells like high reach dusting, but they don't need time to think about it.

You don't offer that "protection" for rain water so that they won't stick to the glass, kinda like ummm I forgot what the brand is but what they use on car windshields, I would imagine for windows on 2nd and 3rd stories it would be no brainer not to spray those on ?

Bob, I know you don't want to disclose your price on public forum but just to give you an idea, I charge $ 0.40 / sf for wall to wall carpets ( synthetic ), and I'm thinking about raising that by 5% to $ 0.42 / sf this summer, maybe earlier depending on how busy we are. I know Mark Saiger charge $ 0.38 / sf in his neck of woods, based on how you clean and your prep which you do a lot more than I do, I would say you should charge around the same price as I charge if not more.
I know I was shocked when you told me how much you charge for upholsteries which you charge a LOT more than I do, but I also know you spend a lot more time cleaning them than I do, so that justifies what you charge for them.

You are talking about RainX DP, or in other words a glass sealant. And no, I don't offer it or recommend it to people. The only situations that is good IMO, is when a sprinkler would mist a window. You don't want hard water stains on glass.
Otherwise a sealant make cleaning glass 10 times harder. It doesn't keep your house glass any cleaner either, other than avoiding hard water stains. Even then, it has to be done right to be effective.

Think of it, sorta like carpet protectant. Not every carpet benefits from it.

Bob, I raise my prices every other year. Even years, get a price increase January 1. Costs of other goods and services increase every year, so I figure mine should be going up at LEAST every other year. My expenses aren't getting cheaper. And I think most people are conditioned by now, to price increases. We may not like it, but that's just how it is.

Inflation is usually around 3 - 4 % annually, so if you raise your prices by less than 5% every year, you're pretty much charging the same price, if you don't raise your prices, you're pretty much lowering your prices ( I'm guilty of this big time ), I'm worried by raising my prices every year, repeat customers would find someone cheaper and LA isn't short of cheap cleaners, even though after they tried them once, they usually run back to me.
I should raise my prices even more to those people huh ?

I am using flat pricing for different sized rooms, it seems to be easier to give a good estimate over the phone. When I ask about square footage, people just shrug their shoulders. With flat pricing, I can pull up the Zillow listing for the home and know what to expect.

My flat pricing makes it about 37 cents per sqft, so I don't think I am far off the norm around here. I keep hearing all the franchises advertising the same rates for their "specials" so who knows. I do a little better on larger rooms where it comes to around 41 cents per sqft and my stairs are $2 each.

I am amazed how many franchises around here have been charging "disposal" fees for the water. That was a complete surprise to me and I found it rather disgusting. That I do not do.

Wow, a disposal fee for the water, thats a new one huh. Well thats just like telling the customer who is paying you to clean the carpets and remove the dirt. Well mrs smith it's x amount to clean your carpets but i then have to charge you x amount more to dispose of the dirty water too

It is even worse Kevin, they also charged for the amount of water that they used to clean the carpet. I couldn't believe it when I heard it....can't imagine what else they charge for. Must be a great checklist:

1. Had to walk more than 20 feet....$5
2. Had to actually bend over 6 times....$12
3. Answered questions....$2 each
4. Actively perspired....$4 plus cost of bottled water

Thats funny stuff, I bet they charged for taking the the call to book the cleaning to.

Well, if mechanic charges for disposing the used oil, then ......
Wow you charged $ 2 / step ? I charge $ 3.50 / step for stairs.

Just for the record, I was being sarcastic about the oil disposal fees

I am pretty cheap with the stairs, but with the right tools I don't find them difficult nor time consuming. I still agitate with a CRB or Cyclo and stair wand for the win. Never had a bad result yet.