Many carpet cleaners have been panicking as the media constantly talks about the 'recession' here in the UK. After all, carpet cleaning is not exactly a necessity. Homeowners don’t have to have their carpets and upholstery cleaned. So when times are hard, people will spend their money on food, clothing, petrol and maybe a few feel-good items But carpet cleaning? Hardly...unless you target the right people.
Failure to target is a very common mistake among carpet cleaners. Many feel that ‘everyone with a carpet’ is their potential customer. They often seem more intent on fighting over the scraps at the ‘price-sensitive’ end of the market. So when times get hard as they almost certainly will over the next few months, they find that customers who are more concerned about ‘price’ disappear. They are the first to cut back on non-essentials as they simply don’t have the money. In every market, there are always those who want the cheapest price and there are those who want the best…no matter what it costs.
The easiest way to survive a recession is to target those who are least affected…the high-end residential market. Those who still have a high disposable income.
If a homeowner is spending virtually 100% of their income on ‘necessities’ there’s no money left to pay for carpet cleaning. But to a person who only spends 20% of their income on necessities…they still have a lot left over to spend. These are the ones we want to be targeting.
And there are so many advantages to choosing high-end residential clients for your carpet and upholstery cleaning business.
- You will only work between 8.30am & 4.30pm, Monday to Friday. The cleaning business is notoriously known for unsociable hours. But not if you target high-end residential clients. We only work from 8.30am – 4.30pm at the latest. We rarely work weekends. And if we do, it’s because the job is extremely high paying.
- You don’t have to answer the telephone 24 hours a day. I used to think that it was absolutely necessary to have the telephoned answered by a live person at all times, and especially during ‘office hours.’ While it’s good if you can do this, if you set up your business properly (ie position yourself as a consultant and build a relationship with them), people will leave a message on an answering machine or will phone back later. It’s not ideal, but it sure beats being tied to the telephone in case you miss a work enquiry. I still run my business from home but have a separate business phone line that goes on to answerphone at 5pm every day. And the phone is never answered at weekends. This means you can actually take days off without feeling guilty that the phone’s not being answered.
- Not only that, their carpets are often not very dirty. They are soiled of course, but not like you find at the lower end of the market. We often wonder why they have called us out to clean them. Their carpets also tend to be higher quality and more expensive, therefore it makes sense to them to have them maintained rather than replaced. It’s easier to justify cost of cleaning versus much larger cost of replacement. As we know, higher quality carpets look better after cleaning than cheap synthetics.
- High-end clients tend to be more loyal. Usually they have difficulty finding good tradesman that they feel comfortable with. Now that they have found you – they will stick with you. Unlike commercial carpet cleaning who are always looking for a cheaper price. Or there can be a change of manager. He brings in his old cleaners. Or he decides to flex his muscles by reducing cleaning costs so he can look like a hero to his boss. Many commercial contracts have been lost not due to poor work, but simply a change of management and different ideas.
- High-end residential clients are not as price sensitive. They are generally old enough to have had bad experiences – they know you can always get it cheaper but that you “get what you pay for.†One of my clients used to quote his grandmother - “Buy cheap – buy thrice.†Many of my clients happily spend £400, £500 and more to have their carpets cleaned without batting an eyelid. But of course, it’s all relative. If that figure is but a small part of their disposable income, they are hardly going to be trying to knock you down on price to save a ‘mere’ £50.
- It’s possible to build a relationship with them. This is absolutely critical. The best business relationships are just that...relationships. Transaction buyers hop from supplier to supplier when they have a ‘Sale’...not so with ‘Relationship’ buyers. They trust you as their advisor who wants the best for them.
So, to avoid the recession…just change your customers to better ones.