Author: David

Those of us in the carpet and upholstery cleaning business are not in that business at all of course. We're in the same business as every other small business owner... the MONEY business.

If income does not exceed expenses... well, we don't have a business! At least not in the long term.

I find that many carpet cleaners simply do not know the cost of being in business and as a result are slowly going broke.

Let me explain...

If it costs you 40,000 per year (pounds, dollars euro's, whatever...) to run your business and the wand is only going over the carpet for twenty hours per week (4 hours a day) then you have 960 billable hours. (20x48 working weeks = 960). Dividing the 40,000 by 960 gives you a breakeven figure of over 40 per billable hour. This is an "on the job" figure.

In fact, if you want to pay yourself just 20k each year... then the billable hour cost to just pay your wages is over 20 an hour alone assuming again that the wand is only moving across the carpet for four hours a day. (measure it... it might surprise you!)

Why then do so many carpet cleaners insist on being a hero by taking on work that they perhaps would be better off giving a miss? Like spending hours cleaning filthy carpets that really should be replaced or trying to remove stains that the homeowner would be quite happy to live with or cleaning cheap rugs that would be more cost effective to replace? Of course, it's great when a customer tells you that you've removed a stain or cleaned an item that a previous cleaner couldn't.

I've read recently about a number of carpet cleaners who will attempt any job whatsoever regardless of whether it proves profitable. They say that they love a challenge! I'm guessing that they hope the customer will appreciate them for the professional that they are even more and imagine that they will be the talk of all their friends and neighbours. And I realize that there are times when it CAN be good business to please a customer in this way. However, for much of the time all it's doing is eating into profit.

I clearly remember in the 1980's getting a call about removing fake blood on a carpet (used by actors apparently). I responded that I would do the job at the end of the working day. The distance to travel was over thirty miles... but I wanted to be the hero by removing the red stain. It was the early days of red stain removal and I had just been trained in a new product virtually guaranteed to remove the American drink "Kool-Aid" which was a problem across the pond.

I worked on the stains (plural) for well over an hour and could not remove them at all. As such, I felt I couldn't charge for what I had done. The homeowner clearly felt sorry for me and gave me five pounds.

But even if I had been able to remove the stain, what reasonably could I have charged? Well the travel time was over two hours plus nearly an hour attempting stain removal. That's over three hours plus fuel!

I've never forgotten this. Nowadays I'm not interested in small stain removal (alone) or problem cheap rugs. Or even problem carpets. There's more than enough well paying "normal" carpet cleaning out there. I don't care whether a homeowner will think that as a professional carpet cleaner I should be able to clean anything and will think less of me (more than likely they're not thinking of me at all!)

I realise that I'm in the MONEY business and it's a lot cheaper to be rich than famous.

I read a report recently that stated that American businesses lose on average 15% of their customer base every year. But what was really interesting were the reasons why.

Of those that leave:

68% leave because of poor or indifferent service

14% leave because of a complaint that was not handled satisfactorily

9% leave because of price

5% go somewhere else because of a recommendation

1% die

I'm sure it's not that much different in the UK. If so, that's an astonishing 82% (68 + 14) that leave because of a customer service issue. And most of those customers will not bother to complain... they just won't use you again!

It reminds me of a scene in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers when the two old ladies are complaining to each other about the meal in the restaurant but just don't want to complain. Instead they end their conversation by saying "well, we just won't come back"

It costs a small fortune to acquire a new customer. In fact, it's one of the most expensive and difficult things that your business will ever do. So it makes sense to look after the ones you've already got. You simply cannot afford to lose them. And you can't just wait for complaints. You actually need to go looking for trouble and fix whatever it is that disappoints your customers.

As noted above, 82% of customers go elsewhere NOT because of a cheaper price as is often thought but because of poor customer service. This is yet another good reason not to be the cheapest carpet cleaner in your area. The "3 rooms for 40 or a whole house of carpets for 69" brigade can never deliver truly good service which is good news for you.

So how can you go looking for trouble?  Well, quite simply welcome complaints... in fact, seek them out!

How can this be done? One way is a simple phone call a day or two after you have cleaned their carpets to make sure that they are totally happy with your work. An alternative is to leave behind a report card that asks the right questions. A good question to ask is whether or not they are likely to recommend you to others. Any hesitation here or a low score on a report card means you need to take immediate action.

And if there is a complaint, don't view it as a problem view it as an opportunity. In fact, actively welcome it's an opportunity to make them happy. And a customer who has a complaint resolved satisfactorily is likely to return to you again and again AND tell others how you treated them because it's so unusual.

I had a case of this in 2007. A lady was very unhappy with our work (which was simply a misunderstanding of what should have been done). She concluded the conversation by saying that she "may give us another chance". However, since then she has used us every year at an annual cleaning cost of over £400. That's nearly £4000 of business in the last nine years because we resolved the complaint to her satisfaction and without any fuss.

I'm now very pleased that I had a system in place whereby she could feel that she could complain and something would be done without making her feel awkward. It's resulted in a very happy customer... and about four thousand pounds in my pocket.

Are you struggling to get higher prices in your carpet cleaning business? Do you find that your customers have little respect for the training and knowledge that you have? And they don't appreciate that you're a fully trained textile and fabric expert? In fact, they view you as just "the cleaner."

Well, the problem may not be your customers at all. It could be how you think of yourself.

The problem may not so much be that the customer views you as just ‘the cleaner’ but that you view yourself as just the cleaner.  It’s not helped by other cleaners saying “What makes you think you can get away with charging high prices? You should be ashamed of yourself. You’re not a doctor or a surgeon…it’s only carpet cleaning.”

Yet the answer is so simple. You are not just a cleaner or even just a carpet cleaner. You are a serious business owner with more than one business. This is according to Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth.

According to Gerber you have not one but three businesses:

1. A Marketing Business with the purpose of lining up new business.
2. A Service Delivery Business which job is to deliver world class service.
3. A Client Retention Business to keep the clients you already have.

And what is so difficult about running a small business? Well, if you previously worked for an employer it looked so easy. All you had to do was the service delivery part of the business. Now you don’t have one job…you in fact have THREE. As well as actually performing the job, you have to get the work in the first place and then follow up with customers so that they return and refer.

Yes… you run three businesses.

So if you run three businesses, don’t you deserve more income than someone who runs only one?

And this can be the biggest problem for YOU…to change your mindset and your thinking on this. You are NOT just ‘the cleaner’.

One of the most important ways to gain respect from customers is by how you dress? A serious business owner turns up in uniform perhaps with company logo on his shirt. If you turn up in jeans & trainers aren't you conveying to the customer that you really are just ‘the cleaner’?

Some years ago I took a friend of mine to an emergency NHS dentist. You can always tell a dentist...he wears a blue or white gown and looks like a dentist. But this man had a pair of jeans on under his gown. It certainly made me think twice when I saw him. My initial thoughts were to wonder whether he really was a qualified dentist. People DO judge a book by its cover whether you feel that’s fair or not.

Another thing that will show the customer you’re serious is by charging higher prices. This may seem counter intuitive. But it hardly helps if you’re charging domestic cleaning rates. If you’re working for £15 an hour it just reinforces the fact that you are just a cleaner. No serious business remains in business charging those rates.

So if you want your customers to respect you as more than just ‘the cleaner’ you have to be more than just the cleaner. View yourself as the serious business owner that you are and look and act the part.

Two carpet cleaners live in the same town.

Cleaner A is like most carpet cleaners. He struggles to make any decent money, rarely takes a holiday but is happy to have a job. He likes cleaning carpets but wishes that his customers weren't just interested in"low prices" all the time, and would appreciate what he did for them as well as his 'technical knowledge'.

Cleaner B loves his work. He earns more in a couple of days than many other carpet cleaners earn in a week. His customers value his skill and advice and pay him what he is worth.

What's the difference between these two carpet cleaners?

Cleaner A is a low price cleaner. He takes on any prospect and fails to have an ideal customer in mind.

Cleaner B is a premium price cleaner. He targets a very specific type of customer, one who wants high quality work and is prepared to pay a premium price. He gets prospects to qualify themselves before he'll work with them. He disqualifies those who don't meet his criteria.

 

Cleaner A, because he advertises a cheap price and offers to match any competing cleaners' prices is in a very crowded marketplace at the bottom. It's where all the other cheap cleaners are. He's constantly frustrated that there are so many who advertise prices cheaper than him. He wonders how they can do a good job for the price.

Cleaner B, because he is a premium price cleaner has very little competition at the top. He doesn't care at all about low price cleaners. He knows that his customers are put off by their low prices.

 

Cleaner A "knows" that his customers won't pay any more than he is currently charging and if he raises his prices he will lose all his customers.

Cleaner B knows that there are always people who want and will pay for Mercedes cars and Gucci handbags. He seeks out only people who value the cleaning of their carpets in the same way.

 

Cleaner A often works with customers who are loyal only to price and will move to a new cleaner if they are considerably cheaper (which they do!). He finds that he has to rush through jobs to make any money. As a result of attracting low price shoppers he is constantly dealing with complainers and those who want to knock his price down even lower.

Cleaner B doesn't deal with price shoppers at all.

 

Cleaner A is often trying to clean carpets that really should be replaced and don't respond all that well to cleaning. He is often trying to make cheap polypropylene carpets regain a new look. He doesn't have much job satisfaction.

Cleaner B usually cleans "clean" carpets that don't look visibly dirty. He often works on high quality carpets that look great after cleaning. He loves his job.

 

Cleaner A is viewed as "just the cleaner" and treated as such.

Cleaner B is viewed as a trusted adviser whose expertise is valued and sought.

 

Cleaner A is overly concerned with "branding" and image type advertising. He hopes that his prospects will be impressed enough to buy when they need carpet cleaned. That's if they remember him at all. Of course he doesn't really know.

Cleaner B commits "image suicide". He recognises that prospects are not at all concerned about his business, in fact they don't even think about it except in terms of what it can do for them.

 

Cleaner A constantly seeks new customers, new customers. He fails to nurture relationships with his existing client base. He is always looking for the "one thing" that will bring in a flood of new enquiries.

Cleaner B recognises that the money is in his database of clients and nurtures his past customers. He knows the lifetime value of his clients. He realises that the back-end when he sells to them again and when they refer is much more profitable. He tracks all his enquiries so he doesn't waste money. He knows exactly how much it costs to get a new customer by all the different sources.

 

Cleaner A only quotes over the phone. He feels it's much quicker to price this way. After all, he's only trying to convince his prospects that he's cheaper than the rest.

Cleaner B visits every new prospect. He realises that body language is a large part of communication and that an in-home audit is an opportunity for theatre and persuasion. He knows that homeowners who are premium buyers are more concerned with the type of person they will be working with rather the price.

 

Cleaner A doesn't have a selling process. He just "wings it".

Cleaner B has a choreographed selling process including testimonials and a strong guarantee. He has already prepared to overcome common objections. He knows that a "close" is not something whipped out at the end of a sales call but rather is a "logical conclusion".

 

Cleaner A doesn't see the need to educate his prospects. He thinks if he just advertises a cheap price, people will beat a path to his door. He speaks in terms of "we're the best!". Competitors charging more are viewed as "ripping the customer off".

Cleaner B constantly educates prospects and his customers and has a clear unique selling proposition.

 

Finally,

Cleaner B has good profit. He's able to use this for better educating of his clients and better marketing. He's able to afford to send a regular newsletter which build trust and loyalty. He knows that he is primarily a marketer of carpet cleaning. He is able to replace his cleaning machinery and vehicles on a regular basis.

Cleaner A doesn't realise that his business depends on margins and profit. He thinks of himself as just a carpet cleaner. He is slowly going broke. He just doesn't know it... yet.

I always like to hear carpet cleaners talk about pricing. It’s always an interesting discussion!

I remember attending a course at Ashcombe Distributors (remember them?) in the 1980s about marketing a carpet cleaning business. Until that time I didn’t realise that I needed to market my business. I assumed that if I was good enough at my job, people would be forming a queue outside my door.

What prompted it was the appearance of a competitor in the next road to where I lived with his van boldly signwritten with an offer of Lounge, Dining Room, Hall, Stairs & Landing AND a three-piece suite for £30. At the time I was charging more than that for the suite alone.

I remember being convinced that my business was finished. So I learned about marketing out of desperation.

However, after the course I learned that in EVERY industry there are price points. Some budget, some premium, some in-between.

For example, did you know that here in the UK you can buy a smartphone for £20 on Amazon right now? Why then are people waiting in line every time a new iPhone is released and paying 30 times more! Why are Mercedes, BMW and Audi selling in droves when you can buy a Ford or even a Kia for a small fraction of what they are charging.

The answer is that in every market there are price shoppers looking for the cheapest and there are premium buyers even in carpet cleaning.

How often on cleaning forums do you see the question… “How much should I charge for carpet cleaning? What is the “right price”? This is what has been called “marketing incest” where every cleaner looks at everyone else and does what they do and just like real incest ends up pretty stupid.

Business is all about margins and profit. The competitor I referred to earlier went out of business long ago. He has been replaced by many more like him who have also gone out of business. Many, many carpet cleaners are slowing going broke…they just don’t realise it yet.

A turnover of 60K or 100K is NOT salary. It’s NOT what you take home. Getting the customer (or more accurately “buying the customer”) takes time which is also work. And of course, there’s all the other business expenses. And then there’s holidays.¦
It’s often said on cleaning forums we’re NOT dentists or doctors, we’re only carpet cleaners.

By the way, I’m not a qualified dentist or doctor but I often earn MORE than them because unlike them I’m a risk-taking business owner (ie. owner of a cleaning business, owner of a business marketing a cleaning business, owner of a client retention business, office manager, hirer and firer, employee parenter etc etc).

Oh, and at one time, (before I paid it off) my house was on the line.

That’s why I charge high prices!

 

 

If you were to seek advice on improving your business, you would likely be told that you need to "build your brand" or create "brand awareness".

Typically this means spending money on a fancy logo and generally telling the marketplace what a great business you are. If you do this, you are following the lead set by many, many corporate type companies.

But is this the best way for you as a small carpet cleaner to get more sales?

I was intrigued a while ago while watching a football game to see that travel agent Thomas Cook had changed their logo. It was on one of the electronic billboards.

A bit of research on the internet revealed more:

• This week the Thomas Cook Group unveiled the next stage in its journey back from the edge of a financial abyss: a new corporate identity known as the "Sunny Heart"
• According to the firm, "The new, unified brand captures the essence of Thomas Cook: how it delivers inspiring personal journeys as the trusted pioneer in global travel." (The Independent)
• Thomas Cook says that the new visual identity and branding looks to reflect the "warmth and approachability", "trust and personalisation" and "message of High Tech, High Touch of the brand.
• Tour operator Thomas Cook has ditched the globe logo it first used in 1880, replacing it with a 'Sunny Heart', as the tour operator continues its recovery from near collapse. The 172-year-old firm unveiled the design alongside a new slogan - 'Let's Go' - spelling the end for its famous motto 'Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it.' The rebranding is part of a root-and-branch overhaul by new boss Harriet Green, who was recruited last year to save the household name from collapse, after it was bailed out by its banks. (Daily Mail)

You'll notice that in response to near collapse, they have decided that the answer is... a new logo!

But surely the most important question of all is... will this lead to SALES?

Let's ask one of its valued customers... ME!

I've travelled with Thomas Cook twice in the last 18 months. What has been my experience? On a recent trip to Mexico the transfer took two and a half hours arriving at my hotel at the equivalent of two in the morning. The problem? The advertised transfer was one hour. The previous year with a rival firm was 35 minutes. Apparently they had crammed in more drop-off points before ours!

On a previous holiday to Egypt, they cancelled an entire plane leaving passengers bound for Manchester to travel via Gatwick. An add-on of several hours! Incredibly they didn't let the Manchester bound passengers know until they got to the airport in Egypt. It also meant that although I had pre-booked a window seat, I ended up sitting in the centre row.

I decided there and then that I would NOT travel with this company again unless I had very little choice.

Would the money spent on "re-branding" not be better spent on improving the experience for the customer? Frankly I don't care about their logo or their "trust and personalisation" or their "warmth and approachability." But I do care about getting what I've paid for. A re-brand ("new pretty logo") does not fool me!

So what brand strategy should you follow?

• Forget "brand awareness" You don't know whether it's successful or not as it can't be measured.
• Forget advertising to simply remind people of your existence. Killer advertising is simply salesmanship multiplied according to copywriter Gary Halbert
• A good ad will work the first time. They don't need to see it 7, 15 or 20 times
• Don't be fooled that a brand is the most important thing. The people who give you money are!
• Forget "clever" advertising with just your "image" displayed. If your salesman acted strange or did a silly dance and then mentioned the name of your company at the end you wouldn't want it. Instead you want them to find out what the persons problem is, what their objections are and present your product as the best solution. That's salesmanship!

I'll give the last word to Claude Hopkins who wrote about silly logo's and image type advertising this way: "Instead of sales, they seek applause".

I say... let them have the applause - my bank doesn't accept it!

 

There’s an old adage that says “when everybody’s your customer, nobody’s your customer”.

That’s because you cannot usually appeal to all markets within a category. Certainly that’s true with carpet cleaning. In fact, many carpet cleaners aren’t even aware that there are different markets. Often the sales pitch is “we’ll beat any competitors price”. But this doesn’t take into account what different prospects actually want. You could be trying to appeal to the wrong market.

Sometimes it’s difficult to see it in your own industry. After all, many customers just want their carpets cleaned for the cheapest price!

However, it’s easy to see different markets elsewhere.

Take cars for instance. A Mercedes owner is not the same as a Kia owner. Someone who just wants to get from A to B or who only has a few thousand pounds to spend is not going to walk into Mercedes and try to “knock them down”. Or say “I can buy a Kia for a third of your price”

And very often they may think “I would never pay 40k on a car!” Not that they’re bad people...they’re just terrible prospects for a Mercedes dealership. Do you think Mercedes dealers worry about those who buy Kia’s and say to themselves “we must try to appeal to these people and get them to buy our cars”? No, they simply recognise that they serve a different market. In most cases, a Kia owner will NOT be buying a Mercedes.

It’s the same with carpet cleaning. Someone who can only afford (or only wants to pay) £20 to get their carpets cleaned would likely feel they are being “ripped off” when given a quote of £80 or £100.

In every market there are typically four types of shopper:

Price Shoppers who always have to feel that they are getting the lowest price on everything they buy. You can get their business by offering the lowest price, but someone else will always come up with a lower price and take them away from you.

Middle Market usually picks a price somewhere in the middle because they don't trust that they get good service at the lowest price, but they still need to feel they are getting a deal by not paying the highest price. This is where many carpet cleaners think they are. They’ll say things like “we’re not the cheapest but we’re the best”. Yet they are missing out on possibly the most lucrative and rewarding market, one with the least aggravation...

Premium Price Shoppers.

These fall into two categories…

Prestige Shoppers who always have to pay the highest price or “the best” and let everyone know what they paid.

Value Premium Shoppers who can best be summed up with the maxim, "You get what you pay for." They believe that products and services are priced where they are for a reason. They have learned this through hard experience and wasted money. Value premium shoppers will never pay the lowest price even if it has a really logical story attached to it because they just can't understand that something that is cheap offers good value.

Notice how price shoppers will never pay premium prices. But also that premium price shoppers will never pay the lowest price! That’s why “when everybody’s your customer, nobody’s your customer”. You can’t target and appeal to both.

Many carpet cleaners price their service too low out of fear of not getting the job. In doing so, they may "pay the price" of lower perception of value, lost business, and reduced profits.

Of course, it’s not just a case of declaring that you’re a premium priced carpet cleaner. Putting a Mercedes price tag on a Kia doesn’t fool anyone. You can put lipstick on a pig...it’s still a pig!

So, choose your target market carefully. If you want to service the lowest price take a warning from Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons who have all just announced sales falling. It seems their customers are loyal only to price and are deserting to Aldi and Lidl. Unlike Waitrose who service quality seekers and don’t claim “lowest price” and have seen an increase in sales.

In fact, choosing who you want as your customer should be the very first thing that you do.

 

Is it better for carpet cleaners to just focus on cleaning carpets or branch out into window cleaning, builders cleans, hard floors etc?

 I recently had an enquiry about cleaning some carpets from a couple in a fairly affluent area. I had cleaned the carpets of their parents just the week before and they had seen and were amazed with the result. The carpets were synthetic and had been down for about 28 years. Yet they now looked as though they were new. We had left a voucher for a free trial area of carpet to be cleaned to pass on to friends or family so they could see risk-free what we could do for them also. So now, the son wanted me to give a quote for cleaning his carpets.

There’s nothing better than a recommendation like this of course, as not only is the cleaning business recommended but also importantly, the price is known. Hence there’s no risk of ‘sticker shock’. So unless they really don’t like you, a booking should be a foregone conclusion.

We always make a visit to measure up and quote as well as qualify what stains may not be removed. So this was done and a price left with them. Nearly £400.

The couple said they would talk it over and phone soon. The wife in particular kept saying how well her in-laws carpet had cleaned and how badly her carpets needed cleaning.

Well a few days later a message was left on our answerphone at the office... “We’re pleased to accept your quote if you can take 10% off the invoice. If you wish to go ahead please phone me.”

Now, what would you have done? After all, this is not a small job. It would still have amounted to about £350!

Well, here’s what we did....

I phoned back and said that he already had one of the rooms covered by the free trial offer and this was actually worth more than the 10% discount he wanted and so I couldn’t reduce the price any more. With that, he simply said that he would look elsewhere for someone to clean his carpets.

Many cleaners would think me foolish for turning down a job that would still bring in about £350 for the sake of quibbling over £40 or so but here’s my reasons for doing it.

In Larry Steinmetz book How to Sell at Prices Higher Than Your Competition he makes the point that there are consequences to dealing with people who try to knock you down on price.

Included are:

• They will brag to their friends how they beat you down on price so any referrals will do the same.
• People who want discounted prices are the most likely to complain about every little thing. In the end, you can wish you’d never taken them on.
• People who want you to lower your prices for no reason are the most difficult to deal with generally and don’t appreciate what you do.
• They are typically disloyal and will switch to another company whose price is lower.
• When they want more work doing, they already know that they can get you to lower your prices simply by asking.

The result?

We’ve never heard from them again and don’t expect to. I’ve lost £350 in the short term but probably a lot of needless hassle in the long term.

The most important thing is that a good service business is built largely on quality repeat and referral work.