 Can you justify your price?
New companies usually survey their market area and try to beat the competitions’ prices. Some people have been in the cleaning business for years and don’t know how to price a service. Nearly sixty years has given us proven methods of pricing. But, when our price structure is discussed at Bane-Clene Institute, invariably someone says their market wouldn’t support such high prices. If we listened to everyone in school, we would believe that a dime a square foot or $10 a room is tops. Never be defensive of your pricing. You are a business owner with real expenses necessary to assure future service to your customers, Your price is inclusive and contains no hidden charges, such as: 25 cents per sq. ft. for preconditioning, extra charge for “deep-cleaning method,” extra charge for heavily soiled carpets, etc.
To justify price to a customer, we first have to be able to justify that price to ourselves. If we looked into our truck right now, would we be proud of it? Has it been washed recently? Are there remnants of last week’s lunch amid empty pop cans? Is our equipment clean and the truck well-stocked? A clean, well-lettered truck in someone’s driveway is not only good advertising; it is a testimonial.
Take a look in the mirror. What kind of image do we project? Would the person we see instill confidence? Is our uniform clean? Blue jeans and a Harley Davidson® T-shirt might be great for rock concerts but they are not professional service attire. Have we kept up with technical changes? Can we explain the differences in fibers? Why is our price higher than $5.95 a room? Can we design a planned maintenance program for a large commercial account? When giving an estimate, do we write it on a scrap of paper or use a proposal form and professionally designed brochures to help explain the benefits of our services to prospects?
A large segment of our market picks a service provider because of what they offer, not how much they charge. That part of the market can be ours if we justify our price.
Carpet Cleaning Prices
All of Bane-Clene’s service company carpet cleaning is charged by the square foot. Many carpet cleaning companies charge for cleaning by room, rather than by the actual square foot cleaned. What the customer wants cleaned is what is measured and is what they pay for. If the customer only wants the traffic areas cleaned, that's what we measure and what we charge - usually with a lower price than most carpet cleaners who charge simply by the room. We measure the carpet and calculate the amount to charge with a calculator device. If we are doing an estimate, we leave the customer a copy of the price and then the customer can decide whether to make an appointment.
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