I posted a similar question about 2 years ago. I used to go up $25 every 5 years. Now I go up 4% every year. Some window cleaners go up 5% or more every year. If I remember correctly from the original thread, there was one guy that had not gone up on his prices in over 20 years. Everyone has different opinions on price increases. Do you go up a little every year?
Hope everyone had a great day!
We go up as we need to. Our goal is to increase efficiency so we don’t have to increase price very often.
MichaelMole, how do you determine that you need to increase? Is it mainly based on rising cost of doing business? How many times and by how much have you increased in the past? Any examples of efficiencies you developed that you otherwise would have been forced to raise prices? It sounds like you are making decisions based on a desired hourly return - is that right?
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In no way am I answering for Mole, but I’d like to use his post as a ‘jumping off’ point.
I think we’ve all been at a point where we are raising and lowering our prices 'according to how blank/full our schedule is.
(I use that term loosely, to mean how busy our year, month, season, whatever… was.)
I do anything I can to keep us in a "hungry state."
Meaning, I really don’t like to get to a point where I have to raise my prices because we are slammed, or had a jam packed year.
I’d rather hire more and put the pressure back on me to find more work.
In general, I’m more focused on COGS, which is where I tie in with Michael’s post (I think,)
than I am with raising/lowering prices simply because the calendar changed from Dec to January.
In general we raise prices on current customers by 10% every 3 years. Some were priced too low when we acquired them, and have had to make larger adjustments in those cases. And a few were priced well enough that we neglected raising the price for 5 years or more.
I’ve had the wish to raise our price list for new customers every year, but lately we’ve encountered enough price resistance to make me hold off on that idea. Next year I think we should be going up, though. But it has been kind of nice using the round numbers that we currently have ($12, $8, $15, $20, etc. for various types of windows). Not sure yet what the new pricing structure might look like. I realize that in some cases of price resistance, I could be doing a better job of selling the value we provide. I need to get better at that.
My philosophy behind price increases isn’t so much about just keeping up with inflation or costs of doing business, as it is about giving myself a raise. Each year I have more experience, improve the business, and generally try and provide a better and better experience for the customer. I think that’s worth a raise, regardless of whether my efficiency has improved, I’ve managed to trim costs, or the consumer price index has been stagnant.
I’m starting to increase prices based on the Dubrosky method . . . price it based on what the customer perceives the job is worth rather than what I think it is worth, in some cases it is considerably more than what I had done it for in the past. You must offer what your competition does not.
Very well said Ryan!
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When I do power washing i have a set rate based on the various services I perform (house wash, gutter clean, pw driveways)
those prices have not changed in 7 years.
window cleaning is a little different because the same house next to each other will have different landscaping/access, different amount of windows and different degrees of dirtyness, I also dont base my pricing per window I price it according to what I think the job is worth and because I do it like this there really is no point in time where i think i need to raise prices because that point in time is actually everyday when I bid on a job.
Sometimes it is hard to imagine charging more for our services. I have always heard that if you have a 100% close rate you need to charge more. I can remember going on a few estimates and the potential client says “That’s it!” or “I thought it would be more than that.” This is when I realized that the price did not matter as much because of their perceived value from using my services. Since then I have never focused on price. I try to create so much value that there is no way they could say no.
“Perception of Value.”
The beauty of it is, it’s something that WE create.
It may sound stupid, but if I’m the ONLY one who explains that "we use a professional SQUEEGEE to clean your glass"
and nobody else does…
Who will they remember?!? Who will they hire?
(don’t get literal on me, everyone reading this… you get the point)
That is very true and that is why im more along the lines of “what the market will bare” according to each individual homeowner.
if there are two people that own the same exact home, one might agree to a $300 price, the other might agree to $400. My goal as a saleman is to figure out how much the market will bare and get the job at that price.
My goal as an owner is to also firure out what I can do to GET that job.
Maybe it’s not at that price.
Maybe $200 is seriously all they can afford, but their daughters graduation is next week,
and they’d really like to make the house look special for her party.
Would ‘first floor only’ be something that could work?
Maybe the party is in the backyard…
^ yup, another important aspect of the negotiating process.
If you could go a bit deeper into that I’d love to hear it. Rolling with things that come up during estimates is a weak spot for me and if it’s been a long day I’ll just shut down, thank them and walk away without trying to dig in and see what’s what.
For window cleaning current customers it’s 10% every 2 years.
We raised our new client prices 20% this year.
I will work with previous customers when it comes to pricing for special events but for the most part my prices go up every year. My expenses go up every year and my standard of living goes up every year, no reason for my to suffer to make someone else happy with my price, especially since I’m not selling anything based on pricing, I’m selling a high quality, worry free service and that aint cheap
Yep.
Great thread Chad [MENTION=6146]Provost Services[/MENTION].
Its always a Great Day.
Have you noticed any resistance to the 10% increase?
I only had one client that asked me to clean in/out every other time. I was fine with that because I will get off earlier.
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I don’t announce the price increase, I just raise the price. If a client asks at time of scheduling I will tell them. Surprisingly, I have only had 5-6 people in 10 years ever say anything about the price increase. I think most people either don’t notice, don’t care or expect that my prices have to go up with the cost of living and cost of doing business.
