They do and they don’t want you to appreciate the hard work they put in to have what they have. They want people to watch out for them and their homes, people who will care for it like it was their own…
The big plus is you can do less luxury homes and make more money and have more free time!!
I’m with Thad on this…Play the hand you already have and build on it…BTW…Nobody really is ever going to hire you based on a website…That just get’s them the contact info…Nothing more.
I disagree. We’ve got members with responsibid, where the client doesn’t meet or talk to a company rep until the day of the job. They don’t need a referral to book the job. All they need is your url and they might get that from a marketing piece or a simple google search.
So far I am only doing high-end residential. Most of work comes from referrals and maintaining a good professional relationship with my customers. I do wear a uniform, scrubs with :Window M.D. monogrammed on the right breast area and “Dr. Russ” on the other side. I wear shoe covers like those worn in the operating room. So, with that said, they do tend to pay a good price for a good service. All of them thank me for a good job and thats when I pull out my recpt book and a referral form. I ask the to write 5 names and numbers while I get their recpt ready. I also say, “I’ll treat your friends just like I treat you, only with utmost respect.” Cheezzey but it works.
I think it’s more a matter of developing the right system for the market you are in. If you are not in a high end market right now or your current customer base is not high end homes, thats ok. You can still make some adjustments to your business system that will increase your net profit. Use the 80/20 rule. Pinpoint the 20 percent of what matters most to your current customer base and develop a system that focuses the majority of your time and effort around those few things. This will make you more appealing to the market you service and you will land more jobs in that market beating out your competition. This will also free up time you might be wasting on things you thought where important to your customers but where just taking your time and energy away from focusing on what matters most to your them.
The key is determining what market you want to serve and focus on gearing your business system to serve only that market. This will make you much more competative in that market. You will also be more efficient at serving your market wich will leave more time for you to do more jobs, focus on developing your business,enjoy more time off, or whatever you want to do with it.
Its not always matter of changing markets but changing your company to be more sutable to the market you are currently in.
What defines super high end??? I think I charge more than most of my competitors already. Are we talking charging $400.00 for 20 windows versus charging $250.00?
Is window cleaning something that people value the same as a luxury car or watch? I dunno. Those brands have a history and they make a statement when people see you in public.
If you have a certain thing that clearly separates you from any competitor, something really remarkable, then I think you can charge the big bucks. Whether its some crazy gimmick, a costume etc. something that puts you in a different league. I dont think a shinier truck and nicer uniforms would do the trick.
If you want to make more money you need to be equal opportunity, I price houses between x and xx per square foot dependiong on the neighborhood the house is in. I send my crew and make cash while they work, they are happier with me not being at the job anyhow lol. I don’t believe it is cool to gouge someone because they are wealthy or turn away the business of a customer because they can’t afford top of the line prices.
We wear shoe covers in every house we enter and we provide top of the line service no matter what the status of the customer. The best market to target is property managers, realtors, contractors and cleaning companies. I also believe in getting a foot in the door and then upselling with pressure washing etc. I quote each client my top of the line package and also the most basic package and sell virtually every job
I don’t think one should price gouge either but I do think we should get the maximum net profit possible for the market we service. In order to do that you have to develop your business system around the market you are targeting. You can’t serve more than one market and get the maximum net profit you could get if you where to only target one market with a specific business system this is not possible.
It’s not always about price but often more about the value the customer is getting for that price. every customer is different when it comes to how much they want to spend, care to spend, or can afford to spend on window cleaning. Because of this your service will not appeal to everyone period.
Don’t look at it in terms of trying to get the most money for yourself but rather you are adjusting your business to better serve a single market of customers giving the best value for the ammount of money they want to spend. Its not that you are trying to exclude anyone but rather because you gear your business to serve the specific needs of a single market you will not appeal to other markets. In return you will get payed more net profit from those customers. Not because you charged more but because you created the proper value for the price those customers wanted to spend. Notice I did not say get payed more. You might lower your rates and lesson the value of your product (I did not say lesson the quality or professionalism) and still make more net profit than you currently make charginr your current rates delivering the current value.
Making thes adjustments will also make you more appealing to the market in general. When you try to make a company that serves all markets then you really don’t appeal to any one specific market so you really don’t appeal to anyone. People may call you because no one else appeals to them either but you looked like the better choice. When you brand your company to serve a single market you may still get calls from outside that market because there may not ba a company that appeals to that market and you where the next best company or came the closest to serving thier needs for the price they wanted to spend.
The key to the highest net profit is specializing in one market and developing the most efficient business system for that market. The “high end market” may not be the market that yeilds the highest net profit. They may pay out the most money for your service but what are you having to give them in return? Rmemeber our goal is not gross profit but net profit.
I just give 110% every job. Show up 15 minutes early. Schmooze. Keep the customer informed with every aspect of the cleaning/issues/trouble-spots (broken window/screen, pane failure, etc). And ask them 2 or 3 times if they have any questions, comments or if I happened to miss anything that they noticed.
Being honest and upfront really impresses people. Most people have told me that I do above and beyond what they had expected and I “seemed” [I]intelejunt[/I]!
I often wonder if I could’ve gotten more for some jobs. I usually try to charge 15% more than what I’d expect to get, if they wince, I go over the benefits of my cleaning methods and say, “Here’s what I can do for you…$.” There just comes a point where [I]I[/I] couldn’t imagine paying that much for this service, that’s what holds me back.
My question is this: [B]“Would you ever offer an [U][I]Economy Cleaning[/I][/U]?”[/B]
sometimes we’re talking different perspectives, as mentioned before - it depends on if one is charging $400 for 20 windows ($200 per man hour) or fighting to establish demand at $100 pmh, overcoming the $50pmh commodity joes.
(for comparison reference, my area, $100pmh is top end big time, most are at $60pmh rates)
Whatever the local commodity joes are charging, what can you do to add value to be worth that 100+pmh (for my area, your top end may vary widely)
Many times it ends up being more about who you (credentials, whatever) are than what you do
Compare to local mechanics rates, carpet cleaners, plumbers - my area again, 90-$125+. I use that as a baseline. People ask why I charge what I do, hey, it’s the common area baseline a business needs to function sustainably.
I agree, I would say that in my experience we are more profitable in the medium size market because we move from job to job faster. It is my experience that the high end market is frugal at times, reality is most of San Diego is high end market
I recently made the decision to focus on the hig end market because it is a good fit for my business. I can’t go into detail as I don’t want to share my secrets to my competitionbut it is the best decission I’ve made with my business. I feel like it has lifted alot of stress.
It’s great to give 110% on every job. I don’t think we should give any less no matter what market we serve but giving 110% does not mean that you include everything in your service unless the customer is paying for it. I think you should give 110% on everything you do in your service but I think you should only include what the customer is paying for. The key is to determine what is most important to the customer. Focus your attention on those items and do them perfect even do extra in those areas. then you can cut out the other items or focus less attention on those things then charge the customer according to the overall effort put into the process taken to take care of the customer. The customer will feel like you get them. They will think you are the only window cleaner who understands what they want. They will pay extra for that.
Remember what is most important is not always the window cleaning. To some people being on time is more important as long as you do a decent job. They may not care if you make a mistake and leave a streak or two as long as you show up on time. Being ontime is their pet peave. To others they don’t care if you show up ontime if you do a perfect job and don’t leave a single streak on any pane of glass. To others they want you to be freindly. I’ve had customers that don’t even care about their windows they are just calling me out to their house because they are lonely and it give them a sense of purpose that someone is coming out to their house to do something. They don’t even look at the windows when I’m done. Given they are not looking to get ripped off so do a decent job but focus more time on interacting with them and not on getting every streak on the glass and they will be more please with your service and they will actually pay you more because you focused on what they deemed valuable. And don’t feel like you are cheating them becuase you are taking your time to focus your atttention on them so you should be compensated for it.
Singling out a market is not just about the customers income level or size of home. It can be singling out a specific thing customers deem to be important and centering your efforts on those one or two items which means you will need to spend less time on other areas. Make being on time your most important bennafit to the customer and attract all the customers in any income level or job size who being ontime is the most important issue to them.
No matter what you market is you are targetting you need to single out something if you want to most efficient with your business operation which means higher net profit. giving pleasing the customer doesn’t mean you have to do everything if you do everything and do it 110% that is very noble and the customer will be very pleased but you will go broke. Focusing on your attention on what the customer deems most important and the customer will still be just as pleased with you and you will make good money too, you both win.
Sorry for the lengthy post I guess I am just releasing pent up excitment for marketing strtegy.
Noted: If your pricing at a point that you’re happy with and feel they deserve the effort and inclusion in the cleaning (without feeling ripped off and angry during the cleaning), then we’re okay.
I’m not talking about getting pushed around and doing some “courtesy moss treatment” on a roof when all they paid for was a gutter cleaning.
If you’re not making $55/hr you’re losing money as a business owner. My uncle’s a carpet cleaner, does an okay job (clean is all relative to the client) and has no problem making $100/hr. So maybe that’s where your market strategy fits in: clean as much as you want to, if you get a callback to re-clean cuz it looks like garbage, then factor that into your business strategy, if they don’t notice? then you made a few extra pennies.
If you’re getting 100% of your jobs, you’re underbidding; shoot for 80%
I think the question is why high end?
more repeat services per customer?
higher job $ per stop?
I have not found that high end will pay more just because they have a bigger checkbook, it’s still all based on perceived value.
