I know I’m not the first person to have thought of this. Is anyone using an automated bidding process to ease the estimating process?
How is it working? I am having a website built for my spring sales slam, but I’m flip-flopping on the issue of whether or not this is useful. I think this will cost me the most in my website design, I don’t think I care if the other local window cleaners know what I charge, but I suppose that could be an issue too?
Anyone have a link I could see? I found one by 5 Star Window Cleaning, but he hasn’t posted since August and I’m wondering if anyone else uses it and likes it?
I use to use one, but I took it down. As soon as I took it down I started getting more calls. I did see a lot of activity on that page. I always assumed that it was other WCs more than homeowners. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, I’m just saying that it didn’t work for me. It was fun to play with though
Without pricing posted, you don’t prequalify any buyers. If your prices are above-average, you’ll expend a lot of time and energy trying to convert unqualified prospects.
If your prices are high, then not posting pricing is a nightmare for you. If your prices are low, it’s not going to hurt you not to post the prices.
Hasn’t been that way for me. I close about 80% of the people I talk to whether it’s over the phone, email, or in person. And I’m one of the higher priced WCing companies in the area (a WCing friend of mine thought I was stupid for putting my prices up like I did), but I’m worth it :). I don’t waste time trying to convert anyone to my prices, either they want my services or they don’t. It doesn’t matter to me, there’s plenty of glass in the area.
For me the benefit i’m looking for is more people satisfied about having a bid of any kind. This year I reached the limits of what I can do to keep a 2 and sometimes 3 man crew running. I’m becoming the guy who shows up late for his bids because he cant keep up. I lost a stack of index cards somewhere this summer with about 5 bids I was supposed to drive out to see, none of those people called me back and I want to stop the bleeding. I don’t want to have that reputation. This is why i’m hoping for the automated bids to be helpful.
Right. Well, that’s cool, John. That’s pretty good, too, for not prequalifying your prospects.
Incidentally, any time or effort communicating with that 20% is a waste. All of it. It’s all a liability.
I can only speak from experience.
Posting prices moved my conversion rate through the roof. 95% or more, and I’m not exaggerating. I immediately noticed a drop in the sheer number of leads, but I landed nearly every single one of them. For years.
Kevin, I really like your website. I’m pretty picky for quality. I like the pricing for size of house. Did you ever consider the do your own quote page? Why a one size fits all price?
I would have to assume you have pretty uniform neighborhoods. We don’t have a lot of millionaire homes here where I’m from, and aside from a few of the new McMansion vinyl subdivisions that are popping up, most of my bids seem like they couldn’t be generalized like that.
If that’s what you’re concerned about, then I say go for it. I agree that giving your customers a bid (even automated) is much better than them not getting one at all. But people will still call and want you to give a bid. Some people just don’t like playing on websites. Why? I have no idea, I love websites!
Do you know what language your site is being built in? PHP, ASP.Net, static HTML? Is it wordpress?
My area has no two homes the same, actually. Every house is different. Don’t let that stop you. People are smart, and they can very quickly figure out where their home fits within the parameters you create.
And one-size-fits-all pricing (what I call small-medium-large) is the best way to boost profitability. It also provides a more enjoyable, effortless shopping experience.
Oh, I always had a phone number, we were a decent size dealership (#2 in the county under my tenure)… I wanted our name out there.
(we even used “Who’s Calling” to make sure salespeople were handling the customers right.)
I may have advertised low prices, but they were always reachable and my pay plan was largely based on customer satisfaction scores.
I’m having the website professionally designed as I don’t want it to look like crap. I did design and photography for 8 years, but wouldn’t presume to know what goes on with web-coding and all that. Also, I enjoy window cleaning partially because I don’t have to be the office geek anymore. So, I presume it’s not wordpress, but that’s all I know.
Kevin: I was looking at a toronto website that said Paneless Perfection. The Rates were $149/$149, etc. So you do a one size fits all hoping that the job would actually be a $110 dollar job and you can pocket the extra, and then that extra money pocketed from one job subsidizes the jobs that go over?
I “look” at the house online, while chatting with the homeowner on the phone, and ask the right questions about other details to make sure the categorizing of the home isn’t too far off.
Every home is maximized for profit that way.
Oh, and I sold that company 6 months ago. That’s why that “other guys” face is on it.
So, I presume it’s not wordpress, but that’s all I know.
