@dcbrock 90% but most people that call already know what the price is. So it’s hard to say how many folks never call. It’s life changing to not have to do estimates. I book customers that know the price in less than 3 minutes on the phone. That’s putting it into my google calendar and all.
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turned into a decent thread lol
I would suggest staying away from flat rates when your just starting. You need figure how long it takes you to do different types of houses first.
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So are you washing a 2story 4000 sq ft house for the same price as a 2story 2000 sq ft house?
If so then Why?
I wash very few that big. I spend 0% of my day doing house wash estimates. And that’s worth a lot to me.
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So the short answer is yes. You will charge the same price for a 2000, 3000, 4000 and above. To me spending just a little time doing an estimate that would take 5 minutes or less to charge appropriately for what the house is worth is definitely worth the short time it takes to do the estimate.
But to each his own.
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I charge the same flat rate also. In reality does it really take that much longer. I bet most people waste more time trying to bid house wash by the size than it takes to just wash it. Who really has the time to go look at a job then go wash it
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@Firefighter4hire I tell my customers to send me a photo Off there phone of the front of the house to see what I’m working with and the worst spots that there concerned about and I give them a price in less than 3 minutes saves me going there and saves them having to be at home to explain what they want done. Must be a good selling point as I get photos from random customers daily. Some people are a really unsocial type that don’t like talking. I have one customers I do work for on a regular basis I’ve only seen or talked to her twice on actual phone in 4 years. Email invoice and get paid straight away.
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Those reclusive customers are my favorite. I really love the ones who dont live in the country
Show up do the job send pic get paid
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I do vacation homes at the Shore and almost never talk to my customers. Everything is through Customer Factor and Email. I think a lot of people are too busy to talk on the phone. Especially wealthy people with expensive shore houses. I like it because I’m too busy to talk to all my customers anyway. I can respond when I want and everything is documented.
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I agree with you. Additionally, people like the acknowledgement that you were willing to show up. I’ve had people tell me they didn’t give jobs to companies that gave them a quote over the phone. Another big plus in showing up is that you can check for oxidation and plants that may be susceptible. You also get more of an idea weather the customer is genuine or a bit of a screwball.
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I don’t know. That’s a lot of gas and time and I hate wasting time. I think a lot of customers love it when they call and within 10-15 minutes they have a professional emailed quote they can review.
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I did in person estimates my first year. I felt good about explaining the soft-wash process and selling myself. I booked at least 95% of what I bid in person. Then…I did some math. The time and gas it takes to drive to do an estimate…then spend 20 minutes talking to a possible customer explaining everything…then drive home…adds time to the house wash. If you’re getting enough calls then who cares about doing in person estimates. I learned it was just a waste of time in my area. Do a good job and build up your name…and you’ll get calls.
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Selling in person allows you to up sell much better. That being said I find that most customers tent to up sell them selves on additional work more often the not
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Do you have better luck upselling before or after you have started cleaning?
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It usually starts just after we get there when the customer realizes they hired professionals this time. It’s very rare that we’re hired to do just one service and we leave doing just that.
Except for roofs and paver sealing . Those things do tend to be able to stand on there own .
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I have to Clarify my response. I meant do a 5 min phone call. I very rarely will go out in person to look at a job. On the flip side I will not wash a 4000 sq ft home for the price of a 2000 sq ft home because its double the cost. Why would I leave money on the table. Lastly, My only job is to do estimates and manage my business so its a little easier for me to focus on those thing when I don’t have to go out and wash.
Personally, I like the 10 cents per sqft price but am enjoying this debate. Maybe I should consider flat price quoting. I have a competitor who has signs all over town touting $150 for 2 stories. That just sounds like a mad dash to poverty to me, and I explain that when I starting out everyone does the same thing. I ask my potential customer if they would rather trust their home to an amateur who may or may not damage home and plants or to a professional who has applied himself to the study and experience that eliminates that exposure. "Check my reviews and bask in the knowledge that the few extra dollars you spend with Mr. Sparkle will ensure a professional job that is among the industries best.
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It doesn’t really matter how any of us bid both ways work you really just need to choose for yourself both ways have flaws and benefits. As long as you can do it over the phone or email pick one. Dont get me wrong some jobs you gotta go look at. Knowing which ones to look at and which ones to qoute over the phone will only come with experience. But to gain that experience you need to pick a method give it a honest try and choose for yourself. Heck if you want try both
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One major thing I learned with my sign business is the difference between small business pricing and corporate pricing. Big corporate companies, big corporate service companies, and even small companies like ours who know how big corporate money works, all charge double or more of the normal amount (for other corporations). When Verizon needs new signs on thousands of stores it goes to its major corporate sign company, tells them what they want and to handle it, then they go on with other business. The corporate sign company has to make money, and they know that unlike a mom and pop business, or like we have, regular home owner customers, a corporation, or in this case, an HOA, is not scrutinizing the cost of the service (as long as it seems fairly reasonable) because they are not spending their own money, but rather working with a large bank account and a list of 200 items that need to be paid. The accountants job is to manage the money they have and paying the bills is part of it. In order for a big corporate sign company to get signs to all of its locations, it needs to work with small companies, like ours, and we don’t charge any less for them than we would our own customer for the labor part of it. They double whatever they are paying the local vendor and bill it to the main customer. The same line of thinking may be happening here, where the competitor says to himself, shoot this is HOA money, they set this money aside for this very thing! The person paying the bill isn’t spending their own money, so they probably won’t care or shop around too much if my price doesn’t seem outrageous. I look professional, presented my offer with confidence and they will feel they will get a better product, or end result, with my price. Or maybe they think your thinking the same thing and they don’t want to leave money on the table. Same goes for insurance jobs. When I crashed my Honda in my 20’s (outright owned it) insurance gave me cash to fix it (or do whatever I wanted with it). When I took it to a friends body shop he asked me if insurance was paying for it or if I was, and told me that if insurance was paying for it the price would be a lot more, because that’s corporate pricing. In this business their are times you can do that, but its tricky because some “corporations” are actually franchises and the money does come out of a local owners pocket. This guy is probably just seeing what he can get away with since he knows the money has already been allocated for this kind of thing (generally HOA’s take care of the maintenance of the properties). My fiance works for an hoa management company and I have been learning how it works. Maybe next time raise your price a little to cover the extra hoops you need to go thru, like getting additional insured certificates, maybe waiting longer to get paid and the extra admin time it takes to deal with a business admin over a customer who just simply hands you a check the minute you are done.
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