Carpet Cleaning Marketing
How many times have you heard a prospect utter those dreaded words “Can you give me a better deal? The other quote I had was cheaper”. Or how about the “What’s your lowest price?” line, that always puts a smile on my face! Or not!
Don't be the low price guy!
In the last few years I guarantee you’ve heard it more times than you care to count or remember. Am I right? Now a day’s everyone is trying to save a buck and cut corners, understandably so, but this can’t be good for everyone’s business.
So, if you’re like most of our clients don’t discount on your pricing. It’s important you show value to the potential customer so they can easily understand that just by hiring you they are getting a much better “deal” rather than a “cheaper price”. If you’re licensed, insured and have the track record that proves you can do the job right the first time around then let them know it and don’t be afraid to show off your credentials or examples of your work on your website. We all know the “cheaper” quote is more likely to cost twice as much in the end because we all get what we pay for.
Here are a few small business tips you may want to have handy for this situation; a value comparison chart – with the documents to back it up, listing some of the following facts.
How long you have been in business – Longevity Matters
The high limits of insurance you have to protect them
If you are open on weekends and after hours for their convenience
Years of combined service and certifications of the employees who will be performing the work
Testimonials work! Your website should outline several testimonials of satisfied customers and if you convenience the person who’s giving the testimonial to also allow you to include their picture, this adds additional creditability
Have a website that “tells a story” instead of screaming – “we’re the best in the world.” Consumers are used to everyone saying their company is the best there ever was.
If you offer “green” cleaning services tout the benefits on your website and to the consumer calling to ask for a quote.
If you give away free bottles of spotter, tell the customer this as you have them on the phone for a quote. We have carpet cleaners that close the deal simply because they are giving away something FREE
If you’ve only been in business a couple of years instead of touting longevity focus on your industry certifications, cleaning systems, technologies and guarantees.
Value will close more customers than price. Most carpet cleaners fail to close consumers who are looking for the best price simply because they don’t know how to close the deal over the telephone.
Dishonest carpet cleaners involved in “too good to be true” pricing and “bait & switch” tactics play a large part in devaluing honest and fair pricing by legitimate carpet cleaners. Consumers are used to seeing carpet cleaning coupons advertising an entire home cleaned for $79 or $8.95 per room pricing. When they call a legitimate cleaner and hear an honest price they first thing they want to say is “so and so” will do it for $79. Explain your differences – offer value - and if they want you to match the bogus price, let them go. They’ll learn.
Be ready for price objections, it’s normal. Don’t take it personal because many consumers don’t know what legitimate carpet cleaning should cost, be patient, stay positive and remain calm. Trust in your service and understand that money may be tight and some people just like to catch a “deal”. Use these tips outlined in this blog and you’ll get results!
Believe in your services and practice with someone concerning how you handle yourself on the phone when dealing with price shoppers and you’ll start to close more deals. Most consumers are impressed when they contact a “professional company” and quickly realize that you are the better deal and not just the better price.
One last tip – if you feel you may still not be able to close based on the information you have given, try to add on a service, this is a great way to add value without confronting that nasty price objection. An inexpensive giveaway would be to offer a free easy chair cleaning when you clean 4 or more rooms of carpet. You land the job – the customer receives a free cleaning and who knows, when you show them how clean you can make their upholstery, you just may land more work too.
I hope this was helpful, and as always let me know how it works when you try it.
Sovran Communications Group is a marketing and web development company exclusively representing the carpet cleaning and restoration service industries. For a free website evaluation, please visit us online at http://www.sovrancommunications.com/ and click on the form located on our home page.
