Welcome to KleenKuip.com's Professional Carpet Cleaners Discussion Forum!

  
Carpet Cleaning Forum Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > Carpet Cleaners Discussion > Business Marketing Advertising and Promotion Discussion
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Carpet Audit & Free Rooms
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login


Commercial Floor Cleaning Machines

Carpet Audit & Free Rooms

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
bubbleberry View Drop Down
Groupie
Groupie
Avatar

Joined: 01/November/2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 68
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bubbleberry Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Carpet Audit & Free Rooms
    Posted: 21/July/2008 at 10:38am
Hi Guys, I really need some help here...

For those of you who do not know, I am a European guy who came to the U.S. following hurricane Katrina, to help rebuild houses. I fell in love with another volunteer, a Californian lass & relocated myself & my  carpet cleaning business to the U.S.

I have been here just over a year, and am still trying to get to grips with the different ways that businesses promote themselves here. The fact that I started a business just as the housing market & the economy took a huge hit has done little to bolster my success, so I am hoping that some of you seasoned professionals can offer some advice on the various marketing options out there. At the moment finances will not stretch to buying any of the programs, the hope is that through hard work & honest advice I can weather the storm...

Things are getting tight, I do not have an established client base, so here are my questions...

Valpak, does it work for any of you guys? I have been getting enough custom to cover my costs, I have not advertised a particularly low price, and the customers I get love my work, so can they be turned into a loyal customer base?

Referrals, I am in a BNI group, that gives me some business, have any of you approached carpet stores, designers, real estate agents...how did you develop the referral relationship, how did you track, organize & reward your referrals? What is the best way to set up a referral program ?

Joe Polish, talks about a free carpet audit, what is this, he likes offering a free room, does this work, what conditions should I attach, how can I make this work, how can I ensure that I am not getting a bunch of freeloaders ? Do any of you have a copy of the audit you could mail me ?? He also talks about "five-arounds" & "three sequence mailers" would any of you be able to tell me what this means?

Does anyone have any other advice ?

If you check out my website  http://www.natradry.com/ you will see that I have some experience with graphic design, I did moat of the graphics on the site so I am more than willing to swap some marketing materials for some graphic design work ?

Thanks guys, I really need to get this thing moving.

Brian


its only carpet

www.natradry.com

Back to Top
Sponsored Links


Back to Top
Soil Lint Green View Drop Down
Carpet Cleaning Specialist
Carpet Cleaning Specialist
Avatar

Joined: 30/December/2007
Location: Oregon
Status: Offline
Points: 551
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Soil Lint Green Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21/July/2008 at 2:29pm
Valpak - It is the coupon that makes the difference.  Don't advertise price.  Use lead ins like 50% OFF weekend rates, $1 (match a written competitive offer and beat it by one dollar - no ads or coupons, must be a written signed estimate) and of course One Room Cleaned FREE (2 rooms at regular price, 1 room of equal or lesser size to the smallest one cleaned is added on free).  Do 3 coupons, not 1.  Make each have its own code the customer must use.  The choice is which coupon to use, not which cleaning service to use.

Referrals - BNI is a waste of time and money.  The only referrals that work are those coming from satisfied customers.

Joe Polish - Throw fliers.  Joe's methods are for a day and age that is long gone.  The customer base he promotes as being your target is shrinking fast and going toward value conscious buying.

Just get out there and spread the word.  Keep business cards on you and schedule with people rather than just give them your card.  The only way to get the sale is ask for it.

Hope all goes well for you.
It's ORY GUN, not OR A GONE. Learn to talk.
Back to Top
duckcountry View Drop Down
Master Carpet Cleaner
Master Carpet Cleaner
Avatar

Joined: 29/October/2005
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1082
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote duckcountry Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21/July/2008 at 2:40pm
BNI is looking for referrals from you, good luck on getting much out of them.  Polish is great at marketing a concept but not much else these days.  I have not use coupon books, coupons on door or full page fliers only and they get me 75% of my new work, existing customers get me the other 25%.  I vote for fliers hand delivered, not as a newspaper filler item.  Nice weather for delivering fliers.
Are you in a high paying business or are you just a self employed low paid grunt who thinks this business provides dignity?
Back to Top
bubbleberry View Drop Down
Groupie
Groupie
Avatar

Joined: 01/November/2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 68
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bubbleberry Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21/July/2008 at 3:02pm
Thanks Guys, I have started designing a tri fold brochure, that I will use door to door, knocking and introducing myself, no hard sell but simply asking when they next plan to have their carpets cleaned & if they mind me calling them a few weeks before hand ???

As for BNI, it did work great for me for about 6 months, I think it depends on the chapter you are in, and the level of business in that chapter, mine has 40 members & I have cleaned most of their carpets, but they have pretty small businesses, so the referrals are not flooding in, but its a nice way to start your day...I guess its about making them like you, one lady referred me to her church, and I clean that on a regular basis, the other gave me a lead to a lady with serviced offices, which gives me a bit of work.Big%20smile


Edited by bubbleberry - 21/July/2008 at 3:05pm
its only carpet

www.natradry.com

Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.06
Copyright ©2001-2023 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.359 seconds.