Do your clients think you are a “bait and switch” company?

Far too many cleaners “get-in-the-home-with-a-cheap-price-and-then-up-sell-the-snot-out-of-the-customer”! (Also know as “bait-and-switch”!) So sad because high pressuring a “defenseless” customer in the inner sanctum of their home is just plain wrong! Even worse, this “bait and switch” Business Model doesn’t work! Think about it…

When customers feel ripped off they never call the cleaner again! So he or she is forced to spend huge sums advertising to find new victi… errr, I mean “new customers”! And for sure a “bait and switch cleaner” will NEVER create Cheerleaders– delighted clients who “sing your praises” everywhere. (Including online!)

So are YOU a “bait and switch” cleaner? You reply, “Of course not, Steve!” I believe you! And yet what are your first time customer feelings about your company? After all, if you quoted one price over-the-phone and then have to charge more after arriving at the job… hmmmm. OR do you try and “up-sell ’em” after starting the work? Either way…

Consider doing a separate “pre-inspection” for most first time customers.

NOTE: Before you freak out here our SFS Phone Format lets us “pre-qualify” people over the phone. So we did NOT pre-inspect:

1. Previous clients. (They are “pre-trained”!)
2. Urgent jobs. (Do you offer “Same Day Service”? You should.)
3. Small jobs. (Minimum charge cleanings didn’t get pre-inspected.
4. Rental move-outs. (Our property managers trusted us.)
5. Work located far away. (IF we accepted these jobs we priced over-the-phone.)

Take away the five caller categories above and I found we only pre-inspected about 20% of our total callers. However, IF you make a separate pre-inspection trip you better “book the job”! (I closed over 98% of my pre-inspections!) So download these free SFS resources:

Residential Pre-inspection

Commercial Carpet Analysis form

Restoration Water Loss Pre-inspection

The advantages of making a separate pre-inspection trip beforehand are many:

1. More work booked. (You always sell better face-to-face!)
2. Higher job tickets. (Points #1 and #2 MORE than paid for my separate trip!)
3. Fewer misunderstandings. (Customers lie… I mean are “overly optimistic” on the phone.)
4. More efficient scheduling. (You can book the extra TIME for the Additional Service Options your client chooses.)
5. Less “technician stress”. (Most techs don’t like “selling”.)
6. Much faster production! (Your tech can get right to work with a pre-priced work order!) And finally…

IF your client has “clearly defined expectations” you will never be accused of being a “bait and switch” guy! Pre-inspections are so worth it… and yet my most profitable customers I never had to pre-inspect! Let’s talk about point “a” above soon!

Steve