Tony Shelton
BS Detector, Esquire
(This thread is mostly about commercial work. But feel free to add any thoughts about residential. I just don't know enough about residential pwing to start a thread like this about that kind of work)
Grocery stores run on an extremely small margin. AND we all HAVE to have groceries. Here is a story on how markets, grocery stores and other retail stores are now finding that they must cut costs and lower prices just to sell product.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091004/D9B4D6C01.html
On a personal level I'm already a cheapskate. For years we bought meat almost daily from the grocery store down the street in the clearance section for that day's dinner. Now the clearance center is empty almost all the time. Now everybody's doing what we've been doing for years. Everybody is tightening the belt.
This was touched on earlier this year but for the most part I think it was dismissed as something that is not going to affect our industry to a great extent. The general consensus was that this was only temporary and everything would spring back to normal soon.
The fact is, on the commercial end business is coming back to some extent. But from what we can see it's not NEW business as much as it is SHOPPERS looking for better pricing and OLD customers coming back because their concrete or filters are filthy now and they MUST be cleaned, but now on less frequent schedule.
Here are some discussion items:
Have you been looking for ways to show cost cutting to your customers? Have you discussed "splash and dash" service with your customers at a reduced rate?
How about cold water only except for gum removal to save fuel?
What about HIGHER frequency cleaning at a lower rate?
What about targeting advertising to the customers who MUST use your service and not spending as much where cleaning is an elective service?
I know many of you are going to cringe when you read this. But the fact is, many customers are more than happy with mediocre service. In the end which is better - to provide a high end service with no customers? or to bend and flex to match what your customers want.
I will put a disclaimer here though. We learned a hard lesson with the filters. When you give a customer a reduced rate for reduced service you MUST keep contact with the customer and remind them that THEY chose the reduced service and that you RECOMMEND a higher level of service. Keep a record of this because some new guy will take over and just think you are doing a crap job and get rid of you. But if you keep in touch frequently the "new guy" will be another opportunity to upsell to a higher level of quality.
Any thoughts?
Grocery stores run on an extremely small margin. AND we all HAVE to have groceries. Here is a story on how markets, grocery stores and other retail stores are now finding that they must cut costs and lower prices just to sell product.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091004/D9B4D6C01.html
On a personal level I'm already a cheapskate. For years we bought meat almost daily from the grocery store down the street in the clearance section for that day's dinner. Now the clearance center is empty almost all the time. Now everybody's doing what we've been doing for years. Everybody is tightening the belt.
This was touched on earlier this year but for the most part I think it was dismissed as something that is not going to affect our industry to a great extent. The general consensus was that this was only temporary and everything would spring back to normal soon.
The fact is, on the commercial end business is coming back to some extent. But from what we can see it's not NEW business as much as it is SHOPPERS looking for better pricing and OLD customers coming back because their concrete or filters are filthy now and they MUST be cleaned, but now on less frequent schedule.
Here are some discussion items:
Have you been looking for ways to show cost cutting to your customers? Have you discussed "splash and dash" service with your customers at a reduced rate?
How about cold water only except for gum removal to save fuel?
What about HIGHER frequency cleaning at a lower rate?
What about targeting advertising to the customers who MUST use your service and not spending as much where cleaning is an elective service?
I know many of you are going to cringe when you read this. But the fact is, many customers are more than happy with mediocre service. In the end which is better - to provide a high end service with no customers? or to bend and flex to match what your customers want.
I will put a disclaimer here though. We learned a hard lesson with the filters. When you give a customer a reduced rate for reduced service you MUST keep contact with the customer and remind them that THEY chose the reduced service and that you RECOMMEND a higher level of service. Keep a record of this because some new guy will take over and just think you are doing a crap job and get rid of you. But if you keep in touch frequently the "new guy" will be another opportunity to upsell to a higher level of quality.
Any thoughts?