Multi Neighbor Discounts?

Vrollingthunder

Vrollingthunder

Member
How much of a discount do you offer for multi neighbors that book for pressure washing? Do you give the one that booked so much for each one or discount them all? They are all trying to save money with this idea. Do not want to get stuck after the first one unless I know the others will definitely book too.

Anna:confused:
 
Generally speaking, I will give a $20 "finders fee" to anyone that sends me a referral that turns into a job. I usually mention this to a homeowner as I am collecting; telling them that the referral needs to mention their name. Honestly, I have had very few claim the $ as most will refer and either not want it, or ask that I take it off the referral's cost.

I will also discount 10% for repeat customers. I send out a postcard on the anniversary of their cleaning.
 
John you are very generous. If I gave $20.00 my phone would be ringing off the hook. In this part of Florida competition is high. I think the 10% is fair for repeat customers. Will try a discount next month let you know how it works out.

Anna;)
 
Anna you just answered your own question, if you gave $20 off the phone would be ringing off the hook.


Give that $20 off, and go for the volume, just think of it this way, you do 3 jobs for say $100 each = $300.

You do 12 jobs for $80 each = 960 assuming they all asked for the money. As John said most don't, some say give it to the person they referred you to and the rest is yours.

Would you rather just do those 3 jobs a week or day or be booked solid?

Jon
 
Jon.... The only problem is we do not get $100.00 per house here in Florida. The going price is $50.00 so it would not leave much. Guess we will have to concentrate more on repeats & give discount to referrals. They do wash twice a year so it adds up.

Thanks, Anna
 
Anna, I should have said I was only using the $100 as an example.

I do not clean houses so have no idea of prices there or here.

I only do industrial and commercial concrete cleaning.

Rare is it that I do a home driveway, I always bid them very high.

Jon
 
$50 for a house washing? Are you guys the low bidders? I won't even put the key in the ignition for less than $150 on a job. It is seriously cheaper for me to stay home and not even bother starting up the rig. Do you have other jobs you make more money on and just use this as a loss leader?
 
ron p

discount a $50 job? your doing house washing?
you have truck insurance,biz. insurance,chems,fuel,equipment maint,bookwork,phone,time for est.,advertising,plus other things that cost you $$ and you wash for $50?
sounds like family car,depot cold water machine, no insurance, and no collecting taxes to me, or you wash 7 to 10 per day?
no discounts on $50 jobs
you need to offer more service to your customer[add-ons], do a better job then anyone else and raise your prices.
 
Anna, I don't know if this helps or not. A few weeks ago a potential customer asked me to give him a bid on washing his house and restoring his deck. While there, his two adjacent neighbors asked me to bid on cleaning their houses. Sent each a bid letter and explained that if I did all three house cleanings in one trip I would knock off what amounted to about 12%.
 
I'll never forget the time Rod had this one customer ask him for a discount...The price was already good, and he had a promo price from an ad....long story short Rod told him he would be glad to give him a discount, but he would have to raise his price in order to do it. THAT shut the guy up. He went with it. :)

People will always ask for discounts. Doesn't mean you have to give them. If you are washing a house for $50.00, I wouldn't give them a dime.

We get folks that ask about group discounts, but the discounts are NOT given in conjunction with other specials, and are no better than other specials. You're just calling them something else.

Hope that helps...

Beth

p.s. try raising your prices and then showing a 10% discount to get you to where you wanted to be to begin with......
 
Beth & Rod said:
p.s. try raising your prices and then showing a 10% discount to get you to where you wanted to be to begin with......
Click to expand...

Be careful when you are phrasing it like this. There's nothing an attorney general likes better than a company who raises their prices just before a sale to trick people into paying their regular price believing they are getting a discount. They call it "deceptive business practices" and they'll nail you for it if they can prove it. Proving it is generally the easy part since all they have to do is subpoena your customer data with estimates, contracts, etc., and then just contact the customers and compare pricing between those and the discounted prices you are offering now. All it takes is one complaint and an overzealous deputy AG trying to impress their boss in an election year and you've got yourself a problem.
 
Yes, but if you are increasing your prices across the board (we did) due to cost increases, then there is no issue. Our prices for all services are set before our first ad hits the streets. If anyone were to look at our records, they would see the same price per square foot applied to each job and each service type. If that's where the rubber meets the road, no problem. We raise them annually.

What I'm trying to get at is regardless of what you call the offer, from "spring special" to "multi-family discount" to "fall special" the name you give it and the discount you apply is up to you.

Beth

p.s. Rod said what he said to make a point with they guy.... our printed coupon clearly states you can't have multiple discounts applied to the same service, and it's what he was asking for. All Rod did, was point it out....
 
Beth, I wasn't saying you were doing anything wrong. I know better. ;) I was simply pointing out that the way you phrased your advice might have been problematic for a power washer who didn't know any better. Anybody who is advertising right now for $50 and suddenly next week has ads in the paper for $65 but with a $15 "discount" would be in a bad situation if somebody noticed.

Not that it matters anyway. I know guys here in Pittsburgh who's idea of pricing changes for their business is calling me up disguised as a customer and asking "how much for a 12x12 deck, ground level, 3 stairs, stripping plus sealer?" And I tell them "Oh, we're really cutting our prices this year, you're in luck, $75 for the stripping and only $10 for the entire sealing job and that includes materials!" I actually heard a guy drop the phone one time when I said that and somebody in the background asked what was wrong and as he was trying to hang it up I heard him say "Pressure Clean is nuts, they're gonna put everybody out of business this year".

I know, I'm evil, what can I say? :D
 
LOL......:D Rod had one on the phone a few weeks back like that... The woman went right down the line, deck of this size, how much, house of this type, how much how about townhouses, how much..... So Rod threw a REEEEAAAALLLY low number out there on the townhouse washing.... Well, about a week ago the prices for two and three sided town homes showed up in their ads!!! We split a gut laughing. Did they really think we were THAT stupid? They even took our slogan and twisted it as much as they could without going over the line.

People call us all during the season, usually right before an ad hits.... Some of them get really indignant when you won't quote a deck price on the phone.... :)

Sorry for the poor choice of words before. I was in a bit of a rush. Hope it's clearer now.

Beth
 
I dont care which state or city you are in ,for $50 i dont leave my house.The job done right costs a lot more.Get a grip guys,$50 for a medium size house wash is off.You might have a lots of people that charge that,but dont mean you have to.
Once i bid $200 and asked the lady what the other bid was,she said $100.I asked if the man mentioned how long would it take him to do it,she said 1 hour.So i told her there is no way i can do it faster that four hours to do a good job.So i got the job a few days later
Johny
 
ron p/johny

i dont want you to give any info you dont want to but can you tell me about how/what you do
the other guy was getting $100 per hour your getting $50 and doing a better job
4 hours for a 1 story 3 bedroom house?
ill guess you do the gutters[outside] wash the house and the front steps
what takes 4 hours?
i also charge $150 to $200 but i do gutters inside and out house wash and front walk/porch
2 hours just want to know what your doing differnt then me?
 
You need to keep in mind, Anna is probably dealing with a bunch of old folks in mobile home parks for that $50. Competition has probably driven the price down.

I think you should not discount a $50 job. If you do good work, just ask for referrals, and you should probably get it. If they want a multi-discount for houses done together, explain to them that $50 is your rock bottom price.

Up here, I get $110 for a vinyl sided double-wide.
 
Thanks Everyone for your replys. We do Double Wides Mobile Homes that are not too big all on one floor. If done regularly can do in less than an hour. The homes are all vinyl siding on one floor about 1500 sq ft. Does not take more than an hour if they keep them up. It is the new customers that try to make deals. Think they can get it for nothing if they line up customers. Turned down someone thats why I am asking. Said he has to make a living cannot afford to wash for nothing. Guess it was how I felt that day. Vinny had just called to say the lady he just did had no money to pay him, was in a wheel chair with Polio. Called her up and told her she should have told him before he started the job,did not think it was fair to him since it was real dirty and a real hot day. Neighbor called me back said a check would be waiting for him on his door.
Some people try to take advantage if they can.

PS...There are pressure washer out there that do it for less.

Anna
 
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