Episode 213 – Janitorial Services Pricing
Are you charging enough for your services?
Janitorial services pricing tactics for maximum profit without losing current customers!
Today, your fearless host, Mike Campion is chatting with Marcia Fryslie from Liberty Building Maintenance! Marcia has seen some tremendous success in the past two years with her janitorial business but wants help with her janitorial services pricing.
We often see owners of cleaning companies asking what other owners charge per hour or what they charge per service. The flaw in that is that what is profitable or feasible for one company in one part of the world/country may not be for yours! Don’t blindly make your janitorial services pricing based on your competition. Take the time to calculate what your costs and overhead are are and add the margin you need to be profitable.
RESOURCE ALERT: For a deep dive into how to calculate pricing that works for YOUR company check this EPISODE out!
Once you have figured out your janitorial services pricing, it’s time to make sure your sales people use it correctly every time. The way you do that is with sensational systems!
Systems are the key to removing yourself from the process. This gives you the time and freedom to work on your business while your employees do it right every time. Take the time to write down your process. As you use the system, continue to improve it, learn from your mistakes and use them to create a perfected step by step process.
KEY POINT: Franchises aren’t really selling you a brand so much as they are selling you perfected SYSTEMS!
RESOURCE ALERT: Learn more about creating systems that ROCK for your commercial cleaning business in this Podcast
There are ways to build in more profit to your janitorial services pricing. Especially with existing customers that you don’t want to increase pricing on. You can offer additional services like quarterly deep cleans, carpet cleaning, windows etc. The idea is to provide amazing additional services and go above and beyond to make your customers feel loved and appreciated.
Again, make sure you have built in enough margin into your cleaning services so you CAN provide excellent service. Part of being profitable is being able to go the extra mile to ride above your competition in service.
KEY POINT: Show your customers some extra L-O-V-E. A little love goes a long way when making one-time customers lifetime clients!
If you are considering decreasing your janitorial services pricing for your repeat customers consider the following:
Obviously there’ the instant decrease in revenue which you don’t want. Then, if you have to go back and give your client anything extra, there’s no padding in your margin and that time and money can be a loss!
KEY POINT: Always make sure you have enough margin built into your janitorial services pricing!
One of the quickest ways to increase revenue is to increase your pricing. Easy enough for new prospective clients, but what about your existing ones? If you find that you aren’t making enough profit you may be faced with the difficult task of raising your prices on your existing clients. Never fear, Mike covers the HOW to do it in This Episode.
The foundational concept is, if you aren’t making any money, it’s not worth keeping the account. No matter how long they have been a client or how nice they are, if the account isn’t profitable, you can’t afford to service it. The flip side to that is, with that profitably, you now have the resources to provide amazing service to your clients.
KEY POINT: If your janitorial services pricing is higher, provide a “magical” experience to your customers to justify it!
Disneyland doesn’t have the best rollercoasters. They don’t have the cheapest food. But they have MASTERED giving a magical experience to their customers. They certainly couldn’t do it if they charged $5/person at the door. Take the time and think about what experience you can provide to your customers to create a unique experience that your competitors just aren’t doing.
Finally, as Mike has said many times before, trading dollars for hours is a low value proposition. But trading dollars for solutions, that is what people will pay for. Consider your service not just 2 or 3 hours of work, but providing a solution. Understand your customers better than anyone, ask them what makes them frustrated or stressed out. Once you know what your customers true pain is, build your service and experience around solving that pain for them. That is when budget becomes less of an issue and where your margin can really grow.
RESOURCE ALERT: Get even MORE info on Janitorial Services Pricing Techniques? Check out THIS PODCAST!
Marcia enlightens Cleaning Nation in our….
Lightning Round:
Time for three quick questions and three amazing answers:
Best advice you’ve received either personally or professionally?
In business, there are so many highs and so many lows and there is hardly any middle ground. Knowing this, just always think that there’s nothing more you could be doing. Give your best every day and take it one day at a time!
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in the cleaning business we can all learn from?
When I first bought this company, I thought we were going to have a ton of money and I made this assumption and then I promised a couple of my supervisors’ big raises. I gave them all big raises at once and business wise, this was not a good decision, one supervisor turned out not being what I thought he was going to be, and I can’t take the salary back. You can always give those supervisors more, but you can’t take it back.
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in the cleaning business we can all learn from?
What’s one idea cleaning nation can put into practice to improve their business or their lives immediately?
What’s one idea cleaning nation can put into practice to improve their business or their lives immediately?
Think about personal relationships and people. We have monthly operations meetings and at these meetings, I think of something to thank every single supervisor for. Maybe it’s their attitude, their appearance, or something that they’ve done. Make your employees feel appreciated and special!