Frustrated With People Who Think My Prices Are Too High

A cleaning business owner shared her frustration:

I recently gave a bid for a 3200 sq ft.house with 4 bedrooms 3.5 baths. All 3 baths are used daily, sheets need changing on 3 beds. There was lots of wood and tile. I told the lady it would be $120 for weekly and $145 biweekly.

She thinks this is much too high. Now her last girl was charging $85 weekly and she wasn't happy with her cleaning. As she walked me through the house she wiped her finger across the blinds and said she doesn't dust here and she doesn't dust here. Plus they let her go because some of their pain meds went missing.

What do these people want? Do you think these prices are too high? I am so tired of cleaning homes for nothing! 

Another business owner offered the following advice:

No need to be frustrated, this is an excellent opportunity for you to demonstrate the old "you get what you pay for" principle!  Now, you may not win this bid, who knows, but it's living proof that you are right on target with your pricing.  Allow the customer's experience to give you new confidence that you are pricing your jobs correctly. 

They are looking for a better service and they've found one.  Now it's up to them to make the change and "get what they pay for".  Of course, it helps if you get better and better at demonstrating how your service is different and why you are worth more (explain about insurance, bonding, payroll taxes, quality, trust!).  Share with the client how quickly her "savings" will evaporate if instead of meds, the cleaner had stolen a watch or diamond ring.  Leave it at that. 

Sometimes we give bids to the wrong prospects.  People who are not willing to pay for quality are not really good prospects for you.  So, it's not that your pricing is all wrong, it's just that you are either talking to the wrong prospects (people who want something for nothing are not good clients) or you need to work on how you demonstrate the difference between your quality services and the low-cost bad services out there.

Do you have advice for this frustrated cleaning business owner? Click on the Comments link below to share your thoughts.

Comments

[Shaw Warner]

Wow...is this ever a "hot topic", which runs too close to home! I experience high class homes with all the brass & class, merely offering top pay $100.00 for a large home. Then I have a humble working mom, going to law school...ever-so-willing to pay $135.00 for a three story town home? Construction companies are the utmost WORST! They want the MOST bang for the buck...treat you like they own you, you settle for less than originally proposed...THEN, one of their guys comes in after you have cleaned & makes a mess...THEN, they expect you to clean again after them?!! These well learned lessons in the cleaning biz certainly makes you much wiser fast. You DO NOT fret over a loss of a potential future "dead-weight" client. The best clients come from a franchised disaster experience, where you come in & have their home shiny & new. They will respect you for the rest of your cleanings :)