I am sure that the experienced have no problem determing how much to charge at a walk-thru. Are there any tips that would be easy to remember to help newbies?

i.e. - how much more time for room full of knick-knacks? high ceilings? etc...

Also, is it 500sf per man hour? How do you know how many square feet the house is? Do you ask and take the customer's word? Or do you walk it off somehow?

Thanks for your advice,
Tisha

Walk it off. Also, Tisha check my reply to this post in the other board you posted it on. I'm done thinking tonight.

Thanks Angela...

tsinclair:

I am sure that the experienced have no problem determing how much to charge at a walk-thru. Are there any tips that would be easy to remember to help newbies?

i.e. - how much more time for room full of knick-knacks? high ceilings? etc...

Also, is it 500sf per man hour? How do you know how many square feet the house is? Do you ask and take the customer's word? Or do you walk it off somehow?

Thanks for your advice,
Tisha

Tisha,

Go to Zillow.com and verify the square footage of the property.  I verify all properties this way. 

Initial cleanings are about 350 sq ft. per hour, depending on the clutter factor, surfaces, etc.  Maintenance is more along the lines of 500 sq ft per hour.  This is just MY experience.  Others may work faster. 

With time and experience, you will get the hang of it.  Remember, you are giving an ESTIMATE and not a quote.  This is very important to remember!  I would make the mistake of setting a price in stone, then find out it takes 33% longer and not get paid for the extra time or effort.  When giving a price, give them the rate per hour and approximate hours you will be in the home.  Let them know that the time can be either more or less, as this is an ESTIMATE only.  :)

Torrey

Go to Zillow.com and verify the square footage of the property.  I verify all properties this way. 

Initial cleanings are about 350 sq ft. per hour, depending on the clutter factor, surfaces, etc.  Maintenance is more along the lines of 500 sq ft per hour.  This is just MY experience.  Others may work faster. 

With time and experience, you will get the hang of it.  Remember, you are giving an ESTIMATE and not a quote.  This is very important to remember!  I would make the mistake of setting a price in stone, then find out it takes 33% longer and not get paid for the extra time or effort.  When giving a price, give them the rate per hour and approximate hours you will be in the home.  Let them know that the time can be either more or less, as this is an ESTIMATE only.  :)

Torrey

I am a little confused...if I give them an estimate they pay at the time of cleaning, correct?  Do you bill them for additional time if it took longer?

You can give your customer the option of cleaning until her originally estimated time is up or you can continue cleaning until you've worked through your entire cleaning checklist and charge her credit for the difference. Some people tell the customer to add the difference to the next check and others have a backup credit card on file for the purpose of billing any additional charges. Hope this helps!

I see a few issues with this process. Most customers I have dealt with would be hesitant to allow a company to retain their credit card info with an initial cleaning. They dont know you and have no experience with your company as of yet. Further I have had customers schedule weekly cleanings during the consult, rave about the quality of service they have gotten during the follow up and then disappear and cancel any further cleanings. Maybe they think they will get a cheaper price by doing this? The point is you are then left trying to collect for services already rendered.

Charging by the hour for a set number of hours is fine unless you under estimate. Lets say a customer says call it quits at 4 hours. Generally they have already drawn the conclusion that their home shouldnt take more than 4 hours. I feel they would be disappointed to come home and find they were wrong. You warned them it could happen, right? Doesnt matter, this is their first dealing with you and your company and now they have a bad taste in their mouth.

I know a lot of companies operate by this rough estimate process and have no problems. It just doesnt work for me with a new customer.

tsinclair:

I am sure that the experienced have no problem determing how much to charge at a walk-thru. Are there any tips that would be easy to remember to help newbies?

i.e. - how much more time for room full of knick-knacks? high ceilings? etc...

Also, is it 500sf per man hour? How do you know how many square feet the house is? Do you ask and take the customer's word? Or do you walk it off somehow?

Thanks for your advice,
Tisha

 

 

Tisha

send me your email address by personal message (on this board) and I will send to you a cheat sheet of sorts that will help you to determine how much extra time those sort of items will take

 

 

Debra,

How do you handle first time cleans that end up taking longer than you estimated? I'm assuming that you don't collect credit card information based on what you said above. So what do you do when the cleaning takes longer than you estimated and the customer is at work or otherwise not at home? How do you collect the difference, or do you go ahead and clean the home without additional charge?

Rarely do I find myself in the position that an initial cleaning takes longer than I had estimated. I charge a flat fee and if I cannot determine what the job is worth I feel that is my issue, not the customers. Once you get burned a few times you tend to not under estimate the job at hand. I admit an initial cleaning from my company will cost you a pretty penny. However I find that weeds out the penny pinchers and short lived customers.