How Do Your Stats Look?

Hi Jim,

I share the following in case it would help your CLEAN TIP, blog, or a workshop. It shows; where my business came from in 2008, that I must do the job right, and what I need to "sell" when at the job.

71% were repeat clients
26% from referrals
3% new clients from the phonebook
Average per customer $306.85 (minimum service charge $150, .40 sf for carpet clng)

52% carpet cleaning
11% upholstery clng
11% carpet repair
11% odor control
11% floor care
4% color repair

I did not use a marketing program last year (and still had a decent year) but plan to go back to the postcards as these have always paid off with one job, (less than $100 to make, print, and stamp my own) AND I will not be in the phonebook this year and from now on. As recent CLEAN TIPS have used the word "trust", in our current world of fruits & nuts, "I" don't know if I can trust most of the strangers calling from the phonebook. Besides, my muscle and bones are getting older and I feel that my clientele is well established. I can survive without the 3% by using the postcards again constantly putting my name in front of my client's face that will remind them to have me and/or refer me.

This decision to discontinue the phonebook is partly from the suggestion made by YOU to keep such statistics as above, the recent CLEAN TIPS, and the YOU TUBE video you sent (thanks). I know that it is the right thing to do.

AGAIN I thank you for your commitment to the industry and helping the "rookies" to make it in this business.

See ya soon,
Ken
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Hi Ken

Thank you so much for the statistics. They parallel the experiences that other cleaners like you have shared with me over the past year.

Of course, there are not a lot of cleaners like you, so it has been a unique minority of owner operators who have built their businesses "a mile deep an inch wide", rather than the majority who have built their businesses a "mile wide and an inch deep".

Those latter types have not done as well as "your type" has.

Jim