Competition is Tough! How do I deal with it?

[lsgrngr]

Dan,

I agree with you on this....so many businesses have a tendency to lose that "personal touch" with their customers. I went to a lady's house a few weeks ago to give a quote. I was there for over an hour because she simply wanted to talk; she invited me to sit with her and we had a genuine conversation about how she made it through hurricane katrina, how she had to start over, the death of her mother, etc. I listened - even knowing in the back of my mind "I could be doing more work right now!" I believe this business - especially residential - IS a very personal business. We are trusted in people's homes, near their personal items, etc.

When I called her back and gave her the quote, she sounded a bit shocked and said she would think about it; after not hearing back from her for over 2 weeks, I assumed I was not getting her business. But she called me and will now be a monthly customer. I fully believe the time I took with her had something to do with that!

I'm in this business to make people happy and to ease some stress in their lives (also to make money, but you know what I mean!). Doing this sometimes means doing a little more than cleaning.

[skyeways]

we have a widow who insists on feeding us coffee and cookies every time we go...it is very difficult because we have so little extra time but we do it every time and talk about her family and how she is doing. Most of the elderly are very lonely and the families are very busy so with them we take the time to read a book with a child or leave a picture on the chalk board prop up a stuffed toy or play with the dog. You have to have it in your heart to give more then just elbow grease.

[sparklingsolutions]

Build a great reputation for yourself and your company. I have noticed that after you have built that you can charge pretty much anything. Most of our business is from referrals. I recently had to pull the ad out of the newspaper because we were getting too busy. My wife and I started out cleaning and now we have 3 employees and looking to hire more.