Where would YOU look for our services?

[trixyben]

Hi folks,

I have a carpet cleaning business and at the moment business is very very quiet, I have spent over £3000 on advertising the past 4 months months hoping to get back on track but didnt work as well as I thought.

My question to you is if you were looking for a house cleaner, window cleaner, carpet cleaning etc were would you look for one.

My advertising mediums would be local papers, yell.com yell pages, web site, leaflets which have worked well in the past but i would just like to get some feedback from you all as to were you would look for similair services.

Thanks in advance

 

[Edward Moss]

First place for most of the services I use, Google.

 

[fisicx]

I'd ask collegues for a recommendation.

I wouldn't use the local rag or yell or yellowpages because none of these come with endorsements.

 

[Allan123]

house cleaner - Probably Yell
window cleaner - Whoever already works on my street
carpet cleaning - Whichever comes through the door with the best deal on at the time

 

[twhite]

I would not look at all. I'd auction the job and let contractors find me. Have a look at our service http://www.tenderwarehouse.co.uk/

 

[lazytycoon]

A friend of mine runs a cleaning company and she has gained all of her clients though network meetings. Estate agents refer their clients to her at end of rent, accountants have hired her to clean the offices and she has cleaned up after electricians. It takes a few months until your trusted and people refer their network to you but from what I have seen it's well worth it.

 

[Vizcom]

In this order.

Ask friends and business associates
Local directory
Google
Yell
Local paper
In the pub

 

[TotallySport]

I would do it myself lol

 

[MorrisChesterfield]

Hi,

What area are you in, as i have seen on source derbyshire ( council tenders contract website) and they are after carpet cleaners.

might be worth a look, i have a contract clearing void properties and you cant beat it!

Ben

 

[predicmack]

Thanks for your advertising.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

My question to you is if you were looking for a house cleaner, window cleaner, carpet cleaning etc were would you look for one.

I'd type it into Google adding my home town/county.

 

[JayP]

First place for most of the services I use, Google.

Same here, every single time. But expensive medium to get right.

Who is your target market? Have you asked your existing/previous customers where they searched?

There really is no harm in asking

 

[bookpm]

I was recently looking for a window cleaner myself, first port of call was like many others here: google "window cleaner" + area name. I then looked on some online forums and a couple of local business directories (e.g. through the local paper).

It might also be worth you looking to see if your local council has a 'trusted trader' database, as I know elderly people that exclusively use our local scheme for tradespeople.

 

[Just a simple website]

Perhaps there isn't much call for carpet cleaning as most people have wooden flooring?

 

[pbcclements]

For this kind of service I have seen members at BNI (networking) do really well. I think it's because the cost of the services are relatively small & members feel happy recommending this sort of thing. I am not a member of BNI but was a few years ago (for software services). 4Networking is another group that offers similar business networking possibilities.

The downsides of these groups are that they can be a bit time consuming & you can feel like you're spending life networking & not actually doing work. I do think that your services are quite suited to it though as word of mouth must be quite useful where the service is primarily targeted at locals.

Good luck & most of these do free introductory meetings.

Pete Clements.

 

[gordano]

I have found such services in the past through online searching unising local geo details.

From a business perspective I would use some of the network and referral suggestions already added in the thread. Additionally I would consider leaflet marketing.

PS - if you cover Enfield area I need some carpet cleaning