Most carpet & upholstery cleaning companies won't give you an exact price on the phone, or on their website. There are several reasons for that, the main reason being their professionalism. In order to give the customer the exact price for cleaning his carpet or furniture the carpet cleaning technician must inspect it first. Always ask for an on-site estimate, many carpet cleaning companies offer free on-site price estimate.
Seriously. We know - you want a 20 minutes carpet cleaning that will leave your carpets all new and fresh smelling, but it does not work that way. When cleaning your carpets, a carpet cleaning company wants to give you the best service. To do that, the carpet needs to be estimated according to different variables which will make out the estimate, eventually.
Each carpet is different - its fabric, its quality, its current condition and its size. To get the exact price for carpet cleaning, you need to get the technician at your location, to examine the carpet close & personal, like a professional should. Sometimes, that small coffee stain you always wanted to get rid of will prove to be a real pain, and require an additional treatment, or just extra time. And we all know, time is money.
As mentioned above, each carpet is individual. Same goes for upholstery, rugs, air ducts and other items that are cleaned in the house. For example, a living room in one house can be 150 square feet, while another house will have a 400 square feet living room. These are very different rooms, but both are living rooms. Does that mean they can be price the same?
No, they can't. Even though that might be obvious, to some it is not. The different size of the rooms requires different approaches. The larger room takes more time, materials, and sometimes even a different technique. More on that later, but for now - how many of you actually know the size of your living room?
To be honest, not many. Whether it's their own home or the office, most people haven't measured them. They might be able to estimate the size, but roughly. When the customer estimates the size roughly, carpet cleaners estimate the price roughly. It's not a matter of "switch & bait" as you might think, it's more a matter of what is the actual cleaning time and the resources that would be invested in cleaning that room. Who would be better at estimating that, the professional carpet cleaner or anyone else?
"Set the expectations right and do not promise things you cannot provide"
This is the first sentence in "Carpet cleaning 101". Well, actually it's a part of "customer service 101", but we really liked the sentence so we adopted it. We know our capabilities. We know our limitations. We do not promise our clients things that we cannot do, and especially don't offer prices we can't stand behind.
Yes, they do exist. You don't need to look hard to find one that provides free onsite estimates. You can just call us at 703-652-4267. We'll provide an initial price on the phone, and then if that sounds good - send you a carpet cleaning professional that will be able to provide the exact price. In most cases, he'll be able to get the job done at the same time, if you agree to the price estimate, of course.
Not every company will send out a technician to give you the exact price. Not every company will keep the price that was given to you on the phone. Transparency is key, especially when choosing a service provider for a service with such a wide range of prices and options.