I went to the Hove Business Association networking breakfast last week where they always have a guest speaker. This time it was Roger French who runs the bus company in Brighton and Hove. He spoke about a number of interesting things, including pricing.

Well, this got me to thinking about our own pricing here at Green Mop. I always try to let people know that we offer a cost effective service, and that choosing ‘green’ shouldn’t mean you have to pay more. Our non-toxic products are actually really cheap. But our labour costs are often more than our competitors as we pay people better and have them on the payroll rather than having self employed status.

I strongly believe that fairly treated, valued staff will perform better than if they are receiving minimum wage and treated badly. That’s why I know we offer great value to our customers. But we probably won’t be the cheapest quote, and it really depends whether people are realistic or not. We recently won a contract for a customer who was paying very little for their cleaning service, but they were very unhappy with the work being done. They learned the hard way that the old adage of “you get what you pay for” holds true! They are now paying a fair price for a good job.

So, I’ve rambled there, sorry. My point is, I could only make our service cheaper if I paid the hard working staff less, or if we cut corners. It was a good exercise to think through our pricing and the reasons behind it. But it won’t be changing….
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