[semy]

hi all,

i know its not down to just the bin cleaners that have to run around at nights collecting money so help me all before i go nutz !!!!!!

i thought about direct debit but its allready an established round and there is no way they are going to pay £4 for DD set up fee

if i go out collecting i normaly get about 60-70% in from that days work which is ,in my view "ARGHHHHH"

i know i will get it at some point but i want to do the job and get paid at least 90% of the days work with out going out night after night

well i hope you guys can help me out , just throw me some idea's cause i know im not the only one that will be interested in this thread

many thanx  

[Philip Hanson]

Well semy,

I'm a window cleaner, and I used to have the same problem.  After working all day, we then had to spend perhaps 2 hours on the evening collecting.  I hated it.  

The way we eventually solved it was to leave a post-paid envelope with the customer, attached to our "windows cleaned today" card, and ask them to send us a cheque.

It worked perfectly, and though we had to pay for the stamp and envelope etc, it was well worth the cost in the time and petrol saving.

Perhaps a similar system would work for your wheelie bin business?

i thought about direct debit but its allready an established round and there is no way they are going to pay £4 for DD set up fee

Not Direct Debit, but standing order can be used.  Whereas a direct debit authorises you to collect money from an account and is quite complicated, a standing order is set up by the customer.

They instruct their bank to pay X amount to your account on the same date each month.  These are usually free to set up on personal accounts.  We have some customers who use them.

-Philip

[George-Reid]

Semy
Where are you getting the £4 charge for setting up DD
We pay a fixed rate per month I thinks its around £20 but will check with accounts Monday then just the cost of the transaction. Its by far the best way to go. Even if it was £4 thats nothing compared with time fuel etc over a year

We charge £3 per clean and offer DD as follows £19 Quarterly £38 Six monthly £72 Annually.

With DD you are in control you can change prices and are informed of any changes made by customer. With standing order the customer is in control you can not up prices they have to make the change and if they cancel the bank don't inform you. I started this way but it was a mistake.

New customer its £15 up front for first 5 cleaned + sign direct debit. It they don't sign we will try to get them to pay by check in advance if not we will collect during the round only we don't go back it is the customers job to pay for work done but you have to educate them. Because of this policy their are parts of our area we don't work in we just don't need the hassle.

In the long run it is worth it you will loose customers but will make more cash because you will not be working nights fuel etc.

As philip sae may work and might be the way to go with your existing customers and start changing your new customers.

Or hear is an idea how much do you charge lest say its £2.50 perhaps its time to increase your charge to £3.00 offer customers a year at old price if they sigh dd other wise they have to pay the increased price of £3.00

Hope this helps Good luck

George

[MR WHEELIE CLEAN]

Hi Semy,

My customers can Pay on the day or pay in advance. If they choose to pay in advance they get 1 free clean for every 6 cleans they buy. I estimated that it takes me nearly as long to collect the money on the day as it does to clean the bin, therefore it pays me and the customer feels good as they get something free.  I call it buy 6 get 1 free deal!  Also if they are not in you are then into returning at some point.  What, I have found is that you can not push all customers down this path but those that do will save you time and money.  If you adopt a policy that does not accept pay as you go you will certainly alienate some customers.  I have also found that many new customers may be wary of paying up front until they can trust you as a company.  Therefore, customers who start as pay as you go may later change to pay in advance.  With reference to the pay as you go customers, I collect the next time I clean, and only do evening collection if I feel the round is getting behind too much.  I only allow a Pay as you go customer to get up to 4 cleans behind, or 2 cleans if I don't trust them!  The competition in this area will now only take on customers who pay for the year up front, but they have been established for 5 years plus and are in the enviable position of being able to ''cherry pick''. However, this means that I have picked up some of their potential customers.  When starting up new I feel you can not afford to cherry pick, but as time goes on and you get more established you can root out the pain in the arse customers and eventually convert customers to payment methods that you want, preferably by using the carrot method rather than the stick method.

Hope this helps, but at the end of the day there is no right or wrong way and therefore you can mix and match all ways, just make sure you keep good records and if a customer disputes your payment records you will have an audit trail to look back on.

Regards,
Nev.

[Rob_Mac]

Customer contact is so important, because ive always collected - though it is a pain in the butt - i always get more work from my regular thursday visits

[semy]

thanks guys for all your ideas

im going to do the postage paid envelopes idea a go for sure

im also going to try and get them to leave the money out on the day ,i will have to work out some sort of good excuse other than collecting at night is a pain in the arse

[George-Reid]

Semy
I checked with accounts we pay £20 per month for direct debit facility and then 10p per transaction. No £4 set up. If you have hundreds of customers this is much more cost effective than SAE.

Nev has a good idea ref 7 cleans for 6 to get payment in advance easier than collecting for sure.

Don't get me wrong when I started I had one van and one driver we used to take it in turns to collect it was a nightmare it is something you have to get sorted before you grow to big.


Good luck with the SAE hope it works for you.

Cheers

George

[semy]

sorry it wasnt me that was getting charged £4 ,it was my customers that would have to pay for there DD set up fee.

i think im going to get leaflets done with a few different payment options on there for them to choose from. im going to put the price up to £2 a fortnight as well, but im waiting to find the van im after and start recycling the water that would give the excuse to put the price up.

thanks again  

[George-Reid]

Semy
Must be a Northern Ireland thing never seen a charge on any of my bank accounts for setting up a dd.

Regarding price increase this is the ideal time to try and get advance payments ie pay for x at old price or pay new price now.

Cheers

George