[Majestic]

I have one that I do ,I pass it early in the morning when I take my wife to work.
I put a note through there door at 7.30 am telling them I will be cleaning there windows today and can they please unlock there back gate.
Even doing this on the day of the clean they sometimes forget, after all we are only window cleaners

[simon knight]

Jay, I get it often....no-one there....back gate locked....not today mate...etc...no-one who posts on this site is immune from this crap!

Send or give a letter and the attitude is: "Oh the window cleaner isn't happy...." and the letter gets binned and forgotten within a nano-second. Whilst window cleaning is our all-important lively-hoods, to our customers it's...well....shall we say not very high on the agenda of "must haves".

Letters can be ignored, so a waste of time...on the phone...talk...this works!

[brett walker]

excellent  letter

Ive been thinking about doing something about locked gates
some customers give you keys but when you ask some of them for the gate key they look at you as if you have asked for their house key :

I can appreciate that people need to keep their gate locked for security reasons but some of them just wont co-operate but then have the cheek to moan when you havent done the back windows. .

These jobs are slowing me down its time to take action

regards

Brett

[EasyClean]

I have keys for any customer who has padlocked gates if they want their back windows cleaned as it saves the hassle of them remembering to unlock it for me.
If I don't have a key and they're out and I can't get around the back I just clean the front and charge a little extra for the inconvenience as it's their fault for not trusting me with a key.

I do like parts of your letter though, the part about letting them go in favour of newer,  more regular, loyal customers.! I do agree you are hiding behind your letter to an extent though. Just confront your customers and tell them that you would like a key otherwise the backs get left if they forget you're coming.

Good luck with your letter approach and I would like to hear in a couple of weeks/ months time how you get on with this approach just out of interest!!!

[Grafters Cleaning Services]

I have keys for any customer who has padlocked gates if they want their back windows cleaned as it saves the hassle of them remembering to unlock it for me.
If I don't have a key and they're out and I can't get around the back I just clean the front and charge a little extra for the inconvenience as it's their fault for not trusting me with a key.

I do like parts of your letter though, the part about letting them go in favour of newer,  more regular, loyal customers.! I do agree you are hiding behind your letter to an extent though. Just confront your customers and tell them that you would like a key otherwise the backs get left if they forget you're coming.

Good luck with your letter approach and I would like to hear in a couple of weeks/ months time how you get on with this approach just out of interest!!!

hi easy clean and others who have made comment to talking to the customer rather than a letter,
this is not a case of hiding behind a letter as i do nor fear talking to my customers.
i believe that by using a letter they have it in writting aswell as verball, besides from january anyone who leaves the backs locked will get the letter though the letter box and i will do fronts/sides only rather than make a return trip,

i have many customers who i never see from 1 year 2 the next as i don't collect, i use prepaid envelopes.

i have 1 couple whom i have never even met, the rang me, i priced the job and was given the go ahead, monthly call and they send cheque everytime.
these are the type of people i want, NOT TIME WASTERS

[Grafters Cleaning Services]

Good letter. Maybe it could do with polishing up by the "word police" but essentially good.

yeh enlish aint me bestest subjek

[Paul Coleman]

i can see your point shiner but the last thing i need is a great big bunch of keys weighing me down like a prison guard

I've not found it a problem because most people will not give the key out so I just don't work for them.  Hardly a week goes by without me declining to quote a job due to access issues.
I currently have six gate/padlock keys and there are two combination lock numbers to record.  I only take a key out that I would need that day. I put a tag on each of them with an encoded form of the address they belong to.
One guy even set his combination lock to a number that I chose in order to make it easier for me (no, I DIDN'T use my banking PIN .  )   

[pylofm]

I do not understand why sending/giving a letter is hiding....I think that it shows professionalism.

Cheers
Dave.

[Trevor Knight]

 It's clentele by the way (getting posh aren't we?    ) .

Actually it's Clientel 

[Trevor Knight]

Jay,

I would take out the "valid reason" and insert "without prior notice" as like others have said, what determines a "valid reason" ?

Otherwise,

Top notch!

Trev

[Paul Coleman]

 It's clentele by the way (getting posh aren't we?    ) .

Actually it's Clientel 

You prompted me to check this.

I looked on

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=14148&dict=CALD

Clientel gives no matches.  Clientele returns the expected match.

[Trevor Knight]

In which case I stand corrected, I use spell checker on Word and it prompts my original spelling, Clientel, must be a dodgy copy of word.

[ray l]

I think its a good letter and deserve putting on a document thread for people to copy,( if you dont mind)

(if its left here it will get lost soon)

[Paul Coleman]

In which case I stand corrected, I use spell checker on Word and it prompts my original spelling, Clientel, must be a dodgy copy of word.

Trevor.
I have to confess that I was surprised too when I looked it up.  I had previously believed that both spellings were acceptable.  So we've both learned from it.
Just a footnote by the way.  I don't sit on here correcting spellings as a rule.  I only mentioned it because the poster was going to send customer literature out like that and I wanted him to get it right for his own sake.

[Trevor Knight]

Good call mate, glad you are on the ball.

Still puzzled me with the spelling though, learn something new every day 

[Grafters Cleaning Services]

Jay,

I would take out the "valid reason" and insert "without prior notice" as like others have said, what determines a "valid reason" ?

Otherwise,

Top notch!

Trev

good point trev

[Mr. S]

Very good GCS, i am thinking along these lines for my new year culling.

Would it not be better to incorporate or use this as a terms of conditions? its just the way im thinking to stop these annoying people too!

[Grafters Cleaning Services]

Very good GCS, i am thinking along these lines for my new year culling.

Would it not be better to incorporate or use this as a terms of conditions? its just the way im thinking to stop these annoying people too!

good idea, maybe i should put in a title heading CONDITIONS