[frames to panes]

Finally got paid after three weeks today - cheque arrived in my sae with it a snotty letter because i used a ladder to access the back. I MUST phone them the night before in future...... tossers! They are unhappy with me gaining access to the back by any means other than them letting me in.

[supernova77]

Bin them!

[john tomkins]

I ring then the night before to leave the gate unlocked, unfortunately we as window cleaners are low an the priority list, so occasionally they forget, I either do 1 of 2 things, gain access by ladder ( weighing up the customer themselves first) or just do the fronts.
Depends whether you rang and they forgot to leave it open or you don't ring and this occasion they just weren't in.

But there are always the funny folks who moan at anything :

[elite mike]

Bin them!

i agree

[niceandclean]

Finally got paid after three weeks today - cheque arrived in my sae with it a snotty letter because i used a ladder to access the back. I MUST phone them the night before in future...... tossers! They are unhappy with me gaining access to the back by any means other than them letting me in.

If they want you to call the night before, call them. It will take a minute at the most!

[elite mike]

9 times out of 10

they forget,in my exp 

[ronnie paton]

ring them or text them i always offer this it does give yiou a good image.#

Getting paid immediatly wont always happen so as long as they dont take the pee i think 3 weeeks is not that bad

[Feen]

Finally got paid after three weeks today - cheque arrived in my sae with it a snotty letter because i used a ladder to access the back. I MUST phone them the night before in future...... tossers! They are unhappy with me gaining access to the back by any means other than them letting me in.

If they want you to call the night before, call them. It will take a minute at the most!

Got sick of that. You can't ring them all. As above ditch the custy.

[windowwashers]

Finally got paid after three weeks today - cheque arrived in my sae with it a snotty letter because i used a ladder to access the back. I MUST phone them the night before in future...... tossers! They are unhappy with me gaining access to the back by any means other than them letting me in.

If you dont need the custom, I would not go down that road of calling everyone the night before (opens you up to oh not this time) I had the same from a woman, I got a text today cancelling cleaning, so I call them and ask the reason and asked if it was something wrong with the quality of work, I got wife is not happy as you clean them when we are out sometimes I got thanked for the call and I stayed polite, last time I got dont go in the back if we are not in so I didnt and got moaned at for not doing all the house : this is the lady that went round with a white tissue wiping the frames and under them to see. You cant please everyone and I am glad she cancelled saved me a job.

Ian

[mark dew]

i agree with the ones who say drop the job. This type of is the worst for building a round on. I assume she told you or agreed that you came monthly?
She either wants you or she doesn't?? The trouble with agreeing to these kind of demands is that she will think she is doing you a favour whenever she agrees to a clean. And once that happens people like this will take the pee.

[LWC]

i put a post up a couple of weeks ago about this, she rang me and winged about absoulty everything. got back off holiday with a snotty letter in post and it all came down to me getting over her fence...which may i add is about a meter high

[jonah]

i put a post up a couple of weeks ago about this, she rang me and winged about absoulty everything. got back off holiday with a snotty letter in post and it all came down to me getting over her fence...which may i add is about a meter high

Did you take a run up and vault it ?

[LWC]

i put a post up a couple of weeks ago about this, she rang me and winged about absoulty everything. got back off holiday with a snotty letter in post and it all came down to me getting over her fence...which may i add is about a meter high

Did you take a run up and vault it ?

she must of thought so by the way she reacted!!

[Londoner]

I must be getting old but I just think life is too short.

You can grade customers on a scale of 1-10. The mega moaners are 10 and the sweet old ladies who are always in, never moan and pay on the spot are 1.

Once they start getting past about 7 their days are numbered.

The moaners are the worst. Some of them just have nothing better to do.

[rugby]

i only take on work without locked gates etc, if they dont have easy access i dont take on the work.
makes life so much simpler 

ps  ditch em

[Paul Coleman]

Finally got paid after three weeks today - cheque arrived in my sae with it a snotty letter because i used a ladder to access the back. I MUST phone them the night before in future...... tossers! They are unhappy with me gaining access to the back by any means other than them letting me in.

I would somehow let them know that if window cleaners ran their businesses on the basis of only cleaning when the customers were in, then there would be no window cleaning businesses (not domestic ones anyhow).

[Paul Coleman]

i only take on work without locked gates etc, if they dont have easy access i dont take on the work.
makes life so much simpler 

ps  ditch em

Likewise - except for a few very lucrative jobs and, of late, a bit of subcontract work where I have no control as the customers aren't mine.

[steve.ternent]

  I had to climb over a locked gate with my back-pack on, using my small ladder!

They moaned about loose brick on the wall I stand on! 
I had rang the night before and arranged for the gate to be left unlocked...                                                 
It wasn't of course 

We have now agreed to do only the front if not in...Which is almost always  :
It's just another ploy of the tight to save money      

[s.w.c]

unlocked gates don't you love it, yes there is the odd time they forget but i have a rule if it happens twice in 6mths then i bin them cause there unreliable and how can i build a professional round with customer's like that even though Ive phoned in advanced.

[Cleaner Windows]

I don't ring the night before, sod that! I tell all my customers that I dont ring, and to make sure I can have access somehow, either that or I will climb thier gate if they don't mind or just do front only....otherwise you'll be spending most of your time on the phone with all these custy's who want a phonecall first and that time could be used for something much better like drinking a nice cold beer! 

[niceandclean]

I don't ring the night before, sod that! I tell all my customers that I dont ring, and to make sure I can have access somehow, either that or I will climb thier gate if they don't mind or just do front only....otherwise you'll be spending most of your time on the phone with all these custy's who want a phonecall first and that time could be used for something much better like drinking a nice cold beer! 

I always contact my customers the night before, always have, wether i need to get access or not. Takes me around 15-20 mins per night, if they are not in i leave a message/or/and text. If they forget to leave the gate open, i clean the fronts, and they are then charged for the full clean. I again find i pick up more work this way, as they say oh could you do the gutters, cladding, garage door ect, and i build up a nice rapour with my customers as i never hardly see most of them during the week. Just what i do!! 

[Cleaner Windows]

each to thier own mate, I'm glad it works for you but personally I dont want to waste my private time doing stuff like that. I still have a good rapour with my customers because I am honest with them and polite, curteous etc and they are loyal to me in return. 

[LWC]

i really couldnt be doing with ringing them either, would take forever. and we're last thing on their list to do so most probably forget

[niceandclean]

Very rare i have any problems, but each to there own! It works well for me!

[Dale Smith]

When we started out in Swindon, we told all we would phone..... and when we do we get all the favourite excuses......
Now anything new we pick up gets told we do not phone....

From the learnings of that, when we got going in Devizes we told all customers we would not phone....... never have any problems there......no cancellations at all.......... I know which round I prefer.....

[frames to panes]

Wish i'd never started the phoning lark. When i next txt this customer he will have the perfect opertunity for a "not today thankyou" excuse.

[Dale Smith]

Dave I ask existing custies in Swindon now if they still need a phone call.... slowly getting the phone calls down ....

[frames to panes]

Mmm Devizes next week it is.

Which reminds me i was offered to price up the Tescos there last year in the high street - they might still be worth a try (high windows round the back).

[Dale Smith]

Lol ..... stay off my land..... lol 

All joking apart there is about 23 w/cleaners in Devizes... and all are busy. The amount of building going on there is close to the amount they are doing in Swindon... not sure how long it will last in the present economic climate though....

Hmmmm Tesco.... might give that a shot..ta muchly 

[frames to panes]

They are seviced by a contractor (from Wales). Last i heard they had no high reach facilities, there was a whole string of stores on offer right down to Weymouth. Things might have moved on since then but i wasn't experienced enough to want them at the time and didn't want to travel.

[frames to panes]

That's a lot of cleaners in a fairly small town too, which explains why it takes so long to build up a decent round. I spotted a van in my town the other day (top of the range all the kit) so i stopped for a chat. I mentioned i had seen him cleaning in one of the local villages "oh that would have been my brother in the other van" - turned out it was another brother of his in the THIRD van. Lots of competition down this way.

[Dale Smith]

Swindon's like that Dave, we find it a tough nut to crack

[Paul Coleman]

each to thier own mate, I'm glad it works for you but personally I dont want to waste my private time doing stuff like that. I still have a good rapour with my customers because I am honest with them and polite, curteous etc and they are loyal to me in return. 

In my entire round, I only have perhaps 4 that I need to ring first - and I make sure that the price justifies the potential hassle.  With the jobs that I subcontract (3 days per month or thereabouts) most of them require prior notification.  I get really fed up when I've taken the trouble to make contact (sometimes by voicemail) and still there is no access (like if they've forgotten or if they've gone away).  It really brings it home to me just how right I was to stop taking work that required pre-notifying.  If the customers on the subcontact stuff were mine, I would only have about one third of them remaining by now.

[Cleaner Windows]

yup, same as most things in life, basically..."keep it simple"!
otherwise in the end we would probably get fed up with the hassle and give up. If your work is nice and easy to manage then there is less stress so it makes the job more bareable, isn't it bad enough for us having to put up with rain and wind, cold and god knows what else thats a pain in the rump for us wc'ers?  the more simple and stress free the better me thinks!   

[Paul Coleman]

yup, same as most things in life, basically..."keep it simple"!
otherwise in the end we would probably get fed up with the hassle and give up. If your work is nice and easy to manage then there is less stress so it makes the job more bareable, isn't it bad enough for us having to put up with rain and wind, cold and god knows what else thats a pain in the rump for us wc'ers?  the more simple and stress free the better me thinks!   

I tend to agree with you on this one.  The best bit about this work for me is the low stress element and having a certain amount of freedom.  I believe we tend to shape our businesses to suit our own personalities.  Mine requires low stress and low hassle levels.  Doesn't seem that my prospects of becoming an employer are too high does it?   

[Pureandclean]

Why do customers not want us to access the back when they are not in? The only answer I can see is that they don't trust us around the back of their house.

My view is that, if they cannot trust me, I cannot trust them, and therefore I have dropped a number in the past.

This last week one lady who I dropped for this, came back to me and asked if I would take her back on. She had asked her next door neighbour to tell me not to do the back because she was on holiday.

I explained to her that my name and integrity are very important to me, and that her neighbour would obviously conclude that I was not a trustworthy person, because of her actions.

After 25 years of cleaning windows, and 20 years on this particular estate, having customers treat you as though you are a burglar does not put them in my good books, and so I now tell them so.

[Paul Coleman]

Why do customers not want us to access the back when they are not in? The only answer I can see is that they don't trust us around the back of their house.

My view is that, if they cannot trust me, I cannot trust them, and therefore I have dropped a number in the past.

This last week one lady who I dropped for this, came back to me and asked if I would take her back on. She had asked her next door neighbour to tell me not to do the back because she was on holiday.

I explained to her that my name and integrity are very important to me, and that her neighbour would obviously conclude that I was not a trustworthy person, because of her actions.

After 25 years of cleaning windows, and 20 years on this particular estate, having customers treat you as though you are a burglar does not put them in my good books, and so I now tell them so.

Some years ago, a few of my customers were burgled over about a year or two.  One of the questions aasked by police was "Have you got a window cleaner?"  I know this because the customers told me so (all of them said they stuck up for me as I had been a regular for quite a while).  I even said to one of them that it's odd that all the burglaries occurred on one particular policeman's "patch" and maybe they should keep an eye on him.  It was tongue-in-cheek of course but I felt I needed to make the point.

[Cleaner Windows]

good man!

[Dave Turley]

BIN EM....BIN EM ALL!

lol   

[Tim82]

 I don't like ringing them the night before. It's a big hastle trying to find 'em in in the evening cos a lot of people go out anyway.

 I have an arrangement with a handful of customers where I text them instead. I even text to a couple of customer's land lines so they get a robotic voice message and it just rings them back automatically til they get the message if they're not in when I text. It's surprising how many people prefer a text. In this modern day of mobile phones it makes sense!

 I'm even the only person one customer ever gets a text from so it's a novelty to her!

[Tim82]

I must be getting old but I just think life is too short.

You can grade customers on a scale of 1-10. The mega moaners are 10 and the sweet old ladies who are always in, never moan and pay on the spot are 1.

Once they start getting past about 7 their days are numbered.

The moaners are the worst. Some of them just have nothing better to do.

Could you describe numbers 2 - 9 aswell please (just for a laugh) 

[Helen]

unlocked gates don't you love it, yes there is the odd time they forget but i have a rule if it happens twice in 6mths then i bin them cause there unreliable and how can i build a professional round with customer's like that even though Ive phoned in advanced.

2 times in 6 month = unreliable?
March, "had a funeral to go to, sorry I forgot"
July, "Was rushed into hospital the night before for an emergency operation"

2 times running would spark us into action, but what if you had 2 emergencies yourself in 6 months and could not clean as agreed, does that make you unreliable?  (note... You is used as in "general" not in personal)

[Ravensford]

I have read many of Helen's posts & she always seems to be the 'Voice of Reason' to me. I entirely agree that twice in six months doesn't make them unreliable. Leaving the gate open for a window cleaner is way down the list of priorities for most people. Buy a 'Little Big Ladder' which means you have a step ladder without a centre tie & you can put over the gate for easy access.

Now if it was a 'Not Today' customer twice in six months I would have dropped them like a hot potato.

Many wc seem all too eager to live by strict rules - i.e. payment within a certain timeframe - which, if I was a custie I would dislike at the very least. I ask payment within 28 days but even then people forget. Providing it's not the same people paying late every time it doesn't bother me.

Ravensford

[NWH]

I agree about the payment comment,i don`t have any set time scale in which they have to pay i always get my money in the end and that`s the main thing.I have a lot of customers that pay by BACS ie commercial work,quiet often my domestic customers will owe me 3-4 cleans i never collect.

[Clive McDonald]

 Helens Voice of reason or not Ravensford he was clearly talking about the the locked gates of people who had specificaly asked him to phone the night before and never climb over.You may think this way down the list of most peoples priorities, I think it's rude.

[NWH]

Just keep doing the front only,they will soon unlock the gate.

[Paul Coleman]

I have read many of Helen's posts & she always seems to be the 'Voice of Reason' to me. I entirely agree that twice in six months doesn't make them unreliable. Leaving the gate open for a window cleaner is way down the list of priorities for most people. Buy a 'Little Big Ladder' which means you have a step ladder without a centre tie & you can put over the gate for easy access.

Now if it was a 'Not Today' customer twice in six months I would have dropped them like a hot potato.

Many wc seem all too eager to live by strict rules - i.e. payment within a certain timeframe - which, if I was a custie I would dislike at the very least. I ask payment within 28 days but even then people forget. Providing it's not the same people paying late every time it doesn't bother me.

Ravensford

Surely though, if you have another income (as I believe you did), it isn't quite so necessary to be strict with the customers.  Many of us have window cleaning as our only income so it's important that the business works smoothly.  I subcontract some of your old work from someone (to remain nameless) and I find that the level of reliability isn't so good with a fair number of them when it comes to leaving access as requested.

[frames to panes]

Well i had to phone for access just now for a country house (electric gates) "another couple of weeks they arn't that dirty yet!" These people have a Merc, a Porche 4x4 a BMW X5, swimming pool, lake, the lot. 

[windowwashers]

Well i had to phone for access just now for a country house (electric gates) "another couple of weeks they arn't that dirty yet!" These people have a Merc, a Porche 4x4 a BMW X5, swimming pool, lake, the lot. 

Thats the problem with calling people the night before, send a text, and make sure they are told that it costs more if these have every other time cleaning, and if you get there and there is a note, charge them anyway. (you have to remember you are a business and people will take the P if you let them.

Also when sending a text include: message is automated no reply is read.

There is loads of custom out there.

Ian

[eddie d]

i like vinces ranking system .great .love it .

i"ll have no custys by monday