Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: PurefectWindowCleaning on December 14, 2013, 12:35:10 pm
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Im currently writing a letter to hand out to my 550+ customers.
2014 is my 10th year trading, and the aim of this letter is to make all customers aware of a few things.
My prices are going to increase somewhat, as I have never really put them up that much, a few quids here and there.
The letter will also give a brief explanation on the science behind WFP window cleaning and customers still think we are chucking water over their windows lol
I shall be giving them the option of paying online, as I dont really offer this at the minute, anyone that owes money we will be collecting on the 1st of every month. (my work is on my doorstep so this isnt an issue at all)
Anyone think of anything else to add?
The idea behind the letter is to basiclly put down some ground rules, as I think im to soft with alot of things .
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Im gonna take a bit of time over the Christmas break to write something up to switch more customers over to paying online.
Also im going to be enforcing a £10 late fee to payments that are later than the current 14 day period.
Getting fed up with a minority of "customers" that are constant bad payers.
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I've only put 1 customer up this year and i lost her for a £2 increase.
put me off putting any1 else up lol
although in the new year there are a handful of customers i will have to put up as underpriced them when i started a few years ago.
im to soft aswell james and need to bit a bit tougher with my customers sometimes
regards
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Im gonna take a bit of time over the Christmas break to write something up to switch more customers over to paying online.
Also im going to be enforcing a £10 late fee to payments that are later than the current 14 day period.
Getting fed up with a minority of "customers" that are constant bad payers.
lol u must let me know how you get on with the £10 late fee and if any1 ever pays it
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Don't forget to thank them as well.
Without customers you wouldn't have a business.
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Don't forget to thank them as well.
Without customers you wouldn't have a business.
Thats at the top of the letter :)
'2014 is my 10th year trading so I would like to thank you all for your continued custom' ;)
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I pointed out to my customers they're saving on postage and the hassle of remembering to post etc by paying online and many of them jumped at the chance
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Also mention other services "sales funnel" and all that ;)
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You guys a unique to this forum.You want to be more business like. Good .Some complain that customer treat them badly but never seem to understand that when you conduct yourself in a business manner, customers take you more serious and give more respect. Keep it up.
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Im gonna take a bit of time over the Christmas break to write something up to switch more customers over to paying online.
Also im going to be enforcing a £10 late fee to payments that are later than the current 14 day period.
Getting fed up with a minority of "customers" that are constant bad payers.
lol u must let me know how you get on with the £10 late fee and if any1 ever pays it
Believe it or not im not after getting any tenners out of people. ;D
It's a method im going to try to see if it will kick bad payers up the arris to send payment within a reasonable time.
Maybe it will work......or maybe it won't.
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Good luck
Some ground rules - will make your custies feel like kids
Be carful not to shoot yourself in the foot .
Why not just discuss it with each PROBLEM CUSTIE , face to face
The only way to do it - I feel
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Good luck
Some ground rules - will make your custies feel like kids
Be carful not to shoot yourself in the foot .
Why not just discuss it with each PROBLEM CUSTIE , face to face
The only way to do it - I feel
Because there must be loads of customers that think we just splash and dash, also they all get my bank details, also they all are made aware of price increase... there isnt a negative effect of dishing out a letter.
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Stupid to post a letter with reference price increases and RULES .
Do you need to explain
Does a Plummer, mechanic , hairdresser etc
Are you for real ??
I'd imagine a few might TEXT and say No more required .
Can't you talk face to face , does a CUSTIE need to know about pure water cleaning , a tad boring I'd imagine .
But if you think it's the way to go , then good luck .
Pointless I feel
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Good luck
Some ground rules - will make your custies feel like kids
Be carful not to shoot yourself in the foot .
Why not just discuss it with each PROBLEM CUSTIE , face to face
The only way to do it - I feel
Thing is I could afford to drop every single repetitive bad payer that I have.
As I said in a previous post they are a minority.
With a full round it does become frustrating when more of my "free time" is taken up because of having to chase up late payments.
And it does always seem to be the same old ones.
I am easy going with custies and have never pushed any of them in the past to pay up unless they have really taken liberties.
Majority of customers are no problem.
The problem customers would of received a self-addressed envelope complete with stamp after every clean but still don't bother to send payment.
That narks me a bit to be honest and I don't see why they should get preferential treatment to everyone else I work for.
Maybe I just have to accept that you cannot "train" all custies.
I am going to tweak a few things in the new year to tighten up, mainly to try to enable the payment side of things to run smoother.
Maybe it will work out for the better.......maybe it won't.
If it don't work I will cut out the dead wood, I've already offloaded a few and maybe more will have to follow.
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Any bad or persistently late payers, leave a note to explain that you have temporarily stopped cleaning their windows until payment received in full, then you will fit them back into your round the next time you're in their area :)
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Stupid to post a letter with reference price increases and RULES .
Do you need to explain
Does a Plummer, mechanic , hairdresser etc
Are you for real ??
I'd imagine a few might TEXT and say No more required .
Can't you talk face to face , does a CUSTIE need to know about pure water cleaning , a tad boring I'd imagine .
But if you think it's the way to go , then good luck .
Pointless I feel
+1
I would definitely not explain the system. It would come across as if you have to prove it works. People think what they think. Not much changes that. If you do a good job then it speaks for itself.
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I've only put 1 customer up this year and i lost her for a £2 increase.
put me off putting any1 else up lol
although in the new year there are a handful of customers i will have to put up as underpriced them when i started a few years ago.
im to soft aswell james and need to bit a bit tougher with my customers sometimes
regards
I have put 20 or so up in the last couple of weeks Cliff. Not a peep. Be bold. ;D
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Yep , I agree with what Jonny has said .
Keep it simple
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So then...
Why does 99% of window cleaners websites explain WFP, and the technicality behind it??
Why should you have to explain on your website??
I DO NOT WANT ANY OF MY CUSTOMERS THINKING IM JUST CHUCKING WATER AT THERE WINDOWS!!
Alot of customers dont give a flyng f**k about there windows, they just pay the bill.
After handing out this letter I now know that every single customer knows the crack with what we do.
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Oh - read the beginning post from me...
10 years trading, 550+ customers, employ one...
but im doing it all wrong yeah? ;D ;D ;D
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Better to explain why you use a rubber thing on the bottoms. ;)
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>Kempy and Shane O'Neill, you can't even be bothered to read can you? The OP says he going to lay down some ground rules - good. He's not going to write that phrase in his letter is he?
Get a grip.
Well done to James Milton.
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>Kempy and Shane O'Neill, you can't even be bothered to read can you? The OP says he going to lay down some ground rules - good. He's not going to write that phrase in his letter is he?
Get a grip.
Well done to James Milton.
This is a public forum mate. Everyone can voice their opinions and suggestions. If you don't agree then your in the wrong place.
I would only put necessary things on a letter. People are busy enough and have enough junk mail to get through.
So yes put about price rises etc and that's all I would put on.
and as for why do we put an explanation on our websites about the system, well that's because you are selling it to people who are looking for a window cleaner and may not know about the system.
If after years of cleaning someone's windows I then said oh by the way here's how this all works.....bla bla bla, people will either be bored to tears, or wonder why on earth you are feeling the need to explain? More likely than not just chuck the letter in the bin.
Do you get an electrician round to your house and he writes you a letter explaining which screwdrivers he is going to use and what kind of cable?
If your going to do a letter, just stick to necessaties.
Just my thoughts. Hope thats ok Granville? ;D
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>Jonny - And you haven't read the OP's original post properly either have you?
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So then...
Why does 99% of window cleaners websites explain WFP, and the technicality behind it??
Why should you have to explain on your website??
I DO NOT WANT ANY OF MY CUSTOMERS THINKING IM JUST CHUCKING WATER AT THERE WINDOWS!!
Alot of customers dont give a flyng f**k about there windows, they just pay the bill.
After handing out this letter I now know that every single customer knows the crack with what we do.
Sorry James, but if customers don't give a 'flying f**k' about their windows, why feel the need to tell them in detail the method you use to clean them?
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Everyone is kinda missing the point. The general tone of the letter is to thanks his customers for their custom with a single paragraph for explaining WFP, giving his bank details and informing of a price increase. Imo its a very professional way to make contact with a load of customers, many of whom you have zero contact with at present.
Go for it James. If I had 550 domestic customers it's the route I would take too.
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With 550 customers I would normally think dump the bad payers however ........... and I will be doing this for my slow payers ............. tell just them either in a letter or face to face that you are switching over to direct debit
( go cardless ) will sell them the benefits of saving time and hassle of remembering to make payments ... set up once and forget about it.
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>Jonny - And you haven't read the OP's original post properly either have you?
You keep saying that lots of us Havnt read the op.
I'm beginning to think you Havnt? Lol
He wants to put out a letter to do the following;
Thank them,
Explain water fed pole pure water technology,
Inform of a price rise,
And give his bank details.
I was giving my opinion to drop the explanation of WFP.
It's unnecessary.
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Everyone is kinda missing the point. The general tone of the letter is to thanks his customers for their custom with a single paragraph for explaining WFP, giving his bank details and informing of a price increase. Imo its a very professional way to make contact with a load of customers, many of whom you have zero contact with at present.
Go for it James. If I had 550 domestic customers it's the route I would take too.
Exactly.
>Jonny Only 3 people. By name.
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If 550 plus custies , and regular then you have mastered it obviously so why the need to tell persons about Wfp .
Does a plumber
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Sorry continued .
You've got the custies already
Just tell them face to face a PRICE increase
Or once you've cleaned the windows just put it on the invoice /ticket .
Simple
Why explain the water - do you want acknowledgment and hey -look at me !!!
Why don't you tell them about your poles and van set up as well
Just a joke that's all
You've done great mate , so just crack on and speak to persons face to face .
To post a letter I feel shows a lack of confidence in your finished work or scared to talk to the CUSTIE about putting the price up .
A CUSTIE would ask about it if needed or if there not happy then EXPLAIN IT TO THEM .
All the best which ever way you go .
But do u really need to even do it ????
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If 550 plus custies , and regular then you have mastered it obviously so why the need to tell persons about Wfp .
Does a plumber
I think it's because he has cleaned most customers windows using Traditional method, some of them for 10 years.
And he is now looking to switch all to wfp.
With new customers I would agree it's not worth spending too much time explaining wfp.
But for his long term customers I think he is doing the right thing by explaining how different it is to how they had them cleaned previously.
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Right - this is a true story that happened the other weekend:
One of my customers that I have had since the beginning approched me in the street, I thought great because she owed me £18 and was expecting her to get her purse out, but she didnt.
She says 'the reason I havent sent you your money is because of that pole thing your now using to clean the windows'
So I say 'yes its a pure water system', and give a little explanation about it.
She then looks at as if to say hahaha good joke, like im gonna beleive that!
Anyway, she paid me her money and we went our seperate ways.
This is what then got me thinking - how many other customers of mine are thinking the same as her BUT ARE still payng their bill each month to me?
I do not want 1 single customer thinking im now cheating and still reluctantly handing me there money.
In my town, there is only me with a full time WFP business, all the other window cleaners are trad (except one chap but he works out of town) so a lot of them havent ever seen this method untill now.
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They won't think your cheating
Old folk and Asians are the ones that have trouble with it . The ones that I had I just told them briefly .
The other 80% I did on my change over many moons ago don't even know when I changed over because
1- I didn't tell them
2- they were at work when doing it
They come home the windows are dry and they don't bat a eye lid , do they ever check there windows probably not .
But if your doing it on changeover from trad to Wfp
Just do it
Then explain when need to , if not your giving them a possible chance to moan etc
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Well done James, do what you want, if you think the letter is a good idea, do it!
From the beginning i said to each customer: I use pure water, it would take a good half an hour to dry but because it is pure water, it would leave the glass without spots, smears free.
So every customer know what i am doing! easier to take 30s to explain before the first clean that to explain later with a letter IMO
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Everyone is kinda missing the point. The general tone of the letter is to thanks his customers for their custom with a single paragraph for explaining WFP, giving his bank details and informing of a price increase. Imo its a very professional way to make contact with a load of customers, many of whom you have zero contact with at present.
Go for it James. If I had 550 domestic customers it's the route I would take too.
Exactly.
>Jonny Only 3 people. By name.
Just to point out that in the OP not once did he mention sending thanks to his customers, and not once did he mention that he had "zero contact" with alot of his customers.
I then just shared my thoughts that an explanation of the WFP system is not necessary on customers you already have. (Provided you do a good job). I went through the change over from trad to WFP by only explaining to those who asked about it.
Back then I had only 300 2 and 4weekly customers and only lost one due to them not liking wet windows, which is fair enough, but got complimented from lots on what a brilliant idea that the system is. I never feel the need to explain my system to people as I let the results speak for them selves. I always just say to those who are un sure "if your not happy with the quality then I will not charge you." I've not once had anyone refuse to pay.
I got shot down for sharing my thoughts and experiences though? Hey ho.
All the best with your letter James.
Hope all goes well!
Jonny.
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James I think what you are doing is great. We do a news letter for customers.
Special offers.
Progress of company.
ALOT Of customers like to read about people doing well in these poop times.
It makes them feel part of your success.
With this comes a few knocks from customers.
"Must be charging too much"
But can honestly say we don't loose customers
To price,service or attitude.
If you want to send me the letter I will give you my input if you want jhghghgfh
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Ill send it over mate, im happy with the content thanks to Deege.
But yeah another opinion wont hurt.
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Ill send it over mate, im happy with the content thanks to Deege.
But yeah another opinion wont hurt.
Just had a quick skim. Looks good, i will email over a reply later as off out for a christening.
cheers
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Too true Jonny , on this forum mate sometimes persons don't like new ideas , alternative products or persons beliefs and thoughts .
95% on here are very good! successful and decent posters .
Good ideas , good advice that's what we need .
If you think the letter will be good crack on .
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personaly i think your deluded imo they dont give a monkeys, to them its just one job they cant be arssed doing .putting bells and whistles in letters wont make a differance youre just kidding ya sen just put price up and have done. save your energy.on getting better custys and dump the poopy payers
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Yep .
Why complicate
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i cant for the life in see why people whant to make window cleaning the be all and end all ,its redeculas its not as if its rocket science is it.
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james do what you want mate!if you want to send them a letter then just do it!
we all run our businesses slightly differently.
me however just tell customers either face to face or over the phone when it comes to price rises and payment methods.sometimes i even text them of new price increases.
if they ask about the pole system i tell them.i like to keep it simple.
i very rarely get problems with customers.
regards
dazmond
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i may sound blunt and to the point .but it saves me time and hassel ive never had any trouble with custys wanting to know any thing.i only explain if they ask.keep it simple then nowt gose wrong.