Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Window Lickers on October 16, 2014, 10:19:34 pm
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Thought that'd get your attention ;D
None of my guys ever use a squeegee. If a job truly required a squeegee for an interior clean (and I've not come across one yet) then we wouldn't do it.
Vin
Can you use a squeegee, competently, for the purposes of cleaning windows, with either hand whilst up a ladder to the satisfaction of your customers and own standards?
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Getting the pop corn ready for this !! ;D
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yep ;D ;D
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I can do it standing on my head, one hand tied behind my back and a spare squeegee rubber clamped in my teeth ready to replace the one in my squeegee just by using my little finger.
All whilst balancing on the rubber point at the top of my ladder ;D
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None of my guys ever use a squeegee. If a job truly required a squeegee for an interior clean (and I've not come across one yet) then we wouldn't do it.
Vin
Vin,
How do you clean internal windows? Or do you avoid them?
Also... What if a customers front door leaks using WFP... How would you clean it?
Andy
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None of my guys ever use a squeegee. If a job truly required a squeegee for an interior clean (and I've not come across one yet) then we wouldn't do it.
Vin
Vin,
How do you clean internal windows? Or do you avoid them?
Also... What if a customers front door leaks using WFP... How would you clean it?
Andy
Avoid them where possible - as mentioned elsewhere, reduces our hourly rate. What we generally do is offer a good, high quality microfibre free of charge to the customer and a minute of tuition on how to use it. Then we offer, if they have any problems doing the insides with them, to clean inside at twice the price of the outside.
We don't lose customers like that and, in (I think) every case where we've offered that, they don't ask us to do the insides. We also end up selling a large number of microfibres to customers for their friends. This suggests to me that the customers are happy with the solution.
Doors we just spray and microfibre. It does the job and doesn't require keeping clean water in a bucket on the van so it's overall quicker.
Vin
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Yes £400 a day to you Bateman :P
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:'(
Window cleaner can't clean windows properly.
:'(
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None of my guys ever use a squeegee. If a job truly required a squeegee for an interior clean (and I've not come across one yet) then we wouldn't do it.
Vin
Vin,
How do you clean internal windows? Or do you avoid them?
Also... What if a customers front door leaks using WFP... How would you clean it?
Andy
Avoid them where possible - as mentioned elsewhere, reduces our hourly rate. What we generally do is offer a good, high quality microfibre free of charge to the customer and a minute of tuition on how to use it. Then we offer, if they have any problems doing the insides with them, to clean inside at twice the price of the outside.
We don't lose customers like that and, in (I think) every case where we've offered that, they don't ask us to do the insides. We also end up selling a large number of microfibres to customers for their friends. This suggests to me that the customers are happy with the solution.
Doors we just spray and microfibre. It does the job and doesn't require keeping clean water in a bucket on the van so it's overall quicker.
Vin
What do you do with hotels, schools, nursing homes etc etc?
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Yes £400 a day to you Bateman :P
at your speed ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Whats 1 free microfibre meant to do when a customer wants there insides cleaned?? Id love to hear your advice you give them on how just 1 free microfibre will clean all there inside windows?? Surely it will get covered in dirt and dust from the first window??.
A squeege is a basic tool of the job as is wfp as is a microfibre or scrim. Any "proper" window cleaner should be able to do all especially use a applicator and squeegee.
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None of my guys ever use a squeegee. If a job truly required a squeegee for an interior clean (and I've not come across one yet) then we wouldn't do it.
Vin
Vin,
How do you clean internal windows? Or do you avoid them?
Also... What if a customers front door leaks using WFP... How would you clean it?
Andy
Avoid them where possible - as mentioned elsewhere, reduces our hourly rate. What we generally do is offer a good, high quality microfibre free of charge to the customer and a minute of tuition on how to use it. Then we offer, if they have any problems doing the insides with them, to clean inside at twice the price of the outside.
We don't lose customers like that and, in (I think) every case where we've offered that, they don't ask us to do the insides. We also end up selling a large number of microfibres to customers for their friends. This suggests to me that the customers are happy with the solution.
Doors we just spray and microfibre. It does the job and doesn't require keeping clean water in a bucket on the van so it's overall quicker.
Vin
What do you do with hotels, schools, nursing homes etc etc?
He doesn't do them. His focus is domestic. In all seriousness I think there are some very silly points being made on here. He has defined his market and gone for it. Successfully as far as I can see. It's a bit like companies that focus on tyres and exhausts rather than general maintenance.
Additionally, we all have work we won't do. I won't go through houses or garages, but I'll go down alleys (oo er) to get to the backs and charge very well for it. I almost always turn down interior cleans, but sometimes I will do them if it's the right property, the right price or I like the people and want to help them. I turn down almost all one offs except end of tenancy cleans.
I can trad, (I have one or two shops that I trad) but I wouldn't be anywhere near the speed of Cozy or Matt. Because of this, money wise it is quicker generally to microfibre internals. I used to plod on with the squeegee thinking I should, but at the end of the day it's all about hourly rate and I could cloth a cleanish window in half the time taken to squeegee. A dirty one I would squeegee.
Oh, and I could not squeegee with my left hand as I have a benign condition which means that my left hand coordination is poor.
I think Vin is a bit up himself at times on here (as we all are) and in the short term franchising isn't for me, but I genuinely admire what he has achieved. 1,500 domestic customers who are paying prices that many stalwarts on here wouldn't dream of.
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Whats 1 free microfibre meant to do when a customer wants there insides cleaned?? Id love to hear your advice you give them on how just 1 free microfibre will clean all there inside windows?? Surely it will get covered in dirt and dust from the first window??.
A squeege is a basic tool of the job as is wfp as is a microfibre or scrim. Any "proper" window cleaner should be able to do all especially use a applicator and squeegee.
All this from the bloke who only does fronts! :o
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Whats 1 free microfibre meant to do when a customer wants there insides cleaned?? Id love to hear your advice you give them on how just 1 free microfibre will clean all there inside windows?? Surely it will get covered in dirt and dust from the first window??.
A squeege is a basic tool of the job as is wfp as is a microfibre or scrim. Any "proper" window cleaner should be able to do all especially use a applicator and squeegee.
All this from the bloke who only does fronts! :o
Meaning??
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Whats 1 free microfibre meant to do when a customer wants there insides cleaned?? Id love to hear your advice you give them on how just 1 free microfibre will clean all there inside windows?? Surely it will get covered in dirt and dust from the first window??.
A squeege is a basic tool of the job as is wfp as is a microfibre or scrim. Any "proper" window cleaner should be able to do all especially use a applicator and squeegee.
All this from the bloke who only does fronts! :o
Meaning??
you only do fronts ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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What do you do with hotels, schools, nursing homes etc etc?
We don't clean any hotels, schools, nursing homes etc etc. We're domestic only.
Doubtless that makes us useless.
Vin
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What do you do with hotels, schools, nursing homes etc etc?
We don't clean any hotels, schools, nursing homes etc etc. We're domestic only.
Doubtless that makes us useless.
Vin
Doesn't make you useless but it does restrict you from this type of work.
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Whats 1 free microfibre meant to do when a customer wants there insides cleaned?? Id love to hear your advice you give them on how just 1 free microfibre will clean all there inside windows?? Surely it will get covered in dirt and dust from the first window??.
A squeege is a basic tool of the job as is wfp as is a microfibre or scrim. Any "proper" window cleaner should be able to do all especially use a applicator and squeegee.
All this from the bloke who only does fronts! :o
you only do fronts ;D ;D ;D ;D
Meaning??
Lol franky do 1 :-)
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Whats 1 free microfibre meant to do when a customer wants there insides cleaned?? Id love to hear your advice you give them on how just 1 free microfibre will clean all there inside windows?? Surely it will get covered in dirt and dust from the first window??.
A squeege is a basic tool of the job as is wfp as is a microfibre or scrim. Any "proper" window cleaner should be able to do all especially use a applicator and squeegee.
All this from the bloke who only does fronts! :o
you only do fronts ;D ;D ;D ;D
Meaning??
Lol franky do 1 :-)
lets be fair nick you only do half the job any way
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Whats 1 free microfibre meant to do when a customer wants there insides cleaned?? Id love to hear your advice you give them on how just 1 free microfibre will clean all there inside windows?? Surely it will get covered in dirt and dust from the first window??.
A squeege is a basic tool of the job as is wfp as is a microfibre or scrim. Any "proper" window cleaner should be able to do all especially use a applicator and squeegee.
All I can say is what I said above. Customers seem to like it. Whether you choose to believe it or not, they take the cloth and don't ask us to do the insides. That's the aim and we get what we want without actually having to say "we don't want to do the insides because we earn less per hour than just cleaning your outsides" which I suspect would just hack the cusotmer off.
Vin
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There are other people that go to peoples houses selling cloths....cant remember whst there called...
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Thats the point vin. It takes minutes with a squeegee to quickly blitz the insides and with charging double too it makes it more than worthwhile. You have done well and hat off to you but i do think you need to learn how to use a squeegee properly before you can proper comment on it as all your doing is blanking ever having to use 1 i mean what are you afraid of lol???Buy a applicator and squeegee and do your own insides and see just how easy and quick it is and then you can make your point without any retaliation as you have actualy used 1.
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Whats 1 free microfibre meant to do when a customer wants there insides cleaned?? Id love to hear your advice you give them on how just 1 free microfibre will clean all there inside windows?? Surely it will get covered in dirt and dust from the first window??.
A squeege is a basic tool of the job as is wfp as is a microfibre or scrim. Any "proper" window cleaner should be able to do all especially use a applicator and squeegee.
All this from the bloke who only does fronts! :o
Meaning??
What he might mean is that you're forensically examining my not doing insides because I consider cleaning outsides only to be more profitable. Yet, in other threads you happily bang on about how specialising in cleaning fronts only on terraces is an excellent way of maximising your income. Double standards?
You've found a way to increase your hourly rate and I've never commented on it (what kind of window cleaner leaves the backs dirty, etc, etc), yet mine seems worthy of comment.
Perhaps that's what he meant. Now I would never say anything like that, but perhaps it's how he feels...
Vin
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dont forget the caravans he only does fronts only ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
vin i seen people who claim they can trad and believe me i somtimes think who thaught them,stevie wonder
if it works for you sod what the knockers say
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I'd actually agree with insides on domestic, I avoid normal domestic insides, the outsides are more profitable & a lot less hassle. However, I have to clean insides on hotels, stately homes etc but this is priced into work appropriately. Wagtail flippers are the best thing since sliced bread for insides. ;)
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Thats the point vin. It takes minutes with a squeegee to quickly blitz the insides and with charging double too it makes it more than worthwhile. You have done well and hat off to you but i do think you need to learn how to use a squeegee properly before you can proper comment on it as all your doing is blanking ever having to use 1 i mean what are you afraid of lol???Buy a applicator and squeegee and do your own insides and see just how easy and quick it is and then you can make your point without any retaliation as you have actualy used 1.
Can anyone point to anywhere at all that I've said either I don't or can't use a squeegee?
It's an irrelevance anyway, because, as ever on here, the argument has moved off into a fantasy world where posters are arguing against their own preconceptions rather than anything I've actually said.
All I've ever said is that my guys don't use them. Am ongst the 1,500 customers we clean, we do (I think - can't separate out in Aworka) two interiors. I do one of them once a year and it has Georgian windows so I don't use a squeegee. The other is (I think from the description of the franchisee) a three panel conservatorywhich I also think we do annually.
Vin
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vin i seen people who claim they can trad and believe me i somtimes think who thaught them,stevie wonder
if it works for you sod what the knockers say
I'll try not to lose too much sleep over it...
Vin
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Vin i appologise.
Your right im not reading it properly, i did assume you couldnt use a squeegee.
ill shut up and wait for a leaflet thread to start up again ;D
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I'd actually agree with insides on domestic, I avoid normal domestic insides, the outsides are more profitable & a lot less hassle. However, I have to clean insides on hotels, stately homes etc but this is priced into work appropriately. Wagtail flippers are the best thing since sliced bread for insides. ;)
At one time when we were short of work we promoted in door cleans and gutter clearing. We now shy away from them and no longer promote this aspect of our business.
We originally erroneously thought that indoor cleans would be a way of earning during inclement weather but that never worked in practice.
Whilst cleaning a conservatory roof is passable in wet weather, emptying gutters isn't pleasant and is more dangerous due to wet ladder rungs. So the best time to clear gutters is when it is dry, which also happens to be the time when it's best to clean windows.
As per Vin's experience, we now earn more doing a normal window clean than doing internals so it just doesn't make financial sense to do it.
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Vin i appologise.
Your right im not reading it properly, i did assume you couldnt use a squeegee.
ill shut up and wait for a leaflet thread to start up again ;D
Thanks.
No need for an argument. Leaflets don't work; you've convinced me.
Vin
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Whats 1 free microfibre meant to do when a customer wants there insides cleaned?? Id love to hear your advice you give them on how just 1 free microfibre will clean all there inside windows?? Surely it will get covered in dirt and dust from the first window??.
A squeege is a basic tool of the job as is wfp as is a microfibre or scrim. Any "proper" window cleaner should be able to do all especially use a applicator and squeegee.
All this from the bloke who only does fronts! :o
Meaning??
What he might mean is that you're forensically examining my not doing insides because I consider cleaning outsides only to be more profitable. Yet, in other threads you happily bang on about how specialising in cleaning fronts only on terraces is an excellent way of maximising your income. Double standards?
You've found a way to increase your hourly rate and I've never commented on it (what kind of window cleaner leaves the backs dirty, etc, etc), yet mine seems worthy of comment.
Perhaps that's what he meant. Now I would never say anything like that, but perhaps it's how he feels...
Vin
Precisely.
I am assuming that as Mick doesn't do backs, he is even less likely to do insides. As for ability to use a squeegee or not, why learn something that you have no intention of using? In any situation where it's called for, any monkey can just do straight pulls. It's actually a much less demanding skill than the wealth of things you need to learn in order to successfully use WFP, which is why so many n'er'do wells are window cleaners (obviously present company excepted). You only have to look at the profiles of those that volunteer for the requests on Facebook that go: "need a windowcleaner Tomoz cos my windoes is minging innit - cheap".
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There are other people that go to peoples houses selling cloths....cant remember whst there called...
Derby fans
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Whats 1 free microfibre meant to do when a customer wants there insides cleaned?? Id love to hear your advice you give them on how just 1 free microfibre will clean all there inside windows?? Surely it will get covered in dirt and dust from the first window??.
A squeege is a basic tool of the job as is wfp as is a microfibre or scrim. Any "proper" window cleaner should be able to do all especially use a applicator and squeegee.
All this from the bloke who only does fronts! :o
Meaning??
What he might mean is that you're forensically examining my not doing insides because I consider cleaning outsides only to be more profitable. Yet, in other threads you happily bang on about how specialising in cleaning fronts only on terraces is an excellent way of maximising your income. Double standards?
You've found a way to increase your hourly rate and I've never commented on it (what kind of window cleaner leaves the backs dirty, etc, etc), yet mine seems worthy of comment.
Perhaps that's what he meant. Now I would never say anything like that, but perhaps it's how he feels...
Vin
Precisely.
I am assuming that as Mick doesn't do backs, he is even less likely to do insides. As for ability to use a squeegee or not, why learn something that you have no intention of using? In any situation where it's called for, any monkey can just do straight pulls. It's actually a much less demanding skill than the wealth of things you need to learn in order to successfully use WFP, which is why so many n'er'do wells are window cleaners (obviously present company excepted most definitely included). You only have to look at the profiles of those that volunteer for the requests on Facebook that go: "need a windowcleaner Tomoz cos my windoes is minging innit - cheap".
FTFY
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I believe everyone is entitled to their opinions on what works best or the best approach for them and their business.
My personal view is that I find it staggering that "window cleaners" can't or won't use squeegees. Its the worst thing about afp in that its allowed so many people to start up as afp is easier.
Personally my guys all can use squeegees of varying sizes and we do IPAF and ensure we are equipped for as many different scenarios as possible. Reason? To open up as many doors as possible to be able to offer a complete service.
Others are entitled to their own viewpoint and I agree it doesn't make them necessarily right or wrong. Thats just mine
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There are other people that go to peoples houses selling cloths....cant remember whst there called...
Forest fans
FTFY ;D
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There are other people that go to peoples houses selling cloths....cant remember whst there called...
Forest fans
FTFY ;D
Its alright cozy, steves a qpr fan and obviously still feeling a little guilty his netball side scraped through the playoffs last season
(Agree with the gypo forest though)
;D
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There are other people that go to peoples houses selling cloths....cant remember whst there called...
Forest fans
FTFY ;D Lol ;D
Its alright cozy, steves a qpr fan and obviously still feeling a little guilty his netball side scraped through the playoffs last season
(Agree with the gypo forest though)
;D