Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: jwplasterers on September 20, 2015, 08:11:50 pm
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For new starters. Since I started window cleaning 4 years ago I have seen so many people rushing the job. People wonder why they loose customers for doing rubbish work. Since I have started I have built up to 600 customers and its very rare I loose any. People will have you for years if right. People wont pay for nothing. My advice stay the same speed and do a nice job like its for the queen. This might be because I am Ex forces very keen and over the top lol.
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This is one of the best bits of advice I have seen on here in a long while. Newbies, take note!!
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so if the customer expects you to take an hour for £10 - is that how long you take?
Their is a fine balance as to what's the right speed, whether your on your own or 2 men, I've had customers that expect me to be on their house for at least an hour when paying a fiver :P
The more you do this job, and more importantly the more you clean a property the quicker you become that does not make you worse, or skimping just well practiced and good.
Go change a tyre on your car and time it, then do it 40 times a day for a week then retime it I wonder if it will be the same or quicker.
As ex military I'm sure you'd appreciate constant practice makes you better
Darran
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For new starters. Since I started window cleaning 4 years ago I have seen so many people rushing the job. People wonder why they loose customers for doing rubbish work. Since I have started I have built up to 600 customers and its very rare I loose any. People will have you for years if right. People wont pay for nothing. My advice stay the same speed and do a nice job like its for the queen. This might be because I am Ex forces very keen and over the top lol.
Well put jw, if you go the extra mile for a customer they will become clients and should always stick by the great work you do for them.
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Cant say i agree, i work at my speed and clean my customers to a satisfactory standard but i aint ott. I also dont treat customers like the queen cause some would start acting like the queen! I have been doing my job coming on twenty years and i believe in a fair price for a fair service, nothing more.
I am a window cleaner to feed my family,not for the love of it. :-\
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What's your average price JW?
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I think the more customers window cleaners get the service goes to crap. Like resturants and everything else . Stay at your best all times and dont rush as I tried once and the window are rubbish. YOU ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR LAST JOB.
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Ps i am ex military and all the regimental bullpoop has definetely not made me ott and keen. Quite the opposite.
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I would agree with jw, about guys loosing jobs for doing rubbish work, its far easier to keep clients rather than having to be replacing them.
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Just saying a lot of them should be mucking out of the cows on farms not cleaning windows its all about appearance.
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The sentiment is spot on, no problems with that at all, but it's all relative to your round equipment, age, etc..
Darran
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Thanks tadsh o shea
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Speed has nothing to do with rubbish work, being rubbish does that. Some days i have a burst of energy and have a quicker work rate than say if i have done a full fascia clean in the morning, but my standard of work always stays the same
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Dont understand how appearance has anything to do with your original post?
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Dont understand how appearance has anything to do with your original post?
Drinking on a schoolnight does often lead to talking rubbish. Mucking out cows? The idea that being a window cleaner is a superior job to a farmer is amusing though. ::)roll
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Regarding rushing there are plenty of splash & dash merchants about as is all about speed = ££££'s
They get so slap dash they even clean with not so pure water and do a crap job then wonder why they get the boot.
These kind give wfp window cleaners a bad name ;D ;D ;D
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steady,brisk and well organised is how i work and i very rarely get complaints.
i must be doing something right.
i dont go OTT unless its a very dirty first clean.after that its minimal work with a high flow.
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I get a feeling jw has an axe to grind, a sudden post about windies that are fast, then about what they wear...
Darran
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I look very professional and smart . . . . but can't clean windows ;D
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I aim for 95% perfection on regular cleans - does that make me
A ... a bad person
B ... a splash and dash merchant
C ... a little bit richer
:)
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Just saying a lot of them should be mucking out of the cows on farms not cleaning windows its all about appearance.
Mucking out the cows is a tougher job , that doesn't make sense
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1442823668_image.png)
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First impressions count for sure if you are selling a premium rated service but if you are not liked for what reason it don't matter what you look like as people are fickle like that. That goes for crew members too as if they turn up on a job scruffy say wearing hoodies looking like scumbags/thieves & swearing it will not go down to well either ;D ;D ;D
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I take what the OP has said on board, but express reservations too.
Sure thing, if someone is new, it's good to get the technique right first and speed up later. Same with first cleans.
However, speed and work quality are not as closely linked as it may first appear.
What could cause a problem is working faster without increasing the flow rate. That's where a faster worker will possibly start turning out poorer quality work.
I worked with a very low flow rate when I was having to backpack it a while ago (because I didn't want to hump too much water arount), but I slowed down to the flow rate. I preferred to earn a bit less than heave loads of water around. I bet it was less than 1 litre a minute but the jobs were good because I slowed down. Excluding setting up and putting away the kit, I might be able to do an easy 3 bed semi in 5 minutes or so - if I have the flow high. That is doable on maintenance cleans; I choose not to though as I'm no youngster and my body would suffer if I tried that for too long.
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I aim for 95% perfection on regular cleans - does that make me
A ... a bad person
B ... a splash and dash merchant
C ... a little bit richer
:)
All 3 :P ;D
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Working quickly is totally different to doing what you refer to as a rush job or delivering
a poor standard of work. That can happen slow or fast.
Secret is to get your technique right,which takes time, your speed will naturally improve as you
refine your technique to the point where your confidence in what you are doing is second nature
but not allowing complacency to creep in.
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This is the main reason why so say window cleaners need a licence to work in Scotland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OclctNHGt8
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4 years is like 5 minutes in this job you'll learn,I've had customers for 15-20 years then out of the blue say we are going to them from now on lol. One thing this job has taught me is that loyalty in business is like a unicorn mate it doesn't exist only for a time,no job is forever people move or die someone else buys the house and that house you was earning silly money an hour on is gone for good. This may seem cinical but it's a fact.
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I have done jobs when people have been in and the time it's taken me for the money is almost laughable I'm talking minutes and if you worked it out in time you'd probably be talking over £100 notes an hour not one complaint,the other end of the spectrum where you work your nuts off for a fraction of that and do the odd window inside to for a favour and they may say can you put us back a month lol,when you work in the public sector nothing should surprise you some people have arseholes and some people are arseholes.
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I have done jobs when people have been in and the time it's taken me for the money is almost laughable I'm talking minutes and if you worked it out in time you'd probably be talking over £100 notes an hour not one complaint,the other end of the spectrum where you work your nuts off for a fraction of that and do the odd window inside to for a favour and they may say can you put us back a month lol,when you work in the public sector nothing should surprise you some people have arseholes and some people are arseholes.
perfect way to sum up this job!
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This all takes me back to my days up and down a ladder, long before WFP was so much as a glimmer in a lab technician's eye.
In those days, if you'd used terms like 'maintenance cleans' and 'traditional' you'd have been laughed off the streets. 'Traditional' meant leather and scrim, many still scorned 'new fangled' squeegees!
But this issue of time existed back then - many a customer complained I'd only been there for a few minutes. My choice of method (like most shiners then) was damp scrim. Properly washed and wrung out, it would remove dirt and polish all in one operation without smearing. All it needed was practice and elbow grease.
If I got a complaint I would challenge the customer to show me where the problem was - they never could, the glass always shone spotless. Then I would tell them that how I did it and how long it took was my business, the quality of the job was theirs, that's what they paid for.
I'd finish up by saying: "I'll rub 'em with the top of my head if I feel like it, provided they're clean when I finish I've done what I've promised and you've got what you asked for, now you have to pay me!
The bottom line is you are selling a service which renders the glass/sills/frames etc perfectly clean. You are selling a result, not providing an hour or so of entertainment. Provided the end result is achieved, how you achieve it and how long it takes is immaterial.
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You left my windows wet ??? ... That's no good I thought you were a proper window cleaner ;D ;D ;D
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I'd finish up by saying: "I'll rub 'em with the top of my head if I feel like it, provided they're clean when I finish I've done what I've promised and you've got what you asked for, now you have to pay me!
Some 30 odd years ago I had a mate who had some three story work he used to do with a scrim. On one occasion he climbed to the top floor of one of his jobs only to drop his scrim. He looked down, then did no more than pull off his woolly hat and cleaned the window with that. The customer never knew or if they did they never said anything. To this day it always makes me laugh when I think about it.
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I'd finish up by saying: "I'll rub 'em with the top of my head if I feel like it, provided they're clean when I finish I've done what I've promised and you've got what you asked for, now you have to pay me!
Some 30 odd years ago I had a mate who had some three story work he used to do with a scrim. On one occasion he climbed to the top floor of one of his jobs only to drop his scrim. He looked down, then did no more than pull off his woolly hat and cleaned the window with that. The customer never knew or if they did they never said anything. To this day it always makes me laugh when I think about it.
;D ;D ;D
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I have heard a statement knocked about so often. The one is its a number game, which see as a quick splash and grab the cash. The other being i can do 6 per hour or 10 an hour. These two statements say it all.
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slap bash has to work ultra fast so he can get home early to spend a few hours re charging his resin! ;D ;D ;D
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slap bash has to work ultra fast so he can get home early to spend a few hours re charging his resin! ;D ;D ;D
;D
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This is the main reason why so say window cleaners need a licence to work in Scotland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OclctNHGt8
I'm getting concerned about you. Are you saying they have to have a licence in Scotland because a window cleaner in shropshire was robbing out the window?
And also, are you telling me that you've never picked anything up out of a customers window, or off their ledge or out the garden like the rest of us ?.........And kept it !! ;D
And, are you getting paid for the amount of you tube links you post, are you on some sort of refferal scheme ? ;D ;D
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This is the main reason why so say window cleaners need a licence to work in Scotland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OclctNHGt8
I'm getting concerned about you. Are you saying they have to have a licence in Scotland because a window cleaner in shropshire was robbing out the window?
And also, are you telling me that you've never picked anything up out of a customers window, or off their ledge or out the garden like the rest of us ?.........And kept it !! ;D
And, are you getting paid for the amount of you tube links you post, are you on some sort of refferal scheme ? ;D ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uSTOHa4Im4
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This is the main reason why so say window cleaners need a licence to work in Scotland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OclctNHGt8
I'm getting concerned about you. Are you saying they have to have a licence in Scotland because a window cleaner in shropshire was robbing out the window?
And also, are you telling me that you've never picked anything up out of a customers window, or off their ledge or out the garden like the rest of us ?.........And kept it !! ;D
And, are you getting paid for the amount of you tube links you post, are you on some sort of refferal scheme ? ;D ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uSTOHa4Im4
;D ;D
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Being fast doesn't mean a poor job ::)roll
As has already been said experience, repeat jobs and being organised make you fast
why would anyone not want to finish quicker ?
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I don't agree I used to be twice as quick as trad I'm now at least 3 times quicker,I can clean massive amounts of glass in an hour on the pole to the point it's sometimes laughable to me. If I have someone in years past say Christ that was quick I just say there is still a dexterity to using it like a squeegee etc and if you have any problems give me a text and that completely solves any time on the job issues for me. If I'm really quick and there in I'll do say a porch or garage Windows inside for them for nothing,it's like so many questions on here and it all comes down to whether or not they like you or trust you,and as for saying you'll keep them for years don't bank on it lol