Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: paul alan on August 25, 2018, 09:45:02 pm
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Anyone do this with success?
Any hints and tips?
I'm going to canvass certain areas with lots of work in, but need a way to encourage potential customers to go with our service.
I have some work that is very compact and that's my best work, I need more like it.
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Yes... it can work.
Leaflet 2 or 3 doors either side of where you are cleaning. Then knock a couple of days later.
Also working on a Saturday can get you walk-ups from those who are out at work Monday to Friday.
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Canvass and leaflet the area every year.
Also I know this will go against all principles but even offer a cheaper price to get the job..
Compact is king, its what I'm working on
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Yeah for sure, I only want good prices though. Was thinking 25% off first 4 cleans (1 free clean) that way the price seems cheap, then when the 25% comes off it reveals the proper price and wont seem too bad.
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Now I have an employee I want more work.
I have been splitting Thursdays work in two and doing the other half on Friday, soon we'll be getting it all done Thursday.
Thats when I go canvassing, will be targeting windows that are straight forward to clean (for new guy). They take a bit less time and less chance of issues arising.
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Yeah for sure, I only want good prices though. Was thinking 25% off first 4 cleans (1 free clean) that way the price seems cheap, then when the 25% comes off it reveals the proper price and wont seem too bad.
I wouldn't go and reduce your prices right away.
It will backfire on you when your existing customers find out you are cleaning them for less than thiers.
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Canvass and leaflet the area every year.
Also I know this will go against all principles but even offer a cheaper price to get the job..
Compact is king, its what I'm working on
And then moan that you’ve got crap prices ::)roll
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Yeah for sure, I only want good prices though. Was thinking 25% off first 4 cleans (1 free clean) that way the price seems cheap, then when the 25% comes off it reveals the proper price and wont seem too bad.
Was thinking 25% off first 4 cleans (1 free clean)
Why would you do this Paul, stick with your current prices, don't undervalue your business, if you start offering 25% off the
first 4 cleans on a new patch your hoping to break into, you will attract MESSERS and regret doing so.
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Canvass and leaflet the area every year.
Also I know this will go against all principles but even offer a cheaper price to get the job..
Compact is king, its what I'm working on
And then moan that you’ve got crap prices ::)roll
Yeah, it's not a good idea.
I wouldn't want to attract customers that are price orientated either. Get them on quality.
If you need work quickly maybe go for a longer frequency between cleans. That might appeal to the more thrifty.
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Anyone do this with success?
Any hints and tips?
I'm going to canvass certain areas with lots of work in, but need a way to encourage potential customers to go with our service.
I have some work that is very compact and that's my best work, I need more like it.
Nearly all my work is compact.....hardly any driving but it's took 25 yrs to get it this good!!! ;D
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Canvass and leaflet the area every year.
Also I know this will go against all principles but even offer a cheaper price to get the job..
Compact is king, its what I'm working on
And then moan that you’ve got crap prices ::)roll
Its totally different building quality priced work for one man than it is to build compact work for 2 men.
for 2 men its about compact work, wages are wasted during travel
If it means going in a bit cheaper to get a full street of work then so be it.
Its all about profit, when we work as a 2 man we fly through work but its the reeling in and driving that kills it
there is more than one way to skin a cat, most of my work is spread out decent priced work (for my area) that suits 1 man, add a second man and i need it more compact.
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The idea that compact is best is a myth. Compact is often just cheap and hard work. Give me a stop and a £25 house any day over three next to each other for £8 each. That’s not to say we don’t have pockets of well priced compact work in affluent areas but in general I would avoid seeing it as desirable.
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What I did was sell some work i had in other areas around 12 years ago now and concentrated all my efforts into a 5 mile stretch in an affluent area.....
I already had built up a fair bit of work in this area so canvassed and leafleted a bit more and tbh these days it's recommendations and word of mouth and being seen out on the street is where most new work comes from these days....
I'm so glad I got rid of the poorly priced work in the less affluent areas....
Most of the time its a joy to work in the area I work(leafy suburbs/semi rural locations).....
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The idea that compact is best is a myth. Compact is often just cheap and hard work. Give me a stop and a £25 house any day over three next to each other for £8 each. That’s not to say we don’t have pockets of well priced compact work in affluent areas but in general I would avoid seeing it as desirable.
Just depends on what you class as compact....
Nearly all work in a 5 mile area is compact to me...
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The idea that compact is best is a myth. Compact is often just cheap and hard work. Give me a stop and a £25 house any day over three next to each other for £8 each. That’s not to say we don’t have pockets of well priced compact work in affluent areas but in general I would avoid seeing it as desirable.
this is all easily said when you working an area where 25 quid houses are the norm.
i only have 3 houses over 20 quid on my entire round, most of my jobs are 10-14 semis, detatched
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Ask yourself if you want to do loads of work or do you want to earn loads of money? Dont be what I call a busy fool. It doesnt matter how many customers you have or how compact they are. The ONLY thing that matters is the money per day, per week, per month. Focus on that. Dont ever reduce your price to get work. Then you will be working hard for f...k all money each day. A busy fool.
Think we better have that coffee soon Paul.......
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I agree, do what earns you the most money per day for the least work possible
i could have 40 £10 houses all in one estate
or 20 bigger houses spread about all over at £20
both would take the same amount of time
if i was working solo id prefer the 20
as a two man id prefer the 40 with minimal moving.
There is a difference between reducing your price to simpy do more work and be a busy fool than reducing your price to actually earn more profit.
An example i clean a row of 3 terraceds, the middle one (5 windows) never wanted it doing as she didnt want to pay a tenner
now since i am there anyway with pole in hand does it make more sense to clean her house at a slightly reduced say £7-8 or to leave it? of course its up to the individual, but for the sake of literally 5 mins extra work to me its worth doing that one.
its not cut and dry to me that you should always stick your nose in the air and say im not doing that out of principle, its ALL ABOUT THE PROFIT, of course you dont want work for the sake of work but judge each situation on its own merit. Plus when you work as a 2 man, its much easier to fly through 40 houses than it is on your own.
we can all do as we please, but i make more profit with 2 of us on compact work than i ever did working solo driving around all day, plus its a much easier day to boot.
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If all your work is in one area then theres hardly any driving about,less wear and tear on the van and lower fuel costs not to mention the time saved in not driving about.....it's common sense.....
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Yeah for sure, I only want good prices though. Was thinking 25% off first 4 cleans (1 free clean) that way the price seems cheap, then when the 25% comes off it reveals the proper price and wont seem too bad.
Was thinking 25% off first 4 cleans (1 free clean)
Why would you do this Paul, stick with your current prices, don't undervalue your business, if you start offering 25% off the
first 4 cleans on a new patch your hoping to break into, you will attract MESSERS and regret doing so.
Yeah...rings true that.
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The idea that compact is best is a myth. Compact is often just cheap and hard work. Give me a stop and a £25 house any day over three next to each other for £8 each. That’s not to say we don’t have pockets of well priced compact work in affluent areas but in general I would avoid seeing it as desirable.
When I look through my work I can see I earn the most this way, in general.
I do have one round that is £40 on average and we earn around £360 which is probably our best day.
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Ask yourself if you want to do loads of work or do you want to earn loads of money? Dont be what I call a busy fool. It doesnt matter how many customers you have or how compact they are. The ONLY thing that matters is the money per day, per week, per month. Focus on that. Dont ever reduce your price to get work. Then you will be working hard for f...k all money each day. A busy fool.
Think we better have that coffee soon Paul.......
Yeah that's what I'm looking for overall, more profitability
I think your right about that coffee! Soon as I can have this new guy out alone I'll have some free days, sooner the better.
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Compact work can mean cleaning say 8 stand alone large properties in a 2 mile area in my book! ;D
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We start new people on a Monday and have them out alone by the following tue/wed so about 7 working days on average.
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all My work is in about a 5 mile radius too , it’s only a minute or two drive between jobs which is ideal for me .
I don’t actually think you need rows of houses next to each other to earn good money if you price them right and have a minimum charge regardless of size. I won’t take anything on less than £12 , whether it’s a terraced , bungalow or whatever , my minimum is £12. I get turned down from approximately 20% of jobs. Offering different frequencies maximises your profit as not everyone wants to see you every month
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As Lee says: It is about "Money per day, per week, per month"
Even better is money per hour.
Even better than that is knowing the exact net profit margin on each job.
You will need to time EVERY job to get this figure, and then work out your net margin using an excel spreadsheet.
Yes, it takes time, Yes it takes effort.
But if you do it; it has the potential to transform your business.
What get measured gets managed; and if you know which jobs are making you money, (and exactly how much money they are making you) - then you can do something about the jobs which aren't.
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Canvass and leaflet the area every year.
Also I know this will go against all principles but even offer a cheaper price to get the job..
Compact is king, its what I'm working on
I appreciate you made a disclosure before this of it being "against all principles" but I would caution anyone doing that. The problem is that in our area anyway, people in the street talk. And for some reason when they start the scrape the bottom of the conversation barrel, they always start to talk about the prices their window cleaners charge.
If you are charging less for a job than their neighbours you are going to cause upset with those of your existing customers.
What I might do is offer a 'special' first clean job applicable on say the third clean. So example they pay the going rate for the first 2 cleans and get the third free, but even that I believe is a road to nowhere.
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Canvass and leaflet the area every year.
Also I know this will go against all principles but even offer a cheaper price to get the job..
Compact is king, its what I'm working on
I appreciate you made a disclosure before this of it being "against all principles" but I would caution anyone doing that. The problem is that in our area anyway, people in the street talk. And for some reason when they start the scrape the bottom of the conversation barrel, they always start to talk about the prices their window cleaners charge.
If you are charging less for a job than their neighbours you are going to cause upset with those of your existing customers.
What I might do is offer a 'special' first clean job applicable on say the third clean. So example they pay the going rate for the first 2 cleans and get the third free, but even that I believe is a road to nowhere.
I think that is dying out somewhat these days, all the neighbours talking I mean.
I clean some new build estates and the prices I have can vary quite a bit, no one seems to talk on these estates, no one seems to know their next door neighbour anymore.
I don't know my neighbours nor have ever some to them, I know some areas that I work In where everyone knows everyone but it's usually the older generation on older estates.
I've never really had that problem to my knowledge.
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i had a customer once that sacked me and slammed their door in my face because she found out that i charged them £5 more for their property than the house across the road!(even though they had more windows than the neighbours) ::)roll
she still doesnt say hello 15 years on when shes walking past(i clean every other 4 bed semi around hers though) ;D ;D
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Discounting is slippery slope to be on...
These figures are from the book written by legendary entrepreneur and Financial Times columnist Mike Southon:
"1. Cut prices by 10% and you will have to sell 50% more to get to your break even point
2. Raise prices by 10% and you will have to sell 25% fewer to get to your break even point"
Instead of discounting, why don't you think about a way of improving your service so that customers will pay more?
Here are some things that have worked for us.
1. Get a 40ft pole with a goosneck and offer regular or at least annual cleans of the roofline windows.
2. Offer a premium service. as an add on. We charge £2 upwards for doing the ground floor fascias every time.
3. Offer to do the garage door.
4. Include the front door, but charge more for doing it.
Use features and benefits to sell your service.
A feature of your service is that you use soap free technology, so there is no sticky soap residue left on the glass.
The benefit to your customer is that the finish will last 4-10 weeks, depending on aspect; so the windows can be cleaned less often, giving the customer significant annual savings on their window cleaning bill.
A feature of your service is that while SOME window cleaners ONLY do the glass, YOU can include the glass AND the sills AND the frames.
The benefit of your service is that the customer will have a beautiful crystal clear glass AND frames AND sills, (and not just the glass only being cleaned).
Because you are cleaning the sills AND frames, with a reliable service every x weeks, they will always have a home that looks fantastic and this regular cleaning will also prevent their lovely valuable white windows turning grey over time.
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back on topic...obviously if you condense your work into one area its better than driving about half the day to get to your jobs....
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Discounting is slippery slope to be on...
These figures are from the book written by legendary entrepreneur and Financial Times columnist Mike Southon:
"1. Cut prices by 10% and you will have to sell 50% more to get to your break even point
2. Raise prices by 10% and you will have to sell 25% fewer to get to your break even point"
Instead of discounting, why don't you think about a way of improving your service so that customers will pay more?
Here are some things that have worked for us.
1. Get a 40ft pole with a goosneck and offer regular or at least annual cleans of the roofline windows.
2. Offer a premium service. as an add on. We charge £2 upwards for doing the ground floor fascias every time.
3. Offer to do the garage door.
4. Include the front door, but charge more for doing it.
Use features and benefits to sell your service.
A feature of your service is that you use soap free technology, so there is no sticky soap residue left on the glass.
The benefit to your customer is that the finish will last 4-10 weeks, depending on aspect; so the windows can be cleaned less often, giving the customer significant annual savings on their window cleaning bill.
A feature of your service is that while SOME window cleaners ONLY do the glass, YOU can include the glass AND the sills AND the frames.
The benefit of your service is that the customer will have a beautiful crystal clear glass AND frames AND sills, (and not just the glass only being cleaned).
Because you are cleaning the sills AND frames, with a reliable service every x weeks, they will always have a home that looks fantastic and this regular cleaning will also prevent their lovely valuable white windows turning grey over time.
Some great points there, thanks Oliver!
We do offer garage doors and always clean front doors and back as standard.
Some frames will discolour over time regardless of cleaning, dur to uv rays.
You have bought up some really good selling points there though that I can use, so thankyou.
I would really like to know about this 7 step procedure though, I have invested in a franchise and will be doing that as soon as the business is ready for it. I am working on systemising everything and documenting that, this procedure your talking about would be a huge help. I can imagine you may not want to discuss on here, is there some way we could talk?
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back on topic...obviously if you condense you work into one area its better than driving about half the day to get to your jobs....
I find its better money in general, but can be tedious. All my work is within 5 miles of home, but Im thinking it would all be better on the same estate, super condensed.
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back on topic...obviously if you condense you work into one area its better than driving about half the day to get to your jobs....
I find its better money in general, but can be tedious. All my work is within 5 miles of home, but Im thinking it would all be better on the same estate, super condensed.
i have 2 estates where i clean nearly every house(mainly small 3 and 4 bedders)......93 on one and 70+ on the other....i also have lots of other pockets of work within 2 miles of these estates,mainly 4 and 5 bedders and large stand alones where i move my van after every job but the hourly rate is high due to pricing the larger jobs well......
over the last 5 years ive picked up lots more stand alone properties on longer frequencies in the same area so its great.....a good mixture of work..... :)
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Compact for me is spending the day in one village. Much better priced than town work too.
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Compact has pros and cons. Messers are more likely to try taking advantage because they know you will be in that area again, whereas a standalone is easier to drop.
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Compact has pros and cons. Messers are more likely to try taking advantage because they know you will be in that area again, whereas a standalone is easier to drop.
why?
on my compact estate stuff i still dump the messers regardless.....theres a few now that i dont clean....i tell them the reason too if they try and get me to clean theirs again.... ;D
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Compact has pros and cons. Messers are more likely to try taking advantage because they know you will be in that area again, whereas a standalone is easier to drop.
why?
on my compact estate stuff i still dump the messers regardless.....theres a few now that i dont clean....i tell them the reason too if they try and get me to clean theirs again.... ;D
That's how I do it too these days. It took me a while to grow a pair. It wasn't always like that though.