Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: jay moley on February 21, 2021, 06:29:33 pm
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In the past I have always charged more for a first clean. Makes sense as its more work and would potentially cover you if the customer cancels on the regular clean you've agreed.
Im just wondering whether it might put people off when canvassing?
In my experience not that many people cancel after the first clean.
Might try getting rid of the first clean price this week while canvassing and see whether I get more customers.
Thoughts chaps?
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In the past I have always charged more for a first clean. Makes sense as its more work and would potentially cover you if the customer cancels on the regular clean you've agreed.
Im just wondering whether it might put people off when canvassing?
In my experience not that many people cancel after the first clean.
Might try getting rid of the first clean price this week while canvassing and see whether I get more customers.
Thoughts chaps?
I will watch this thread.
I wonder if you get few cancellations after first clean as the custy are willing to pay extra for first clean really want a good windy. Where as people who want a cheap clean might not be in it for long term?
It will be interesting to see if you get a better response rate and if they stay as a custy long term.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
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Keep a 1st clean price but make it a reasonable one. None of this two & three times the price. Not for me. Like you said, most turn out to be regular but it just covers you. I think most customers appreciate they’re dirtier the first time.
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its about degrees of dirtiness ;D
Its defo easier to charge more for the first clean when the customer is coming to you - from the web, leaflet etc..
When canvassing its a little bit harder - if its a well presented place with cleanish glass and frames I charge my 8wky price for the first even if they go 4 weekly - this is ONLY for those that can be done pretty much in the same time as regular stuff - everything else is 25 to 50% more - sometimes double - its about evaluating the time/condition/customer
Darran
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We always charge a minimum of double the normal price for a first clean , only exceptions are existing customers who move house or family or friends of existing customers who we feel are trustworthy, I have found taking this approach we get the vast majority of the jobs we now go out and quote as the time wasters and one off brigade make excuses and don’t then want a firm price .
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Depends, at the moment as im working solo and am busy i would charge a first clean price as they take longer and im not bothered if i get the job.
If i was actively advertising and looking to grow then no i wouldnt as i want to maximise my R.O.I and not put people off with a first clean price, ultimately its an investment clean and whilst some will rip you off (dont soap their windows :D) thats just part of the game we play.
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Depends what you call a first clean I’ve seen windows that are completely green from sill to top frame,if it’s like that then obviously it’s gonna be more but if it’s something that’s not been cleaned for a year or so if on an ongoing basis it’s gonna be good I won’t charge extra.
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not always......i picked up a £60 office job the other week,the first clean took 75 mins as they were very dirty...the job will take 40 mins at most from the next clean(6 weekly)...i already clean some other offices for the same company so i was perfectly happy to waive a first clean price....
most domestic jobs will incur a first clean price, it might be an extra fiver or tenner,sometimes double if they are really bad....
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If I had all the customers that I wanted or needed I would charge extra for a first clean.
Yesterday morning a lady asked me if I cleaned in her road. I went there in the afternoon and quoted for her detached bungalow. I could see the frames were pretty clean, she accepted my quote, she said the next door neighbour wanted a quote too so I went there and he accepted my quote. His frames were not bad. I walked back to he 1st one and she had changed her mind and only wanted the front doing. Did that and next door and then the one next to that wanted his done, they were filthy but I did not charge extra. It probably only took me 5 minutes longer, he was pleased and said next door was looking for a window cleaner too.
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always charge extra.
eats up all your water... AND TIME
customers are not your freinds . ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Depends what kind of job it is a large detached property that will be easy every 6-8 weeks why charge 1/2 again or double the 1st time,this is why you need to able to get a feel for the customer when you first quote.
If it’s a 2-3 bed semi that will sack you off after 1 clean yeah fair enough 15-20 quid but why treat a potential 1000-1200 a year in the same way,I will say I should charge you a first clean price really but as long as you are regular I’ll forget about that,let them know you are doing them a favour,it may not always work out the way you wanted but most of the time it does for me anyway.
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If I had all the customers that I wanted or needed I would charge extra for a first clean.
Yesterday morning a lady asked me if I cleaned in her road. I went there in the afternoon and quoted for her detached bungalow. I could see the frames were pretty clean, she accepted my quote, she said the next door neighbour wanted a quote too so I went there and he accepted my quote. His frames were not bad. I walked back to he 1st one and she had changed her mind and only wanted the front doing. Did that and next door and then the one next to that wanted his done, they were filthy but I did not charge extra. It probably only took me 5 minutes longer, he was pleased and said next door was looking for a window cleaner too.
If you're doing a lot of first cleans, not charging extra will have a big impact on your income.
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Double price, always. Hard work and takes time to do properly...
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we charge double for them. canvassed or not
helps to pay for the cost of marketing.
obviously its just maths tho. if you get more new clients without charging double, then the extra work could work out more beneficial over the length of the client...
but we find we get better clients charging double, most dont blink when you say it, and you miss out those people who want a cheap one off clean...
we're sticking with it for the foreseeable...
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I’ve had these lately recommendations from other customers there’s no way I’m gonna take on an £90 job and charge double first clean that would be business suicide imo,I know this is going to be ongoing ok they were dirty but I have hot water for that.
Another 540 notes to the pot a year because of a bit of elbow grease frost visit who cares,like I say I think this logic only makes sense with small jobs don’t cut your nose to spite your face and all that.
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If you don’t value your service/time, the customer never will.
I always quote first clean or one off £30
Monthly 12 cleans £15
Or
Bimonthly, 6 cleans £20 (For example)
I think if you explain it will take longer and use more water, most accept it costs a little more. If they don’t, I don’t want them!
Tony
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This is my point they are cheap jobs now try and make the same decision when it’s an ongoing 5-10 times that price,more often than not you can just tell it’ll be regular.
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This is my point they are cheap jobs now try and make the same decision when it’s an ongoing 5-10 times that price,more often than not you can just tell it’ll be regular.
If it’s a £60-150 domestic job then double the price might be over kill but I would still be charging a first clean premium price , if it’s above £150 monthly domestic we would probably not charge more provided it was 100% guaranteed regular job .
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Yeah I wouldn’t bother no point I’ve not been had yet if I ever do I might think again,you are more likely to get done like that on a tin pot little job in my experience listening to others.
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It's always a tough one, you want the job especially if it's next to one you already clean. But we've all been stung by the " thanks but no thanks" brigade. Charge more to cover your labour costs and if they don't understand or are not willing to pay the extra don't bother.
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Always extra but I only add half of what the jobs worth,had one of my customers ask me to do her neighbour s house Christmas before this one we have just had asked her if it was one off she said it was for Christmas so I gave her 1 off price she said no but she had them done this Christmas at the 1 off price ,so Always exgra
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I don’t want any 1 offs like I say you can tell from the initial contact what’s going to happen more often than not,I can see problems coming in the future when the old guard fade away.
Older customers I’ve had for years are fantastic you turn up like they are old friends pleased to see you and vice versa,unless middle aged family’s have been used to a regular service they don’t really want it usually they’ve grown up with having a window cleaner,I can see into the future for window cleaners and even if you are a small business you will need 100s and 100s of customers due to people wanting windows cleaned 3-4 times a year max.
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I had a customer 2 months ago pass away what an absolute gent he was I could go every 4-5 weeks if I wanted year in year out the cleaner made me a coffee,60 notes 20-25 minutes work always had a smile on his face till the end been cleaning that house since -1969-70.
This generation were the best customers never a question never a moan,like I say when they go they’ll be gone for good different attitudes today.
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I had a customer 2 months ago pass away what an absolute gent he was I could go every 4-5 weeks if I wanted year in year out the cleaner made me a coffee,60 notes 20-25 minutes work always had a smile on his face till the end been cleaning that house since -1969-70.
This generation were the best customers never a question never a moan,like I say when they go they’ll be gone for good different attitudes today.
1970
Bloody hell how old are you, 70?
No wonder you have gone crackers cleaning windows that long
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Family business m8 going since 63.
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Family business m8 going since 63.
Explains a lot.
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Yeah it explains a lot like that’s why I don’t do terrace and semi detached house for the price of a tea and sandwich.
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Yeah it explains a lot like that’s why I don’t do terrace and semi detached house for the price of a tea and sandwich.
Yeh but in 63 you must have had the pick of the lot with not much competition.
These days for lads starting up its a case of take what you can get as all the best stuff is sewn up.
Tea and a bacon sarnie near me is about 3 or 4 quid.
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🤣🤣 m8 my Dad started in that terrible winter of 63 that customer I was on about is the last to go now or though some have only gone a few years ago. He let it whittle right down over the years until I joined him and then about 10 years later I got it making decent money,he was old Skool m8 we’d clean stuff that should have been 3x the price he just wanted something to in his later years he had big cleaning contracts back in the day insurance companies banks etc, 15-20 women mornings and evenings it was just beer money back then the windows that is.
He had very good contacts though the old man he was a scratch golfer I should know he played 3 x a week and left me to it 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 🏌️♂️
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Always extra but I only add half of what the jobs worth,had one of my customers ask me to do her neighbour s house Christmas before this one we have just had asked her if it was one off she said it was for Christmas so I gave her 1 off price she said no but she had them done this Christmas at the 1 off price ,so Always exgra
Good to see you back posting.
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I'm charging extra for the first clean but not anything over the top.
The money is in the repeat business.
It's hard work the first time of course but maintenance cleans are a breeze.
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Yeah it explains a lot like that’s why I don’t do terrace and semi detached house for the price of a tea and sandwich.
theres nothing wrong with cleaning small estate jobs...esp if you have rows and rows of them...i still make a good hourly rate...nice bread and butter regular jobs.....90+ jobs all virtually next door to each other and another 70+ jobs on another estate across the road..... :)
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No there’s nothing wrong with it Daz but it’s not really where you want to be or what you want to be cleaning every day for years m8,wheat and chaffing over the years constantly is a good idea if I’d kept all the work I’d had for the last 25 years I’d have 6 routes of work but a fair chunk of it would be just like that.
You’ve got to ask yourself do you want to clean 5 jobs for 100 notes or do you want to clean 1-2 in less time,wheat chaff wheat chaff,it’s not rocket science is it comes a time when you should be able to walk and earn more than the bloke that’s running.
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I can’t think of anything worse than cleaning that kind of work day in day out m8 I used to do some estate work many many years ago,I just left it and never went back to it you’ll only ever be able to get so much per day whatever you are cleaning but small estate work you are limiting yourself even more,you’ll only be able to stick those 15-20 quid jobs up so much if they are higher priced jobs already it’s happy days or at least happier.
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I can’t think of anything worse than cleaning that kind of work day in day out m8 I used to do some estate work many many years ago,I just left it and never went back to it you’ll only ever be able to get so much per day whatever you are cleaning but small estate work you are limiting yourself even more,you’ll only be able to stick those 15-20 quid jobs up so much if they are higher priced jobs already it’s happy days or at least happier.
Its 8 days work a month...most of my other work is larger jobs.....it doesn't bother me one bit...I like the variety......👍
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A window is a window whether its on a small bungalow or mansion......
Darran
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No there’s nothing wrong with it Daz but it’s not really where you want to be or what you want to be cleaning every day for years m8,wheat and chaffing over the years constantly is a good idea if I’d kept all the work I’d had for the last 25 years I’d have 6 routes of work but a fair chunk of it would be just like that.
You’ve got to ask yourself do you want to clean 5 jobs for 100 notes or do you want to clean 1-2 in less time,wheat chaff wheat chaff,it’s not rocket science is it comes a time when you should be able to walk and earn more than the bloke that’s running.
Nigel I’ve said this time after time but you don’t seem to take it in, in my experience people in my area are not prepared to pay £60-80 an hour for a window cleaning service, and to be honest I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t want to pay a semi skilled operative these kind of rates either. However people don’t bat an eyelid at paying £10 for 6-8 mins work and as such your hourly rate of £60-80 goes unnoticed. For that reason compact private estate work can be more lucrative up here than doing mansions. I’m sure you can understand that?
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Yeah I know KS I was meaning certain areas I wasn’t generalising really tbh and just my preference and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardise my place in that bed,and as for saying a window is a window I can’t agree with that there’s a lot of factors which means you can get more for cleaning that same window on a different property in a different area.
That’s like saying you clean 30 windows on a house and I do the same and we get the same money for it,I can guarantee you that’s not right for starters lol.
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Yeah I know KS I was meaning certain areas I wasn’t generalising really tbh and just my preference and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardise my place in that bed,and as for saying a window is a window I can’t agree with that there’s a lot of factors which means you can get more for cleaning that same window on a different property in a different area.
That’s like saying you clean 30 windows on a house and I do the same and we get the same money for it,I can guarantee you that’s not right for starters lol.
😂 Aye that’s fair enough.
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You can build a route of work that financially would be better than 3 average routes of work but it’s year on year wheat from the chaff,I go to places now where I used to have maybe 10-15 jobs but I now only do 2-3.
Like I say I drove through 3 villages a couple of weeks ago and I counted 25-30 jobs I’ve dropped out over the years,the few that I do in each area works out better financially for less time spent cleaning it’s all about price and using your time wisely you can only clean so much in a day.