Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: darren_smart on January 18, 2007, 07:33:39 am
-
Got a phone call from a customer yesterday went bit like this...
(cust) your really late,where are you ? ( admit 3 weeks )
(me) well...... holiday season and the weather ...
(cust) what do you mean the weather ,its never stopped you before ,i've seen you before when its been raining !
(me) yep thats right ..but its been more the wind than the rain !
(cust) thats no excuse ...and put the phone down !! :o
stopped what i was doing there and then and went and cleaned her windows...she'd gone out !
felt like school boy again who hadn't done his homework !
any similar experiences ? what would you have done ?
question is.. Is the customer always right ??????????
-
you stopped what you were doing and went and cleaned them! :o
Dump the cheeky so and so.
You are the boss and you call the shots.
You are in a luxury position of being able to hand pick your customer base and drop all the arrogant, late paying, look down their nose, rude types.
When she sees you cleaning all the other windows in the area, she will be gutted.
Then, if she asks, you can explain that you clean when you decide, dependant on weather conditions. You WILL try and keep to a schedule as you always did but if the weather stops you working you will obviously be delayed. If you have a 2 week holiday, you will be 2 weeks late etc etc.
When she asks to be put back on your round, either tell her it has gone up a couple of quid or better still tell her she has been replaced and you are full to the limits.
-
If she spoke to me like that bud, i'd go round her house too. Not to clean her windows, but to stick my 18ft Universal someplace where the sun don't shine, Vikan end first :)
I had some gal refer to me as Just a window cleaner a few years back over the phone. She called to have a moan too. I asked her to repeat what she'd just said and she apologised. Dumped her anyways. Can't be arsed with T*ssers like that. My advice is,let her get away with it and she'll talk to you like it again and again. Oh yeh, my advice is.............dump 'er
-
told her to p~:s off
-
people still seem to look down on window cleaners,if i even sense this with a customer i drop them,i know we have to earn the money but not at the expense of some clown thinking your below her,even though you went and cleaned them i wouldnt go back again.
ps once you get used to dumping clowns like this you start to feel your the boss of your buisness,and word gets around that you dont take any crap,hence customers treat you with more respect.
-
stopped what i was doing there and then and went and cleaned her windows...she'd gone out !
That's where you went wrong.
You should have just carried on with what you were doing, muttered a few swear words, and had a little chuckle to yourself. ;D
-
It's one of the perks of the job to be able to tell w@nkers like that to f-off.
-
......3 weeks?! She might not have been very nice to you, but 3 weeks late is not very nice as well at the other hand.
-
but if you have a couple of weeks holiday and then mix that with the rain we have had then how can you not be 3 weeks late,if you work on your own unless your superman you will be at least 2-3 weeks late,impossable not to be
-
I would have told her if its that time of month to phone me when the decoraters have finished ;D with a better attitude
Have you been back for your money and what did she say?
Brett.
-
What she was basically saying was "My windows being cleaned on time is more important than your safety and well-being".
3 weeks late is nothing!
-
Darren
You did right, you are setting out a frame work and you have just turned araound.
" That darn window cleaner"
to
" Our window cleaner is ever so good"
Remember the CUSTOMER IS KING
keep that in mind and you will go far.
Its allright telling them to sod off, but you wont do your reputation any good at all.
Years ago i can remeber having a really difficult house to clean, so i let it go, only to find out this guy was the biggest building contractor and property owner in the area.
I shot myself in the foot big time, you never know what will come back to bite you.
For me it is 100% integrity and politeness to all customers.
Dave
-
It sounds to me that he was being polite and explained why he was late. She then put the phone down on HIM (the height of rudeness in my book).
As you say being rude back won't do ones reputation any good but on the other hand why should anybody be treated like something you've trodden in?
The customer may be king but that doesn't make 'em right.
-
I think you did right, they are our bread & butter. The good thing is that you can go back even when its raining heavy as she dont seem to mind.
Steve
-
Simon
there are those who will take my advice and those who wont.
At the end of the day he has resolved a situation and come away with his reputation intact.
How do you know shes not related to some factory owner etc.
I never said the customer was right.
I didnt take note of the "put the phone" down line.
But even still i would have done the same as Darren.
Just smile nicely and take the money.
-
thanks for the replies ... on balance i feel that i did the right thing ... i could of let her wait .. but soon as its poored down all night i dont suppose they will look not much better this morning... ;)
the other thing she lives in the middle of a village where i do a lot of work and she talks ! so i had reputation to concider .... sometimes its worth concidering the bigger picture rather than lettind your frustrations out on them !!! :-X
-
Darren
you must do what you feel is best for your business in some cases you do have to bite your tongue because you never know what the reprocussions could be. I have had customers cancel for me being late they didnt even bother to ring me this is what you will find with our job, most want it done every month some will go 6-8 weekly. Im sure every window cleaner on this forum has had a customer speak to them in that manner for one thing or another, so i think very few would have said anything back but none of us like being spoken to like s**t!
Your customer should have taken into account the xmas holidays and the wind and rain in january
Brett
-
Dave the reason I find this woman so offensive is that for donkeys years I worked in a bank and had to put up with all kinds of crap from customers but had to smile and put up with it. For the 1st time in my life I don't need to and it's a great feeling.
True there's the remote possibility she may be the wife of a factory owner or property developer and an even remoter possibility that by biting your tongue you may end up doing some very lucrative work for the husband. But just imagine, if she can be this rude re her own house what's she going to be like once you're doing work for the hubby? She'd probably keep threatening to make her husband pull the work he's giving you.
99.9% of customers are perfectly decent people....ok some are messers (that's the general public for you) and then you get the odd few who are downright obnoxious. Don't see any need to cowtow to them given the amount of work that's out there.
-
compleatly agree
-
Sometimes I think that if I dropped all the customers who payed a bit late (but still payed), or said not this time, or were in a bad mood before I arrived and were a bit off with me, like some recommend, I would have about half as many customers and be half as well off.
Seriously, I moan about bad service when I go out or shop or phone somewhere and get a call centre. So I try and provide a good service regardless of what they're like (apart from none payers obviously). That way I've been recommended by customers who have been moaners or 'not this timers', to other people.
If they aren't happy, try to make them. One customer was really funny with me recently and it crossed my mind never to go back. I did, and first thing she apologised and said it was a really bad time when she was like that. I'm glad I went back and still earn money out of her.
Just my point of view.
-
I am about 3 weeks late too, because of the season and the weather, not had anyone complain as yet, you can never please all of the people all of the time can you?
I'd think most people would'nt mind you being late too much especially when you consider how lousy the weather is, my biggest problem would be people turning me away and saying "theres no point cleaning them this time, they'll be filthy again tomorrow!" I hope she appreciates your level of customer service.
Simon
-
Wake up! she put the phone down on you >:( in my book that is the height of rudeness and she does not deserves your services, I would have taken her of your books and if she phone back I would have said sorry love but you was very rude and you need to have a word with your self!
Andy
-
thats no excuse ...and put the phone down !!
Me i would have took that as a cancellation and would be glad im shot of her.
There would be NO way i would run round after my customers the minute they ring about being late.
Paul
-
The customer is not king when they speak to you like a servant.
They need your services, you supply it. When they are rude, arrogant etc then dump them.
If a round is so fragile that you are dependant on every penny and every account, it is time to reconsider your round and look at pruning it.
Any business advisor or mentor will tell you that in order to succee, you need to concentrate 80% of your efforts on the top 20% of your customer base and attempt to replicate this 20% through the rest of your business.
Look at it like a Christmas tree with the top branches being the healthiest and bearing the most fruit (the 20%) Look after these branches with care and the healthy branches will start growing richer and bearing more fruit. As the top of the tree starts becoming more bountiful, prune off the lower unhealthy branches (the late payers, the rude, the bad access, the not this time please etc etc)
Eventually, you will have a fantastically bountiful and healthy tree (business)
The good customers you now have will spread the word amongst their circle (more of the same) the dumped customers will continue telling each new window cleaner that the last one was so unreliable !
Be the boss of your business ;)
Dump the dross.
-
Sean
I have an excellent business and clientel i am just not as brash and hot headed as a lot of window cleaners i know.
I have a £400 job which takes 2 of us half a day and one or two of the residents really look down on us and try bossing us about.
It kind of makes me smile inside that they dont even know i am earning a lot more money than them.
I could of walked off this job , but chose to stick it out , I now have another 5 huge jobs from the same company.
Take the money, keep your chin up and smile.
Dave
p.s I am well and truly the boss.
-
Sean
I have an excellent business and clientel i am just not as brash and hot headed as a lot of window cleaners i know.
I have a £400 job which takes 2 of us half a day and one or two of the residents really look down on us and try bossing us about.
It kind of makes me smile inside that they dont even know i am earning a lot more money than them.
I could of walked off this job , but chose to stick it out , I now have another 5 huge jobs from the same company.
Take the money, keep your chin up and smile.
Dave
p.s I am well and truly the boss.
I hear what you are saying Dave. It can be hard to put personal feelings aside sometimes and just think in terms of business transactions though. Having control of feelings at that level is well and truly being the boss. Alas, although I am much improved in that regard, I still need to do a lot more on my inner developement to get to that point.
Now giving the customers what they want is a very good policy - up to a point. Where it can get cloudy for me is where giving the customer what they want has an effect on the financial viability of part of my business. If I had no financial issues, I probably could give them exactly what they want and smile and be happy about it. Unfortunately, I am fighting for my financial life out there and it looks like being that way for a few more years yet. In the days when my life was much simpler (quite a long time ago now) and I paid a bit of council rent, had no debts, and my motor was paid for, I had no problem in giving customers exactly what they wanted. Looking back, I realised that I let them walk all over me. I wasn't too bothered because the rent got paid and life was pretty easy for me. However, today is different, I have a largish mortgage, debts, and a big tax bill to pay by the end of this month. If I were to give the customers exactly what they wanted, I would go under. Therefore, I am having to sort out the chaff and take better paid work in order to stay afloat. When I drop a customer, it's not through some quasi-childish need to punish them. It is done after an assessment of how likely they would be to mess me around again in the future and the likelihood of other customers who they know starting to mess me around too. I also assess how much that job is worth to me and how much any potential work coming through them might be worth to me as well. It sounds cold and calculating and does not come naturally to me but it's the way I (and probably some others on here) have to do things sometimes.
However, when a customer does get dropped, I try to be courteous about it and sometimes even try to get them another window cleaner.
So, yes, give them what they want but without being a sacrificial lamb.
-
Surely the best revenge sometimes is to think to yourself
"Right, fair enough, I will clean em and take your money off you if you insist!"
bad payers are bad customers, customers wanting an irregular service are bad customers, customers who do not tell you they are unhappy and just drop you are bad customers.
Customers who phone you up to give you a ticking off about being 3 weeks late are giving you negative feedback, it might not feel nice but it is essential that you know when your customers are not happy, Good customer.
And good window cleaner for keeping your cool and reacting possetive.