Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Biscute on August 06, 2007, 03:33:20 pm
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Im staring to change my collecting ways for a few reasons, I was just wondering what do i need so they can pay online? How do i go about making a website?
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Give them your bank details and your customer can pay straight into your bank.
Make sure they quote their address so you know who has paid!
Website - go to www.1and1.co.uk
Trevor
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I do some realy dodgy peoples windows cant they book tap dancing lessons and thing like that if they have my deatails? Iv seen the adveter lol.
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I have never had a problem with giving details, but then it's up to you who you hand them out to??
I think that advert is mainly to do with credit card fraud?
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Put your mind at ease. Give them your sort code and account number (and that's all).
They can only pay in...not take out.
If you think about it, your cheque has that information on it and you'll write a cheque to somebody quite happily.
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I use fasthost.co.uk for my web hosting they are very helpful and you get the web publishing software for free to build and upload your site.
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Give them your bank details and your customer can pay straight into your bank.
Make sure they quote their address so you know who has paid!
Website - go to www.1and1.co.uk
Trevor
Just an additional note to this which you may use or discard as you wish. I give the customer a payment reference number for when they set up the bill payment. The reference consists of <customer's door number><customer's post code>. I record this in my customer database. For instance, my door number is 99 and my postcode is RH11 7DY. Therefore my reference number would be 99RH117DY. This still holds up when the house has a name rather than a number because all houses have numbers even if people don't normally use them. Obviously you would have to obtain the number from the customer and to record it in your database or whatever you use. Unfortunately, I do not get to see the reference number until I receive the monthly paper statement due to the way my bank works. All I can see on the internet banking site is the name of the account holder. This is fine if they have an unusual name but not so good if they don't. Therefore, I ask customers to send a brief email when they make a payment.
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i have a paypal account.... can i use this for customer banking ?
Gary.
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i have a paypal account.... can i use this for customer banking ?
Gary.
I reckon so but bear in mind that paypal will take some of your money whereas a direct bank to bank transfer should be free of charge.
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Why dont you ask them to send you cheques?? insdead of paying online.
Dave
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all my customers pay via cheque ... and they also pay stamp , postage etc.... one or two are enquiring about internet banking.
Gary.
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Yer iv just started getting everone to do that but if they put straight into my bank it is one less hassell of them saying 'well i sent it, it must have got lost in the post'.
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Most people use ebay and have a Paypal account, they can send you money by email from there paypal to your paypal
If you go onto my web site and click on the paypal logo feel free to send me any amount just to see how easy it is ;D
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Cheers john il look into that now, also would you like me to send a chequ as well to compare the diffrence between the two ;)
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all my customers pay via cheque ... and they also pay stamp , postage etc.... one or two are enquiring about internet banking.
Gary.
I've been cash or cheque only until recently. The request to use internet banking is customer led in my business. However, I've listened and started to adapt. After all, the type of people who ask to pay this way are the people who want to pay promptly - i.e. the customers I really want to keep. I just wish my bank wouldn't force me to await the paper statement to compare the reference numbers. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard for them to alter there web page to show the reference numbers online.
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I just wish my bank wouldn't force me to await the paper statement to compare the reference numbers.
Could you not alter the price of there cleans by a couple of pence then you know who has paid.Like mrs X at no 36 pays £10.01, Mrs X at 38 pays £10.02 then when you check it online you have a idea who has paid
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I just wish my bank wouldn't force me to await the paper statement to compare the reference numbers.
Could you not alter the price of there cleans by a couple of pence then you know who has paid.Like mrs X at no 36 pays £10.01, Mrs X at 38 pays £10.02 then when you check it online you have a idea who has paid
I have considered doing just that and may revisit that idea if there is a large take up of paying via internet banking. At the moment, the numbers are very small so I can keep on top of it. Also I do prefer to keep the numbers tidy so prefer to work in multiples of 50p. Yours is a good suggestion. I even posted it myself some while back when I was batting ideas around.
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i will stick with cheques :D
thanks guys
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Ive heard of people having their payments on standing order, surely this must be easier?.
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Ive heard of people having their payments on standing order, surely this must be easier?.
This is not something I would want to do myself. This is because it is always possible to get behind with work. There would be pressure to catch up if customers were getting in front with payments. I don't mind hard work but I don't like feeling like a slave to my business.
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We have probably 30% or our customers on standing order. They are set up to pay 10 days from the normal date we are due, this gives us plenty of time to do the work and allows the customer some days grace to call us back if they are unhappy with the work?
It works really well and it's definately good for our business in terms of collecting.
We have just launched credit card payment facilities now so will see how that goes.
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We have probably 30% or our customers on standing order. They are set up to pay 10 days from the normal date we are due, this gives us plenty of time to do the work and allows the customer some days grace to call us back if they are unhappy with the work?
It works really well and it's definately good for our business in terms of collecting.
We have just launched credit card payment facilities now so will see how that goes.
Trev
What % do you pay on your PDQ machine and are there different rates for different cards??
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I have been running for only 1 year now but I started out with either pay with cash or deposit the money in our bank account via internet transfer within 14 days...
I have the normal 'gang' of late payers but they would pay late whatever the method I think (people are people)...
As far as sorting out who has paid, after each clean the customer gets a card with various info on it but most importantly our bank a/c details and the fact that they have 14 days to pay.
The banking system here in Holland does put the name, address and postcode on the payment but I always do ask the customer put their postcode and house number in the 'note section' when they make the payment..
The above makes it very easy to see who has paid.
Now we do not have cheques to my knowledge here in Holland...chip & pin is used widely...I think that the U.K will follow in the coming years.
Internet bank transfer does rely on the customer actually making the transfer but I have now ntocied that after a year some of my customers are starting to make 'standing order' type payments, I have even suggested this to a couple who 'forget' alot....on the whole they warm to it as they still have control and I get my money.....
I started out with the intention of making life easier for me and internet banking has certainly done that...I have yet to go out and collect....Yes you still have to sit at the computer and go through your account and check off who has and has not paid....but better at home than getting into the van at night...
Work smarter not harder....
The only thing is that when the money goes to the bank...it's hard to hide it is'nt it ;)
Cheers
Dave.
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Standing orders and customers paying direct into your bank is a nightmare if you start going over 10 doing it a day
Interesting, why do you say that?
We have many, many customers pay by standing order, all we do is log on to our account each day and pay off the accounts who have made payment? why is that difficult?
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Some banks are no longer issuing Cq Books and looks like the trend will continue. Personally I try to push the internet side of payments to make things easier for the future.
I have a few who use Online Bank Transfer. I give them Sort Code, Acc No and their surname & last 3 digits of their post code for ref.
Also have a couple who have set up a standing order and a couple on Paypal.
Any of the above you don't need to have your own web site to take payment.
Personally I think offering these alternatives has been one of the features/selling points of my service. I always use the payments methods at the end of my pitch, it seems to help clinch the job when quoting.
Wayne
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I agree Ian, nothing wrong with having a web presence. I was just indicating that you wouldn't need a www to use the above services.
Currently working on mine but never seem to get the time. I also have had a few enquiries from my email address which is on my leaflet so just goes to show custies will use the comp even for window cleaning services.
Wayne