Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: lee_dewing on October 16, 2007, 11:54:05 am
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hi did a post awhile back on this subject.
Thanks luke johnson and others for your ideas.
decided to go down this route to basically earn more money.
been wfp 13 months now, finding customers are saying windows are staying cleaner longer.
average getting around 4.5 weeks.
Question: How much extra do you charge for 8 week cleans 50%?
On all new quotes i will price higher giving the option of 4 or 8 week clean expecting them to go for 8 weeks.
Question: how do I get existing customers to swap when i am ready to (once got extra work)
i.e how do you sell a 50% price increase to them, I understand the maths but does the take the bait or do they just see the increase.
I want to go down this road because i am simply not earning enough to much under pricing whwn i went on my own, i reckon i'm on average 25% under this was'nt intentional just naive.
treating everything now as strarting again(refining process)
any tips anyone.
sorry very similar to last post just missed a couple of points.
uh yeh i'm sure there's less problems with weather as well as if customer turns you away it will be a total of 16 weeks when windows are cleaned again, so the customer would be more likely to except rain guarantee.
cheers all
lee :)
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All my domestic customers are x8 weeks. Apart from 4 very big houses that I do every 12 weeks.
I don't understand how you can work with some customers being 4 weeks and some being 8 weeks if you have a full time round, or are building a full time round?
Let's just say you have a full round... One day in October you clean 10 customers who are all 4 weekly... November comes round and you have the same 10 cusomters to do + 5 extra customers that are 8 weekly on the same day... How do you fit the extra 5 customers in?
Andy
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try to even out your 8 weekly cleans so that you have around the same amount every 4 weeks
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see the point your making andy.
have you always been 8 weeks or did this occur after changing to wfp and did yoy then bump the customers prices?
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thanks nat also.
just basically want to earn more money!
weather it 4 6 or 8 weeks
any one else got opions on this?
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see the point your making andy.
have you always been 8 weeks or did this occur after changing to wfp and did yoy then bump the customers prices?
It all stems from when I first setup. I would take on anyone on their terms just to get the work... So I ended up with a handful of 4 weekly cleans, a lot of 6 weekly cleans, loads of 8 weekly cleans and a few 12 weekly cleans.
After a while it became a headache as I had all kinds of work falling on the same day on different months and have work thats as far as 30 miles away from where I live etc...
Now I am in a situation where I have everyone on 8 weeks (apart from the few big ones I have)... So every other month I have the same days work as 8 weeks previous... Then I just fit my few 12 weekly cleans in when they crop up.
Andy
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see the point your making andy.
have you always been 8 weeks or did this occur after changing to wfp and did yoy then bump the customers prices?
It all stems from when I first setup. I would take on anyone on their terms just to get the work... So I ended up with a handful of 4 weekly cleans, a lot of 6 weekly cleans, loads of 8 weekly cleans and a few 12 weekly cleans.
After a while it became a headache as I had all kinds of work falling on the same day on different months and have work thats as far as 30 miles away from where I live etc...
Now I am in a situation where I have everyone on 8 weeks (apart from the few big ones I have)... So every other month I have the same days work as 8 weeks previous... Then I just fit my few 12 weekly cleans in when they crop up.
Andy
Andy how did you convert all from 4 weekly to 8 weekly and up the price? surely you would lose money if you had say everyone on 4 weeks then changed to 8 weeks with 50% increase in price??? I start wfp on friday ???
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Stick to 4 weekly , you will make more in the long run.
You will need less customers, also customers have a fixed price in there head they are prepared to pay whatever the frequency, i guarantee whatever you can get for an 8 weekly clean i can get the same for a 4 weekly barring say 5 % of the customers.
wfp or squeegie the windows get dirty the same, dont be fooled with the cleaner for longer myth, maybe stay cleaner for an extra day or 2 , not an extra month.
Dave
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Stick to 4 weekly , you will make more in the long run.
You will need less customers, also customers have a fixed price in there head they are prepared to pay whatever the frequency, i guarantee whatever you can get for an 8 weekly clean i can get the same for a 4 weekly barring say 5 % of the customers.
wfp or squeegie the windows get dirty the same, dont be fooled with the cleaner for longer myth, maybe stay cleaner for an extra day or 2 , not an extra month.
Dave
im so glad you said that, some of the things you hear or here are confusing, I will stick with the 4 weekly. (did you put up price when you went wfp or keep it the same?)
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Stick to 4 weekly , you will make more in the long run.
You will need less customers, also customers have a fixed price in there head they are prepared to pay whatever the frequency, i guarantee whatever you can get for an 8 weekly clean i can get the same for a 4 weekly barring say 5 % of the customers.
wfp or squeegie the windows get dirty the same, dont be fooled with the cleaner for longer myth, maybe stay cleaner for an extra day or 2 , not an extra month.
Dave
I agree! If 4 weekly is working for you at the moment then there is no reason to change?
As I said above the only reason I changed everyone to 8 weekly is because I had more 8 weekly cleans from the outset then any other frequency + I only target the larger houses which obviously cost more money for the customer.
Andy how did you convert all from 4 weekly to 8 weekly and up the price? surely you would lose money if you had say everyone on 4 weeks then changed to 8 weeks with 50% increase in price??? I start wfp on friday Huh
I just told them that I was consolidating my work and they were fine with it... I didn't increase their prices at all, I didn't think there was any need to... There isn't really that much more dirt on a window if you leave it a month longer I don't think.
Andy
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Ian keep the prices the same for about 6 months you dont want your customers to have to get used to a new system and a price rise at the same time, and give them extra ammo to shoot you.
once they have got used to it and trust you know what you are doing , then hit them with the price rise.
I moved from monthly to 4 weekly and that by itself gave me an 8 % price rice , i know get 13 cleans a year instead of 12 , if you play it the 8 weekly way you will only get 6+1/2 cleans a year
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my average domestic job is a £500'000 house and i never get asked for 8 weekly apart from the odd miser, what most of them want is clean windows all of the time.
8 weeks near me is way to long
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my average domestic job is a £500'000 house and i never get asked for 8 weekly apart from the odd miser, what most of them want is clean windows all of the time.
8 weeks near me is way to long
It's funny how it differs from location to location... When I was starting out most seemed to want 8 weekly cleans.
It's worked well for me in the long run though... I have been able to charge a little bit more per house + if any new window cleaners start up in the area they could find it hard to nick my work because my customers are all used to 8 weekly and wouldn't want anyone doing it 4 weekly 8)
Andy
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we try to stick to a 4 weekly cycle, but we probably have around 10-20% on 8 weeklys, it isn't that much of a pain, we also up the price so there good earners as well, i wouldn't entertain 6 weekly or 12 weekly as it would knock my cycles out of sync. we use to be just 4 weekly but then i realised that i was missing out on money by not offering the service. works for us and its no big deal just try to even them out through your schedules and they work fine!
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Lee , if you say your work is underpriced then how about upping your prices on those to an acceptable level but giving the option of a 6 week clean to justify the increase, saves you going down the 8 weeks route (too long for me and needs double the amount of 4 weekly customers).
I think the folks that do 6 weeks hardly ever get the "not this month" customer so could be an option to you.
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I don`t agree with Dave on this one at all,£500.000 i would say is the minimum priced house i clean on a 6-8 weekly basis,and to say that i would get the same money by doing them 4 weekly is wrong.If i do a house and charge £100-150 theres no way there going to want that every 4 weeks no matter who they are and how much money they`ve got people arn`t stupid,if i wanted to be more regular on these types of houses i would have to lower the price per clean and in effect over the course of the year i`d be doing more work for the same money.You don`t need to get many more customers you just need to make sure that it`s good work,if someone tells you they only cleans 60-70 jobs per month they`ve got a good round.
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I don`t agree with Dave on this one at all,£500.000 i would say is the minimum priced house i clean on a 6-8 weekly basis,and to say that i would get the same money by doing them 4 weekly is wrong.If i do a house and charge £100-150 theres no way there going to want that every 4 weeks no matter who they are and how much money they`ve got people arn`t stupid,if i wanted to be more regular on these types of houses i would have to lower the price per clean and in effect over the course of the year i`d be doing more work for the same money.You don`t need to get many more customers you just need to make sure that it`s good work,if someone tells you they only cleans 60-70 jobs per month they`ve got a good round.
On my biggest houses they are 6 weeks, have to agree with NHW, none every asked for them to be done any sooner, most of them are never in the UK in the first place
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Loads of my customers are either like you say out of the country or at least the husband is or both working in the city,i charge top prices and give it a breather between cleans.If they got my bill every 4 weeks i`d be for the chop.
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NWH
Wrong for you , not for me.
All my work is 4 weekly bar the odd few, all paying top whack, also I never get any "not today thank you's" neither, i have in the past and they got scrubbed off immediately.
one or 2 begged me back soon but now we both know where we stand.
8 weekly really is the exception, all the guys who i know are either 4 weekly or monthly, while some of the older guys are 2 weekly
Dave
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NWH
Wrong for you , not for me.
All my work is 4 weekly bar the odd few, all paying top whack, also I never get any "not today thank you's" neither, i have in the past and they got scrubbed off immediately.
one or 2 begged me back soon but now we both know where we stand.
8 weekly really is the exception, all the guys who i know are either 4 weekly or monthly, while some of the older guys are 2 weekly
Dave
we clean every 4 weeks, it is only the very big houses that are 6 this option is not available for normal houses
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I never ever get not today thankyou.
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I never ever get not today thankyou.
I had 1 the other week, the only one all year cause it's raining, dumped on the spot. ;D
If they are having work done it's not a problem.
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I'm every six weeks now-used to be monthly but so much work,and six weeks suit my customers.Because of holidays etc it might stretch to 8 weeks and then it seems too long for them.8 weeks makes the windows harder to clean though.
Fillllll
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Many people seem to think that when cleaning 8 weekly the windows are really bad....why not try a few windows on your own place and see the difference...
You may see it all in a different light.
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Many people seem to think that when cleaning 8 weekly the windows are really bad....why not try a few windows on your own place and see the difference...
You may see it all in a different light.
i have customers that are 8 weekly most are 4 weeks, the reason why is to make more money I am running it as a business, some work 4 weekly like me some 8 weekly it does not really matter as long as you are happy with what you earn thats what matters IMO
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thanks all intresting to see what others are doing.
I think i start whacking up all prices for new customers.
Give em the price if they start about too often or too dear then offer 8 weeks.
I think people with big houses will still only pay so much thats been my experience.
Thanks everyone
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good point john tompkins about the 6 weeks option.
what to do!
I use to be indecisive; now i'm not so sure! :D
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I was in the same position regarding under priced long standing customers. I explained to them that it was not economically feasible for me to continue at the old price.
I told them that I was only prepared to continue if the price was increased by 50%. I would however be prepared to clean their windows at 8 weekly intervals if they desired it, pointing out that this would actually reduce their annual window cleaning costs. I told them that most customers have been happy to go down this route.
The last bit is important, they're a bit like sheep and will go with the majority.
I now have 3 estates on bi-monthly cleans for 50% extra. At least now they can tell I have been. I definitely feel more appreciated by my 8 weekly customers Dai
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The customers seem to prefer 6-8 weeks. I have no trouble fitting in with their preferences. The customer is always right. More important to keep them happy than stick to some rigid routine.
In the old days (pre George) you had to stick to your book because you would get in a terrible mess if you didn't. Now you just set them up at whatever frequency they want and the system takes care of the rest.
Every week I print out a worklist for the coming week and then go and do it. It makes no difference to me what frequency they are on.
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most of my work is 4 weekly but recently alot of people have been asking for 6 weekly,i was thinking of putting everything to 5 weekly or nothing-anyone else do 5 week cleans as it always seems to be 4,6 or 8.
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I thought because you were using pure water to clean windows that the window no longer attracted dirt because there was no longer any soap residue left on the window. Is this true??
If it is true then, all things being equal, the windows shouldnt need cleaning on the same call frequency as trad cleaning methods. If it isnt true then the pure water sales pitch must be baloney ie it doesnt attract dirt the same way as traditional methods.
Not having to clean the windows as often should really present w/c ers with the oportunity to earn more money per clean. I presume most w/cers clean the bigger houses (higher priced work) less frequently because they dont want to risk losing their customer by asking them to pay too often eg £35 every 6 weeks isnt as painful as £30 every 4.
If you price the clean on a price per week basis then arent you optimising your profit?
Eg
3 bed semi 4 weekly £12 . £3 a week. If the customer is happy with £3 a week from the outset then if you turn up every 6 weeks or 8 weeks they pay £18 or £24 ( dont forget they were happy with £3 a week) it is then upto you to decide when you actually clean, especially when you tell the customer that the way you operate means that you wont call too often ( in the custies mind costing them more) but you guarantee they have sparkling clean windows.
Can the experienced cleaners on here tell me if that method of pricing work is acceptable. ie I will clean your windows for £3 a week (12 windows).
It makes you sound very competative price wise and gives you an oportunity to maximise your hourly rate by manipulating the call frequency.
I have done this on some work I priced at £1 a week (small terraced) and the opinion was that I was giving away my service.(6 week call frequency)
Mark
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Most windows do stay cleaner longer but the real bonus is that there easier to clean each time due to the frames being cleaner than when using traditional methods,if your needing to clean every 4 weeks you need more work.You don`t need to clean your houses every 4 weeks in order for the windows to stay cleaner longer,the WCS that have a 4 weekly round must just be happy with average paying domestic customers,i clean large domestic and couldn`t charge what i do every 4 weeks,my advice would be to extend the cleaning times but increase the cost per clean but this would mean that you will need to get more work to cover the gaps now left in your workload ie 2 weeks worth.