Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: pjulk on July 31, 2008, 10:08:15 pm
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What do you think is better for your business.
Quality or Quantity
The reason i ask this is that i see on one of the dragons den's programmes that one of the dragons said you make more money with quantity.
Which so far i don't really go for i usually pride myself on the quality of my work.
But thinking about it you never know how long we are going to be in this business and really need to make as much as possible while we can and i'm now thinking quantity is the way to go.
I may lose a few customers if i went for quantity but i would be earning more money and customers are easily replace.
Now what does everyone else think about this subject
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Quality without a doubt ::)
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Reliability is the most important thing.
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I may lose a few customers if i went for quantity but i would be earning more money and customers are easily replace
Quality everytime for me, if you lost that many custys a bad reputation soon spreads and sticks!
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Im not so sure there is a chap round my way and he does a rubbish job he would even admit it to you but he knocks out heck off a lot of work and is always inundated with new work.
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He is probably reliable, that is what my customers all tell me they want.
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I wouldn't chance it with my business, but it does make you wonder if the custy's even bother to look at the windows .
I've a few that are so dirty inside, they probably wouldn't even notice if they had been cleaned or not.
Steve
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I picked up a new place yesterday, and was chatting to the custy after the formalities.
She said that the important windows were the kitchen and lounge ones, she doesnt look out the others, anyway she said, why should she, they all had nets !!!
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Quality is always better than Quantity in are work if the dragons said this they were drunk. anyone can get quantity of customers £2 a house you will be stacked out with work in a week or 2, quality takes time to get and every window cleaner does this unless they are stupid or a liar.
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I guess it depends on if its quality of workmanship or quality of the round in an earnings sense.
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ok is will say this another way the way I think
Quantity = busy fool
Quality = clever minded
this works for many business' not just window cleaning, but other business' do not work this way window cleaning yes Quality every time but having both is good
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depends where you are i think, when im doing 50 £4 houses in a day i will knock out quantity when its big houses i will probably go more careful, because 1 £4 house is easy replaced, but you dont wanna lose a £50 house
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The Dragons right look at McDonalds,Primemark, KFC etc. 10s of millions of pounds a day selling ****
However I voted quality
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depends where you are i think, when im doing 50 £4 houses in a day i will knock out quantity when its big houses i will probably go more careful, because 1 £4 house is easy replaced, but you dont wanna lose a £50 house
We offer quality and back this up, then again I am not starting out, but would say to anyone starting off: start as you mean to go on! Don't do this and you will add to the unreliable windows cleaners that are 10 a pennies in every town ;)
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been doing them £4 houses for 4 years mate, started out with £30 worth now have £600 there in 2 days, when i say quantity i dont mean i leave dirt on windows, just dont clean sills etc unless paid to do so, on big houses though will go that extra mile even if not asked.
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been doing them £4 houses for 4 years mate, started out with £30 worth now have £600 there in 2 days, when i say quantity i dont mean i leave dirt on windows, just dont clean sills etc unless paid to do so, on big houses though will go that extra mile even if not asked.
I am not knocking you, but I bet you if you said you would clean sills frames ect they would be £6 houses at least, I used to be the same and could see the angle to work on ;)
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its a council estate in moss side manchester :) so i doubt it, they do have the option of frames and sills and for that i actually charge £10 and have 3 or 4 who go for it, but the rest just want fortnightly cleans at £4 and never had a complaint, and as i said i can knock out a good rate, just cleaning glass. and have a lad doing downstairs, works for me. But all my other work is in cheshire and i pride myself in doing a good job, it seems that in a very low demographic like moss side no one really seems to care about state of work, some of them are absolutely black inside, but they just seem to be happy its been done? But my standard of work is fine, i just dont go over the top when its not necessary and i know that everyone else is the same, you automatically do as much as is necessary then move on. why do more than needed and waste time and money. someone mentioned primark and mcdonalds before, think to yourself generally who eats and shops there? what are they after? compared to a very expensive restaurant, or shopping at harrods, forgive the generalizations but the principle is there.
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its a council estate in moss side manchester :) so i doubt it, they do have the option of frames and sills and for that i actually charge £10 and have 3 or 4 who go for it, but the rest just want fortnightly cleans at £4 and never had a complaint, and as i said i can knock out a good rate, just cleaning glass. and have a lad doing downstairs, works for me. But all my other work is in cheshire and i pride myself in doing a good job, it seems that in a very low demographic like moss side no one really seems to care about state of work, some of them are absolutely black inside, but they just seem to be happy its been done? But my standard of work is fine, i just dont go over the top when its not necessary and i know that everyone else is the same, you automatically do as much as is necessary then move on. why do more than needed and waste time and money. someone mentioned primark and mcdonalds before, think to yourself generally who eats and shops there? what are they after? compared to a very expensive restaurant, or shopping at harrods, forgive the generalizations but the principle is there.
I understand what you are saying m8 I would still offer the frames ect wfp £1/£2 more, you do what you know its woring, I dont live there or know youre area just saying what I would do ;)
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these at £4 arent wfp, they are ladders for now, thats probably where we are mis understanding each other from another post :) I cant find a way to go wfp on this round, far too many locked gates. But i understand where you coming from. But i gotta go bed now, past my bedtime, and i got 50 £4 houses to do tommorow :( Have a good day tommorow all.
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these at £4 arent wfp, they are ladders for now, thats probably where we are mis understanding each other from another post :) I cant find a way to go wfp on this round, far too many locked gates. But i understand where you coming from. But i gotta go bed now, past my bedtime, and i got 50 £4 houses to do tommorow :( Have a good day tommorow all.
How do you get over gates at the mo ???
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ladders
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ladders on trad work obviously but wfp i arrange access
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ladders
same way I go over wfp m8tey, just clean them quicker wfp
If if have no access I go over gates have small ladder in van to do this ;)
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quality = word of mouth = a good business and good prices, i find customers will pay a bit more for quality and will stay loyal
i built my business and name on quality
Brett
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you have to have quallity to build quantity...
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I think you are missing the point. Its not your quality that counts in this its the quality of your customers.
And I don't mean big houses and snotty owners ( the type who get out of the shower to have a pee)
Good customers + good price + right area+ easy access
If you do a brilliant job for a miserable old cow who's underpriced anyway thats not quality.
But when you get good customers you want lots. THATS quantity.
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In this business it really depends on how you want to target the market.
If you want a good reputation for providing your services locally, then quality has to come first.
If you don't care about local reputation then go for quantity. In windowcleaning if you're going for quantity then you need staff, you can't do it alone. Same with any manual work.
My father in law made millions. One thing he used to do was buy paperback bestsellers, he only made 5p per book! but all he did was the deal round the table, the rest was done by others as he would buy half a million books on pallets and distribute them to trade & retail outlets as fast as poss. Quantity not quality.
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M & S or Lidl
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I slackened off a few months back for more money.
Missed frosted windows, did less rinsing, didn't do frames on most, didn't detail trad stuff...etc...
Made noticably more money, but got tired, as I found it also encouraged me to spend all day rushing about flat out, to see how much I could do.
Got a complaint too, and that was the end of that. :-\
Might do it today though, as I've got an area that I wouldn't finish and have to go back up on monday otherwise... ;D :-X
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Confession time. I've been making a gradual transition from quality to quantity. However, that's not as bad as it sounds. At one time I was spending more time than necessary on quality. I still do a decent job but now without the overkill. I take the view now that a very occasional complaint is an occupational hazard rather than a statement on my general standards. Also, I reckon there is a choice in this matter. I can try to put up all my prices to offset my increased costs or I can try to get through the work a bit faster and freeze the prices. Another alternative is to work longer hours - difficult to do in Winter. Not malingering this morning either. Need to take it a bit easier today as my back is tweaking and I've got some non residential work to do on Sunday. So if I were to focus too much on quality, I would need to increase my prices - perhaps not such a great idea at the moment.
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There's a man who knows his business. I reckon Shiner has hit the nail on the head.
There's quality and there is obsession, its hard to strike a happy medium. people on here have said in the past things like " I have never had a complaint in 20 years" well more fool them. A certain level of adverse customer reaction is healthy.
There's the old story I told a while back about Peter Perfect and Spash & Dash Sid. Who makes the most money?
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Different answers to 2 different scenarios really.
Lets say you employ 4 guys, 1 in each van, out on there own cleaning for you. No employee will clean and work to your standard in my eyes. So in this scenario, its gotta be quantity, with ongoing marketing to gain more custies, as you would prob loose them weekly due to standards of work. However, would be a very profitable business to have!
If you are on your own......Quality!
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I think you need Quality in order to get Quantity. If you start out as splash and dash then you won't pick up much.
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Most of us are more than likely guilty of swinging between quality and quantity...but I suspect the alot of us do not know when to stop with the washing, scrubbing and rinsing...I hold my hand up to this...I think I spend far to much time scrubbing and rising....
Tried my own windows the other day as a speed test and really went like the clappers ...one window had a few spots...but other than that all was well.
Dave.
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There has been some excellent replies on here.
I myself have always been a bit of a perfectionist but in doing this i sometimes get a bit behind in my work.
I know i spend to much time washing and rinsing.
Today i went out and washed less and rinsed less and managed 4 extra jobs.
On my way home i stopped and checked a couple and they were perfect.
To be honest i would not mind the odd complaint as i tells me im slightly to fast or have not rinsed quite enough.
I never get a complaint and i think it's because i spoil them and go a bit OTT.
So i think that we need to find a balance between qualitity and quantity.
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ive only just gone wfp and i think i spend minutes more than necessary on evry window, but i am convinced there gonna be awful when i leave them! And its hard to know when you have got the dirt off, and do you have to go over the whole sheet of glass rinsing?
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ok is will say this another way the way I think
Quantity = busy fool
Quality = clever minded
this works for many business' not just window cleaning, but other business' do not work this way window cleaning yes Quality every time but having both is good
Don`t agree with that,a busy fool is someone that runs around allday for nothing not getting out of his busines what he could or should be.If the company is doing quantity there turning over a lot of business and can afford to be less fussy because if they lose the odd bit of business it`s not the end of the world,you can be as good as you can at this job if your not producing the numbers you won`t earn much or if you employ staff will go out of business.The only company i know that produces both of the above is VIRGIN,IMO they provide the ultimate service and by that i mean they make you feel like your a valued customer and not just a number.In his job i would say that if you give a reliable above average service you will go far but if you take quality to the extreme you`ll never make a what i call desent living.