Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: geefree on January 29, 2009, 05:34:41 pm
-
In the area i work in, these leaflets have been posted today.... saying the cost of cleaning your windows will be £x.xx
(cheaper than me).... and they will call back saturday , leave it in the window if required.
not against a bit of competition, as i drop my own leaflets, and we all gotta build.... but pricing up as you go along? whilst dropping leaflets.?
just thought i would have a moan lol ;D
-
if im leafleting a area,and housers are all the same ,i do put prices from,conservatorys from,so yhey have a idia befor they ring,if price to high,they dont have to ring
-
why not price as you go along? As long as you have that word "from" in front of any price and you have taken the trouble to look at access etc, can't see any problem with that.
-
You from Dorset Helen?
Sorry to hijack post Gazza :)
-
In the area i work in, these leaflets have been posted today.... saying the cost of cleaning your windows will be £x.xx
(cheaper than me).... and they will call back saturday , leave it in the window if required.
not against a bit of competition, as i drop my own leaflets, and we all gotta build.... but pricing up as you go along? whilst dropping leaflets.?
just thought i would have a moan lol ;D
your right nothing wrong with competition, seen leaflets like this before myself, one got put through my mums door and I lost a customer close to her for this very reason because they were cheaper. The up of it is you do get an idea of what your competitors maybe pricing in the area and the chance to re think your price structure if you are being duly affected. In the incidences it has happened to me I doubt i could compete with or match their prices due to me having to travel to my work areas as opposed to living maybe a few streets away and going door to door with a ladder.
I like the middle approach of stating standard prices " starting from " and may adopt this approach when I have a new print run of flyers.
-
if you lose a customer due to price then they are looking to save money in the short term or just mean with the pennies if you lose alot of customers then your price is too high i have recently chatted to my customers explaining there are alot of new guys about and they will probably be leafletted or called apon thankfully so far all have said they are happy with my price and more important they know me and can trust me so keep regular and you should keep a decent customer base
-
i use them but not to nick someone else s customer to gain one the first ting i dont know how much other wcners charge may be more maybe less so i look at the house decide a price write it on the leaflet and push it throught the letter box if the person who lives in the house happy with it give me call done otherwise try again and i cant call this nicking other wc ers customers
-
i use them but not to nick someone else s customer to gain one the first ting i dont know how much other wcners charge may be more maybe less so i look at the house decide a price write it on the leaflet and push it throught the letter box if the person who lives in the house happy with it give me call done otherwise try again and i cant call this nicking other wc ers customers
Exactly what i do
-
I put prices on mine all of the time. I think if there is a price on there they are more likely to ring if they think its reasonable, rather than to ring to find out a price and be embarrassed to say no. Get my drift?
-
The biggest problem is the "newbie" They don't have a clue how to price & it just spoils the job.
Just lost two 15 quid jobs to a "newbie" w/cleaner, one is a large 4 bed detatched the other a 6 bed B&B.
His leafleted the whole area with "any house 5 pounds" !!! :o :o
What a d**k head.
I'm not worried about the jobs, he'll not last two minutes, it's the fact that this causes us problems in the future. Everyone who gets his leaflet will think that's the going rate for their windows for the next ten years!!
You know the score "HOW MUCH :o the last chap only took a fiver"
::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)
Tony
-
i laughed when i read that , but its not funny >:(these guys that do this are idiots :o the funny thing is that sometimes they are educated people :D....thats why they have no common sense....lol ;D
-
Thats what my point was really.
you spend two years getting the prices right... and some one... comes in and knocks them all back down.
thats the annoying thing... and thats why we always look expensive...
Newbies, and desperate men ........ GET THEM PRICES UP!!!!
-
gazzasp8 "you spend two years getting the prices right....." surley thats exactly what the newbies are doing?
-
When supermarkets came along there profit margins where massively lower than the local shops , but due to the turnover it was worth it for them . Maybe some W/C look at it that way.
For example - Go to a street of say 40 houses price the same as everyone else [ say £10 per house ] chances of getting work 0% money earned £0
Go to a street of say 40 houses price cheaper than everybody else [ say £5 ]chances of getting work 50% money earned £100
Now you or i might think £100 for say a days work [ remember there all close together ] isnt worth it but thats £500 a week if you do it 5 times,
A friend of mine owns 12 hairdressering salons and at one time my ex wife and i where looking at opening one i asked his advice and was suprised that he only made £100 profit per week for each one ," is that all ? it's hardly worth it" i said ,he said " but i have 12 so thats £1,200 per week "
-
£1200 a week is not a lot for the hastle of running 12 salons :o
-
gazzasp8 "you spend two years getting the prices right....." surley thats exactly what the newbies are doing?
time and time again they , and we are told to price them right,.... not against people trying to build an income, but the first thing i did when rejected was to ask the customer , if they dont mind what you pay.... i worded it right .., politely and smiley and , i got a decent answer..... and i responded with... thanks very much..... i simply want to make sure im pricing right for this area.....
now, he may have done his homework.... and could be undercutting.
The houses in question were not canvassed by me.... so i crept the prices up bit by bit...
just a little silly going in with one price for all houses on street.
by the way , who would not work for £100 per day?.... i would any time.im sure lots more would.
-
by the way , who would not work for £100 per day?.... i would any time.im sure lots more would.
For a tough 8 hr day of window cleaning, I'd want more than £100. Remember we have to budget for times we can't work due to the weather, sickness, laziness, the tax man, equipment; and probably other stuff!
-
yes but sometimes it happens.... my calls were so far apart when i started that i thought i would never earn anything. ;)
-
I wouldn't spit on £100 pound a day don't know any windowcleaners that earn as little per day as that >:( :P
-
my builder mate is unemployed... he would love £500 per week...
also when you are building a round, unless you buy... it takes time to get a compact round to pass £100 per day.
but there is always someone to knock down other peoples wages who are trying hard to get established.
personally, if i was earning a huge huge income, and most of ny customers dropped me because of the recession.... and i was "only " earning £500 per week....
i would be very happy in this current climate.
we all want to earn maximum, but it takes time... and those people who have worked hard , to give the family £500 per week deserve to be applauded not spat on..
-
I wouldn't spit on £100 pound a day don't know any windowcleaners that earn as little per day as that >:( :P
These sort of posts is why people leave this forum. ::)
-
He was probably kidding around calm down...sheesh.
-
i've put prices on my leaflets for the same reason Chris Brooke explained on this post, i simply counted the windows on the front, estimate the back to be the same then add the sides, then take two or three pounds off and they have a good offer, this was my method to building a round of £200 pound a day.
It didnt add to that at first obviously because i knocked a couple of pounds off but it got me started VERY quick, i simply pushed the price up after a year putting it down to inflation then i was sorted,
Though i wouldnt recommend putting the prices up due to inflation in this current climate as we are looking
at DE-FLATION. If anything we should all be putting our prices down a little just to show our custies we are thinking of them. then put it up when the economy is picking up again. thats our best chance of them not cancelling cos lord knows ive had a few so far..... i dont mean alot but just 50p or so, believe it or not that adds up to the custies. Obviously dont bother with the ones with big houses and flash motors in the driveway of course. ;D
-
i wish ;D
-
You from Dorset Helen?
Sorry to hijack post Gazza :)
No, Hampshire. But have connections wth Devon, Dorset and Somerset :)
-
you have to carefull when discussing prices to differentiate between gross and net
if your charging on average £15 per house and with travelling time averaging two an hour, thats £30 per hour over a six hour day thats £180 or £900 per week, which sounds brilliant untill you take off all the costs incured with running a business plus tax and ni
this can bring your take home down to around the £4-500 mark which all though not bad in this current economic climate is not brilliant for a self employed businesssman
many wcs aim for £50+ per hr which gives them a decent living plus cash available to re invest in equipment and development of their business
the reality is in many parts of the country its impossible to get £15 per house with houses being cleaned for as little as £3 per house , this means the wc doesnt have the luxury of two an hour and has to work extremely hard to make a living.
whats needed is alicencing system in this country the same as scotland, the newly licenced wcs should in theory be able to raise the local rate to meet demand and give us all a decent living
we should all stick tgether and make the trade our own
in answer to the thread................never differentiate on price only, if your the cheapest then someone will always come along and undercut you, be professional and charge aproper rate...........and dont give your prices to the competition on a plate...........let them work to find out
-
I wasn't kidding about not spitting on a £100 a day I honestly don't know how you would go about earning as little as that and don't know of any of my friends in the trade that earn that low an amount seriously. Even with patchy work as long as it's priced as £1 per window, £3 per bay, £5 per conservatory you should have no problem in earning £200 in a 7 hour day as an absolute minimum working alone.
By the way I said I wouldn't spit upon £100 a day, I in no way said or implied that I would spit upon a hardworking man that earned £500 a week for his family so please do not misrepresent me. Hell I would work stacking shelves in ASDA for £250 a week if it was the only way I could put food on the table.
-
sorry to drag this post back up....
well, regarding the first post in this topic.......
a customer rang me today (one of them who recieved the guys leaflet)
said can i not bother anymore, as i had left rubber marks on her frames.... i said are you sure? as i am very thorough and double check everything, and never touch frames with the side of my brush... she said , yes so please dont call anymore...
i said ok.. but i am on my way round now to check out these black marks on your frames....
ooooh .... she said... erm, i have wiped them all off now.... ;D ;D ;D
really.. i said .....oh dear... well its the first time anyone has ever said that to me...oh and make sure that new window cleaner who dropped you a leaflet.... does your frames and doors ok...? bye.
lol... ??? ::)
-
Gazza,
I bet most of us have heard similar; some customer's won't tell you the truth when they drop you; they'd rather critisize your work and drop you rather than come clean and say they've found someone cheaper (or that they can't afford you anymore).
I had a lovely cancellation today; the lady said her husband had lost his job and once they're back on their feet, she promised to have me back.
I'll not hold my breath, but she was genuinely apologetic and a lovely customer too.