Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Frequently Asked Questions & Useful Resources => Topic started by: Customers4u on August 11, 2005, 01:06:04 pm
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Hi all, have developed a website giving details of my business 'doorknockers' we canvass purely for window cleaners both business and domestic, have previously had a presence on cleanitup under the heading 'window rounds on a plate'
Hopefully my site will give you a clearer indication of what we are about.
Accessible at this link http://www.doorknockers.4t.com
Paul :) :)
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Can you email me the link: life_is_very_silly@yahoo.co.uk
-Philip
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Me too.Thanks
peteriley@fsmail.net (http://peteriley@fsmail.net)
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Hello Paul.
Over the last few months i've followed your post's with interest.
If i had all the work i needed i would'nt be sitting here writing this!
The main thing that bothers me is Canvassing on somebody else's round which is inevitable because of the large ammount of door knocking you have to do.
It could quite possibly start a war with all the other cleaners in my area which i don't really want.
It's not a case of upsetting 1 person but could involve half a dozen.
You might think i'm a bit of a wimp but i've had enough trouble over the years & want to just have a quiet life into my retirement.
How do you actually canvass---is it hard selling (foot in the door)
or what.
Theres some very nasty people around here (even worse than me) & they are a lot younger.
Having said all that-- how long would it take you to build a round of apprx; £1.000
I'm thinking of the cost for your B&B & other charges for a total.
I live in the Nottingham area.
Kind Regards Ray.
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Hiya ray,
Thanx for your response, if u would rather go the ethical route why not ask the other window cleaners if they would like more work, the ones that say no, will obviously be ok with you, and the ones that say yes, tell them what you propose and see if they would go the same way as you to get additional customers.
100 extra customers would cost approx £2,000 each.
However in the real world this would be very hard to get them all to agree.
I never deliberately try to pinch other peoples customers, the customers we sign up have generally not got a window cleaner, and are very happy to see us in a lot of cases as many say 'we can never find one!!'
Basically you are running a business, how many new hairdressers do you see arguing with other older hairdressers for example because some of the older hairdressers customers are going to the 'new' shop, it just does,nt happen does it, its all down to customer choice, you might be a much better window cleaner than the others in your area, and i,m sure you feel that you are, otherwise you would,nt do the job!
If you chose to get an additional 100 customers, it would,nt make much of an impact in a city of 100,000 houses either (Nottingham)
You can justify what you do so long as you are not directly pinching the other window cleaners customers.
100 extra customers, approx £1,000 per month, would take 2 canvassers 1-2 weeks to put together
All the best,
Paul :)
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Hi Paul,
can you email more details ie if your staying over in manchester,how long does it take you to build up a £2k round from nothing?what if you do a good service and after 3 months it all slowly falls apart as it was naff jobs cause no other window cleaners wanted them but your paid and far away?Does it take longer for commercial work?is it your buisiness cards you hand out or mine?
you can understand if we're a bit suspious after all in all business if it sounds good(what you promise)there is usally something up the sleeve,what's you guarntee to settle these fears?
ta woodsy. windowcleaningservices.ie
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I can put you in touch with others that have used us, also i have had the 'window rounds on a plate' which is close to this one on cleanitup for nearly a year, so if i was doing anything untoward it would have arisen far before now!
All the customers we sign up are people who have recently moved, people who have never been able to find a window cleaner, or people who are unhappy in some way with their present one!
We never try to steal other window cleaners customers when we ask people if they already have a window cleaner and they say yes, we say thanks very much for coming to the door and move on.
90% of Customers we signed up a year ago are still customers and the 10% dropout is usually attributed to people moving, or the window cleaner concerned not doing a good job etc, but as you are aware yourself, if you are working the round, others see you, the 10% dropout is replaced naturally by people that had,nt been aware of you before saying, will you clean my windows!
Paul
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Hi Paul,
sent you email, trust you got it ok??
regards,
Trevor
www.firstcleanservices.co.uk
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Hiya Trevor, yes got it, will have more time over the weekend to respond, have been flat out!
All the best,
Paul :)
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YOU WOULD NEVER GET THOSE PRICES IN NOTTM THAT YOU HAVE DIPLAYED ON YOUR WEBSITE.MAYBE IN YOUR AREA BUT NOT UP HERE. YOU MAY GET 2/3RDS THAT PRICE TAKE FOR INSTANCE TERRACE HOUSES ARE 4 SQUID HERE[1 UP 1 DOWN]
RAY ASKED 11 HOUSES IN L/EATON GOT10 NEW CUSTOMERS.
ALL WITHOUT WINDOW CLEANERS[the place is a gold mine]
gaza
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Gaza!!
Keep out of Long Eaton stick to Beeston where you know!! ;) ;) ;) >:(
If youre thinking of cleaning on my patch!!!-----The missus told me to tell you NO MORE TEA FOR GAZA!! so you've been warned!!
She's not a wimp like wot i am.
See you in a couple of weeks.
Regards Ray.
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Hi Gaza!
The price is always determined by the window cleaner concerned, however i have done a bit of work in Nottingham and was charging the same amount as the web site, in Arnold North Nottingham.
And am fully confident i would be able to do it again, if you require us to work for you in the Nottingham area.
;) :)
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Hi all,
Paul has done Door Knocking for me in the Cambridge area. And I am very pleased with the results he got.
Paul does not under price the work he gets for the Window Cleaner, in order to get the Job.. Which I thought was important point...
He seems an Honest and ethical Guy. I have no problems recommending him to any one in this forum.
Steve. PS. I am not on the GCS Payroll :)
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Paul.
The work i'm after is'nt exactly in Nottingham itself but on the outskirts.
It would mean canvassing quite a few different areas of my locality which are all resonably close.
Would this be a problem?
The going rate around here (well what i charge) is around £6 for a semi & £8 for detatched so obviously i would need to get more than 100 houses for my target of £1000
You say --to get 100 houses would take a week or 2--do you need B&B for say 14days or do you go home for the weekend then start again Monday.
When do you canvass? most people are working during the day.
Anyway Paul, if i do decided to go ahead when would you be available to start.
Regards Ray.
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Hi again Ray,
i know the Long Eaton area very well, lived in Nottingham for 3 and a half years quite recently, till i broke up with my girlfriend!! (well out of that one!) ;)
If you send me the postcode of the area you would like doing, that would be good.
We work between the hours of 4pm-8pm, the B&B situation for 2 weeks would be for 8 nights, mon to thurs as we would get back for the weekend.
As Steve said in the previous post (cheques in the post steve ;)) We dont underprice our work, Window cleaners do a dangerous job, more dangerous than the S.A.S. according to a report i once saw on teletext! so if you want me to charge more than the prices you have mentioned, i will, it really wouldnt be a problem, however if the price you have put is all you want, we will work to that of course.
Used to live in queens road, Beeston gaza! by the way
:)
Paul
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Paul.
Many thanks for your reply.
I am seriously considering taking you up on you offer!!
This will probably happen in about 8weeks or so.(finances)
As you say if you can achieve a better price than mine i'm happy with that.
My postcode is NG10.
Regards Ray.
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Whenever you are ready Ray,
8 weeks time would be perfect as have work, in chigwell and southampton area till then anyway,
Give us a call closer to the time to confirm, you would still like to go ahead,
Paul
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Hi Paul
Would you travel to Wrexham im interested in your service,b&b would not be a problem at all.
Thanks
Daniel
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PAUL:wHAT STRANGE PHOTOS of meet your window cleaner on your website?Dont know if youve checked it out yet ,but were is the local w/c pictures ,I see the second one is using w/f/p but the others ?
gaza
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The web site has only been up for 2 days, i am awaiting
e-mails with their photos from the window cleaners concerned, there will also be a description of how long they have been window cleaning, equipment used etc,
Think its a good idea for customers to see their respective window cleaner as their only contact initially is with one of our sales staff.
Paul
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RAY:IM A GENTLEMAN,i will not canvass youir area but remember Ive already got a round near you, clean next door to you and you next door neighbour but one? ;D bins
when canvassing the first word that comes out of my mouth is do you have a w/c or RAY PICKERING ;D
i NEVER TAKE A CUSTOMER FROM ANYONE.
RAY L/EATON AND SURROUNDING AREA IS A HIDDEN GOLDMINE 10 OUT OF 11 KNOCKS
I will give them to you if I DONT DO THEM MYSELF.
ALL CANVASSING IS IS A NOS GAME I sold for Virgin elec. 99 nos, 1 says yes, 10 squid job, reward 120 squid a year.
so RAY go and get them.
gaza
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Further to all previous posts, 'doorknockers' are now very busy for the rest of this year, however if you would like a round or additional customers, we have no work for the new year at present, furthermore we have decided to pull away from commercial only rounds, but can build rounds with a mix of domestic and commercial.
paul
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Hi Paul,
Am glad your still up an running as you have never contacted me since we met up. I called you on your mobile having emailed you and you told me you would let me know what is happening on Tuesday. That was two weeks ago!! It is also interesting to read you are no longer working on Commercial Only ventures, it would have been handy if you could have let me know so I wasn't waiting the last two weeks for the illusive phone call. Anyway, am glad you are busy with other projects. Shame as we discussed the requirements which would have given you a £12,000 return
Best wishes,
Trevor
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Apologies Trevor, i never meant to keep you hanging around like that, it,s just the way its turned out, my major problem has been finding a team leader that i could trust to run the other commitments i have, with three other window cleaners that i am currently working with. (all domestic)
If i had found this elusive team leader, i could then have broken away to do commercial, (myself and Karen who you met) as there is no one else that i can rely on to canvass commercial, currently in our canvassing team.
Thats why i changed the wording of the web site and put the post up that you read.
I want to develop the commercial side to the business in the new year, but as a business we are not ready for commercial only working at this time.
Apologies again Trevor
Paul :-\
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Hi Paul,
Thanks for your apology. maybe in the future a quick 1 min phone call or an email would have helped maintain communication.
good luck with your canvassing
best wishes,
Trevor
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hi paul
i have been reading this post with great interest.
would you be able to knock some work up in derby for me. a mix of domestic and comercial. i have some work. but switched to wfp 6 months ago. and now want to target larger detatched houses and comercial.
i need £2000 of work.
bed and breakfast wunt be a problem.
i would like to be takeing on new work in january and febuary next year.
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Hiya Mark,
Thanx for the E-mail, am busy up to mid February, but could be available from then on, hopefully by then anyway, i should have the second team up and running, so might be able to do it earlier than that.
Do you need £2,000 per month or £2,000 in value?
All the best,
Paul :)
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hi paul
i need £2000 of work. i understand this will cost £4000
and i can clean it the next day or close to when you canvassed it. then pay you when i have cleaned it.
i use wfp and i like my customers to post a cheque if they are not in. would it be ok to explain all this to a customer for me.
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I WOULD DEFINATELY SAY "DO NOT TOUCH THIS GUY WITH A BARGE POLE"
WHY?
Cause I want him all to myself.... The guy is great. Fair price for a good service. Not like some that could I could mention on this site. eh teddy!
BVC.
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I WOULD DEFINATELY SAY "DO NOT TOUCH THIS GUY WITH A BARGE POLE"
WHY?
Cause I want him all to myself.... The guy is great. Fair price for a good service. Not like some that could I could mention on this site. eh teddy!
BVC.
BVC says not to touch you with a bargepole Paul. However, I reckon that you're OK to touch with a bargepole ;D
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Do,nt quite know how to take that one the shiner!
Wish you all the best anyway
However thanks for the kind words Bradley of BVC, nice to get some positive feedback from people who use our service, cheques in the post!
Paul ;D
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Do,nt quite know how to take that one the shiner!
Wish you all the best anyway
However thanks for the kind words Bradley of BVC, nice to get some positive feedback from people who use our service, cheques in the post!
Paul ;D
Just me having a bit of fun Paul ;D
I take my hat off to anyone who's prepared to get stuck in and make a go of life.