[Erithwc]

Thinking about changing my customer incentive to introduce friends and family

at the moment i knock a 2-3 pound off the price of the clean after the new customer has paid.

i'm thinking about changing it to £5 account credit for every friend or family member introduced account credit will be added once the first clean is done.

what do you think on average a new customers cost more than £5 other than customers that come from word of mouth of course  

Thanks Paul

[Ian101]

Don't mess about go straight in at your next clean free if you introduce another regular customer .... Have it on all my slips and gets me about 12 to 15 new customers a year but the quality is very very good plus gets u access to customers who only go on referrals

[carl stanton]

that sounds fine, if the last way was working how could this fail, i normally say i will clean inside downstairs for customer, works really well, and it also  advertises you do inside cleans as well, if you want to do them that is 
it has proven to work well for me 

[Window Washers]

Don't mess about go straight in at your next clean free if you introduce another regular customer .... Have it on all my slips and gets me about 12 to 15 new customers a year but the quality is very very good plus gets u access to customers who only go on referrals

how does this work if the customer refering has a £50 and there friend has a 1 bed house with 4 and 2 doors windows ?

[Ian101]

Never happened yet but would honour it.

My biggest job is 30 and have min of 12 so no biggie.

[Perfect Windows]

You could always try the one used by Paddi Lund, a dentist in Australia.

He only takes customers by referral.  Once you've used him a few times, been polite and paid him on time, you are told you're now a good enough customer that they'll allow you to refer other people.  Apparently his customers are desperate to refer people by that point...

Not going to do it myself, but I have considered a variation on it, something like "You're just the sort of customer we want; houseproud, helpful and keen to pay on time, so we'd love to hear about other people like you".  Not sure, though; still mulling that one over.

Vin

[Window Washers]

You could always try the one used by Paddi Lund, a dentist in Australia.

He only takes customers by referral.  Once you've used him a few times, been polite and paid him on time, you are told you're now a good enough customer that they'll allow you to refer other people.  Apparently his customers are desperate to refer people by that point...

Not going to do it myself, but I have considered a variation on it, something like "You're just the sort of customer we want; houseproud, helpful and keen to pay on time, so we'd love to hear about other people like you".  Not sure, though; still mulling that one over.

Vin

thats a very good spin on it Vin where is the thumbs up smiley)

[David Lingard]

My bro used to give a bottle of wine to referrers i think...

i was thinking of doing some referrel scheme, but dont know if its worth the hassle!

[andyM]

I believe whatever business you are in, if you provide an exceptional service or quality of product there will always be a demand regardless of the state of the economy.
I once heard a story about a kitchen/bathroom fitter who lived in Manchester or Cheshire (can't remember where now.)
Anyway he never advertised, and only did high end jobs. His clients read like a "who's who list" of sports personalities, succesful business people etc.
The only way to contact this guy was on his mobile number and you would have only been able to get his number from a client who he had done work for by referral.
If you rang his mobile phone number it would always go straight to voicemail. And the message would be something like this "Hi you have reached "Mr x" if you are interested in joining the waiting list for kitchen/bathroom fitting please leave your contact details after the tone. If the kitchen or bathroom project is less than £50,000 please do not bother and hang up the phone now!".
He would then pick and choose which jobs he would consider.
I kid you not, he was actually quite crude and straight to the point but he was so good at producing high end quality jobs that he could get away with it and charge a premium price. Clients would gladly hand over wads of cash to him just to secure his services and in turn would then be able to brag to their friends that he was going to do work for them.

[deeege]

I believe whatever business you are in, if you provide an exceptional service or quality of product there will always be a demand regardless of the state of the economy.
I once heard a story about a kitchen/bathroom fitter who lived in Manchester or Cheshire (can't remember where now.)
Anyway he never advertised, and only did high end jobs. His clients read like a "who's who list" of sports personalities, succesful business people etc.
The only way to contact this guy was on his mobile number and you would have only been able to get his number from a client who he had done work for by referral.
If you rang his mobile phone number it would always go straight to voicemail. And the message would be something like this "Hi you have reached "Mr x" if you are interested in joining the waiting list for kitchen/bathroom fitting please leave your contact details after the tone. If the kitchen or bathroom project is less than £50,000 please do not bother and hang up the phone now!".
He would then pick and choose which jobs he would consider.
I kid you not, he was actually quite crude and straight to the point but he was so good at producing high end quality jobs that he could get away with it and charge a premium price. Clients would gladly hand over wads of cash to him just to secure his services and in turn would then be able to brag to their friends that he was going to do work for them.

Did you hear this down the pub by any chance?

[andyM]

Err no.
I was told the story by a millionaire business man I used to do work for.
Im sure you know the type.
Or maybe not. 

[deeege]

must be legit then 

[Ian101]

New spin on customer looking down on us ... Sorry can't clean your windows as you can't afford me !

[mgba_78]

We do this and have have literately loads of work like from it!!!

We say if you refer us to 2 new customers and they have a regular window clean from us we will clean the inside of your house for FREE. We only ever do insides for free as it it feels like it costing just time rather than money as they still pay for outsides 
It works and it even gets customers working for you.
We have even done one job, £55 for free as she recommended us to loads of her friends after we told her!!

In fact the other day i priced a job after we dropped a 100 or so leaflets and she accepted, up sold her to have her fascias cleaned and was just generally having a chat and i mentioned about our referral scheme and straight away shouted at some woman walking across the road  "Maureen do you want a window cleaner?!"  LOL i felt a little embarrassed but she didnt give a hoot!
Well worth mentioning it in my eyes!!!!

[richard jagger]

I think cleaning inside windows free is a wise one as you do not loose income.

[Steve Sed]

I think cleaning inside windows free is a wise one as you do not loose income.

You do if you are full.

[mgba_78]

I think cleaning inside windows free is a wise one as you do not loose income.

You do if you are full.

We have been full to the brim of work before we employed, we just popped back at the end of the day, dont matter if its dark, or getting dark as its inside and you can turn the lights on to see 

If we have time we just do it as obv they need to be in