[chris no 1]

hi guys i seem to be looseing a lot of costomers in the last few weeks not shaw what i,m doing wrong my standard hasnt droped i no i will loose a few jobs dew to the winter comeing up but i,m loseing about 5 a day any one got any idears many thanks chris

[windows_chepstow]

That sounds unusual.  What reasons are the customers giving you, not that they always tell the truth mind?

[AuRavelling79]

Need a bit more detail - are they all living near one another? have you just switched to wfp? Has a local major employer gone bust?

[Roy Harding]

Hi Chris

Have they given you any reason why, like to expenseive.

Or ask them why as you would like honnest feedback to improve.

Roy

[Dick]

I'm also experiencing suddenly loosing customers, there doesn't seem to be any connection as they are in different areas. So far reasons are:
Father in law recently retired and will now be doing them.
Partner unable to find a job (luckily he didn't take up w/c'ing).
Didn't like having to pay two months bill.
Winter/Christmas coming, as it does every year.
So no similar reasons, guess it's all part of the type of service we provide, a luxury not a necessity.
So it's out looking for new customers to make up the shortfall.

 

[windows_chepstow]

Dick, how established is your round?  If you're a new window cleaner, you tend to find a lot of 'bad customers' extremely quickly.

In my first year of window cleaning leading up to Christmas I lost a handfull (who wanted me to return in Spring), but it hasn't happened since.

I've lost a few in March though, when the Christmas debt has kicked in.

[dai]

I lost 3 longstanding customers over the last month. I really think that money is getting tight. We will all lose a few if the interest rates go up.
I have never seen as many of my houses up for sale as there are now. There have been more coming and going these last 6 months than ever before.
New jobs keep coming in though. Dai

[captain lard]

I lost two last week,one cos a woman - who it seems from the crack is a nutter as is her whole family-took exception at me being 8 days late and another cos its winter and she doesnt want it doing at the minute,that was a £10 loss but in the same week picked up £12 in new jobs but am wondering if the seasonal thing might mean a few others want to stop for winter.
Mind you the nutter has threatened to lose me the street so it could escalate.
Keep at it lads there are always new customers to find.

[Paul Coleman]

hi guys i seem to be looseing a lot of costomers in the last few weeks not shaw what i,m doing wrong my standard hasnt droped i no i will loose a few jobs dew to the winter comeing up but i,m loseing about 5 a day any one got any idears many thanks chris

It did stabilise again after a few months of starting to use WFP.  Initially there was about a 5% turnaround in customer base (turnaround rather than loss as I also picked up some new work).  I have lost two in the last month.  I had been expecting to lose one for some time and thought about finishing it myself due to their attitude.  The other one was a surprise though as he seemed a really happy customer.  The letter just stated that he "is still capable of doing them himself".  I'm not sure what that was about.  I've never doubted that he can clean his windows.  I just thought he chose not to.  Something to bear in mnd is that a lot of peoples' wallets have been hit by massive hikes in gas prices, also petrol, diesel and electricity.  Also, many peoples' mortgage rates climbed a while back and look likely to do so again soon so some customers who were thinking of cutting back will see the window cleaning as an easy target.  In fairness to them, if I had a choice of paying my gas bill or having dirty windows, the glass would stay dirty.

[D.Salkeld_Ltd]

I've been Window Cleaning since 1987.

When Mortgages went to 15%!!!!. Change of governments and Petrol prices going through the roof!!

People come up with all sorts of reasons for canceling.  I feel there is an uncertanty in financial stability at the moment.  Ride it out, if you can.
I understand a few newcomers may not suvive the present climate.  Unfortunately it's the way things go.

David

[windows_chepstow]

I do a whole range of residential work, from little council houses to big posh dwellings; and I've not lost any customers that I can think off.

It's just the opposite here.

I can't give work away!

[Art]

I can't give work away!

Why give work away Tosh? Take someone on.

[simon knight]

Whenever I get the " I don't see much point in having them done in the dark winter months" my reply is: " You need to keep them clean in the winter to let more light in"....works every time!

[aztec]

with spelling like that i am not surprised you are losing customers matey!!!

IS YOUR WORK AS BAD!!

[aztec]

i was only joking!

[ok cleaning]

spelling ? polish?

[ok cleaning]

just joking mate<a href="http://" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://</a>

[windows_chepstow]

I can't give work away!

Why give work away Tosh? Take someone on.

I've tried that quite recently, but it didn't work out.  I think I'm just going to stick with Wor Lass for the near future.

I like the flexibility this gives us; we finished just after midday today and went for a meal and a drink, before the Little Un got out of school.

We've got a Christmas shopping day planned for the first rainy day in December; I really like the independance that 'not employing' gives.

Anyway, parts of my round could do with a cull and a price increase.

[Paul Coleman]

Things seem to be fairly static for me in termsd of business growth.  I lose one or two and gain one or two here and there.  I know that if I give it a push, my workload could escalate in a matter of weeks.  At the moment, I have a lot of non work stuff to do, so I will hold fire for a little while.  At the moment I take the view that getting a couple of decent new jobs allows me to ditch an old not so good one.  Slowly I am freeing myself from the painful jobs.  One guy threatened me with going elsewhere a few months ago as he didn't like his glass being left wet.  I thanked him for his past custom before he had a chance to change his mind