[james44]

Hi Bobby,

I would disagree...

I think if someone was to put together a brand and roll it out nationally across the UK subbing the work to local window cleaning companies working on their behalf it would actually be quite easy to establish.

All it would take is some mass marketing and a webstite to catch the enquiries and then push them back out to the subbies...a route we went down before for all kinds of cleaning. It would just need a bit of time and patience to carry out.

Cheers,

Huw

Totally agree! one that i think would catch on fast is everest!

They already have brand awareness!

You can just picture the ad!

Everest not only do we fit windows we now clean them!

[Londoner]

Hi Bobby,

I would disagree...

I think if someone was to put together a brand and roll it out nationally across the UK subbing the work to local window cleaning companies working on their behalf it would actually be quite easy to establish.

All it would take is some mass marketing and a webstite to catch the enquiries and then push them back out to the subbies...a route we went down before for all kinds of cleaning. It would just need a bit of time and patience to carry out.

Cheers,

Huw

Totally agree! one that i think would catch on fast is everest!

They already have brand awareness!

You can just picture the ad!

Everest not only do we fit windows we now clean them!

You are all forgetting one thing and its a big problem that will become overwhelming if you try and get too big. Customers are not like chickens, you can't just process them like they were on a production line.

People are out at work, they go shopping, to the doctors, etc. Gates these days are locked and high security, you can't just reach over and draw the bolt. Plus there are parking issues and things like schools to deal with. A lot of customers are access through the garage. They like you to come on a certain day etc etc.

If you are not careful you will be sending the vans out and they will be coming back with half the jobs not done. Plus you will be getting a high level of complaints from the ones that have been done because thats the nature of domestic cleaning with crews. People like the personal touch.

And the blokes you have working for you, will you be able to trust them? they will be picking up jobs on the side for cash until it gets to the point that "their" round rivals your round. Its inevetable

It all looks good on paper but once you start to get bigger it all starts to get away from you. It has been thought of before and it has been tried but it has always gone down badly.

Everything has been tried before.

[andyM]

I agree with Vince domestic most customers prefer to know who will be coming to their property and cleaning the windows. Also some customers are very loyal and you would have to offer a greatly reduced price to what they are currently paying their cleaner to tempt them.
A commercial business such as yours being vat registered etc with associated overheads would surely struggle to be competitive unless you were turning over very high volumes of work in very compact residential areas day in day out.
Im not saying it cant be done just that you may have a few more obstacles to overcome first.

[Steve CM]

Huw 10k won't get you very far mate

You have to allow for all the drop offs you'll get when canvassing up doms. I have spend near on 25k i think in 2-3 years and that has got me near on 2 full vans. Actually i think i could of spent more on canvassing.

I don't care what anyone else will tell you about the retention you get from canvassing customers. If you keep hold of 50% of your canvassed work after 12-18 months then thats about your maximum.

You then need to look at your quality control. How you can manage all the customers accounts etc. Male sure your staff are doing it properly etc

If you want to chat on the phone at some point i wouldn't mind. Maybe i can pick your brain on the commercial side to

[Steve CM]

Hi Bobby,

I would disagree...

I think if someone was to put together a brand and roll it out nationally across the UK subbing the work to local window cleaning companies working on their behalf it would actually be quite easy to establish.

All it would take is some mass marketing and a webstite to catch the enquiries and then push them back out to the subbies...a route we went down before for all kinds of cleaning. It would just need a bit of time and patience to carry out.

Cheers,

Huw

Totally agree! one that i think would catch on fast is everest!

They already have brand awareness!

You can just picture the ad!

Everest not only do we fit windows we now clean them!

You are all forgetting one thing and its a big problem that will become overwhelming if you try and get too big. Customers are not like chickens, you can't just process them like they were on a production line.

People are out at work, they go shopping, to the doctors, etc. Gates these days are locked and high security, you can't just reach over and draw the bolt. Plus there are parking issues and things like schools to deal with. A lot of customers are access through the garage. They like you to come on a certain day etc etc.

If you are not careful you will be sending the vans out and they will be coming back with half the jobs not done. Plus you will be getting a high level of complaints from the ones that have been done because thats the nature of domestic cleaning with crews. People like the personal touch.

And the blokes you have working for you, will you be able to trust them? they will be picking up jobs on the side for cash until it gets to the point that "their" round rivals your round. Its inevetable

It all looks good on paper but once you start to get bigger it all starts to get away from you. It has been thought of before and it has been tried but it has always gone down badly.

Everything has been tried before.

I disagree. You do get more problems but there are ways and means of monitoring whats going on. Sometimes you do need to give people trust. If you look after them they tend to look after you.

You do need to tread with caution though.

In my experience you will never please people all the time so you just keep mvoing on. Its a process of elimination.

You will always get issues where by not everything gets done but to say half the jobs won't get done is just not true. I factor in that 10% of things won't get cleaned over the course of the month. this 10% is normally filled up with extras like gutter jobs etc.

[richywilts]

steve im glad you have said you only keep 50% of canvassed work i was begining to get a little paranoid thinkin poeple dont like my company or arent happy with results but that ties in to around same amount iv lost from canvassed work, i find people i have got on myself tend to stick around more than ones the canvasser i have used got on

[Steve CM]

I went through the same motions Richy.

It didn't help with the canvassing company i was using telling me that the rate of cancellation was high so it made me more paranoid that it was us. I've had so many customers that lie i tend to now just take things at face value.

I haven't canvassed houses now for over 12 months as i wanted things to settle down as i were getting a lot of hassle from having so many new customers. everything has now settled and i'm going for another big push in a few months (i must love the punishment )

After getting up to customer number 2400 on wcp i think i'm experienced enough to know the motions of how things go. if you want to be big you just need to constantly canvass but at the same time make sure your house is in order with dealing with issues because they WILL come even when the cleans are faultless.

[window11]

u wont get 2/3 vans out a day on domestic in 12 months.

get real.

youd be lucky to get 100 good custies with a big push in 12 months on domestic, thats if you did not buy or sub..

even then youd wouldn get the ammount for 3 vans worth.

i have 1 other with me 3 days a week, my rounds are 50/50 with..... dom and com.....
i tout for work all the time i pick 2 to 3 up every 3 to 4 weeks over the year thats only 30 35 ish if they all stay with you..

its quality that counts not numbers, at least in my book anyway,

[Steve CM]

u wont get 2/3 vans out a day on domestic in 12 months.

get real.

youd be lucky to get 100 good custies with a big push in 12 months on domestic, thats if you did not buy or sub..

even then youd wouldn get the ammount for 3 vans worth.

i have 1 other with me 3 days a week, my rounds are 50/50 with..... dom and com.....
i tout for work all the time i pick 2 to 3 up every 3 to 4 weeks over the year thats only 30 35 ish if they all stay with you..

its quality that counts not numbers, at least in my book anyway,

i had a canvasser that worked on his own getting me about 100 customers a month

[window11]

sure u did mate.

[Steve CM]

cor blimey what is up with people today

[prestigeclean]

steve cm , exactly my experience with canvassed work , retention is about 50 to 60% after 12 months and a reasonably good canvasser will easily get you 100 new custies a month regards alan

[window11]

u might get a 100 leads, but u wont get 100 solid paying reg custies, other wise people would be millionaires very quickly..

[Steve CM]

you will get 100 solid customers on a 3 month contract a month with a good canvasser. i didn't really look at number of customers more the value of the work

[window11]

whats the point fo a 3 month contract, thats ridiculous.

ther's no way on earth someone will knock doors and get 100 soild custies a month, if so, we would all down tools for a month and do just that..

some people on here need life check i got to be honest.

iv taken a whole day off beforre now and went knocking for 9 hours ..... i got 18 people out of that 12 stayed for a while, 6 went 8 weekls i now have 6 left, nothing to do with my work, just dnt want it every month.

and on times not all have it done when they should..it certainly wouldn work with a canvaser and most people want to see the window cleaner them selfs at that time

[window11]

VINCE GREEN GIVE THAT MAN            CIGAR...
THATS WAS SED PERFECT

[window11]

15 hrs a week = 60 a month @ tops yea???
and that = 12 and half k yea...

not bad for a month's work er.... of course we all beleive you

if thats true u would bin your round and do the 60 hrs ur self and get 12.6...

omfg zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Clive McDonald]

Despite some niggles with each other some really good sence has been posted.As was said even with perfect faultless cleans issues emerge and 'churn' (another way of saying customer retention)typically  runs at 20%.People move, die, divorce, decide to do it themselves,etc.

I'm a one man band and find it hard to juggle things, but i don't think canvassing is the only way, or even the best way.

This post got side tracked from building a round from scratch, to being a national brand. I remember one company on here said at one point several years ago they had 27,000 domestic accounts, but even that would only give you a good presence in a couple of towns.If tesco (or similar took it on then the numbers would be well into the hundreds of thousands).

The people above(steve cm richy wilts) have sorted their offer out, and this is the first thing sears needs to do.They need to walk before they can run.As they are already a succcesfull biz they obviously feel this is already sorted.I don't think it is for a minute.

Start from the begining.

[Ola Normann]

I am have recently hired a guy from east Europe.
He had a friend that needed a job, I said - okey, lets give him a try.

I will give him a HTC desire, and have a GPS tracker that sends me updates every 121 seconds where he is(my wc employee also have this). Will pay him after how many flyers that he delivers.
I will have a secretary that will take care of all the cust handling at a fast an proper way.

Live in a "small" place, and will give this a try.
100K flyers

Hope for a new 500 regular domestic.
I say no for one clean.
Anything over that is just a bonus.
Or, as long as he gets us more cust then what the first cleans cost - I think its a win.

As someone said here on this forum that I liked was that - if some one calls after seeing the flyer or they go to your web page contact form, they usually really want it, and you could put the price at a nice level.

[Steve CM]

I am have recently hired a guy from east Europe.
He had a friend that needed a job, I said - okey, lets give him a try.

I will give him a HTC desire, and have a GPS tracker that sends me updates every 121 seconds where he is(my wc employee also have this). Will pay him after how many flyers that he delivers.
I will have a secretary that will take care of all the cust handling at a fast an proper way.

Live in a "small" place, and will give this a try.
100K flyers

Hope for a new 500 regular domestic.
I say no for one clean.
Anything over that is just a bonus.
Or, as long as he gets us more cust then what the first cleans cost - I think its a win.

As someone said here on this forum that I liked was that - if some one calls after seeing the flyer or they go to your web page contact form, they usually really want it, and you could put the price at a nice level.

i like the idea of the htc desire. could you tell me more about that please? how do you track with it?