Mad day yesterday; loads of cleans, dodging rain all day so I finished late, then five new customers to phone back, discuss their cleans, fit into the round and get onto the system. Then over to one of my leaflet people with the new leaflets. Get back home at about 8:30. Phone rings. It's a woman. Nice manner, very polite.
"Hello, found you on the web. I live in [a very nice little group of houses on a semi-private estate]".
"Good, would you like me to add you to the round?"
"Well, can you come over and quote?"
"I can normally do the quote over the phone; we use a menu price. Or you can look at the pricing on the web - we're completely open about pricing"
Bit of waffle and we get the price. She's clearly already priced it herself on the website.
"So, every six weeks, it's £16".
She pipes up: "Our current guy is meant to be every 4 weeks, but he actually turns up every five months or so"
"Hmm. Not unusual, I'm afraid - that's where we get a lot of our business"
She carries on: "And the guy before that scratched our glass really badly. And he used to miss windows"
"Wow, that's quite hard to do. And we never miss windows."
Her: " Your website says you do the frames as well. Neither of them bothered"
"Yes, every time. And the sills"
Here it comes. She says, "But £16 is quite a jump."
"Yes. And we'll turn up every time. And we won't scratch your glass. And we won't skip windows. And we'll do the frames"
"Is there any room for movement on that price?" she asks.
"No. The reason you've had bad service in the past is people haven't been charging enough to keep coming or to do a good job"
"If I get a neighbour to use you how much will you charge?"
"£16"
"I'll think about it and call you back"
"Cheerio, then".
Somehow I think that if she calls back, she's going to be a delight of a customer, don't you?
Vin