[Wc Solutions]

as im sure most of you are fed up with losing your work you have been doing to a high standard for many years now - just to be told can you stop coming now please.

its time we teamed up in some way and thought back!

local business for local businesses!!!

dont have a clue how we can try and fight back but surely if we teamed up then we would be able to do something??

set up a regional team maybe?

[richard jagger]

DONT SUB FOR THESE LARGE COMPANIES.

[Mike_G]

Not a bad idea but I expect others have tried and some indeed do offer national coverage but it's the prices some of these bigger companies charge which would be hard to compete against

[sgibsoncleaning]

i had it explianed to me how a national company quotes for work, it shocked me how they work to make it pay. i cant post it i will get sued.
standards and high quality of work are a thing of the past its all about money.
this is meant to be the time of being eco friendly yet local business have contractors travelling miles to visit them

[Helen]

It's all about price and not standards at all. The larger Nationals don't give a hoot what the standard is like and to be honest neither do their customers. Their customers know they are getting a "cheap" rate and will expect lower standards. You can't stop the big nationals, but you can stop beating yourself up as to why it happens. It's the window cleaning circle of life Economy booms, people want higher standards and expect to pay for it, economy busts, people want the cheapest possible and will put up with a not so good standard. We all have to sit tight and wait for the economy to recover again, then these customers who really do want better standards, will get hold of us again.....stick to domestics, more loyal, better cash flow etc etc

[jarvy]

My dad retired from shining 3 years ago,just as this recesion was kicking off (smart move!),however he has seen it years ago when there was recesions and he was losing work to national companys. It WILL come good in the end again for the local guys,most of us have seen the half arsed jobs that are being done,head hight only etc. These companys will only put up with it for so long before the area managers etc will be fed up of seeing the state of their premises.
As said there is no real way of fighting them except not to subcontract of 'em,then their running costs wont be covered by the small amount they are getting from each store.
But this will never happen,too many shiners will do it for a few pennies,making money for somebody else.  :
I recently got the body shop back from a company,manageress was told it was too far for them to go!!! Top service!!!

[Wc Solutions]

its even worse when the area managers get the staff to do it!!!

[Mike_G]

I spoke to a chap who works at Iceland the other week and as most of us know they now get their staff to clean the stores windows, well this guy reckons it cost them £600,000 to set up every store with a dvd (how to clean windows) and 10 inch squeegees, if this takes off its domestic only for all of us!

[jarvy]

I used to do have iceland too,they are doing their own,not lost it to a national company. Wow,that is some money on how to clean the windows!! 
Maybe they cound send the dvd on to some of the national companys!!! 

[R W C™]

Ive posted this time and time again, said that companys like j.v.price and seer clean etc should get together and start this off and compete with the nationals but the thing is to take this sort of work on you have to show what your turn over so people who turn over 1-2 million a year are small compared to the companys turning over 60+ million a year...

[Seers]

Hi,

We are working hard to maybe solve this issue 

All will be revealed in about a fortnight...sit tight.

Cheers,

Huw

[GB Window Cleaning]

as previously said...

DON'T SUB OFF THE BIG COMPANY'S!!!

[mci services]

as previously said...

DON'T SUB OFF THE BIG COMPANY'S!!!

why not, I do and get paid well and on time and do the job to a good standard, maybe I am just lucky though, I dare say there are bad nationals and bad contractors

[Mike_G]

I do some for the nationals, some are very good indeed and some are just shocking, and some are so bad I turn them down

[NJWindowCleaning]

These nationals aren't as big as some thinks, I know these people put in bids and win them, and then they phone guys like you and me to ask how much you would do these jobs fore,and if they are after something that they havent put a bid in for yet they will put your cost into there pricing and write a good sales peace to win these contracts.

And if a big chain store decides to put the work out for tender then it is those who you should be peed off with and not these other guys who bid for them. As everyone needs to pay bills and live etc...

[AuRavelling79]

It's all about price and not standards at all. The larger Nationals don't give a hoot what the standard is like and to be honest neither do their customers. Their customers know they are getting a "cheap" rate and will expect lower standards. You can't stop the big nationals, but you can stop beating yourself up as to why it happens. It's the window cleaning circle of life Economy booms, people want higher standards and expect to pay for it, economy busts, people want the cheapest possible and will put up with a not so good standard. We all have to sit tight and wait for the economy to recover again, then these customers who really do want better standards, will get hold of us again.....stick to domestics, more loyal, better cash flow etc etc

Spot on Helen - if you are as lovely as you are clever I'm in love! 

[BORBRYCE]

Spot on Helen - if you are as lovely as you are clever I'm in love!

What a flirt.

[Scrimble]

i had a call from a national to do a local shop front once a week for 7 a week, inside a shopping centre internal and external weekly and sign once a month, the person on the phone even said the money is crap i declined not even worth it

[bluez]

If seer clean and jv price get together to compete nationally......they become exactly what people think the problem is, a national.

Guy sitting in Iceland head office(or any other multiple) with responsability for building maintenance, he is faced with a couple of options?

1. Contract his cleaning, security, cash in transit, window cleaning, maintenance, lift maintenance, escalator maintenance, car park management, external lighting, air conditioning etc to one big company who meets all the criteria in terms of H&S, Insurance, resources, funding, equipment, etc

or

2. spend the rest of his working life talking to 1000's of individual subbies and checking up on all of their credentials continually, risking both his and his companies reputation by using subbies who are not properly compliant with the laws of the land. By using the big National company he can claim that it is the accepted industry standard and therefore not his error. (not suggesting all wc's are non compliant but with such a large group the risk of someone is very great)

Its a no brainer, and if the window cleaning is poor in some stores, is that a big deal? it is in my hole.

If you get a job with a local branch of a national chain, be sure that it is only a matter of time before there is a change in head office and they try a national and you lose it then there is a change in head office and you get it back oh and then you probably lose it again etc.

[R W C™]

Hi,

We are working hard to maybe solve this issue 

All will be revealed in about a fortnight...sit tight.

Cheers,

Huw

hope you got my email back when you put up a post about wanting people in certain areas