[Ian101]

Normally work stuff like this out for myself but cant decide how to handle this one.

ok not a major problem but thought be good to see what others would do

I do a close with 9 houses on it all monthly.

Stuck em all up by a quid last month and all fine about it.

All same price at £7 (was £6) ... was a round I bought and slowly improving it over time ..... small houses all compact.

This particular lady not near any of the others on the close so prob not a problem if she goes bi-monthly with others joining the party. (but u never know)

So at equivalent of £3.50 a month can I justify keeping her on ?

Fortunately at a stage now where it dont matter if I loose the odd one.

Leaning towards telling her that the bi-monthly option is £10

[Tom White]

Leaning towards telling her that the bi-monthly option is £10

That's what I do; charge a little extra for bi-monthly.  Surprisingly, they don't all follow, but even if they did, you're doing the same amount of work for more money.

Most of my new work is bi-monthly; you can charge better prices that way.

[windiewasher]

Keep it m8 say 8.50 if you do more in the area do that aswell.

[steven ainger]

i,d go for the tenner per bi-month

[LWC]

In my opinion...it wont be that much more work, most of my work is 6 weekly and theyre not all that dirty, so your talking of 8 weeks. Really worth putting the price up by nearly half again? Let you decide.

[DaveG]

i,d go for the tenner per bi-month

Agree with the above

[dave0123]

Go for £12.00 then she's back to paying what she was at first 

[Perfect Windows]

I charge 50% extra for twelve-weekly versus my usual six-weekly.

They are happy; they pay less over the year.  I am happy; I earn more in a day's work (the emount of work you can get through in your working day is the limiting factor in the amount you can earn).

Around a third of my customers take up the option.

Vin

[bobby p]

ive had 1 or 2 of these. i then "forget "to do them,and i use confusion as my get out clause once they realize the windows are still dirty . scratch my head and say," thing is m"lady  once you arent on the list  its hard for me to remember" . chances are they will fall back into line  

 i quite often find my lad says out loud to the customer  "his minds gone " , and  other times i will say the same thing about him  ,all creates a suitable  lairey image, not to be unsettled by anybody, otherwise confusion reigns!

[Ian101]

Go for £12.00 then she's back to paying what she was at first 

why didnt i think of that 

[Ian101]

In my opinion...it wont be that much more work, most of my work is 6 weekly and theyre not all that dirty, so your talking of 8 weeks. Really worth putting the price up by nearly half again? Let you decide.

thats the dilema

[Paul Coleman]

Do them once a year and charge £70 

[Small but perfectley formed]

Tell her you only work on a 4 weekly cycle .
Then wait for her to respond.

[paul saunders]

 Tell her a tenner, but make sure you're wearing your Dick tupin mask.  

[dazmond]

the thing is they end up more like 10 weeks as not many of us get round bang on 4 weekly.i would put em up to a tenner.

ive recently picked up 4 small 3 bed semis down a cul de sac and im charging £10 every 8 weeks.they dont mind paying the extra on longer frequencies!the crap windy that used to do them was charging a fiver but cleaning them every 4 weeks but the frames and sills he didnt touch.they were filthy!!so their paying the same for a much better service!

i think ill end up with the whole close in time!

most were relieved to get rid of the last guy!!

i have got some very compact older work where i didnt charge them any extra for 8 weekly but i do now for new work.in fact i just tend to offer 8 weekly or 6 weekly at a higher price as i have a full round.

ive never had hordes of customers changing to 8 weekly when they realise their neighbours are getting theirs cleaned every other time.it is a risk i suppose so charge more.


dazmond

[Crystal-clear]

Yes you should up it by a little bit maybe £2.00 just explain £7 is the monthly price.
but stick to your guns if she moans ,cos if the others find out that she gets the same deal as the monthlys u could have problems,

she may be a bit out but things like street partys , ie royal wedding day all your customers could have been talkin! 

[bobplum]

funny i was going to ask another cleaning company how they dealt with this.
it is awkward,you do risk the chance one or two more will jump on the band wagon
i think you have to have a business plan
monthly and thats it(no exceptions) this is ok if you have a full order book
will except customers going from monthly to bi monthly at the same price (mainly because they cant understand why you need to charge more )this leads to a heated debate on the door step
charge a set rate for the change of monthly to bi monthly(still a heated debate on the door step) and do the same work at more money?
or offer to every customer the option at the beginning of monthly or bi monthly at set rates

then you have to take into account things like are they good customers,bad payers ,good payers

i think we create more problems by introducing variables in to the mix

so back to first option...........monthly and nothing else

hope that helps

[Pole 2 Pole]

Dilema if thats  a dilema you need to get a life,let her go bi monthly for the same price and get on with life

Totally true 

[groundhog]

First of all set a proper minimum price of £10, don't mess about with 6 or 7 quid!! I give all my customers the option of monthly or every other, and the really big houses I'm happy for every 3 months or even 4 monthly if its a big enough house!! I actually prefer every other month these days 

[Tom White]

First of all set a proper minimum price of £10, don't mess about with 6 or 7 quid!! I give all my customers the option of monthly or every other, and the really big houses I'm happy for every 3 months or even 4 monthly if its a big enough house!! I actually prefer every other month these days 

I'm with Groundy on this one.  If you're charging like £7.00 a house, you can go there every-four-weeks and the customer won't mind 'cos you're cheap.  But if you're a little more, and you turn up every-four-weeks, they start whining "Is it that time already?"

So charge more and be less frequent.  I think every other month is a good frequency for run-of-the-mill type work; they seem to be more pleased to see you; and I feel more comfortable turning up then.