[clean]

Turned up today to do an £18 monthly house and just cuz the weather was a little bit wet (just drizzling) he came out and said "can you leave it today please" and walked back in the house,i took it because of the weather,if i was a bit quicker i`d of said "ye and it`ll be £22 next time with them being twice as dirty"
what do you guys do or say if this happens to you cuz i`d imagine most if not all of you have had this done to you at least once or twice

[richard jagger]

I want to slit his throat ,kick down his house and come back in DEc and clean windows.acid and spiders Mate. 

[Frankybadboy]

just move on to next one,if you let little things like that wind you up,then i think you need to see a doctor or get a different job

[H2GoKent]

It might not be cos of the weather, I always give people a second chance, if they do the 'not this time' thing a couple of times I warn them they may be replaced in my list as I need regular customers.

I did have a customer try and cancel, I asked why (I always do) and her Mum had died and was in the lounge in her coffin, seemed fair enough to me.
My point is you can never tell.

[Dave66]

leave it from now on, tell em to get a new cleaner if they see u

[StockClean]

This is why I stick to our booked only system.

The customer gets thier next clean date with the bill we leave them, if they say not today thank you, we are very strict and still expect full payment for the job regardless if we do it or not. We then remind them that we dont mind customers skipping cleans, but expect them to give us notice BEFORE we turn up to do the job, and to be told to leave it on the day of the job is breaking the terms and conditions so they still have to pay the full ammount.

Same goes with locked gates, trust me on this one chaps it works very very well and we dont get messed about anywhere near as much as we would have.

[Pope vader]

i had a pain of a custy today, dropped her  a few months ago, always late paying, never in when going back, complete messer,  any way,  was running out of time about 2 months ago as was going on holiday so decided to only do the custy that pay on day or when i go back,  was a great feeling having all custy pay at end of week with out crap excuses, why they cant pay,  any way was cleing across the road and she came over asking why i was doing hers as was covered in dirt and bird poo, said i dont clean urs,  yes you do, i said i use to but you never paid so i dont any more, and then walked off

[Ian101]

More easy said then done I know but dont let them get to you just go to next job and forget about it.

If they do it twice warn them that you may have to drop them as you only do regular cleans and that you have a waiting list of new customers.

Maybe genuine reason ?

I rang a customer this evening to remind them to leave gate open and got can you leave it this time so just said yes and marked it on George system that I had a LITTx1 .... gets to LITTx3 then there "left" permantly. This has been a good customer so prob a good reason ?? however 3 strikes and their out.

The world is full of dirty windows that need cleaning .... easy to replace a customer  

[joshem]

Ian101: I rang a customer this evening to remind them to leave gate open and got can you leave it this time so just said yes and marked it on George system that I had a LITTx1 .... gets to LITTx3 then there "left" permantly. This has been a good customer so prob a good reason ?? however 3 strikes and their out.

Over what period of time? Say it was someone that cancelled once a year? I'm not being sarcastic by the way, I'm genuinely interested.

By the way, why do I get a window come up saying:

An Error Has Occurred!
Unable to load the 'quotefast' template.

when trying to insert a quote?

[Ian101]

Ian101: I rang a customer this evening to remind them to leave gate open and got can you leave it this time so just said yes and marked it on George system that I had a LITTx1 .... gets to LITTx3 then there "left" permantly. This has been a good customer so prob a good reason ?? however 3 strikes and their out.

Over what period of time? Say it was someone that cancelled once a year? I'm not being sarcastic by the way, I'm genuinely interested.

By the way, why do I get a window come up saying:

An Error Has Occurred!
Unable to load the 'quotefast' template.

when trying to insert a quote?

errr dont know about the techy problem but the LITTx1 stays on notes for ever mind you Ive only been going for just over a year proper but from day 1 didnt tolerate the messers so this customer for example will have it there for a reminder to me and say I get another LITT within a few months then I would just stop going and not bother with a third strike, I could date it I guess but tend to remember these things and a LITT is normally a warning sign for a messer in the making so will be alert for it coming ... used to worry about it but now water off a ducks back

[joshem]

Yeah I've been going a year this month. Up until recently I've needed the customers more than they need me so I've taken the not todays on the chin but now I have a decent little round so I can start to get rid which is great! People seem to worry on here so much about losing the odd customer here and there but every month you pick up so much work that it's never a problem.

PS. You're £30/50p a minute thing is good and I'm using it a lot now I can afford to. Price rise April me thinks

[Ian101]

yup having a full round does help you to look at things in a different way.

price rises in March / April for me as well

glad the 50p a minute thing is working for you but I still find myself counting the windows on some houses - just in case Im too cheap  

made a note of the new prices for next year some are £2 more but some will be £5 ... early customers where only added £2 on for a conny rather than the £5 - £10 I should have done  :

[joshem]

It's a great gauge for the work you already have. I price by time now really. I haven't sorted pricing out yet but I have a few days of underpriced work (naive canvassing when building the round initially) which need to go up around 30-40%. I know that's not gonna go down well so I'm gonna see what work I can take on until April then decide as the thing that is great about my round is it's compact. The underpriced work has become less of a problem now I'm a lot faster

[Tom White]

You say something along the lines of:

"Rain will not affect the clean since rain water is soft water.  Haven't you noticed before that when it's rained, your windows are still clean when the rain dries?  If you don't believe me, you don't have to pay me now, you can post me a cheque, but you're due cleaning today; I'm here; and if you wish to remain on my books, I really need to clean them today."

You'll find the customer will generally back down if you're polite, but firm.  If not, dump 'em; they're a waste of your time.

[dazmond]

i had one the other day."i dont want them doing as it might rain later!!"shes an old dear and her gardener had turned up.he said she has turned him away a few times.anyway i basically said i would have to take her off my customer list as it wasnt raining and it wouldnt affect the clean anyway.i also said im very reasonable with my retired folk in regards to price(£5 for her 3 bedder)and i cannot run a business if i dont work!!she then changed her mind!!i dont think ill get anymore problems from this particular customer.i just charmed her and she was fine about it in the end.

this type of thing doesnt happen very often as i have mainly good solid customers who just let me get on with it.

[john the cleaner]

if a custie says to me leave it this time i just say just this time or you want to cancell  saves all the messing around

[cozy]

You say something along the lines of:

"Rain will not affect the clean since rain water is soft water.  Haven't you noticed before that when it's rained, your windows are still clean when the rain dries?  If you don't believe me, you don't have to pay me now, you can post me a cheque, but you're due cleaning today; I'm here; and if you wish to remain on my books, I really need to clean them today."

You'll find the customer will generally back down if you're polite, but firm.  If not, dump replace 'em; they're a waste of your time.

Fixed that for you Tosh 

[AS Window Cleaning]

lol

You can normally tell if they are good customers normally, or if they always complain its going to rain later on.

We try to give them a chance (sometimes there are extenuating circumstances), but if they do it more than once, i explain that to keep prices fair i need to know how much work i have to do, and if I can only clean their windows in fair weather, or when no rain is forecast for the next week, then i have to charge 3 times as much.  Also that the windows will 90% of time be perfect after the rain stops anyway, and that if there is a problem i will gladly come back to fix.

As someone said, there will always be new customers waiting to fill their boots....... 

[clean]

Thanks for all the replies guys there`s some real good advice given so iv`e now got a good idea as how to handle the situation as im sure it`s going to happen again somewhere down the line 

[LT carpet cleaning]

This is why I stick to our booked only system.

The customer gets thier next clean date with the bill we leave them, if they say not today thank you, we are very strict and still expect full payment for the job regardless if we do it or not. We then remind them that we dont mind customers skipping cleans, but expect them to give us notice BEFORE we turn up to do the job, and to be told to leave it on the day of the job is breaking the terms and conditions so they still have to pay the full ammount.

I assume the customer tells you to eff off and that he will get another Window cleaner? I certainly would!