[George Gardner]

Ok Ill admit im very late round this time - but in a week had 2, yes two say, not today thankyou?!

Never had this before? Any ideas? Makes me feel bad for some reason 

[dazmond]

whats the reason?building work,painters?holidays?

if its for no good reason and its a 2 monthly job then i tell them ill have to take them off my round as i only take on regular work.if they quibble i dump them but normally they ask me to go ahead and clean them.

if its a small monthly domestic job on very compact work and they say they are skint i might relent if its a long standing customer but if they make a habit of it i offer them a 2 monthly frequency at a slightly higher price to appease them.

luckily its very rare on my round that i get a "not today" for no good reason.


regards

[George Gardner]

She gave no reason! Shes lovely to - I can only think, like I said i am late round that she has done them herself, but doing that first clean a few years ago, she clearly doesnt clean windows lol.

[Ian101]

U will go mental trying to guess so try to ignore it - now I just move onto next job and unless I really want the customer I don't go back most times.

[roundbuilder]

I get loads of not todays between my rounds for one reason or another.. Just accept it and move on, be overloaded with customers so it wont be an issue.

[AuRavelling79]

Custy ... "not today thank you"

Self: (look genuinely perplexed like you've never heard of such a thing before perhaps imagine he has told you a martian landed on his car last night) "Sorry, I don't follow ...?"

Custy ... "They don't need doing/my dog goes mental/the moon is green/or any other lame excuse."

Self: "I really appreciate all my customers but when we agreed to the terms under which I clean your windows we agreed regular monthly/two monthly is there something I haven't grasped?"

Custy: (often caves in at this point but occasionally you get:) well I don't want them doing this time/my cat died/I can choose/I've got flu'/you come round too often.

Self: "I'm dreadfully sorry but I do not work under those strictures (good word that) what would you wish to do?"

If they agree for you to carry on then they are pretty much trained (best result) or if not they dump you or you dump them and you go on your merry way. (not a bad result)

 

[Tom White]

Ok Ill admit im very late round this time - but in a week had 2, yes two say, not today thankyou?!

Never had this before? Any ideas? Makes me feel bad for some reason 

Pretty much from the word go, with a bit of common sense, I've always dropped customers who say "Not today, mate!"  It's unthinking, it's rude, and I always explain my terms and conditions when I quote.

Consequentially, when I get a 'Not today, mate', it's very rare, but when it happens I just remind my customer of our terms and conditions and explain that if I don't clean 'em today, I will take them off my books.  Sometimes they go "Fine!" and I shrug my shoulders and walk off, sometimes they go "Fine" and later come back and say, "Okay then, clean them", and sometimes they just say "Oh, you'd better clean them then!".

But I'm not overly strict; a customer's husband died recently, she explained that to me at the door and after a chat about it I asked, "Do you want me to leave your windows this month?"  Or if they've building work, or if they're about to get their windows replaced, or even if they're skint. 

But it does annoy me to pull up to a property, start dragging hoses out and then a window opens and you hear a "Not today, mate!"

[Perfect Windows]

I text, so I know the evening before and can slot another customer in. This means it's not a great hassle.

 
For 6-weekly customers:

The first time they say it, I say "fine".

The second time they say it, I say "just so you know, next time you'll go onto a 12-weekly clean and the charge will be £X" (50% more in my case)

The third time, they go onto the 12-weekly cycle.

They get their windows cleaned at the frequency they actually want and I get much more money each time I clean.


For 12-weekly customers:

If they ask me to leave it six weeks, I say "Sorry, it'll be 12 weeks or the round won't work" (it would but they don't know that).

None of them do that twice.

Vin