[bobplum]

when introducing this system to your customers, existing ones, did you use a letter to explain or just verbally tell them, if you used a letter can you give us some idea of the structure.
Regards
bob

[koopmaster]

I copied it from another guy on this forum and printed it on the back of my invoices.

DIRECT DEBIT SETUP
Here at Drew Window Cleaning, I am constantly striving to make things easier for my customers.  And, more increasingly, customers are unable to pay because they don’t have cash with them when I call to collect; also, often the payment is forgotten about because we have such busy lives.
With this in mind, I have recently introduced a new way to make payment following the cleaning of your windows.  GoCardless is a new type of Direct Debit whereby the payment is only taken once I have cleaned your windows – and never before!  When I return home, I will mark that your windows have been cleaned on the GoCardless website; once marked, they will then send you a message informing you that the payment will taken from your account approximately 5 days later – that way you know exactly when the payment is due.
As usual, your payments are protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee so you can have peace of mind as well as making your life simpler; and once set up, you need never again bother about arranging online payment or running round searching for cash or chequebook.

Hopefully, you will see this as a safe, secure and time-saving way in which to make payment in future.

All that needs to be done is go to my website and register (which takes less than 2 minutes).  Once registered, they will send us both a message to confirm the process and then you can sit back and relax.
Don’t forget:
   We won’t share your details with any third parties
   This is not a monthly Direct Debit – payments are only taken once your window have been cleaned -    approximately 5 days later
  Safe, secure and easy to set up – for future peace of mind
If you have any further questions please do get in touch. Thanks Matthew

[PoleKing]

To set it up, you'll need their email address.
Once you've got that send a short email saying:

Thanks for your payment (it usually came with a cheque)
We are moving our valued customers over to direct debit.
To follow you will get an email from www.GoCardless.com (it may have got stuck in your spam filter if you can't see it)
If you'd like to fill out the details we can clean your windows as usual and payment is made automatically.
We find a number of customers are benefitting from this method as it saves them the stamp, if posting payment and saves us on PayPal charges. Which helps to keep our prices the same.
If you have any questions, queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards, PlumJobBob

I have found it works really well sending the email from yourself and gocardless at the same time.
Earlier-they may think its a phishing email.
Later-they may forget.

[PoleKing]

I copied it from another guy on this forum and printed it on the back of my invoices.

DIRECT DEBIT SETUP
Here at Drew Window Cleaning, I am constantly striving to make things easier for my customers.  And, more increasingly, customers are unable to pay because they don’t have cash with them when I call to collect; also, often the payment is forgotten about because we have such busy lives.
With this in mind, I have recently introduced a new way to make payment following the cleaning of your windows.  GoCardless is a new type of Direct Debit whereby the payment is only taken once I have cleaned your windows – and never before!  When I return home, I will mark that your windows have been cleaned on the GoCardless website; once marked, they will then send you a message informing you that the payment will taken from your account approximately 5 days later – that way you know exactly when the payment is due.
As usual, your payments are protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee so you can have peace of mind as well as making your life simpler; and once set up, you need never again bother about arranging online payment or running round searching for cash or chequebook.

Hopefully, you will see this as a safe, secure and time-saving way in which to make payment in future.

All that needs to be done is go to my website and register (which takes less than 2 minutes).  Once registered, they will send us both a message to confirm the process and then you can sit back and relax.
Don’t forget:
   We won’t share your details with any third parties
   This is not a monthly Direct Debit – payments are only taken once your window have been cleaned -    approximately 5 days later
  Safe, secure and easy to set up – for future peace of mind
If you have any further questions please do get in touch. Thanks Matthew

Only thing is-technically it is a direct debit.

All my GCL customers pay on the 1st of the month.
It's nice getting a decent wedge in one hit and if a payment fails for whatever reason it gives a chance to rectify before missing their 'slot'