[Frankybadboy]

It's called forum BS

My pole is huge and my van was 50k new with mud flaps

Lets be truthful  80% of window cleaners are uneducated and only do the job cause they are fit for nothing else


I let you guess what part I am

[Mike #1]

I am on both sides i think you have to decide which customers are taking the pee and which are not .

I have the odd customer who will ask me to skip the windows when the weather is bad this has happened 2-3 times in about 8 years and they are good customers .

I also had a customer who i believe assumed i was a lowly window cleaner and she could send me texts complaining  when i was behind schedule by a few days .

And telling me that i should have been to clean her windows of a certain date and the texts always ended with exclamation marks .

The first time i had been on a weeks holiday i explained and apologised for been delayed received no reply or apology for her stroppy text .

Cleaned her windows within a few days and she was in the house as she never has no money and had previously agreed to always pay online i just popped a card in , Payment was late so sent her a polite reminder via text she replied  just got back from holiday  

The second time a received a stroppy text about me being late i explained i had a family bereavement and told her i would try to get round asap , No reply or apology YES you guessed it she got  dumped . Mike

[Mike #1]

It's called forum BS

My pole is huge and my van was 50k new with mud flaps

Lets be truthful  80% of window cleaners are uneducated and only do the job cause they are fit for nothing else


I am in the 80% bracket  . Mike

[Ian101]

We are special for a number of reasons ... one that springs to mind right away is we are prepared to work for ourselves and all the usual stuff that comes with that decision - good and bad  

One good thing about working for yourself is you can decide whos windows you want to clean and whos you dont - when I was ..... for a better word "soft" in my approach to trying to keep all customers happy and satisfied I would print my george worksheet out take a look at the names and then see a few names and inwardly groan wondering if they would want their windows cleaning or not and most times I would get messed about plus if they did have em cleaned then payment would be slow ......... one day I had enough and spent an hour going thru my customer list and binned about 30+ jobs and have never looked back since (these "customers" were replaced within the month)

Righly or wrongly I now have zero tolerance to messers and idiots ... none of this 3 strikes just cull em immediately I think the only exceptions I allow for are

1 - someone is dead
2 - the builders are in
3 - holiday cancellation (rare anyways)

does it make me feel good and on a power trip   ............. get a grip im just the window cleaner no one important however it does make me feel good knowing that

1- Im not going to get any "not todays" ...  (the odd one still crops up once in a blue moon and we part company)
2- What the work list says Im gonna earn is accurate
3- Non payers and slow payers are a thing of the past as messers and crap payers go hand in hand.

This is how I run my business 4 years in and I like to think Im heading in the right direction  

[Paul Coleman]

>Ross

I am a reliable regular honest window cleaner that offers a good quality job and I aim for and successfully attract reliable regular honest customers who want a good quality job.

If any customer doesn't wan't to be regular and reliable and honest (as in sticking to our agreed terms) then they are welcome to find another window cleaner.

I'll keep the ones that do.

The flexible window cleaners can have the flexible customers.

Simple.

That's the one.
Currently, this philosophy has left me light on work - even though I have been around many years. But I would rather be light on work than have a round of messers.  Once I've built it up again, I already have a small list of ones to drop.
I'm the one who has to pay my way from this business.  If a customer starts trying to turn an relatively easy job into a high maintenance one, they are effectively expecting me to take a pay cut.

[C o z y]

It could be, that the aggressive tone of the OP and one or two other members on here, that frustration at finding it difficult to build a decent customer base tends to spill out into their posts.
If you have enough work, and you have the business running reasonably well, then there is no advantage to adjusting to fit customers who want "special" treatment. An example would be:
You clean 20 houses a day, and you organize your work day to fit around that. Why would you change the routine for a "special" customer? Where's the advantage to you? If you have enough work, why would you adjust to fit any customer who wants to change the arrangement you made with them when you took them on?
If it's OK for the customer to change the arrangement, why don't you change it and put their price up?
The usual reason for bending over backwards for any customer indicates lack of work or fear of losing a customer because you find getting new customers difficult.

If you find yourself adjusting your service to fit every customer who wants "special" treatment, it's a sign that you need more customers. In other words, get more work and stop trying to desperately hang on to the "special" customers you seem to have now.

Only my opinion.  

[PoleKing]

Cosy. Spot on.

[gary999]

Iv missed a few weeks in total from Christmas due to high winds and rain.
Its nothing I cant pull back by working a few Saturdays and extra hours in the better months.
I wouldn't blame any customer who complains if their windows are being cleaned in stormy
weather.
It does amaze me at what customers will put up with at times in this game.
I actually know a guy who cleans windows with unfiltered tap water 210 ppm and is making
a living, you want to see the state of the windows when he finished.
I'm not joking.

Let's not bring gary999 into this!

 

Cheeky git! no way would clean windows with a tds of 210ppm

i do however use water straight out my tap at 33ppm,never have a problem
although i do blade windows dry i suspect through my own personal
experience will be a problem

Anyways earning £200 a hour i dont work in extreme wind or rain
or the heat of summer or later than 2pm,never work weekends even
if i have done little in the week,weekends are family time,riding my bike a
spot of poledancing and spending the odd hour staring lovingly at the
gardiners website.

No way do i put up with any dissent from any of the mugs sorry  meant
customers who every once in a while pass on their windows being cleaned
even if the hubby has just died and the ambulance is there carting him
away when i get there.What kind of excuse is that

Earning £200 a hour why should i worry

Hope this rain stops soon might not make it through the month

[Paul Coleman]

I see this as a two way street myself.

If a customer doesn't do things the way the window cleaner wishes, he can get another customer.
If a window cleaner doesn't do things the way the customer wishes, he can get another window cleaner.
The caveat being that fair warning is given (i.e. customer doesn't do a doorstep cancellation and the window cleaner doesn't just stop turning up).
There is no need for either party to attempt to co-erce the other into doing their bidding.

[Jonny 87]

Iv missed a few weeks in total from Christmas due to high winds and rain.
Its nothing I cant pull back by working a few Saturdays and extra hours in the better months.
I wouldn't blame any customer who complains if their windows are being cleaned in stormy
weather.
It does amaze me at what customers will put up with at times in this game.
I actually know a guy who cleans windows with unfiltered tap water 210 ppm and is making
a living, you want to see the state of the windows when he finished.
I'm not joking.

Let's not bring gary999 into this!

 

Cheeky git! no way would clean windows with a tds of 210ppm

i do however use water straight out my tap at 33ppm,never have a problem
although i do blade windows dry i suspect through my own personal
experience will be a problem

Anyways earning £200 a hour i dont work in extreme wind or rain
or the heat of summer or later than 2pm,never work weekends even
if i have done little in the week,weekends are family time,riding my bike a
spot of poledancing and spending the odd hour staring lovingly at the
gardiners website.

No way do i put up with any dissent from any of the mugs sorry  meant
customers who every once in a while pass on their windows being cleaned
even if the hubby has just died and the ambulance is there carting him
away when i get there.What kind of excuse is that

Earning £200 a hour why should i worry

Hope this rain stops soon might not make it through the month

Hehe 

[Perfect Windows]

I have a choice which fast food outlet I use.

I have a choice as to which car hire company I use.

I have a choice as to how I travel to an extent.

Etc.

It's not always about having it on your terms as that's only a part of the story, it's also about the customer deciding to use you or not. If they choose not to, then you can have it all on your terms to any extent to you want, it still won't get their money into your pocket.

Your customers have a choice as to window cleaner.  Why is that a problem?  Offer the service you want to offer.  If it's turn up on demand and charge £1 a clean that's fine.  That way you'll get "their money in your pocket".  You won't have a business, though.

(Assume that I already know I'm exaggerating and that I'm not actually suggesting charging £1 in any remotely serious way - it's to illustrate the point by hyperbole).

Vin

[Mike #1]

Cosy. Spot on.

+1. When I tell my wife about what some custys say she is fuming she has a short fuse I don't I am fairly chilled as you can't let every little thing get to you .  Mike

[roundbuilder]

Im 4 weekly and get 12 cleans a year per customer if they say leave it this month i just go with it which takes it down to 11 cleans in the year, if they do it twice thats 10 cleans a year which to me is still much better than being 6 weekly and only doing the 8 times a year or worse off 8 weekly and only doing them 6 times a year!
It would annoy me if i was 6/12 weekly and they skipped and also if i was 8 weekly and they skipped as would make the next clean like a first clean.
Customers are powerful tools and recomend us to there friends and family so simply dropping the for a not this month is a silly move in my opinion.
As said none of us are special and we are near the bottom of the food chain with our career path because if we was special we wouldnt be cleaning bird poo off of glass would we, and guys who run a few vans are not special as all they are in charge of is guys cleaning poo and dirt from glass! None of it is rocket science!. Im a window cleaner because i did crap at school and am too lazy to train to do anything else so instead of being a bum im a shiner.

[Paul Coleman]

Im 4 weekly and get 12 cleans a year per customer if they say leave it this month i just go with it which takes it down to 11 cleans in the year, if they do it twice thats 10 cleans a year which to me is still much better than being 6 weekly and only doing the 8 times a year or worse off 8 weekly and only doing them 6 times a year!
It would annoy me if i was 6/12 weekly and they skipped and also if i was 8 weekly and they skipped as would make the next clean like a first clean.
Customers are powerful tools and recomend us to there friends and family so simply dropping the for a not this month is a silly move in my opinion.
As said none of us are special and we are near the bottom of the food chain with our career path because if we was special we wouldnt be cleaning bird poo off of glass would we, and guys who run a few vans are not special as all they are in charge of is guys cleaning poo and dirt from glass! None of it is rocket science!. Im a window cleaner because i did crap at school and am too lazy to train to do anything else so instead of being a bum im a shiner.

+1 x 4√7

[C o z y]

I don't see myself as Richard Branson either Mick,   but I'm not stupid or too dumb to do other jobs either. I'm in this game for a number of reasons, but none of them is because I'm stupid. It's a fast and easy way to earn a wad in the minimum amount of time possible. If I'm busy and have work to do, I've gotno time to waste on someone where 12 quid every 6 weeks is an issue. These people are just bumps in the road to getting my work finished. So I smooth out the bumps and make my journey that much more comfortable.

I'm not bigheaded about being a shiner, but I do find getting customers quite easy. So I drop "special request" custies, and pick up new ones as I go along. The answer to most "bumps in the road" is to get more customers. Then trim the herd.

As to your point about customers being powerful tools. Yes, and they can also tell your other customers or friends that you're flexible, and will skip a clean if they ask you to. Such as when their dog is feeling a bit stressed, or they've just changed the bed linen that morning.  

I see my custy base as a sort of garden. I have to weed the garden to keep it healthy. Works for me, but some find it hard to get custies, so they cling to all of the dross (That's not the case with you Mick). What some guys need to consider is, if you managed to put 20 customers into your business, why stop there, just keep doing what you did to get those 20, and stop when you have too many. Keep it simple, and stop trying to suit everyone who's "Special".

[Perfect Windows]

By the way, I should stress that we don't drop customers for one misdemeanour - it's people who regularly pull stunts who are given the opportunity to drop us.

Vin

[dazmond]

yeah but 8 weekly cleans are priced much higher than £10 mick!

i clean a church twice a year for £80 a pop.it takes me an hour and a half.still worth cleaning though when it comes around.

2 monthlies never skip a clean and the church certainly doesnt!

most regular small to medium size domestic is monthly though.very rarely do any skip a clean unless building work,exceptional family circumstances etc.

even with 380+ customers working on my own its easy to get my work cleaned within the month without working long days.still days left for add on jobs when they come in or new customers.

obviously i lose customers as well due to moving,lost their job etc but its only a few and invariably i pick up another customer within a few weeks.

[koopmaster]

I was a 3rd line computer engineer for 15 years,  but you earn more doing this and you can you are your own boss which suits my personality well, as I dont like taking orders.

[robbo333]

I'm about half full at the moment so I am seeing both sides of this argument. What I am finding is that the customers who muck me around cost me money, as all the farting around to please them takes up my time. Now I'd help anyone out and try to be flexible but I am also building a business for me and my family. If you take the emotional aspect out of it, I'd rather build my business with good customers rather than messers. To that degree, I dumped 15 custys the other day that I really didn't want to lose. But then I can't really afford to keep them. 

[colin purewater]

Why do window cleaners think they are so special that they can lay down all the rules and still earn £50 an hour, work 4 days a week and if a customer DARE complain about cleaning in the rain be dumped then replaced with 2 more?
Can this attitude support rapid business growth?
If you where starting from a fresh, would you include this attitude in your business plan if you where looking for finance or investment?
 

Assuming there's a genuine question behind the aggression, let me ask you a few:

When you go to McDonalds, do you buy food on your terms or theirs?

When you hire a car do you do it on your terms or theirs?

When you get on a train do you do it on your terms or theirs?

When (insert 500,000 other examples here)...

When you hire a window cleaner, do you do it on your terms or theirs?

I'm all for dealing with complaints in a timely and honest manner and being reasonably flexible but allowing customers to dictate their terms of doing business with you isn't something practised by a single business I can name.  Can you name me a business that allows you to deal with it on your own terms?

Vin

Strippers