[David Kent @ KentKleen]

Thanks for all of the replies so far. Some very interesting view points and attitudes toward customers.
P.S I am not short on work Cozy.

[Tom White]

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

What about them?

[oliver collins]

I think at times because society puts so much on what we do as living defines us as a person. 

So I think that when we say that we are just a window cleaner it can give the impression that we are thick we do window cleaning because that's all we can do !

So we might overcompensate into thinking that we are better than the next guy ie window cleaner or place self worth on our hourly earnings.

I try to have a lot of other interests in my life ie family my religion football the gym it helps not to just be happy to clean windows for the rest of your life !

Oliver Collins rise n shine cleaning

[David Kent @ KentKleen]

They are all providing a service and you as a customer can choose to use them or not (Your terms).  If I choose not to use them this month, none of them will refuse my business next month. If they refuse my custom I am not going to recommend them either.  
I try to provide my customers with a service I myself would be happy with. I really think customers appreciate a little consideration of there wants and needs. This appreciation can manifest itself in many ways. I find recommendations from existing customers back up this work ethic.
  

[David Kent @ KentKleen]

p.s. If the original post is read the right way, without any aggression behind it, it is quite a reasonable question to ask considering the amount of 'anti' customer opinion on here.

[C o z y]

They are all providing a service and you as a customer can choose to use them or not (Your terms).  If I choose not to use them this month, none of them will refuse my business next month. If they refuse my custom I am not going to recommend them either.  
I try to provide my customers with a service I myself would be happy with. I really think customers appreciate a little consideration of there wants and needs. This appreciation can manifest itself in many ways. I find recommendations from existing customers back up this work ethic.
  

I see what you're saying, but I'm the opposite in that respect, but I get recommendations too. So it's works both ways, and y way is how I work.  I don't want customers recommending me because they can miss a clean if they want to. That's just multiplying customers I don't want.

[David Kent @ KentKleen]

Just to confirm I have very few who skip a clean, maybe 10 a year in total, but I do live in a town on the coast and literally on the door step of heavy industry. DIRTY BEAST