We bought a round off a trad cleaner who cleaned glass only. The frames were disgusting. We were also new to wfp having only done trad before.
If you have been ignoring the cleaning of frames whilst working traditionally, then you are going to pay the cost for doing that now. It will take a couple of cleans to get those frames right. We did on average 2 deep cleans on the initial first clean on each house and a third clean glass only. That was done once the windows had dried off. We only took payment once the house was 'perfect'. We did on average about 5 new cleans a day - the local gossip bag told everyone that we won't be around long. But it was an investment in our future.
We are still there 11 years later with much better equipment and we still clean each frame, including the one above the top window.
As for gossip bag, we no longer do hers.
We are much better at first cleans now than we were, but as has been stated by others, getting proficient with wfp takes time. You need to learn to walk before you can run, a saying which is very relevant when making the switch to wfp.
Winter isn't the best time to make the switch, but needs must.
The round we bought was done on a 2 weekly basis, but after a few months we found that customers were cancelling as the windows were clean. You need to get a plan sorted for that now. Customers will want to extend the clean but still pay the same money. We weren't prepared for that. We found that even with the quality cleans we did with clean frames, customers didn't want to pay extra for better services.
We live in the North East about 10 miles from Middlesbrough on the coast.
So what was your solution? As I see it you had three options.
1. Work harder than anyone else doing a great job for poor money.
2. Become slapdash and make a good rate for poor money.
3. Find customers willing to pay for a good service.
Some grasped your post and used it as their excuse for cheap prices. I'm interested in what you did.
TBH this section of our round is still under priced 8weekly. I passed it over to SIL as he had the energy to get through it with his splash and dash method. He was able to do high volume with a low price as his running costs were far less than mine.
He isn't cleaning windows any more so this last time I cleaned this section. It was painful doing do. Pricing needs to be raised so we can expect to loose a lot of them.
We raised prices about 4 months after we started cleaning this. Mrs Gossip bag told me that the previous window cleaners tried to do this and failed because she knew everyone on the estate and she will make sure they all cancel.
We put the prices up and stuck it out as about 60% cancelled. Over the next 6 months 90% of them asked us back.
But as I said, I failed to consider and prepare that customers would want to move from 2 weekly to 4 weekly and still want to pay the same price.
We were also caught with the beginning of the credit crunch with this round. So we canvassed and found much better work but the problem is that it isn't compact stuff. We were also concerned as we didn't know how much work we were going to loose with the beginning of the credit crunch. Our focus was on looking for more work as my son came to join the business 2 months before the credit crunch started. Steel making layoffs were a focus of the area in 2008, more so than the last few months.
SIL has proved that he was better working a compact round at poorer pricing than doing bits and pieces of better paid work. However, I haven't the energy to rush through the work like I could before. SIL was fast and his quality of work was pretty good despite his speed. Unfortunately I have come across a few complainers and we just did the last clean for nothing as we couldn't prove anything one way or another. The estate is full of wheeler dealers and chancers.
I am of the opinion that a window cleaner is better off canvassing a new round than buying an under priced one as we did. But we needed additional work very quickly.
We have found the certain estates in our area still have a low price perception of what their window cleaning should cost. It doesn't seem to have changed over the last 10 years. One particular window cleaner dumped all his customers in this area and started canvassing in more affluent areas, something we should have also done years ago TBH. We found that if you ask more than customers perceive they should pay then you don't get the business.
At one time we needed the business, but now we don't. Its sometimes a matter of timing.