[tonycarr]

picked a customer up about 18 months ago, or rather he approached me when i was working a few streets up, (nice ol bloke) his wife always gives me tea and biscuits, given me a key to the back gate

over the course of the 18 or so months he`s recommended me to his neighbors, and now i clean 9 houses including his, 6 of them directly through him.  and the other 2 were walk ups, he also put me in touch with the landlady of a local pub where he looks after there garden and im due to clean that for the second time tomorrow.

he went to pay me today £10, and i said to him no its ok keep it, i said you've bought me plenty of customers consider this a free clean as a show of my appreciation.

he couldn't believe it, you`d have thought he`d won the lottery or something , wish more of my customers were like him

got me thinking, about making some of my other customers aware, that they to can have a free clean if i were to pick up work directly  through them. offering them a free clean after id cleaned 2/3 times any new customer

i dont canvass myself any more, dont really need to, i work 3 to 4 days a week as it is,  but a few recommendations from existing customers i would welcome, in my experience recommendations have proved over the years to be some of my best customers

tony

[nathankaye]

Its seen me good through many years, that approach. Scratch my back i'll scratch yours.
Especially to let the client know as well.
I had some customers who i kept their price low as they were very good clients, drinks, food, recommendations etc etc. Then after some years i had to amend the price for obvious reasons and one cancelled the service just like that and wouldnt listen to reason.  It made me realise that no matter how you treat them or how professional you are or look, we are simply window cleaners to them......never made that mistake again, so i let them know they have a special price when others go up or they have a free clean etc, they know the reason why. Its never failed me since i took that learning curve

[Johnny B]

I had one a few years ago who asked me if I would do hers. She lived 25 miles away. She said she would ask all her neighbours and promised to get me enough work to make the trip worthwhile.

I agreed and she did indeed get me a few customers. I offered to do her first clean free of charge as a token of my gratitude. She agreed, but subsequently she messed me about royally regarding payment, to the extent I had to walk away from her.

I am happy to do a free clean to a proven good customer. My mistake was to do it prematurely in this case.

John.

[tonycarr]

Its seen me good through many years, that approach. Scratch my back i'll scratch yours.
Especially to let the client know as well.
I had some customers who i kept their price low as they were very good clients, drinks, food, recommendations etc etc. Then after some years i had to amend the price for obvious reasons and one cancelled the service just like that and wouldnt listen to reason.  It made me realise that no matter how you treat them or how professional you are or look, we are simply window cleaners to them......never made that mistake again, so i let them know they have a special price when others go up or they have a free clean etc, they know the reason why. Its never failed me since i took that learning curve

yeh got a few wrinklies that i havent put up for years for various reasons, there gradually dying off, will look to take on the newbies at an amended price

tony

[dazmond]

picked a customer up about 18 months ago, or rather he approached me when i was working a few streets up, (nice ol bloke) his wife always gives me tea and biscuits, given me a key to the back gate

over the course of the 18 or so months he`s recommended me to his neighbors, and now i clean 9 houses including his, 6 of them directly through him.  and the other 2 were walk ups, he also put me in touch with the landlady of a local pub where he looks after there garden and im due to clean that for the second time tomorrow.

he went to pay me today £10, and i said to him no its ok keep it, i said you've bought me plenty of customers consider this a free clean as a show of my appreciation.

he couldn't believe it, you`d have thought he`d won the lottery or something , wish more of my customers were like him

got me thinking, about making some of my other customers aware, that they to can have a free clean if i were to pick up work directly  through them. offering them a free clean after id cleaned 2/3 times any new customer

i dont canvass myself any more, dont really need to, i work 3 to 4 days a week as it is,  but a few recommendations from existing customers i would welcome, in my experience recommendations have proved over the years to be some of my best customers

tony

i really dont need any more work at the moment but its nice when a customers get you another job  as long as they dont turn into a crap payer as ive had that on more than one occasion(usually a son or daughter of a customer who are usually  skint/struggling to pay their bills as it is!)

[Smurf]

Dazmond I don't do freebies for that same reason. lol

[SB Cleaning]

I would never do a clean for free it's madness if you ask me

Be friendly do a  good job and be regular and custys will recommend you anyway .

[Stoots]

Can't ever see a reason to do anything for free.

[lal]

 I dont do freebies for any reason,  when i first started out i used to do the odd free clean for friends &  family, but  not anymore,
 I just find sometimes when you try and do a bit of good for people, eventually you just get taken for granted or maybe a mug.

[paul alan]

i believe what goes around comes back around, if you see it like that its not really a "free" clean more a smart move.

Its reciprocation, that tenner will come back with more on top.

[SB Cleaning]

i believe what goes around comes back around, if you see it like that its not really a "free" clean more a smart move.

Its reciprocation, that tenner will come back with more on top.

How can that tenner come back?

It's time lost which = money lost.

[Cookie]

IMO - it's just good to do something for free occasionally.

There's a local heritage centre, run by volunteers, based in one of the many vacant shops in my local town. They've been getting this going in an effort to help re-generate the local area. I clean this for free - only takes 5 minutes...

If I don't generate any work from this I don't mind really. Just happy to help out ... 

[tonycarr]

the 6 houses and pub have generated me an extra £82 per month and have cost me, say a tenner,

if a canvasser had generated me £82 worth of work how much would the canvasser had charged me 3....4....5 times perhaps?

tony 

[paul alan]

i believe what goes around comes back around, if you see it like that its not really a "free" clean more a smart move.

Its reciprocation, that tenner will come back with more on top.

How can that tenner come back?

It's time lost which = money lost.
You have to see "through" that and look beyond.
Its been the way of the world for thousands of years!

[Tom White]

We did this years ago when we first started out; giving free cleans to people who recommended us to their friends.

One customer 'went for it' and got us about six jobs, but none of them were much cop to be honest, if memory serves me right.

It might be okay if you're short of work, but these days we tend to turn down more jobs than we take on. 

[paul alan]

Its a good philosophy for life in general, not just in the context of window cleaning.