[Shrek]

Hi ,

So you go and do a quote and it's got a large conny but small house windows so you take that into account and think yeah it's not a massive job . Give them a price , do the 1st clean , still no idea if you've got it right because it takes ages anyways.
2nd clean , your thinking this has took 5-10 minutes longer than I quoted for.....

So do you wait a couple of cleans and see if you get faster?
Wait a year and put up with it till they've been with you a while?
Or tell them after the 2nd clean?

That's my situation at the moment, what would you do?

[Spruce]

Hi ,

So you go and do a quote and it's got a large conny but small house windows so you take that into account and think yeah it's not a massive job . Give them a price , do the 1st clean , still no idea if you've got it right because it takes ages anyways.
2nd clean , your thinking this has took 5-10 minutes longer than I quoted for.....

So do you wait a couple of cleans and see if you get faster?
Wait a year and put up with it till they've been with you a while?
Or tell them after the 2nd clean?

That's my situation at the moment, what would you do?

I approached my customer after a year and told them that I had unpriced the job and have tried to reduce the time it takes but haven't been able to. She agreed to a 50% price increase. I tried to make her feel sorry for me. 
Had she not agreed I would have had to have thanked her politely for her customer and walked away. It was difficult to do as she had recommended me to a couple of her friends and I clean their windows as well.

I also had another that I priced at £20. It also took longer than I anticipated. He put the price up to £25 as he felt that was fair, and so did I. He moans about the cost from time to time, but that just his sense of humour.

.

[jo5hm4n]

I had this problem some time ago with a customer with 4 windows all above a conservatory plus conny was massive.  I thought i had priced right but the job took ages even after the first clean.  It took me 6 months to have the balls to say to the customer   "Look i will be honest with you.  I slightly underpriced this job when i first quoted you the price.  I thought after a few cleans i would be able to do it faster, but because of size of conny and windows above, it is taking longer than i thought.  I'm going to have to up the price from £17 to £20, is that okay?" 

Customer looked a bit miffed for about 5-10 seconds then said, yeah okay that's fine no problem.  Had no issues since customer is good as golden.  I got so worried about telling the customer it was underpriced i almost thought about dropping them at one point....  Looking back now i would have probably told them after the 2rd/3rd clean i had underpriced it.  Usually takes me about 3 cleans to get onto full speed with a job that i am happy with.

[Clever Forum Name]

5-10 mins longer ? 

Come on man. Is it really gonna ruin your round?

Or does it prevent you from hitting £100 an hour ?

[paul alan]

I handle it this way.

I hate to admit it but i have made a mistake with the price!

So if you agree what I'll do is this, we'll stay at £x for the next 3 cleans. Then if your happy with the service I need to adjust to £x.

Never been turned down with that, it realy" sweetens the medicine" when your offering something in return (3 cleans at cheaper rate) also when its not happening now but sometime in the future people dont seem to mind so much.

[nathankaye]

Ive done this a hand full of times but each time i let the customer know when i collect the money. I like to be upfront about it and as im comfortable with well established rounds i can be.
So being upfront i tell make sure the customer is happy with the job and feed them lines where they praise you (not in a pity way) and then i let them know it took much longer than anticipated etc etc but im a man of my word so this clean is X amount but for me to continue i would need to amend it to this amount....
Ive never been turned down about it.
The longer you leave it you will regret it and it will all come out wrong.

[Shrek]

Very true , cheers chaps . Il let him know... and a few others whilst I'm at it 

[Marc Stock]

What i tend to do when i quote is i always say that its an estimate until the 1st job is complete. So i will look at the job and if i think its worth tops £35. I will say to the customer that its going to be between £35-£45 depending on how the job goes, and that will be your price.

If halfway through the clean, its clear that i have underestimated the price, it doesnt matter as i have given them a price range i can use.

[Stoots]

Depends on how bad you want the house. Are you willing to risk losing 12 quid custy because you want 14 for example? 

If you are stacked out and couldn't care less them yes ask for what you want. If not then don't sweat it.

[Shrek]

Thing is , iv picked up a lot of custys with connys on 1 street , and I run out of water really quick. I don't mind too much if it's a mixture of connys and then non connys , but it's all large detached with connys. And because of this , my hourly rate suffers . No im not on £100 an hour 

[Smurf]

Thing is , iv picked up a lot of custys with connys on 1 street , and I run out of water really quick. I don't mind too much if it's a mixture of connys and then non connys , but it's all large detached with connys. And because of this , my hourly rate suffers . No im not on £100 an hour 

Just a thought to save water would it be any quicker/easier to do the sides of connys by trad?

[Shrek]

Thing is , iv picked up a lot of custys with connys on 1 street , and I run out of water really quick. I don't mind too much if it's a mixture of connys and then non connys , but it's all large detached with connys. And because of this , my hourly rate suffers . No im not on £100 an hour 

Just a thought to save water would it be any quicker/easier to do sides of connys by trad.

It would save water mate but the reason I get the jobs is because they want the plastic cleaning too

[Smurf]

So are you saying what they really want is a first clean every time. Could you not give the plastics a quick wipe over as you trad the glass?

[Shrek]

Not a first clean but they want everything washed with the windows.

[Smurf]

Not a first clean but they want everything washed with the windows.

Like the conny guttering/roofline, etc, and maybe the roof itself do you mean?

[Shrek]

Nope lol the windows frames and sills and doors

[Dry Clean]

On first cleans and dirty framed conservatories remove all the crud with water from the customers tap ( the tap pressure will
make light work of it ) and then a quick wipe and rinse with your pure to remove the spotting on the glass.

[Tom-01]

When is the best time to tell a customer that they are OVERPRICED..?

[Shrek]

I just txt him my bank details and said I owe you an apology iv underpriced the job , it should be another £5 but sometimes I underestimate how much plastic there is to clean and how much water il need . If you agree , the next 2 cleans are £x and then the new price after that.
He text me back within 2 minutes...😱

Hi shrek , no problem at all - il pay £20 from yesterday clean onwards

🙏👌👍

[Shrek]

5-10 mins longer ? 

Come on man. Is it really gonna ruin your round?

Or does it prevent you from hitting £100 an hour ?

5-10 minutes longer turns a half an hour clean into a 40 minute clean. Big difference in my price list. Time is money 💰