[colin bird]

Hi thanks for reading,I've been wfd for ten years,I have approx  440 customers and I'm in the south east.
Over the years when the new year starts I loose a couple of customers,I assume this is due to being skint after xmas.
This year I have lost more than previous years,and I getting a bit paranoid about the losses,just wondered if this is happening to others.
I've lost about £800 off of my annual turnover since Xmas
Thanks for reading

[The Jester of Wibbly]

Don't be afraid to ask the reason why they are cancelling. It may help you understand and avoid the paranoia.

However these things do tend to come in one go. Then you have a influx of new coming in.  It's weird the way it works.

[AuRavelling79]

Okay - some perspective.

Let's say you lose one £25 customer (8 weekly). That means you've lost about £150.00. If it's monthly then £300.00.

So 3 to 6 customers out of 440? I wouldn't worry.

[alank]

I wouldn't worry to much about it unless it was quality related I've found at certain times the more customers you have it can appear that the more you lose . A lot of people do their budgets in January and may be skint after Christmas. A few customers out of over four hundred will soon be replaced and if it's nothing to do with quality or the service you provide it's out of your hands. I always if possible ask the reason for cancellations. The last batch of cancellations I had that caused a bit concern .
£35 house
£25 house
£27 house
£29 pub
Two customers moved one went into nursing home and the pub changed hands. Not good but all were replaced with new customers and might even get the new people back on my round so try not to worry about it too much unless it happens often.

[Marc Stock]

Could be some fallout from carillion going belly up.

[NWH]

It’s hard not to worry I know I hate losing any work that’s not by my choice you can get paranoid about it but over the years I have always found that lose 1 pick 1 up it always seems to happen,try and get over and above what work you need to the point your late doing some of your work. I don’t do many monthly’s so when I’ve cleaned them they needed doing a month comes round to quick for some people.

[dazmond]

i always find that when i lose a job for whatever reason its not long before a pick another one up(or two or three).

8 customers of mine have died in the last 2 months(another one the other day!)another has gone into an old peoples home and 2 have lost their minds... ...but ive picked a few up here and there and a few add on jobs too which is unusual at this time of year.

its swings and roundabouts...if you have a good solid customers base you shouldnt worry unduly.

[JandS]

8 deaths in 2 months....customers need to be worried about you Dr Death...

[dazmond]

8 deaths in 2 months....customers need to be worried about you Dr Death...

i need some younger customers mate!

ive nicknamed one road "death row" now on my round!

[Tom-01]

8 deaths in 2 months....customers need to be worried about you Dr Death...

i need some younger customers mate!

ive nicknamed one road "death row" now on my round!

Green Mile Road

[Splash & dash]

Hi thanks for reading,I've been wfd for ten years,I have approx  440 customers and I'm in the south east.
Over the years when the new year starts I loose a couple of customers,I assume this is due to being skint after xmas.
This year I have lost more than previous years,and I getting a bit paranoid about the losses,just wondered if this is happening to others.
I've lost about £800 off of my annual turnover since Xmas
Thanks for reading









I would say it depends on the number of jobs and why have they cancled : worst year I had was when one large company I did work for cancled a £25000 per year contract and went with a national cleaning company as they were cheaper , real  kicker 😬😬😬😬😬😬

[colin bird]

One customer said after 5 years of cleaning £19 job all day long,they've had a cheaper quote and he will also clean the sills or cills  depending on you choice of spelling,so did I ffs,ground floor cills/sills can be cleaned to a good standard with wfd,as we all know,first floor is a bit of hit and miss as you can't see,or should I be getting my ladder out to do first floor,,,?  Not for me

[Splash & dash]

One customer said after 5 years of cleaning £19 job all day long,they've had a cheaper quote and he will also clean the sills or cills  depending on you choice of spelling,so did I ffs,ground floor cills/sills can be cleaned to a good standard with wfd,as we all know,first floor is a bit of hit and miss as you can't see,or should I be getting my ladder out to do first floor,,,?

Some customers are skinflints and are best dropped this one sounds like one of them

[colin bird]

Hi thanks for reading,I've been wfd for ten years,I have approx  440 customers and I'm in the south east.
Over the years when the new year starts I loose a couple of customers,I assume this is due to being skint after xmas.
This year I have lost more than previous years,and I getting a bit paranoid about the losses,just wondered if this is happening to others.
I've lost about £800 off of my annual turnover since Xmas
Thanks for reading









I would say it depends on the number of jobs and why have they cancled : worst year I had was when one large company I did work for cancled a £25000 per year contract and went with a national cleaning company as they were cheaper , real  kicker 😬😬😬😬😬😬

[/quot

Wow ! That's a massive hit,and I'm worried about £ 800

[trippyboy]

I'm actually £98.00 per 4 wks up, all gained in January, the only loss is one that i dumped.

[Walter Mitty]

One customer said after 5 years of cleaning £19 job all day long,they've had a cheaper quote and he will also clean the sills or cills  depending on you choice of spelling,so did I ffs,ground floor cills/sills can be cleaned to a good standard with wfd,as we all know,first floor is a bit of hit and miss as you can't see,or should I be getting my ladder out to do first floor,,,?  Not for me

I say that the cheaper quotation was the real reason.  The stuff about the sills was so that he didn't come across as a tightwad.

[Walter Mitty]

A few years ago I lost about £12k per year of work over a few weeks.  It didn't translate to £12k less turnover because it meant that I could focus on cleaning my domestics to schedule.
The lost work was a load of commercial subcontract work from cleaning companies.  I had four sources for this type of work at the time (they didn't have WFP), so reckoned that if one or even two went it ought not be too bad.  Unfortunately, three of the four went in the space of a few weeks - and one didn't even pay for the work I'd already done.
I always realised that I was a bit vulnerable by having a largish chunk as subcontract work, but figured I'd be OK as it was spread around.  £12k may not sound a lot to some businesses, but it did cause me to go out canvassing for a while to plug the gap it created.

[colin bird]

A few years ago I lost about £12k per year of work over a few weeks.  It didn't translate to £12k less turnover because it meant that I could focus on cleaning my domestics to schedule.
The lost work was a load of commercial subcontract work from cleaning companies.  I had four sources for this type of work at the time (they didn't have WFP), so reckoned that if one or even two went it ought not be too bad.  Unfortunately, three of the four went in the space of a few weeks - and one didn't even pay for the work I'd already done.
I always realised that I was a bit vulnerable by having a largish chunk as subcontract work, but figured I'd be OK as it was spread around.  £12k may not sound a lot to some businesses, but it did cause me to go out canvassing for a while to plug the gap it created.

You did well to survive that,it couldn't have been easy to motivate yourself to go out canvassing straight after that

[Walter Mitty]

A few years ago I lost about £12k per year of work over a few weeks.  It didn't translate to £12k less turnover because it meant that I could focus on cleaning my domestics to schedule.
The lost work was a load of commercial subcontract work from cleaning companies.  I had four sources for this type of work at the time (they didn't have WFP), so reckoned that if one or even two went it ought not be too bad.  Unfortunately, three of the four went in the space of a few weeks - and one didn't even pay for the work I'd already done.
I always realised that I was a bit vulnerable by having a largish chunk as subcontract work, but figured I'd be OK as it was spread around.  £12k may not sound a lot to some businesses, but it did cause me to go out canvassing for a while to plug the gap it created.

You did well to survive that,it couldn't have been easy to motivate yourself to go out canvassing straight after that

It wasn't easy.  Fortunately, I still had my core residential work and a little commercial work that wasn't subcontracted from others.  The canvassing was slow too.  The first three months I made up some of the money by selling extra services to existing customers and by making sure I kept to schedule (this was easier due to having less work).

[AuRavelling79]

Just had a text through for one I'd picked up last spring. (£25 x 8 weekly))

Seems honest enough ...

"Hi Goldie, could I put the window cleaning on pause for a bit. Just doing some post Xmas budgeting. Can I get in touch again in 6 months to see if we can restart? Thanks ... "

My reply:

"Sure, I'll take you off the schedule. It'll give me a bit of respite; the phone's gone crazy - low sun highlights mucky windows! Thanks for your custom to date."

It was a one off in an outlying village from a parish magazine ad last spring. Bloke about 45 but youngish family. As he's asked/told me nicely I'll play it by ear.