[Mr. S]

Im sure many people organise their rounds differently!
Im sure we all clean the best!
Im sure we all have our little cheat!
Im sure we all think we could still be quicker and earn more!

OK so lets put it to the test! I know something similar was done in my mind a long time ago!

So to start the ball rolling.............
I have been putting an Ive Called leaflet through 99% of my doors as I clean them without knockingfor payment.
My reason being average it out during your working day, if you do 20 houses on your own and spend 3 minutes at each house average waiting for payment(which I probably did b4, to see if theyre in or wait for the dear ol gal to use her zimmer to get the money), youve wasted 1hr working time each day!!

How many extra houses can you do in an hour?

It works i tried it, i only knock a couple now, and some of my customers are actually coming and paying as soon as thety see me !

Who else can tell us a way in which we can increase our wage? (Pease be sensible, i already though of winning the lottery!)

[Sir Squeaky]

I know loads of cheats and shortcuts.

But I'm making myself look like a cowboy.

[Jason Atwell]

Ive got it!!   

Charge more!!

[john tomkins]

If you save an hour a day by not knocking for payment on 20 houses when you clean the windows, then you are gonna spend  way longer than that collecting them later...or have I missed the point

[xxmattyxx]

I never knock, it gives them an opportunity to say 'not today love, can you do 'em next time?'


If theyre in they either come out and pay whilst Im doing the windows or I knock as I start the last window, so they do their money finding routine whilst Im still working.

If no-ones in, they get an envelope with my address on it to forward a cheque.

Matt

[pjulk]

then you are gonna spend  way longer than that collecting them later.

Only if you go out collecting leave a SAE and knock the collecting on the head.

Paul

[SherwoodCleaningSe]

I work off the fact that if you are at the door knock, if you make yourself go back to collect money thats a lot of extra time spent working (collecting).  I will knock first and then clean the door and any windows near the door to cut down on time wastage.

A little and I stress little friendly chat is good for business also.  The amount of times I've had, "My friend in the next road just can't find a wc"  If I hadn't of knocked then they may have never said.

I like the idea in principle though to have an hour extra each day.  An hour earlier home.

[Mr. S]

My idea was that with an extra hour of working a day we earn more! Obviously Im trying to make the most of my working hours on the pole and squeegee.

We all need the money paid but my next step is sae, and of course Sherwood i do try to operate a similar system of working to yourself!

Just thought we might come across some easier ways !

[mark dew]

Yep, knocking is a potential pain. But i would leave the stamp off the envelope at least.
Do you know any other service, trade that leaves stamped addressed envelopes?
Let the customer pay. It's not bad business if no-one else does it.

[pylofm]

Get some leaflets made saying 'I cleaned your neigbours windows today' and pop them through every house in each street you clean.

I also releaflet my main area's each and every 3 months nows....it seems to have worked for me...leaflets I know do not have as much success as doorknocking but still it works for me ableit slowly

Also I have aprox 6 customers who pay me cash, the rest all pay via bank transfer and out of those bank transfer customers...I have 5 that regulary pay late and need a phone call....I should imagine that saves me alot of time not collecting.

Cheers
Dave.

[SherwoodCleaningSe]

Something I do to save knocking.  Get 1 customer to pay for several others or get the customer to leave the money or a cheque in a specific place.

You get paid on the day and still work fast.

Simon.

[williamx]

The easest way to increase your take home pay without ripping off your customers is to change the times you clean their windows.

The way this works out is say you clean every 2 weeks and charge £8.00 on average, you clean 20 houses a day 4 days a week which give you a turnover of £640.00 per week.

You now only clean the windows every 4 weeks, you charge the customer £12.00 which saves them £4.00 but you also increase your turnover to £960.00 per week for the same amount of work.

The same applies if you work on a monthly clean, just change them to a 6 weekly clean instead.

Work smarter not harder

[sham33]

always leave the bathroom windows

[ronaldo]

always leave the bathroom windows

SHOCKING 

[Ian Rochester]

I agree, shocking!!

I know a window cleaner who lost nearly half his business when someone found out that he wasn't doing the bathroom windows!  And we got just about all of it.

Bad news spreads fast, especially if you work in a small neighbourhood.

If you are going to do a job do it properly, charge accordingly.

Knock on the downstairs window as you are cleaning the last window, they will be at the door by the time you've finished.

[Sir Squeaky]

Well you do bathroom windows, but you don't detail them or wash thoroughly.
Just mop across the lot and squeegee roughly.
Shouldn't take more than 15 seconds.

With WFP same applies.
Don't bother rinsing for ages or scrubbing away.
Just a quick brush over.
Again, 5-10 seconds MAX.

You're wasting time trying to get windows perfect that you can't see through anyway.

[Jeff Brimble]

Occasionally the glass fitters fit the frosted glass the wrong way round and embarrasingly for the customer having a shower, the windows become lots more transparent and see through.  This can make the dirt easier to see from inside too, especially when its sunrise or sunset.

[* mike RH]

I got a squeegee mate combination washer and they are great once you get the knack.

Bit heavy on the wrist maybe, but allows you to wash/squeegee at same time with one hand and detail with other.

[Steve_Richardson]

I always knock before I start as I can think of nothing worse than a WC'er appearing at my windows when I am not expecting him!

My customers appreciate the knock first, but I am always unloaded (hose pole etc) and ready or already on 1st window by the time they are at the door!