[Chris Cottrell]

Had this letter from a custy this morning & phew what a relief It was a front only min £10 charge 1 bay up & down plus a door with a small glass above the door no access to rear other than through house & always trying to get me to clean the rear which I didnt want to do also one window at the bottom on the front with an iron grill over it so you cant get to the window at all 

The bit about windows not being polished gets me lol

[Neil Williams]

Chris,I think it wouldbe a good idea to re submit the letter part of your post but with address and tel No removed/blanked out.
Data protection and all that carry on.

[NWH]

Idiots,well that`s another one that saved you dumping them Chris.

[Chris Cottrell]

Idiots

My thoughts too 

[Pole2pole]

I got a letter about 6 months ago, 2 neighbours traded me in for a young lad at half the price. He was trad and i was wpf........I only charged 5 each for the fronts. Anyways, the guy lasted about 3 months. You know the rest. They wanted me back........Boy did that feel sweet sayin they'd been replaced. I know some of ya are thinkin bitin me nose to spite me face, but it was just somethin i had to do. They were both posh pillocks. I obviously wasn't "good" enough for them. I still see them now n then with their ever increasingly dirty glass among all the mere mortal common punters that live around them.

[Chris Cottrell]

They dont like it up em Dino

[cvdewsbury]

tenner for a front are you window cleaners all millionaires down south???

[Chris Cottrell]

tenner for a front are you window cleaners all millionaires down south???

Of course how else do you think I afford my beat up Transit 

[need a cleaner]

 

[Helen]

Chris, whilst I agree that these people are idiots, and you are clearly better off without them, I think it has been said before, for Data protection reasons, can you remove the name address etc.

[Chris Cottrell]

It obviously offends people to have the address at the top so this has been removed

[Helen]

Chris, thanks.  I can't think that it would offend anyone, but with all the goings on with HMRC lateley and Data protection issues, you just don't know who may be looking on here..... 

[Chris Cottrell]

offend was maybe the wrong word possibly a better word would be concern , hows that Helen?

[Londoner]

The customer is quite within his rights to drop you. At least he let you know and gave you the reason. My attitude is very laid back about the whole thing. Some you win........

[Paul Coleman]

tenner for a front are you window cleaners all millionaires down south???

Yes.  But only if you mean Greek drachmas.

[Chris Cottrell]

The customer is quite within his rights to drop you. At least he let you know and gave you the reason. My attitude is very laid back about the whole thing. Some you win........

I am also laid back about it vince if they had not cancelled I would have probably gone on for years cleaning it even though I did not like that particular house, these people were always very polite to me and usally paid ontime
I put this down to another that does not like WFP, so in 2 yrs for me that makes the total loss of customers that dont like it to a grand total of 3, I can live with that

[elite mike]

yeh i had a custy like that once ,she left me  a note saying
dear mike
i am cancelling the windows today cos everytime u clean them it rains and it makes them dirty again.
she had been a custy 4 over 26 years,still it makes u smile,eh
regards mike   

[Londoner]

There is a school of thought that says if you don't lose some customers from time to time you are either too cheap or are wasting your time doing an unnecessarily good job. Thats a bit hard to reconcile with most people's self image of being a good window cleaner. Top man and all that.

 However, most really sucessful businesses rely on doing just enough and no more to get by.

[Chris Cottrell]

Vince I dont really know what you re saying there , I cant see that custys sack you for being cheap and doing a good job they are more likely to keep you even if you do a bad job cos it may only be pennies

But I do think that a good turnover of custys is a good thing as most reg customers get used to you and stop recomending you to others whereas new ones do recomend

[glenda hollis]

Thats exactly what he is saying, that to loose no clients means that over all a person is charging less than they should and/or doing too good a job. The reason new customers reccomend more than old is often because the older customers have seen more of the tradesperson and as such are more aware of their behaviour. whilst they themselves may be satisified they may feel it in appropriate to send the person to one of their friends. New people know nothing about the tradesperson so will only speak as they find.