[AuRavelling79]

On another thread Roy Harding (Oh great one to be envied  ) said he built his round by keeping the wheat and discarding the chaff.

What are the best ways of doing this?

Do you drop and recruit actively? I should but I tend to take the opportunity when it arises - someone asks, I price a bit higher - marginal customer irritates, I drop them.

I have thought about going around all my marginal poor value customers on a belting rainy day so that they say not today thanks and I can drop them!

[Rob_Mac]

Malc

We sarted off with a high percentage of market dictated prices that were never going to make a business succesful and ran volume for 6 years/

Last year we reviewed our full pricing policy on every single customer and increased them to what we wanted to earn - some went up by £5.00 (on top of the price they were paying).

We lost about 25 customers through this period but as a whole we picked up about 100 new customers last year - with no marketing or attempt to gain new customers.

Now I am introducing VAT on the residential workload and am expecting to lose about 150 customers - as the worst case scenario.

If I lose 150 customers we will have a more sustainable round with less overheads and all of my business interests are back under one name and sole ownership. I was giving the round to my wife.

Be ruthless and accept that if you don't increase they wont offer more money!!!!!

Rob

[AuRavelling79]

Malc

We sarted off with a high percentage of market dictated prices that were never going to make a business succesful and ran volume for 6 years/

Last year we reviewed our full pricing policy on every single customer and increased them to what we wanted to earn - some went up by £5.00 (on top of the price they were paying).

We lost about 25 customers through this period but as a whole we picked up about 100 new customers last year - with no marketing or attempt to gain new customers.

Now I am introducing VAT on the residential workload and am expecting to lose about 150 customers - as the worst case scenario.

If I lose 150 customers we will have a more sustainable round with less overheads and all of my business interests are back under one name and sole ownership. I was giving the round to my wife.

Be ruthless and accept that if you don't increase they wont offer more money!!!!!

Rob

Thanks for that, much appreciated!

[matt]

ive often thought of getting rid of the " chaff"

BUT

as my round has been built up for more than 20 years ( im the 3rd window cleaner to take on the round ) its VERY compact, on most of my round i do 90% of the houses in that road, thus i dont move the van once all day ( and time spent in the van is time not earning )

i guess my best bet is to increase the price of the chaff till they are wheat ( its not far off to be honest )

then again, im happy with what i earn and i do, so why risk what i have

[Sanity]

I have found that my early customers (the ones I underpriced just to get the work) are the onses that have dropped by the waysid3e.  EVERY customer who has called me from a leaflet drop has continued to be a customer. 

Anyone that asks me to miss them this time gets dropped.  Any messers as far as payment goes get dropped.

[rhys11]

I have found that my early customers (the ones I underpriced just to get the work) are the onses that have dropped by the waysid3e.  EVERY customer who has called me from a leaflet drop has continued to be a customer. 

Anyone that asks me to miss them this time gets dropped.  Any messers as far as payment goes get dropped.

i love to do this but i have not got as half the customers i want to get
im about half full 180 and i like to get that again this year as wel.but i do do a little droping but not as much as i like next year 2009 they better look out.prices going up the lot

[Roy Harding]

I have not door knocked or canvassed for many a year, I  have let the work come to me. I then price at a £1 per minute. And from time to time look what jobs are the worst paying and speak to the customer and inform them of the new price, but fully understand if they don’t want to continue. After 24yrs I’m now up to 135 jobs on average per 4wks. Have not one job on an estate or terraced houses or any 3 bed roomed house, mine are one off rural properties, with a five or ten minute drive between.

Roy

[NWH]

Roy your work sounds just like mine,that`s the way to do it.

[supernova77]

Have not one job on an estate or terraced houses or any 3 bed roomed house, mine are one off rural properties, with a five or ten minute drive between.

Thats the way my work is now heading... I have more large detached houses now than I do semis... The only semis I have now are all near each other at £15 - £20 a pop. They earn me good money so there is not much point dropping them.

Andy

[Paul Coleman]

On another thread Roy Harding (Oh great one to be envied  ) said he built his round by keeping the wheat and discarding the chaff.

What are the best ways of doing this?

Do you drop and recruit actively? I should but I tend to take the opportunity when it arises - someone asks, I price a bit higher - marginal customer irritates, I drop them.

I have thought about going around all my marginal poor value customers on a belting rainy day so that they say not today thanks and I can drop them!

Joking aside, on a day like this, I'm more likely to clean windows at places I'm less bothered about losing.  Either that or target the ones who are more likely to be out.
Bit naughty but a guy's got to pay the bills somehow.

[windowwashers]

Have not one job on an estate or terraced houses or any 3 bed roomed house, mine are one off rural properties, with a five or ten minute drive between.

Thats the way my work is now heading... I have more large detached houses now than I do semis... The only semis I have now are all near each other at £15 - £20 a pop. They earn me good money so there is not much point dropping them.

Andy

that is one of 2008 targets, I am employing a full time canvasser to do this.
not intersted in quantity anymore I what quality.

Ian

[NWH]

Have not one job on an estate or terraced houses or any 3 bed roomed house, mine are one off rural properties, with a five or ten minute drive between.

Thats the way my work is now heading... I have more large detached houses now than I do semis... The only semis I have now are all near each other at £15 - £20 a pop. They earn me good money so there is not much point dropping them.

Andy

that is one of 2008 targets, I am employing a full time canvasser to do this.
not intersted in quantity anymore I what quality.

Ian

My god Ian you`ve finally woken up and smelt the coffee lol. : : : :

[windowwashers]

Have not one job on an estate or terraced houses or any 3 bed roomed house, mine are one off rural properties, with a five or ten minute drive between.

Thats the way my work is now heading... I have more large detached houses now than I do semis... The only semis I have now are all near each other at £15 - £20 a pop. They earn me good money so there is not much point dropping them.

Andy

that is one of 2008 targets, I am employing a full time canvasser to do this.
not intersted in quantity anymore I what quality.

Ian

My god Ian you`ve finally woken up and smelt the coffee lol. : : : :

have with wfp 
did very well trad, but things change 

[Paul Coleman]

ive often thought of getting rid of the " chaff"

BUT

as my round has been built up for more than 20 years ( im the 3rd window cleaner to take on the round ) its VERY compact, on most of my round i do 90% of the houses in that road, thus i dont move the van once all day ( and time spent in the van is time not earning )

i guess my best bet is to increase the price of the chaff till they are wheat ( its not far off to be honest )

then again, im happy with what i earn and i do, so why risk what i have

I see where you're coming from and it sounds like your round is a lot more compact than mine - though I do have patches of decent, compact work.  To be honest, I prefer to have my work more scattered and to charge higher for it rather than compact but lower priced.  This achieves several things

1) I can earn as much on a scattered round as I could on a lower priced compact round.  This sort of means that I'm being paid for short driving hops instead of cleaning windows - a good opportunity to take a little rest.

2) In a compact round there is often one awkward customer who detracts a little from profitability.  OK, so they can be dropped but it can get tricky bumping into them month after month.  In one way it's good because it forces me to be assertive and tell them why I will no longer clean their windows rather than just not going back.  But it can be a PITA if they are the sort of person who won't accept the decision and keep pestering.  Even more awkward if they are very friendly with their neighbours and there is a risk of them leaving.

One thing I've learned over the years is not to give a reduced rate because there is plenty of other work in the road.  I price as if each job is on its own because one day, it might be.  I have had this happen before if people move away, die, cancel etc.

[NWH]

Ian when you do 8 or 10 houses on a busy day and in most cases 3-4 on average to earn your money your on your way to Elderado. 8)Quality not quantity you got that spot on brother.

[Sir Squeaky]

I'm only 60% full, and half of that is chaff.

Trouble is, I rarely get any new work, so I can't drop them

[windowwashers]

I'm only 60% full, and half of that is chaff.

Trouble is, I rarely get any new work, so I can't drop them

Then you are doing something wrong m8, very wrong

[Londoner]

I have a customer that badly needs a price increase but she has resisted in the past. My wife told her today that she was going up £2 for the new year, take it or leave it.

She's going to have to think about it.

Don't take too long.

[windowwashers]

I have a customer that badly needs a price increase but she has resisted in the past. My wife told her today that she was going up £2 for the new year, take it or leave it.

She's going to have to think about it.

Don't take too long.

I had that aswell and still do they either take it or leave it either way i am not worried

[matt]

ive often thought of getting rid of the " chaff"

BUT

as my round has been built up for more than 20 years ( im the 3rd window cleaner to take on the round ) its VERY compact, on most of my round i do 90% of the houses in that road, thus i dont move the van once all day ( and time spent in the van is time not earning )

i guess my best bet is to increase the price of the chaff till they are wheat ( its not far off to be honest )

then again, im happy with what i earn and i do, so why risk what i have

I see where you're coming from and it sounds like your round is a lot more compact than mine - though I do have patches of decent, compact work.  To be honest, I prefer to have my work more scattered and to charge higher for it rather than compact but lower priced.  This achieves several things

1) I can earn as much on a scattered round as I could on a lower priced compact round.  This sort of means that I'm being paid for short driving hops instead of cleaning windows - a good opportunity to take a little rest.

2) In a compact round there is often one awkward customer who detracts a little from profitability.  OK, so they can be dropped but it can get tricky bumping into them month after month.  In one way it's good because it forces me to be assertive and tell them why I will no longer clean their windows rather than just not going back.  But it can be a PITA if they are the sort of person who won't accept the decision and keep pestering.  Even more awkward if they are very friendly with their neighbours and there is a risk of them leaving.

One thing I've learned over the years is not to give a reduced rate because there is plenty of other work in the road.  I price as if each job is on its own because one day, it might be.  I have had this happen before if people move away, die, cancel etc.

your right in a way

any new work in the area's i do are now priced a couple of quid more than others, i have 3 houses next to each toehr down a little lane, 1 is 9 quid, 1 is 11 quid and the other is 15 quid, the first 2 i took over from some1, the 3rd i priced and got, the 15 quid has asked me why they pay more, im honest and say " the others are underrpiced and i took them over from the last guy" they are not really underpriced, just not priced at my " i dont need the work price range "

AND

if any1 moves out, i normally pick it back up as i do all the others