[Davo]

Do you think that years of experience in this business limits you to the prices that you charge for your services?

Because you know what other cleaners in your area charge, because you have been fairly low priced for many years, just because thats the way it worked ie £3.00 a semi every 2 weeks( for arguments sake----calm down)

To now ask £10-£15 for the same work every 4-6 weeks is a big jump. If anything with the pole its got easier , not harder, how can you justify those prices to yourself never mind the customer?

For new cleaners they dont have these limitations, theyve never worked up a ladder in all weathers for relatively little money to them pricing at £10-£15 is the norm. OK they compete against whoever they compete against in an area( most trad guys working the old way) but they have the van the pole its still cleaning windows but they dont see the competition in the same light as other trad guys do. If anything pricing against the trad guys gives them the incentive and justification to charge better money.


Or am i talking nonsense?



Mark

[Dean Aspects]

For me their is an element of truth in that statement as i had got stuck in a rut or in the comfort zone and thinking that if i needed more money i just got more work instead of increasing prices so that i ended up with a round full or nearly full of under priced work
Over the past year or so i have started to increase these prices but they are still lower than i would charge for new jobs i need to keep increasing these prices over the years instead of in one fell swoop which would probably be better but i dont want to risk loosing this work just yet anyway

Dean

[frames to panes]

Mark, you always talk nonsense. As a marketing guru don't you envisage an upper limit? What's the limit a housholder will pay to have some dirt removed from their glass before they tell you to sling your hook?
 The man with the van has to charge more anyway, he will have invested twenty times the amount in most cases to Mr Trad he will also be doing the job as his only income (unless he has add ons) and will be competing on price with the dole scroungers too.

[Davo]

Mark, you always talk nonsense. As a marketing guru don't you envisage an upper limit? What's the limit a housholder will pay to have some dirt removed from their glass before they tell you to sling your hook?

Laffin, marketing guru?

The limit will vary from customer to customer.

You show me a post where i have said they will pay any price you like and ill stop posting on this forum

DJW if you want ill tell you the secret to earning £20 a clean from low dem property on council estates, you know the customer who has £3 a week left over after fAgs and booze.

Mark

[frames to panes]

Mark, you always talk nonsense. As a marketing guru don't you envisage an upper limit? What's the limit a housholder will pay to have some dirt removed from their glass before they tell you to sling your hook?

DJW if you want ill tell you the secret to earning £20 a clean from low dem property on council estates, you know the customer who has £3 a week left over after f*gs and booze.

Mark

Off you go then.

[Davo]

Mark, you always talk nonsense. As a marketing guru don't you envisage an upper limit? What's the limit a housholder will pay to have some dirt removed from their glass before they tell you to sling your hook?

DJW if you want ill tell you the secret to earning £20 a clean from low dem property on council estates, you know the customer who has £3 a week left over after f*gs and booze.

Mark

Off you go then.

For such valuable information youve got to ask nicer than that!!


Mark

[frames to panes]

now im sorted for the next 2 weeks i will go clean some windows for £2.50 per house i should get loads of work and stop the legal cleaners from earning and charging more than me .

There's a twenty pound customer if ever i saw one!

[elite mike]

now im sorted for the next 2 weeks i will go clean some windows for £2.50 per house i should get loads of work and stop the legal cleaners from earning and charging more than me .

There's a twenty pound customer if ever i saw one!

lol

[Londoner]

A lot of low pricing is down to the "old boy sindrome" you know the sort of thing, still charging the same prices as he did ten years ago.

If I am right Davo has never cleaned a window in his life so I wonder why he is posting on here about things like this.

[Davo]

A lot of low pricing is down to the "old boy sindrome" you know the sort of thing, still charging the same prices as he did ten years ago.

If I am right Davo has never cleaned a window in his life so I wonder why he is posting on here about things like this.

Vince very astute, maybe the signature at the bottom of my post gives a bit away.

I have canvassed and sold cleaning services , work which i gave to a friend, he still cleans it and i receive no income from it.

I post on here because i want to, the things i talk about i have first hand experience of.

If you find my posts irratating then dont read them, but there is a divide on this forum regarding prices that are achieved, I wondered why that was, so i posted what i think COULD be a reason for this .

Many seem to think that window cleaning somehow has its own set of rules, that dont apply to any other business. Read the " business thinking guys thread" do these successful businesses do something different to a minority of cleaners on here?

Too right they do, they know their customer, they know the value of what they do and how to achieve that value. They arent afraid to ask for good money for the service they provide, they know its worth to their customers.



Mark

[Wayne Thomas]

When I first started w/c trad my prices were low on most of my work. Over the years I have kept increasing the prices for those customers. Any that were very low priced were considerably increased or dropped when I had a full round.
However, with any new work I picked up when I first started with WFP, I made sure I had a decent price to start with from day one because overheads are higher and by then I had a full round so I could afford with confidence to price higher.
I'm happy picking up one in every two-three quotes I give because I have found a level of pricing that I am happy to accept work for which a customer is willing to pay and no less because I don't want to be rushed off my feet with underpriced work. I just like to replace lost work with new higher priced work.

[peter holley]

it, not all about charging more.... i know another wfpoler in my area who charges about 50% more than i do ...
yet his takings are less than mine per hour.... he has a higher cancelation rate .... and spends double on fuel....

it,s very hard for other wc to get their foot in on my areas....

my round is very condensed and so i can keep my prices at a reasonable affordable rate for the customer....
although i have a minimum charge of £10.  if i have a house here or a house there spread out i do charge as much as i can ....... but most of my round is park up and do a cluster of houses....most of which are decent size houses...

someone was canvassing my customers at 50% less than i charge.... i didn't lose one customer...

my pricing method works for me.....

[Wayne Thomas]

it, not all about charging more.... i know another wfpoler in my area who charges about 50% more than i do ...
yet his takings are less than mine per hour.... he has a higher cancelation rate .... and spends double on fuel....

it,s very hard for other wc to get their foot in on my areas....

my round is very condensed and so i can keep my prices at a reasonable affordable rate for the customer....
although i have a minimum charge of £10.  if i have a house here or a house there spread out i do charge as much as i can ....... but most of my round is park up and do a cluster of houses....most of which are decent size houses...

someone was canvassing my customers at 50% less than i charge.... i didn't lose one customer...

my pricing method works for me.....

If you had a choice: cluster of houses (on a lower price) or fewer, larger houses, on a higher price but they both worked out equal, (financially), when you take into account time & fuel for driving, which would you prefer to choose?
On some of my larger, less compact work I can make more money whist I'm actually WFP doing less work whereas on more compact work I could work my socks off, end the day feeling tired and still earn roughly the same.
I prefer to work less but doing larger, less compact work myself, but everybody is different.
One last point, I find it easier to increase the prices on my less compact work then I would on the compact clusters because of the pricing which reflects the work.

[peter holley]

i have a combination of both.....but i do find condensed work slightly quicker....i wouldn't say i was cheap....but i do aim to be reasonable enough to retain customers....

i am always building and refining my round to acheive higher earnings.

[dai]

The prices you can charge has to be in line with what your customers are prepared to pay.
I lost 4 customers last week for putting my price up from £5.00 to £5.50.

Retired  customers are usually the best when it comes to paying, but the least able to pay more, the customers I lost were long term on fixed incomes.
The official inflation rate may be 3%, but every thing that I buy or pay for seems to have gone up a hell of a lot more than that. It's the same for my customers. Dai

[Dean Aspects]

Thats tough Dai a 50p rise and you lose work last year i raised prices by at least £1 and lost none and so far this month again i have lost none maybe though thats down to the fact i was underpriced to begin with

Dean

[Moderator David@stives]

Davo

Maybe you are right whilst growing your business, but as soon as you have a full round you soon learn the error of your ways.

As for £20 for a council house, maybe you could get it, but not often and not for a regular clean. If you are talking every 6 months ? well i really wouldnt want to know. I would much prefer to have 500 quality customers on monthly than 3000 doing them 6 monthly.

With council houses i charge £10 a house on a take it or leave it attitude, if they hum and ha, i dont want them, if they want anything other than monthly i dont want them.
When we are out working i know exactly where i am going without looking at my list, i dont want to get bogged down with "Is this one this month or next" type thing, it drives you insane. Even now i am looking to sacking my every other monthlys which i let slip into my domestic rounds.

Once you get to a certain size, administration becomes a nightmare and lots of little irregular jobs will overwhelm you.

Dave

[frames to panes]

Dai, well done that's the point i'm trying to make but can't seem to make clear. There has to be a limit at which the customer will back out. If you push your prices too high then thay can always fall back onto the cheaper cleaners that are always about, clean them themselves or just leave them. In my opinion it doesn't matter how good you are the customer will start to squirm and try to reduce the cost - maybe extend the periods between cleans or try "not today thanks.

[Davo]

Davo

Maybe you are right whilst growing your business, but as soon as you have a full round you soon learn the error of your ways.

As for £20 for a council house, maybe you could get it, but not often and not for a regular clean. If you are talking every 6 months ? well i really wouldnt want to know. I would much prefer to have 500 quality customers on monthly than 3000 doing them 6 monthly.

With council houses i charge £10 a house on a take it or leave it attitude, if they hum and ha, i dont want them, if they want anything other than monthly i dont want them.
When we are out working i know exactly where i am going without looking at my list, i dont want to get bogged down with "Is this one this month or next" type thing, it drives you insane. Even now i am looking to sacking my every other monthlys which i let slip into my domestic rounds.

Once you get to a certain size, administration becomes a nightmare and lots of little irregular jobs will overwhelm you.

Dave

Dave the simple answer to the £20 a council house is..you cant get it, forget it and move onto somewhere where you have a chance of obtaining that rate. You cant get blood out of a stone

Theres no cut and dried rule, its just about giving yourself the best chance of obtaining the best rate you can. But one thing is for sure, if you dont ask for it you definately wont get it.


Mark

[Davo]

Dai, well done that's the point i'm trying to make but can't seem to make clear. There has to be a limit at which the customer will back out. If you push your prices too high then thay can always fall back onto the cheaper cleaners that are always about, clean them themselves or just leave them. In my opinion it doesn't matter how good you are the customer will start to squirm and try to reduce the cost - maybe extend the periods between cleans or try "not today thanks.

Of course there is a limit, there is with everything. But customers wont pay you more money if they dont think you are worth more. There has to be a difference in what you do to what your competition do. What that is depends on what you have to offer.

Why do some customers stay loyal to a cleaner when they are quoted less for the same job? If everyone bought on price alone there would be no choice, just the lowest priced companies would be in business.

If you are more expensive than your competition for the same job then the customer thinks that you are either very good at what you do and the service will be better, or they will think your a rip off merchant and over priced, only you can influence which one the customer thinks you are.


Mark