[Moderator David@stives]

Davo

Sorry i thought you were giving the impression you could.

Are you going to start window cleaning soon ?.

[Davo]

Davo

Sorry i thought you were giving the impression you could.

Are you going to start window cleaning soon ?.

Selling conservatory and PVCu cleaning services rather than window cleaning service. My friend is growing his round quite nicely, but has room to clean what im selling.

I cleaned a couple of conservatories last year, dont think  that qualifies me as a window cleaner though.


Mark

[Paul Coleman]

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.....

I think charging less because a part of a round is compact.  I used to do this and ended up stuck with one or two pl;aces at "compact" prices even after the others had cancelled/moved.  I price each job as though it's the only one in the immediate area.

[Paul Coleman]

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

Ditto Dave with the one difference that instead of monthly and two monthly, read 6 weekly and 12 weekly for me.  I will only do jobs at £50+ on a 12 weekly basis though.  Anything smaller at a lower frequency is a hassle (I do still have some 30 pounders at 12 weekly but that was before I started doing things differently).  I prefer 6 weekly to monthly as it gives me more leeway to juggle my schedule around.

[Paul Coleman]

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

I'm sure that if I quoted £20 for every council house that I quote for, I would get the occasional one.  However, it does leave the job very vulnerable to being undercut or to the customer messing around.  My own preference is to have a decent price but not so high that the customer looks elsewhere.  I can and do sell my service on things other than price as you suggest.  However, I don't want to be going around forever having to replace work.  I want to earn well (which I usually do) whilst keeping the hassle factor as low as possible.  I picked up what would be termed "council house" the other day.  I priced at £12.  I got the impression that I could have gone to £15 even.  Usually, £10 would be the upper limit around here for such a property though.  I've still got one I do for £7.50.  It needs to be more really though.  I still have a few jobs that are a hangover from my previous life    and that is one of them.  I'll shove £1 on later this year.  I'm amazed the guy is still alive.

[geefree]

"I've still got one I do for £7.50" quote

I wish i only had one at that price with the rest being higher...

In my area that is average price for a semi..

[jonah]

Forget the price for a moment , how long does it take to clean a semi  garry ?

[windowwashers]

Experience what does it cost as the title says:

it costs £100's if not £1000's to learn the tricks of this trade.

I wish this place as others like this was here when I first started would have saved me and many others a lot of money.

Passing on experience to others costs nothing and I will always do my best to help someone as will many on here.

Happy Easter all  

Ian

[L.J.Thorpe]

well said ian

[jonah]

No I wont !

[windowwashers]

Experience what does it cost as the title says:

it costs £100's if not £1000's to learn the tricks of this trade.

I wish this place as others like this was here when I first started would have saved me and many others a lot of money.

Passing on experience to others costs nothing and I will always do my best to help someone as will many on here.

Happy Easter all  

Ian

Have to add to that, many people think it it is easy, only cleaning windows, it aint nothing like that, that is the trust of the matter, if you want to do a crap job maybe it is easy but doing a quality job wfp or trad needs experience this IMO is a fact.

[geefree]

Forget the price for a moment , how long does it take to clean a semi garry ?

Point taken Jonah. lol

[L.J.Thorpe]

No I wont !

???jonah did b&q have a b.o.g.o.f. on evo stik again 

[windowwashers]

Forget the price for a moment , how long does it take to clean a semi  garry ?

looooooooooooooool  :

[windowwashers]

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

Mark your wrong about the council house for £20 you can get it and more!
It,s a lot easy than getting blood out of a stone. The fact that you compare the
it to that, shows you have not done it, or cannot get those prices yourself.

Once you are able to get these prices and more for council house, you can go
to any house with confidence.

Pricing has nothing to do with your social status at all.

Ewan  

Ewan, sry but you most be smoking something, £20+ FOPR A STANDARD HOUSE.
I would be very worried indeed. just a word of warning there m8.

nothing wrong with getting a good price but that ios way way over pricing on a standard house and trust me I am not cheap.

Ian

[Paul Coleman]

"I've still got one I do for £7.50" quote

I wish i only had one at that price with the rest being higher...

In my area that is average price for a semi..

The cheapest houses I do are £6.  However, they are three tiny cottages in a terrace and I do all three in under half an hour.  If I lost one of them, I would up the price of the other two.  If I lost two of them I would have to up the price of the remaining one considerably - that or cancel the job.  £6 is the cheapest job I have remaining.  I have a small bungalow I charge that amount for as well.  Nearly forgot - I have a small shop front for a fiver.  However, I doubt I have a dozen jobs these days for under a tenner.

[jonah]

sorry meant to say no it isnt , but glad i made you smile  

[Paul Coleman]

Experience what does it cost as the title says:

it costs £100's if not £1000's to learn the tricks of this trade.

I wish this place as others like this was here when I first started would have saved me and many others a lot of money.

Passing on experience to others costs nothing and I will always do my best to help someone as will many on here.

Happy Easter all  

Ian

Indeed Ian.  My mistakes have cost me money even with a forum to turn to.  Although the forum is a great resource, ways of working can be very individual.  It's not a one size fits all situation.
BTW.  I phoned that number you gave me but they had already made other arrangements.  Thanks anyway.

[L.J.Thorpe]

jonah  
I do hope this thread is not starting to go down the dreaded "PRICING" route
always ends in tears

[jonah]

No Im good thanks