[Tarquin Owen]

Hi there,

Some window cleaning friends and family of mine have been complaining about how much time/money it costs to collect money from customers.

So I just wanted to ask a few q's to find out others' experiences:

1) How many customers do you have?

2) What % of them are not in and require collecting money?

3) How much MONEY a week do you spend on collecting? (stamps, envelopes, fuel, phone calls)

4) How much TIME a week do you spend on collecting? (writing SAEs, driving round, licking stamps, phoning ahead)

5) If there was a solution that meant you would never/nearly never had to spend time on collections - how much money would you be willing to part with a month for it?

6) Do you think your customers would be happy to spend under £1 on a transaction fee when paying?

7) What are your thoughts on PayPal and bank transfers?

Many thanks!

Tarquin

[window wonder]

Do you have something in mind?

[Tarquin Owen]

Only ideas at the minute. I just didn't realise what a problem it was till I listened to mates ;-)

[Tarquin Owen]

Cheers, Ewan,

Do you self-address those envelopes? If you do, how many do you do and how long does it take you?

[pingu]

All but 6 of my customers pay via bank transfer...easy peasy...totally uncomplicated...I would rather the '6' would pay straight into the bank...

Handling cash is just so common ..seriously bank transfers all the way for me...

check the account monday evening and and wednesday enter the payments into George and all is well in toyland.

Cheers
Dave.

[William Tyndale]

Hi there,

Some window cleaning friends and family of mine have been complaining about how much time/money it costs to collect money from customers.

So I just wanted to ask a few q's to find out others' experiences:

1) How many customers do you have?
      180
2) What % of them are not in and require collecting money?
      70%
3) How much MONEY a week do you spend on collecting? (stamps, envelopes, fuel, phone calls)
        >£5.00
4) How much TIME a week do you spend on collecting? (writing SAEs, driving round, licking stamps, phoning ahead)
      >1 min per customer, they are a pain if they are in as they talkthen it's >5 min per customer
5) If there was a solution that meant you would never/nearly never had to spend time on collections - how much money would you be willing to part with a month for it?
       Nothing as I dont spend too much time collecting
6) Do you think your customers would be happy to spend under £1 on a transaction fee when paying?
       Not a chance. i hate paying BT extra money to pay in cash, any cost would have to come from profit
7) What are your thoughts on PayPal and bank transfers?
       Paypal costs bank transfers are the way forwardMany thanks!

Tarquin

[Paul Coleman]

Hi there,

Some window cleaning friends and family of mine have been complaining about how much time/money it costs to collect money from customers.

So I just wanted to ask a few q's to find out others' experiences:

1) How many customers do you have?

2) What % of them are not in and require collecting money?

3) How much MONEY a week do you spend on collecting? (stamps, envelopes, fuel, phone calls)

4) How much TIME a week do you spend on collecting? (writing SAEs, driving round, licking stamps, phoning ahead)

5) If there was a solution that meant you would never/nearly never had to spend time on collections - how much money would you be willing to part with a month for it?

6) Do you think your customers would be happy to spend under £1 on a transaction fee when paying?

7) What are your thoughts on PayPal and bank transfers?

Many thanks!

Tarquin

1)  About 240.

2)  Between one third and one half not in - but I don't collect.

3)  Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

4)  As no. 3.

5)  Possibly up to £20 a month but as I've got the custies well trained, the only time I would pay anything is if I needed to deposit more than 100 cheques per month (@ 50p per cheque).  So far this has never happened.

6)  All they need to spend money on is a stamp and envelope and, very rarely, the poundage on a postal order.  The more techie ones pay free of charge via BACS transfer from their account to mine.

7)  Paypal charge a small fee and you have to pay to withdraw your own money (if under a certain amount).  Also, as they are not a properly registered bank, they don't have to comply with certain standards.
SEE:
www.dooyoo.co.uk/bank/paypal-com/1007582/

Bank transfers are free and less danger of problems as they are regulated.

I haven't collected money in person for years.  I insist that if a customer isn't in, they  either send a cheque or do BACS or, for the smaller jobs, I'm prepared to take two payments the next time around.

[WCE]

Is this to do with the thing cleaner marketing are planning? They are apparently going to launch an online payment service for window cleaners. The way I see it is that these things are going to be like paypal just "for window cleaners". It appears that the selling point is no collecting, but the scheme won't suit everyone, What about old people (I mean the ones who don't know what the web is and Chip & pin is a bit of a mystery). Now if someone planned something that took this in to consideration and was able to sort out cheque payments ( sae, processing the payments etc) and online payments all in a package then that could be a good service to have. IMO it's a one stop shop for payments or nothing. Otherwise there is no usp. For online payments you can use paypal. I could use a well known, international, well trusted business or I could use you. This is just my opinion but there would be many hurdles to overcome to corner the window cleaning/ cleaning sector of the market but if you were able to offer the complete service, that might give you the edge!       

[Clive McDonald]

Good analyse wce, a non starter though, they don't even know how to ask the right questions. It's obvious that they know a lot less about it than we do. As Shiner said, Abbey business if free as are some others, and any wc not clued up has only to ask on here.

[darragh windows]

i get all our envelopes printed out on a computer you just need the software to do it customers put ther own stamps on them so it only costs me the price of an envelope which is something like £15 for a thousand only collect a handfull of houses which are close by or ones that we pass daily

[Tarquin Owen]

Nice, WCE :-)

How much would a service like go for a month, do you reckon?

T

[CM]

The way I see a solution is to quicken the pace on customers sending off there cheques or bacs payments to keep the cashflow going.

What possible solutions for collecting and timesaving are you thinking of,  customers and cleaners need to both benefit.

J

[Tarquin Owen]

The way I see a solution is to quicken the pace on customers sending off there cheques or bacs payments to keep the cashflow going.

What possible solutions for collecting and timesaving are you thinking of,  customers and cleaners need to both benefit.

J

How do we do that, J? Any ideas?

What if the customer had to make a quick phone call on receipt of your card through the door after the clean?

[CM]

How secure?

[Tarquin Owen]

As secure as they come, but incurring a charge for the customer of around 90p for the call & transaction - do you think they would pay it?

Service would include a online backend for the w/c to see who has paid and who has not...

[CM]

Some customers would pay yes, some would not, but thats life.

Is this system been programmed and if so up and running.

J

[Tarquin Owen]

Very early stages, but trying to network with w/cs to get their opinion on what they would need the ideal solution to do.

How much per month do you reckon w/cs would feel happy paying for a service like this?

[CM]

Between £14-£18

[kris martin]

where as my post gone

[Paul Coleman]

As secure as they come, but incurring a charge for the customer of around 90p for the call & transaction - do you think they would pay it?

Service would include a online backend for the w/c to see who has paid and who has not...

I don't think it's a runner at the moment.  However, if banks stop issuing cheque books (society seems to be drifting that way) then you may be onto something.