[reah]

Hi again started to get customers to pay by cheque a couple of weeks ago but it has been fairly slow so far.The cheques have been coming but still owed a fair bit of money.Those of you out there how did it go with you at first.Maybe i need to give them time as they are used to me calling on a friday night.I have told all my customers that i will be putting a envelope etc through the door next time for payment if they are out when i have cleaned and they are all fine with this.Any help would be greatly recived as i realy can not face a friday night collect again.I have not ben putting a stamp on prehaps sae would be better.

[cd5000]

i always leave a sae for them to send payment, i find you get your money faster

steve

[windows_chepstow]

I've tried the similar.  When I cleaned, if they weren't in I put a self addressed and stamped envelope through their letter box with a printed out instruction saying who to make the cheque payable too.

Some customers were brilliant.  Some were okay.  And some were just darn well rubbish.

After a tight two months of a extremely constricted cash-flow, I sacked it and went back to Friday evening, Saturday morning collections.

This is working well for me.  When I clean, on my 'chit' it says I will call to collect on Friday evening or Saturday morning.  If they don't want to be disturbed, or if they're going to be out; to leave the money under an object on their doorstep.

I call Friday evening and if they're out and no money is left I leave another note saying I'll call on (the next day) Saturday morning, and to leave the money blah blah blah.  I must get at least 95% of those I cleaned.  

Of the remaining 5%, I leave another note saying I'll add the amount onto next months clean.  

I'm now pushing Standing Orders; only seven so far signed up; but that's seven less houses to get round.

[Stuart Webster]

At the moment I have about £700 outstanding from residential, however, after the first couple of months customers get used to sending money, most pay before my next visit, as Tosh says it hurts at first, but if you give it time you will always have money coming in, then on a bad week you will still have an income. If it gets really bad, I would collect in an evening.
It's not easy for everyone though. If you need the money, go get it.

[reah]

Coming from retail management doing a min of 12hrs a day every day window cleaning is a good day.Being deeply religious i agree we have god to thank for all that we have.

[reah]

sorry that should have been posted on texasgirls link

[Philip Hanson]

We switched over from collecting to using SAE's because our residential work was so spread over town, there was simply no way to get round it all before it was due again.  Also, I resented spending the time collecting, after all its working hours you don't get paid for.

I remember very clearly when we delivered the first envelopes.  I have to say, I did have a sense of PANIC.  Nobody paid!  "What an earth have I done!" I thought.

But then slowly the cheques came in, and by the time the work was due again, it had all been paid except one house (actually, this house ended up never paying and we dropped them -they still owe us £60.  Gets my goat that.)

We tend to think because we've done the windows, they would pay straight away, but most don't.  They treat it like any other bill, and pay when they get around to it, usually on a Saturday we found (wad of cheques on Tuesdays you'll get)

I have to say, after a few months, I genuinely wondered how we ever had the time to collect, and would never ever go back to collecting now.  It does, however, cause a short term cash-flow problem, so you have to budget for that.  We found it went like this:

Time                                Customers Paid
Within a week                        10%
Within 2 weeks                      60%
Within 3 weeks                      85%
Within 4 weeks                      95%
Left owing next time you call   5%

We also found that when you post an envelope saying they owed two lots, they paid immediately, as much as to say "oops sorry I forgot about it!"



Here's ours, as you can see, the card we used fits snuggly into the envelope, so that if the customer needs to tell you anything (like they're going on holiday) they can write it on the back and post it with their cheque.

We did put stamps on the envelopes, the thinking was that it had saved us much more than the postage cost in time and petrol, and also it encouraged faster payment.  2nd class is all you need.

All in all it went down really well.  We found that customers were boasting to their friends that they had window cleaners who had a really pro system instead of pestering them in the evening.

Stick with it, and in a few weeks you too will wonder how you ever could be bothered to collect.

-Philip

[texas girl]

REAH,

Hey, I feel priviledged that you relate religious items to me. That is cool cool cool.   

While I do agree that we should be grateful for what we get; I also believe in personal responsibility and living by the Golden rule!

How would you respond if someone religiously came by and cleaned  your windows on a regular basis?

Grateful and appreciative!  In other words, send them the money that day!

I personally find it disrespectful to wait so long to pay for services rendered.

I think the invoice slip is wonderful; except add; Prompt payment is appreciated; after 10 days please include a $1.00 filing fee; after 20 days please enclose additional $2.00.
 Thanks you for your business.

That may help.  I think it is disrespectful for your customers to wait so long.  A self addressed stamped envelope is almost unheard of!

But if it gets them paying promptly, maybe it is worth it for you.

I can't imagine having to go around collecting for a whole day for the work you did the day or week before.

I guess if you had a large surplus in your bank, it would be ok; To keep closer track, I would make it in increments of 7 days.  Paid within 7 days is preffered.

After 7 days; please include additional $1.00 filing fee;  after 14 days please include addl $2.00.

Any payment received after 20 days is considered late; please enclose additional$3. late fee.

Thanks for your business. You are a valued customer.   If there is a problem or any questions please call:

Hope this helps:

Hugs,

Texas Girl

[windows_chepstow]

Stick with it, and in a few weeks you too will wonder how you ever could be bothered to collect.

Or your direct debits will be 'bouncing' and you'll be wanting to drop 70% of your customers for being late payers!

[reah]

I will stick with it,i try to portray a professional image as possible.I think this method of payment gives that image.All my envelopes are printed as are my slips and in 5 months of strarting, my round has increasd by double there are alot of cleaners round here so to try to offer a service is important.Thanks for all the motivating advice I will let you know how it turns out as this might help others to switch, again thanks.

[Grafters Cleaning Services]

any of my jobs that are 3 miles or more away from my home get a SAE if there not in, i find that i normaly get my cheques within 3 - 5 days, 7 days i think is the longset wait i've had, for the last 2 weeks my work has been local so therefore no SAE needed. i can honestly say that at this moment in time i have no outstanding amounts owing, it works well for me.

[windows_chepstow]

Reah,

have a look in the 'Documents to Download' section.  Wavie Davie has put a Standing Order form there.

I'm sure by taking the onus from the customer, to actually have to 'do' something, then you'll get paid quicker and without any hassle.

Cheques might work for some, and I used a very similar system to Philip, but they didn't work for me.  

One of the possible reasons that cheques didn't work for me was because I'd only been window cleaning for one year when I tried it.  Money was tight, and I just earning enough to pay the bills.  It could be that my margin between paying the bills and having enough slack to take a delay in payment wasn't big enough.  

Therefore I'm not really impressed with it and I'm doing a Standing Order drive instead.

Good luck mate!

Tosh.

[Ian_Giles]

I am now picking up new domestic accounts as a result of going over to WFP, so those that I have picked up have been fine with regards collecting, often they are people who work in offices or shops where I already clean the windows, doesn't half make collecting the money off those that are out easy, I just tell them I'll collect off them at work
In the days when my work was mostly domestic, and there was always a couple of hundred quid to collect each week, then we would do collections on one night a week, those that were not in when we called to collect got another note attached to a SAE.
At one time you could buy large amounts of the postage paid ones from your local post office, they were a real bargain too, but eventually some number cruncher realised it was too good a bargain and they were removed from sale
I found the system worked well, up to a point, some people are just unreliable when payment is expected in this fashion.
Those that were we treated as only to be cleaned if they were in when we called.
As they were never in we often got phone calls asking why we hadn't called, when this happened I would tell them that we could only clean them if they were in because of the difficulty in collecting the money from them.
I found it easier to explain to them if they were the ones to call me, this way I found it was them on the back foot and not me.

If an account is, say, £8.00 and you end out either having to call on them several times to collect, or cleaning their windows 2 or 3 times before you can get payment then they are not worth having.

When you are leaving behind SAE's you have to weed out the bad ones.

In these days of mobile phones I now have all of my customers telephone numbers.
Some of them I have to call first so they can leave gates unlocked and so on, so if they are going to be out they can leave the payment out for me somewhere.
With a bad payer, even though I have not had one yet, the plan will be to give them a call the night before I am due and ask them to leave the payment out for me.
A 20 second call works out cheaper than a SAE, even if you are on Pay as You Go and don't have free minutes.

I like the style and design of Philip's chit too, I think I shall crib of that one for my own domestic chit's

Ian

[Philip Hanson]

I like the style and design of Philip's chit too, I think I shall crib of that one for my own domestic chit's

Thanks

I'll email you the word template.

-Philip

[reah]

Hi philip any chance of emailing the word template as well its better set out than mine that i knocked up. Thanks Reah.

[Ian_Giles]

That would be great Philip
My main email is: ianspitfire@aol.com
The one I think that is listed on my profile is: girobro@hotmail.com

Ian

[Philip Hanson]

Uh oh! This has happened to me before!  Last time I offered something I ended up sending it at least 50 times!

Better idea:  I'll upload it somewhere and post a link so anyone can get it.  Watch this space.

-Philip

[paulp]

nearly 70% of my customers pay by cheque, i put a stamped s.a.e through there door it saves 1:- them the hassel of buying a stamp. 2:- you having to waste petrol and wear and tear on your car having to collect 3:- most importantly beer drinking time on a friday.

[texas girl]

Hey Dudes!
Some things regarding our businesses are a lot different from there and here.

 I have never not one time in 25 years ever gone "collecting" to receive payment from any of my residential customers.

The idea just sounds like the customers are irresponsible and inconsiderate about promptness of paying for services. Maybe when the contract is first secured, direct communication about payment methods would be understood.

If I have to spend time; drive over to collect; time, gas, work ; all are costly to me.  I would stick a bit on the end if physical collection is required(chronically).

If what you do works; fine, but it sounds like you are having challenges. Having to spend additional time to collect payment for services rendered just does not happen over here ever.

Occassionally if someone leaves and we are still working they will leave the check before they go or I will call later and they will mail it.

If you are just starting out it could be more challenging to have to wait.  Your bills do not wait.

I guess if late payment is ok with you as long as you know you will get it eventually; that is your call. I would drop them if it were me.

Maybe an incentive  such as promptness rewards ; small discount;but you must make the call.

It is too bad that this is a problem; sounds like extra stress to me.

Hugs ;

Texas Girl

[Pureandclean]

Hi Texas,
I think you have to remember that your domestic cleaning jobs are more like a one off job than our regular monthly cleans, and the price difference is vast.
 It is only through forums like this one that our window cleaning mind-sets are being challenged and changed.
As a window cleaner for over 20 years I know that the traditional method of collecting money has been to call back and knock on doors, friday night being the normal night, due to that being pay-day.
 As with any change to your routine, it takes a while to consider the change and come to the point of believing that it will work for you.
I for one will be fascinated to see what the window cleaning industry will look like in 10 years time, at the speed things are changing at the moment, it's possible that few of us would recognise our window cleaning industry.
Hope your coping with that Texas heat well, and them pesky insects !!

 : Blessings  :

Graeme