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A few of my Customers are starting to p##s me off

Why not go with the flow , if there want to change cleaning times . Along as there pay I don't give a dam anymore , it's the t..ts that don't pay gets my back up

 
oh yes the foreigners dont we love them lol. i try avoid them as they always has to bargain and think they is the boss. try new area like you say maybe gets better then

 
It is really annoying when customers mess you around like that. I have a policy that they only join the round at the end of the second clean.

I had a customer today ask for a monthly clean but I still say 'That would be great - but let me send you a text in a month and book it in nearer the time.' ........and if all goes to plan on the second clean without any farting about .....that's when in 'allow' them to officially join the party /emoticons/wink.png

I don't have any expectations from any customers.

Just a warning about commercial though mate. They can be a right pain in the dingle dangles as well - as I have experienced today........feckin Estate Agents. I basically told them to go fock themselves but we ended up kissin and makin up and they did a bacs transfer for what they owed straight away. They asked 'Do you expect to get paid straight away upon receipt of your invoice?' ......to which I responded 'Yes' ......and they paid /emoticons/smile.png

 
Unfortunately there are some people who just don't get that we do this to earn our living! Imagine if they turned up at their regular job in the morning only to be told sorry we don't need you today and we won't be paying you either! But what irks me the most is when they say can you do them next week instead! Yes no problem, I'll just tayler my round to suit your mood! It's not like I've got any other areas/houses to get done within the month! Jeez :rolleyes:

 
yeh alien kinda how I found this forum..I got shafted working for a cleaning company had to take em to court to get my money....

sorry any one new....you can pay up front or naff off...

you get all sorts of people..

.trying to sleep in my car woke up by

someone saying do you clean gutters out?yes..

.how much ...half a sleep I ended up saying a tenner a side ...and the cheeky bugger said can you wipe them over as well.

.he pointed to the lovely weeds growing out of the downspout..

I gave him my card and said I may not have time today...

yeh I did a runner..:rofl:

dont worry smurf the price was to get me to look and then go ...ummm ahhhh ummm...its gonna cost more that mate..

oh and just keep wafflin alien me loves it..yeh a lot say I waffle but it keeps gavs post count up and makes him happy...bless him...

 
I am just having a sh##ting few months with the new customers I getting, IMO I think getting new customers at this time of the year is the worst cos these people tend to only want their windows clean now the sun are out.

 
I am just having a sh##ting few months with the new customers I getting, IMO I think getting new customers at this time of the year is the worst cos these people tend to only want their windows clean now the sun are out.
Yup.....whereas winter newbies tend to stick.

 
yep your right dave but you have to suss them and me now all first cleans are double unless they are pretty recent cleans..

these fast growing new estates are just the worst for messing you about...

at the mo I dont want any new work as I cant catch up to what I have..

and mrs j wants me to paint her fence at £15 an hour and two glasses of wine..

got one to price tomorrow and she has told me when she will be there to see me...guess when cheapie will be going...:rolleyes:

 
Try north west dave

Big money houses but you try getting the money off them

Bishops avenue..millionaires aren't rich enough to live there lol..can anyone find my 45 quid to pay me....like **** can they

 
everybody has times when a raft of messers comes along ,it can be a real downer and itll take the smile off your face just exactly same as drinking sour milk does

what i always do when this happens is immediately put into action a big leafletting/dorrknock effort. so big the new work comes in in droves . [tip-dont do jus a little effort or you risk an awful zilch result , zilch diddlysquat after leafletting two or 3 hours only will plunge your spirits to an all time low, so its got to be big big]

your spirits will soar i promise you that .

 
Anyone that messes around paying will be harassed until they cough up and very quickly disappear from the round, I don't plan to ever lose more than one cleans money.

I'm a bit more relaxed about those that like to skip, when they get the next rise it will be a price that reflects the potential to skip one or two cleans, any more than two it's double or be culled.

 
To me a customer can do what he wants. There not gonna sit there & think oh I better have my windows cleaned coz Fred blogs got bills to pay. If they say leave it this time that's up to them. It's then down to you to do what's best. No good moaning about it. I don't do all my shopping in tescos. Sometimes I go elsewhere but don't think about them tesco people who have bills to pay. How many but off the Internet. Most of us. Do we worry about the amount of shops that close. Course we don't. I've never thought about the shop owners that have bills to pay.

I just tex them back & say ok. I then have 2 months to replace them. When there clean comes round again I tell them it's x amount this time as you got 4 months worth of **** on yer windows rather then 2. Balls in there court then& I'm not bothered as 99% of the time I've replaced them.

 
what window cleaners want & what customers want you can guess who gets their way. You don't take yer car to a car wash and be told how often they are going to clean it. If they did you probably say no **** off I will tell you when I want it doing. /emoticons/biggrin.png

 
One thing to think about....when you take on a new custy you both make a verbal agreement of when you are going to clean. So if you agree a 4 weekly clean and turn up on the right date and get turned away then windy has every right to be p1ssed IMO. You then have to make the decision of accepting that they can turn you away or you replace.

I had a newish customer that I needed to text beforehand for access. We had agreed 4 weekly. I texted him the night before to let him know I was coming tomorrow. He texted back at 11:30am to tell me he was away and to leave them this time. As it happened I was working just down the road, so I decided to drive past his house. The gates were open and the cleaners car was on the drive but his wasn't. So it was ok for the cleaner to work that day and not me. My day was buggered so I dumped without even bothering to let them know. I had another one who agreed a 4 weekly clean. I turn up and she comes out and says to leave them as they were going on holiday next week. I dumped without bothering to tell them. She rang me after about 3 months asking where I was. I'm a bit busy but if I can fit you in I will I said. I haven't bothered going back.

 
what make you think you have the right to still do them if the customer changes their mind and don't want you to do them. I would like to see your case stand up in court as it's your word against his. that like saying to a chap in the pub whilst ****** i will by you the next years beers. Like **** when you sobber up would you do such a thing as the chap is a right arshole when sobber /emoticons/biggrin.png

 
I would suggest to the O.P if you have been working that round for 9 years and still have plenty of messers, and as you put it an unstable round then you really need to sit down and figure out a way forward.

9 years is a long to be stagnating, you need to decide what you want and go out and get it. If you just want a full round with minimum problems then its very simple, you need to canvass, clean and cull until you get there.

If you dont like canvassing you should hire someone else to do it whilst you concentrate on the clean and cull part.

If the area is a problem, go to a new area.

If you are getting really fed up maybe look into doing something else, theres plenty of different services you could tap into or even give it up and get a job, 9 years in and still struggling tells me you need a big shake up.

I dont buy that theres too much competition, there thousands upon thousands of potential customers in every area, just look around you, every house, shop, business, school, church, restaurant, pub, car showrooms, etc, etc every piece of glass you can see has potential to be yours. You only need a tiny, tiny percentage of that glass to have a full round, so go get it and stop moaning.

 
theres a school of thought that says a messer can be worth having. often they are plain daft rather than malicious and once u have worked out how to wrestle with their mind they can be worth having

about a year ago i took on a gumtree customer who insisted on every 2 week cleaning ,probably to try and impress me. She wouldnt hear of my monthly clean suggestion [still trying to impress ] . "no no,i want 2weeks , ive got OCD " "I must be clean"

but her place was a real tip and my lads nicknamed her "scrotey coont" after we heard her shouting this phrase over the fence dissing the neighbours

well,in no time scrotey couldnt keep up with the payments as they mounted up, but rather than get rid of her i took to turning up only every 12 weeks and has been good as gold ever since

months later she messaged me via gumtree referring a neighbour to me and we had a bit of online banter about all sorts. i brought up the "scrotey coont" shouting incident but she denied having ever using that phrase , "i said scruffy not scrotey , what does scrotey mean? "

 
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The more customers u get the more cqncellations u will get, try not to get frustrated by this and instead try to expect cancellations each day, u should therefore have more customers than u actually want.

Alternatively u can bunk off the cancellation people, but its probably best to treat them as maybes, or 8 weekly customers.

As u get more and more do estic customers u find this cancellation the day before by text will bother u less and less as long as u continue to get more customers.

We are sometimes delusional in our thinking that we have say 70 customers a week but only 60 want them cleaned.

Also u get people cancel once a year who are actually great customers, either holiday or having building work done.

Everytime u get a cancellation u can then use that time to canvas a new customer in the area

So if u NEED 70 cleans a week,myou should be aiming at 80 customers and u will find u get ur 70 and often a few more

 
I dont buy that theres too much competition, there thousands upon thousands of potential customers in every area, just look around you, every house, shop, business, school, church, restaurant, pub, car showrooms, etc, etc every piece of glass you can see has potential to be yours. You only need a tiny, tiny percentage of that glass to have a full round, so go get it and stop moaning.

Couldnt agree more, there is windows to clean on almost every road, and most roads there is loads of windows to clean

 
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