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Am I too expensive?

  • Thread starter tobyswindowcleaning
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Just read it all again Green I may get it mounted on my living room wall as this has taken me 20 years to realise ...

Good work mate

 
Agree with Green.

Especially if you offer more than any other cleaner, something different and you come across as very professional then people will pay what you ask.

And come in, if you're paying £20 to have 4 windows cleaned you are gonna think they look clean. It's just a mentality - like paying £60 for a 8oz steak, you'll think "phoawr this is good, I can taste the difference " you sell it to yourself! And recommended to others, as per Greens experience.

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The smallest I do has 4 windows, patio doors, and front door window, and I charge £15. - 20 mins max.

Advise: My neighbour is also a window cleaner, and he charges half what I do for his hourly rate. In his mind he cannot quote a good price for a job because he feels he's ripping them off. So it's clearly a matter of how you value your self as a window cleaner. Trust me, there are those who value their window cleaner, and will pay double what Joe blogs charges. There's no way I'm going to get a job my neighbour gives up, but hey, I don't want to be dealing with people who don't value me, and the service I provide.

Charge what you charge, mate, and be confident with it - you're worth what you "think" you're worth. If "other people" don't think you're worth it, then that's none of your business :)

 
if you are just starting out you may need to take lower rate paid work, it can take a long time to build up a great customer base, i am ok now, once you have your rounds and all customers accept you, you can then sit back and reprice gradually, if you loose a couple you have a couple less to do but the same money coming in, with less work. If you are good at what you do, chat to your customers they will stick with you.

you could be lucky and buy a round enough for you , happy days

good post Green

value yourself, hold your head up, be proud to what you have built. its yours

 
last nite i went to the chippy .its gone all upmarket with a new fryer and high prices and all that goes with it. theyv also introduced a new ticket system where they call your number out . anyhow i realized after 20 minutes i hadnt got a ticket so by counting the line of customers worked out im no.465 . twenty minutes later they were serving no.467 so im missed out. i created merry hell ,no ticket can be found and got my money back,why wasnt i given a ticket ?

-i was Really looking forward to my meal but there you go. i stormed out . as i left i heard a woman saying"dont think iv a ticket" so i shouted " and theres another one! "

today im relaxing looking in my wallet,theres my ticket! was in there all along!!!

 
'Am I too expensive?' 'Is this the right price?' 'How much should I charge?'
These questions are often asked by new or less experienced window cleaners (do not take offence at the previous statement)

When starting out, either from being made redundant, wanting to better ones self from a dead end job or simply realizing that being stuck in an office will probably cause early death (by suicide) pricing can be a bit of a nightmare.

The answer is to the first question is simple, if nobody will pay your prices then yes you are too expensive. There are two solutions to this, solution 1: reduce prices until you start to get a steady rate of acceptances. Solution 2: Move to a more affluent area.

In the beginning coming home with 4 or 5 new clients at £8 per job is a winner as you are now making £40 per clean more than you were when you left the house that morning.

Eventually you will get to a point where you are handling 200-500 customers (based on a solo operator and the size of the jobs) and you will know exactly how long a job will take and exactly how much you want to charge just at a glance.

Your per job average will increase as you progress and quote more accurately and start to drop off the lower value work.

Just yesterday I was called to do a quote on a pokey 2 bed terrace, I turned up and realized that I used to do this house 2 years back. Then I cleaned it at £8 per clean, good money for a 10 minute job. New couple have moved in (shame as the previous lady was MILF) I wasn't really interested in the job as I don't care for terraces so I quoted it at £16 four weekly or £20 eight weekly, they jumped at the 8 weekly at £20.

When I realized that other aspects of my business were more valuable time wise I decided to wind down the windows and sold my round. In just a month since selling it I have acquired over £800 of new window cleaning customers and all are at 2 -3 times more than I would have previously quoted and all of them are happy with the pricing.

Previously I would have quoted a job at £10 thinking that was good cause other windys in the area were charging £6 or £7 per clean. Now I charge for the same job £20 and they accept, they are not however paying just for window cleaning, they are paying for the full service, reliability, regularity, window cleaning, frame work, sills etc, multiple payment options, text reminders, 100% satisfaction guarantee etc. If they reply to a text, 'not this week I'm on holiday' well there is no reading them the riot act, just a reply of 'Have a great time, see you next month' The more I charge the busier I get.

The biggest difference I have noted since I increased my prices big time is a lot more texts and emails 'Thanks, the windows look great' and the like, and they are referring me to their friends like crazy. Have I become the most expensive window cleaner in my area?, almost certainly, am I pulling it off? For sure. How? All the personal little touches, remembering all their names, their interests, hobbies, kids and pets names and soon enough I am a lot more to them than just the window cleaner, I am a person they now know and converse with.

Difference between starting out is when I was starting I was hungry, cheap and competitive, 'stack em high, sell em cheap' now I am not so hungry, (a bit too overweight in fact) So I pick and choose the jobs I do and don't want.

I guess after all the waffle the advice is charge whatever you like, if they don't want to accept the price they don't have to, just like no one is forcing you to take them on as a customer to begin with.

Happy hunting.
Click to expand...
This absolutely summarises my work ethic too. I don't do a single job I'm not happy with because I'm in the fortuitous position to be busy enough anyway. Just yesterday I quoted a new 4 bed house at £40 knowing full well I would normally only charge £25. I wanted an hours money for half an hours work so I said that, she replied "that's way more than I used to pay". "OK no problem, have a nice day" "no wait, how much WITHOUT the conservatory?" "£30" (knowing full well this now reduces the time needed by 10 minutes). "Yeah that's great, please go ahead).

So I'm now getting £5 more than the whole house price for half the work.

But I remember everyone's names, their kids names, where they've been on holiday, etc etc and that's been my rule. Don't be arsey, don't be rude, be polite and do a good job for the money I need to earn.

Here's to doing a bit better than you hoped /emoticons/wink.png

 
This absolutely summarises my work ethic too. I don't do a single job I'm not happy with because I'm in the fortuitous position to be busy enough anyway. Just yesterday I quoted a new 4 bed house at £40 knowing full well I would normally only charge £25. I wanted an hours money for half an hours work so I said that, she replied "that's way more than I used to pay". "OK no problem, have a nice day" "no wait, how much WITHOUT the conservatory?" "£30" (knowing full well this now reduces the time needed by 10 minutes). "Yeah that's great, please go ahead).
So I'm now getting £5 more than the whole house price for half the work.

But I remember everyone's names, their kids names, where they've been on holiday, etc etc and that's been my rule. Don't be arsey, don't be rude, be polite and do a good job for the money I need to earn.

Here's to doing a bit better than you hoped /emoticons/wink.png
Click to expand...
That name thing is a big one. People buy you just as much as your service.

 
if you remember someone's kids name that's fine

but doing it as part of some cheesey plan to get paid more sounds awful and people will see through it as its not genuine

 
if you remember someone's kids name that's finebut doing it as part of some cheesey plan to get paid more sounds awful and people will see through it as its not genuine
Click to expand...
Agreed!

It has to be genuine interest.

 
This absolutely summarises my work ethic too. I don't do a single job I'm not happy with because I'm in the fortuitous position to be busy enough anyway. Just yesterday I quoted a new 4 bed house at £40 knowing full well I would normally only charge £25. I wanted an hours money for half an hours work so I said that, she replied "that's way more than I used to pay". "OK no problem, have a nice day" "no wait, how much WITHOUT the conservatory?" "£30" (knowing full well this now reduces the time needed by 10 minutes). "Yeah that's great, please go ahead).
So I'm now getting £5 more than the whole house price for half the work.

But I remember everyone's names, their kids names, where they've been on holiday, etc etc and that's been my rule. Don't be arsey, don't be rude, be polite and do a good job for the money I need to earn.

Here's to doing a bit better than you hoped /emoticons/wink.png
Click to expand...
Yeah it's worth remembering if they tell you stuff like where they are going on there hols and stuff they are interested in. It's a good way of getting rapport and shows they aren't just a number to you.

 
if you remember someone's kids name that's finebut doing it as part of some cheesey plan to get paid more sounds awful and people will see through it as its not genuine
Click to expand...
Especially if you've not been doing the house for more than 2 years IMO. You have to feel your way in I think.

 
if you remember someone's kids name that's finebut doing it as part of some cheesey plan to get paid more sounds awful and people will see through it as its not genuine
Click to expand...
I just have one of those crazy memories where I remember stuff without even listening. It's never been part of 'a plan' just one of those things.

Still got customers I have known an age whose kids are referred to as 'Hi pal' or 'hey hun'

Not really bothered about where they go on holiday, I know @daveyboy s holiday plans for the year better than I know any of my customers. /emoticons/smile.png)

 
Haha

I must have too many holidays

Hard life innit?

I am a bit like that as i remember random stuff without trying

For example customers kids names..phone numbers etc without thinking about it

Any random fact gets absorbed

I used to love 15 to 1 on the telly as i was quite good at it due to useless info

 

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