Payment

[celgt4]

How do you get people to pay on-line via pay pal or cheque? I am trying to get away from door to door collection at night as this prevents me canvassing and it also is costly in time and money. If there are 6 houses on a street then 5 may pay but the 6th will still require a re-visit. Leaving it until the next month has led to a number of cancellations which I want to avoid. I have written to all my customers explaining how to pay and I leave a note to say I have cleaned and details of how to pay. There is still a large number who don't pay. I am now thinking of introducing a standing order for customers to fill in. Anyone got any ideas or have used a standing order?

 

[Iain]

Drop the ones that don't pay. The problem with PayPal is that a lot of people don't realise you don't actually need a PayPal account to pay through them. They do take a cut of the money but its worth it. Have you got a PayPal option on your website?

 

[rcproperty]

just tell them that these are now the only payments that you accept.

when i started out and people asked on how they pay all i say is :-

you either pay on the day, cheque or i have online banking that you can use to pay. in the past one and a half years, i have never been out to collect, and have not outstanding debts, apart from any contract cleans as they are paid at the end of each month.

plus on my invoice i give everyone there is a warning about late payment and a charge is added if they dont pay within the time scale set.

 

[laddergarder]

We use paypal, we just post an invoice if we don't get them in, which tells them about paying online. But I would warn that although it helps, you'll do well to cut down on collecting, its just part of the job.

We use online payments, cheques and bank transfers, and I still go out each night between 6 -7pm for collecting. Sometimes I am done early, sometimes I run over. However that is all the collections for that day for three guys work, so relatively it would be 20 mins per window cleaner per night, for collecting.

Here is out site, www.mcmanuswindowcleaning.co.uk

Here is a copy of our invoices, attached.

InvoicesCopy.doc

 

[celgt4]

Thanks for the replies. I do tell people when I sign them up at the door that payment is on-line or via cheque but I think the idea of a letter with invoice is a good one.

 

[M.K Cleaners.co.uk]

Im a big fan on paying by bank transfer, The only bad point is when they ignore me and don't put a reference in.

I tell all my new customer I prefer payment by bank transfer, Im thinking about charging extra if they want to pay in cash. My fuel bill is spirliing out of control due to going collecting a lot.

 

[celgt4]

Fuel is a big expense. It is a 10 mile round trip to collect and that over a month adds up this is the reasons I need to control it. The problem is people see our profession as a cash in hand one and do not realise we are running businesses not part time pin money jobs. Therefore see it as cash in hand and not important. We need to educate the masses!

 

[GMcleaning]

to be honest cash works fine for me, i pick it up on the day, if there not in i pop bk at the end of the day as im in the area anyway, and if i dont catch them in then then il leave it til next month.

Leaving it until the next month has led to a number of cancellations which I want to avoid.

just wondering how leaving it til next time would cause cancellations?

 

[koopmaster]

my mate has about 400 customers and hes cash, but hes been doing his round for years so it well esablished.

my round is new and young (I did 7 new cleans this weekend alone) and it takes time to establish somewhere where you can leave money..

I just sent out a text to about 15 people saying I want to collect but if they can pay via my website and paypal then please do so to make my life easier.. (I said that on the text)

 

[Smurf]

I tend to do a lot of one-off cleans (not just window cleaning) so I don't have a problem getting payment on the day as usually the work is booked in when customers are home anyway. Same really for regular cleans but if they are out they normally leave money/cheque out for me. Commercial work is the bane of my life and would rather be without it to be honest as it seems I'm forever chasing/waiting for payments.

 

[laddergarder]

I think the thing that you have to consider is how will the cost of paying 30 - 50p processing charges for online payments on every customer stacked against the collecting.

If every one of my customers did this, I would be paying, close to 3k a year based on 30p, or 5k based on 50p on processing charges. Although it would save a little petrol, it won't save that much, no where near it.

The way I work it, I do an area at a time, so when I go collecting, I am in that area anyway so its not costing me that much in petrol. If I don't get them in on the day, or at night, then I post an invoice and at that point its up to them to pay. You would be surprised, how many people still just ignore the invoice and pay you double the following month.

Its the old saying 'cash is king'. That hasn't changed, it would rather all my customers paid cash, so I didn't have to pay processing charges, but if I don't get them in, its just not profitable to go back out again, to try a second time to get them in. Plus way too time consuming as well. So at that point, I don't mind paying 30 - 50p to get the money in, but its only as a last resort, because its your profit that is being drained away, the harder it is to get money off them.

 

[rcproperty]

I think the thing that you have to consider is how will the cost of paying 30 - 50p processing charges for online payments on every customer stacked against the collecting.

If every one of my customers did this, I would be paying, close to 3k a year based on 30p, or 5k based on 50p on processing charges. Although it would save a little petrol, it won't save that much, no where near it.

The way I work it, I do an area at a time, so when I go collecting, I am in that area anyway so its not costing me that much in petrol. If I don't get them in on the day, or at night, then I post an invoice and at that point its up to them to pay. You would be surprised, how many people still just ignore the invoice and pay you double the following month.

Its the old saying 'cash is king'. That hasn't changed, it would rather all my customers paid cash, so I didn't have to pay processing charges, but if I don't get them in, its just not profitable to go back out again, to try a second time to get them in. Plus way too time consuming as well. So at that point, I don't mind paying 30 - 50p to get the money in, but its only as a last resort, because its your profit that is being drained away, the harder it is to get money off them.

there is that, but there is all the time that you have to go out and do it, i like to spend my evening with daughter and partner.

 

[M.K Cleaners.co.uk]

I think the thing that you have to consider is how will the cost of paying 30 - 50p processing charges for online payments on every customer stacked against the collecting.

If every one of my customers did this, I would be paying, close to 3k a year based on 30p, or 5k based on 50p on processing charges. Although it would save a little petrol, it won't save that much, no where near it.

The way I work it, I do an area at a time, so when I go collecting, I am in that area anyway so its not costing me that much in petrol. If I don't get them in on the day, or at night, then I post an invoice and at that point its up to them to pay. You would be surprised, how many people still just ignore the invoice and pay you double the following month.

Its the old saying 'cash is king'. That hasn't changed, it would rather all my customers paid cash, so I didn't have to pay processing charges, but if I don't get them in, its just not profitable to go back out again, to try a second time to get them in. Plus way too time consuming as well. So at that point, I don't mind paying 30 - 50p to get the money in, but its only as a last resort, because its your profit that is being drained away, the harder it is to get money off them.

Bank transfer is free.

 

[laddergarder]

yeah there is pros and cons to both thats just a way I do it that I feel works best for, me. Yeah there is your time spent collecting, but how much time is spent recording and tracking hundreds of online payments or bank transfer? There is a time factor on both sides of the coin there.

 

[rcproperty]

yeah there is pros and cons to both thats just a way I do it that I feel works best for, me. Yeah there is your time spent collecting, but how much time is spent recording and tracking hundreds of online payments or bank transfer? There is a time factor on both sides of the coin there.

only take a few minutes to check, i look each night to see how has paid.

 

[GMcleaning]

am i the only one that enjoys collecting then?

 

[M.K Cleaners.co.uk]

yeah there is pros and cons to both thats just a way I do it that I feel works best for, me. Yeah there is your time spent collecting, but how much time is spent recording and tracking hundreds of online payments or bank transfer? There is a time factor on both sides of the coin there.

I think your making it sound worse than it is lol, Who has hundreds of people that pay by BACS? I still think it would be quicker. It doesn't take long no look through a bank statement. IM not sure about other but RBS dont have filters on theres yet, I think it will be coming soon though.... Will make it a whole lot easyer.

You can driver to hundered of houses, chap hundered of doors for payment..

You can log in your Internet banking while in the house and look through a statment, if needed you could even check when you get rained off and you sitting in your van.

 

[M.K Cleaners.co.uk]

am i the only one that enjoys collecting then?

I do like it, I dont like going to doors and know one being in, even worse if your travelling far

 

[M.K Cleaners.co.uk]

only take a few minutes to check, i look each night to see how has paid.

I use to do that, I got bored I just do it all at the end of the month, If someone not paid Ill let them know or leave a not next time im at there house.

 

[laddergarder]

I was talking in the context of someone who intends to completely eliminate collection by using online payments and bank transfers. I don't go to hundreds of doors each month either, I would guess I probably get about half my customers in during the day, maybe more. More often than not, I have less than a dozen customers to see each night, and thats the work done by three guys.

 

[CNS-southwest]

I was Gona pop an invoice through and give the options at the bottom for PayPal, cheque, BACS or cash, with the date ill be back for collecting if not paying by PayPal or BACS