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Spent a few hours today phoning my older customers to explain that still not working and to see if any of them needed any shoppimg or anything, made about 60-70 calls, all agreed that i am doimg the right thing, 8-12 said thanks for the call and that theyd seen or heard from nobody for days, and 1 lady said she had heard from NOBODY since i last phoned 3 weeks ago bless her, the only person shes seen was delivery man from Morrisons, so spent 20 minutes on phone to her and said ill phone back everyday if she wants, she said can i phone every 3 days or we would run out of stuff to say ????

Stay safe fellow windys

 
Have lost 2 customers over the weekend as they have said they cant wait to have their windows cleaned, so will find a windy thats currently working.

The irony is one of them has only had 2 cleans and shes not paid for either.

Good riddunce to her

The other is one that i have to constantly chase for money. 

Good riddunce to her also

 
HWCS said:
Have lost 2 customers over the weekend as they have said they cant wait to have their windows cleaned, so will find a windy thats currently working.

The irony is one of them has only had 2 cleans and shes not paid for either.

Good riddunce to her

The other is one that i have to constantly chase for money. 

Good riddunce to her also
Click to expand...
Lol yes funny how they suddenly want to cancel when they owe money , I would chase the payment evan if they have cancelled but wouldn’t ever take them back . 

 
HWCS said:
Have lost 2 customers over the weekend as they have said they cant wait to have their windows cleaned, so will find a windy thats currently working.

The irony is one of them has only had 2 cleans and shes not paid for either.

Good riddunce to her

The other is one that i have to constantly chase for money. 

Good riddunce to her also
Click to expand...
Funny thing is I doubt many other window cleaners will put up with their **** they sound like messers. 

 
This will be my biggest loss ££ week as all my commercial cleaning are closed,just rely on my regular domestic cleaning wfp customers who 99% have liked me carrying on as they are stuck home & dont like dirty windows when sun shines on them..also picking up extra work Fascia-soffetts -gutter cleaning.

 
Ive had enough im going back to work on 11th May.

Had 3 customers today as if i could come back as their windows are minging and their neighbours windy has been this week.

After all mine and the wifes hard graft over last 12 months i cant afford to start losing cuatomers.

Its not ideal but gonna get masks and gloves, get as many as possible to pay by bacs or just leave cash out.

No internal cleaning and no trad work.

 
Time to get all my customer details on a spreadsheet, as opposed to just keep updating a diary.

Does anybody have a tenplate i could use ideally on google docs as i dont have excell or microsoft office.

Or is there anything better?

 
So i popped this on my facebook page today and shared to the local community pages for local towns and villages that i cover, and ive picked up 5 new customers today.

I took a bit of a slating from 1 bloke about being 'non essential', and after explaining that i need to go back to work due to no government help and bills to pay and mouths to feed, ive had a phone call this evening from the same reporter that did an article on me at xmas re my food bank donation, he wanted to do a follow up interview with me as an independent business that has been not helped during this time and why i have chosen now to go back to work and how the 'lockdown' has affected me as an under 1 year self employed business.

I will post the article once its been published

Screenshot_20200428-205139_Facebook.jpg

Screenshot_20200428-205144_Facebook.jpg

 
ks789 said:
damned if you do damned if you dont situation again. Do what you can mate, but develop a thick skin where it comes to any kind of facebook/online abuse. Those people are lowlifes, and probably mostly layabouts.
Click to expand...
The geezer that wa giving me all the abuse on facebook ended up looking a right **** with egg on his face, he basically said its people lile me that are the reason him and his kids are having to use food banks! So one of my customers pasted the link to the first article the paper did on me at xmas where i donated a trolley of food to the food bank instead of wasting money on xmas cards for customers ?????

 
ks789 said:
damned if you do damned if you dont situation again. Do what you can mate, but develop a thick skin where it comes to any kind of facebook/online abuse. Those people are lowlifes, and probably mostly layabouts.
Click to expand...
I don't get involved with Fb, for the reasons you point out. I've always felt it has a sinister busybody element of clientele mixed in with the decent folk it's Intended for. It's far too easy for them to get away with it while they can hide behind a keyboard. I prefer to deal with that type of person face to face. I have no doubt your last sentence is very accurate.

 
Davy G said:
I don't get involved with Fb, for the reasons you point out. I've always felt it has a sinister busybody element of clientele mixed in with the decent folk it's Intended for. It's far too easy for them to get away with it while they can hide behind a keyboard. I prefer to deal with that type of person face to face. I have no doubt your last sentence is very accurate.
Click to expand...
Also for gossiping types, they're in their element. I was on it years ago, left after 6 months. feel especially sorry for kids on it. Its caused a lot of depression and even suicides. 

 
I got another customer today because the guy hasn't turned up for months. I know him really well but his customers are getting fed up with the no shows. I know i will pick up the whole area but there is nothing I can do. In the end you have got to be reliable!

 
scottish cleaning service said:
I got another customer today because the guy hasn't turned up for months. I know him really well but his customers are getting fed up with the no shows. I know i will pick up the whole area but there is nothing I can do. In the end you have got to be reliable!
Click to expand...
If it’s months, that’s fine, if it’s weeks, then you deserve a pasting in the current situation 

 
steve garwood said:
If it’s months, that’s fine, if it’s weeks, then you deserve a pasting in the current situation 
Click to expand...
When I started I canvassed randomly in my local area. I didn't know who had or didn't have a window cleaner. I would not have knowingly targeted someone else's work. I got one customer because they never knew when to expect the guy who did their windows. His timing was totally random there was no contact other than when he turned up and he hadn't been for several months. She didn't even know his name. He marched around the back a couple of days after I did them to make a start and she told him not to come back, that she had a new window cleaner.

I don't like that happening to anyone but it's important to be professional in business. That one customer was the seed to two care homes owned by her son a few months later when I had proved myself trustworthy.

I canvassed some other roads a few miles away and picked up several jobs where their windy had moved on to fitting windows instead. He had not had the decency to tell them, even when they phoned to ask when he was coming. He would say he was coming in a few days. They heard it through the grapevine, and were quite hurt that he wasted their time rather than being straight. Another guy was rude and aggressive to  customers and was known to get violent with competitors on at least one occasion. I haven't seen him for about 4 years.

That again was the seeding that helped me  build a very sound round in a fairly short time. I have always said to customers in both those situations that if things change and their old windy wants to return, I have no problem, I respect loyalty. Same when a windy has had long term illness and couldn't work.

As I said the other day "Don't deliberately try to take someone else's work or undercut them". Beyond that, crack on.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I agree with @Davy G  a few years ago a local windy in my town had a heart attack. He was off for months. I looked after his shops for him and also a few houses. And when he was well I handed them back to him. Look after each other. 

 

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