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Perryb91

Well-known member
Messages
101
Location
Croydon
Not a question about how much, it's too early to kick the Hornets nest ? got a few questions about getting my business "structure" in place as my numbers are growing. 

1) with cleaning frequency, I'm toying with the idea of only offering either 4 or 6 weekly cleans and separate price for a one off. For example go to price a job I'd offer them only 2 choices,

4 weekly = £15 

One off clean = £30 

Or would you offer them;

6 weekly = £20

One off clean = £40 

I'm not scared to loose customers as I'd rather have my business model and how I wanna operate in place before having 200 customers on weird and wonderful schedules. 

My second question is how do you find your retention for your 4 weekers as realistically if your doing a good job their windows shouldn't be filthy come your next visit, so would they weigh up if they need you as regular? I've found I have alot of success selling 8 weekly which I'm fine to carry on doing just means I need obviously 400 on the books to clear my target of 200 per month.

 
We only offer 4 or 8 weekly doing it like  this means we don’t travel out of our way if it’s 8 weekly , if you do 4 and 6 weekly you will have to make a special journey as the other work in the area won’t be due . 

95 % of our domestic is 4 weekly I generally try and push that , but will do 8 weekly work , price wise just charge more for longer frequencies what ever you are happy with , we also do one offs but charge double to three times the normal rate and will only do them when it suites us , it’s not worth doing for anything less as far as ime concerned 

 
You reckon just stick with my 4 and 8 week prices then mate yeah? Only reason I question it is I've seen a few say they only do 4 weekly but I know I've got some people that I know wouldn't of signed for 4 

 
I have done 4-8 weekly for 20 years and find it works well 6 weeks is in the middle and an awkward time scale if you do 4 weekly as well . It’s up to you what works for one won’t work for someone else 

 
Ahh that's the confusion pjj, I would only run 6 weekly and one off cleans. Not trying to re invent the wheel, that would be a serious ball ache doing 4,6,8 

 
We only do monthly cleans on residential work, this helps us as it ties in with our monthly commercial work. It also leaves us a few days every month to do sod all or catch up because of bad weather. Personally prefer the sod all months.
My view guys.

For domestic, 6 weekly baseline, is without any doubt, the sweet spot. Reasons : 4 weekly comes round very quickly for customers to find and part with the money and the windows don't usually look like they really need cleaning. 6 weekly ; less rushed for the customer to find payment, the windows will be starting to get dirty but are nearly as easy to clean as at 4 weeks. You can charge a bit more for 6 weekly. You can do a lot more customers overall at 6 (fitting some in on the interim) and as I say charge a bit more. Having more customers means the hit isn't so bad when you lose some. At 8 weeks the windows are likely to be filthy, the spiders will have moved back in with their luggage and their relatives and the bird muck will have had longer to bake on, so the work, time and water used will be more. Having schedules based around the 6 weeks and multiples of, keeps the diary fairly straightforward. 

What I do :

6 weekly, say £20

12 weekly say £26 

As and when if at least 3 times per year £32

One off £40

All the above prices are for the same sample job. 

That's my standard and works very well. I do have some 4 and 8s, mainly remnants from starting out, being unsure and needing all the work I could get. 

 
Dave, was just writing something similar when you replied. Did my maintenance cleans today and can honestly say they barely needed it/ light scrub and good rinse and they were done. It's good to hear everyone's thoughts on it though. 

Off topic...has anyone used green pro's lead gen? 

 
We only do monthly cleans on residential work


This is what I'm going for with all my work, I've still got a few jobs on 6 weekly and they're confusing my schedule now.

IMHO 'monthly' is the sweet spot.  Easy to schedule and plan, plus the windows definitely need cleaned after a month I've found.

 
My view guys.

For domestic, 6 weekly baseline, is without any doubt, the sweet spot. Reasons : 4 weekly comes round very quickly for customers to find and part with the money and the windows don't usually look like they really need cleaning. 6 weekly ; less rushed for the customer to find payment, the windows will be starting to get dirty but are nearly as easy to clean as at 4 weeks. You can charge a bit more for 6 weekly. You can do a lot more customers overall at 6 (fitting some in on the interim) and as I say charge a bit more. Having more customers means the hit isn't so bad when you lose some. At 8 weeks the windows are likely to be filthy, the spiders will have moved back in with their luggage and their relatives and the bird muck will have had longer to bake on, so the work, time and water used will be more. Having schedules based around the 6 weeks and multiples of, keeps the diary fairly straightforward. 

What I do :

6 weekly, say £20

12 weekly say £26 

As and when if at least 3 times per year £32

One off £40

All the above prices are for the same sample job. 

That's my standard and works very well. I do have some 4 and 8s, mainly remnants from starting out, being unsure and needing all the work I could get. 




I think different rent areas have different ideals most where I am want 4 weekly suites me less customers to deal with , a friend of mine lives up north and most where he is are cleans every two weeks , . I like the 4/8 weekly I personally think 6/12  weekly is to long with 12 weeks like doing a first clean all the time , we are doing some 8 weekly stuff today it’s that dirty doesn’t look like it’s been done in 6 months it’s that bad !!!  Bit unusual, we do have some costal stuff that we do daily in winter mainly holiday homes that are right on the beach , when it’s storey you cannot see through them in 12 hours !!! 

 
6 weekly gets my vote too.

4 is too often for a lot of customers, then you start getting messed around with skipping, then offering 8 weeklys you end up with the same amount as if they were on 6 anyway. It’s much easier to keep on top of scheduling. And when you are of for a couple of weeks 8 weeks isn’t too long for customers to wait.

 
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I know what you meant @Part Timer ?

Would you all say that turning a 15 quid 4 weekly job for example ( which is what I'd charge for average 3-4 bed house) into a £20 if they sign for 8 weekly is fair? 

 
I know what you meant @Part Timer ?

Would you all say that turning a 15 quid 4 weekly job for example ( which is what I'd charge for average 3-4 bed house) into a £20 if they sign for 8 weekly is fair? 




If people will pay that and you are happy with with it then do what’s best for your business but bear in mind 12x15= £180 and 6x£20= £120 so you are loosing out  on £60 per customer per year , if that makes sense , I accept that’s not taking into account holidays etc but you get the idear . 

 
I think its best to stick to one schedule (either monthly or 6 weeks) ours is 6 weeks. Like Davy G said its a sweet spot for us. You need a regular income, i often feel i made a mistake going 6 weekly instead of monthly so for your sake i wouldnt leave it any longer than that. Long time to wait when you gotta pay bills. 

If you rotate between different schedules it can get confusing. 

 
I know what you meant @Part Timer ?

Would you all say that turning a 15 quid 4 weekly job for example ( which is what I'd charge for average 3-4 bed house) into a £20 if they sign for 8 weekly is fair? 
Only downside to the above is you'd need to find half as many customers again to earn the same money. Say your at 200 customers @ £15 a month now that would mean your turnover is £3k a month. By going 8 weekly @ £20 your turnover drops to £2k so you would need to find another 100 customers @ £20 on an 8 weekly cycle to gross the same amount. Great if you can as you're then grossing the same amount doing 150 houses a month rather than 200. Not so good if you can't pick the extra customers up 

 
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6 weekly gets my vote too.

4 is too often for a lot of customers, then you start getting messed around with skipping, then offering 8 weeklys you end up with the same amount as if they were on 6 anyway. It’s much easier to keep on top of scheduling. And when you are of for a couple of weeks 8 weeks isn’t too long for customers to wait.




Its all down to educating the customer we don’t get cancelations unless it’s genuine like painting the house or an extension being built , most want 4 weekly cleans and most are quite dirty after that time we are on the coast so they do tend to get bad quickly 

 
Only downside to the above is you'd need to find half as many customers again to earn the same money. Say your at 200 customers @ £15 a month now that would mean your turnover is £3k a month. By going 8 weekly @ £20 your turnover drops to £2k so you would need to find another 100 customers @ £20 on an 8 weekly cycle to gross the same amount. Great if you can as you're then grossing the same amount doing 150 houses a month rather than 200. Not so good if you can't pick the extra customers up 
yes Ive had this. I did windows nearly 20 years ago, trad, for a couple of years till I had a bad accident and gave it up. They were all monthly. did other jobs since, and started again 2 years back wfp, with the odd trad. Now, most want 2 monthly instead of monthly. Does seem odd, I mean, everythings gone up in price, but so have wages. Mind you, ive noticed similar with the pubs. They used to be heaving on weekends but now nowhere near the trade they used to get.

ks789 said:
yes Ive had this. I did windows nearly 20 years ago, trad, for a couple of years till I had a bad accident and gave it up. They were all monthly. did other jobs since, and started again 2 years back wfp, with the odd trad. Now, most want 2 monthly instead of monthly. Does seem odd, I mean, everythings gone up in price, but so have wages. Mind you, ive noticed similar with the pubs. They used to be heaving on weekends but now nowhere near the trade they used to get.
So I mean, if they were all monthly, Id have enough customers now, but as mostly 2 monthly, gotta try and find twice as many.

 

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