How do they do it?

Funny part first...people kept trying to pay me while canvassing thinking I was their windy ? no I didnt take the money btw....

The amount of people that tried to hand me like £4! I'm assuming its fronts only and yes theres only a few windows on the front but jesus christ! Left me thinking they are not gonna like my minimum charge of a tenner ?

I had call today , how much do you charge for cleaning 7 windows on a bungalow,

£10  every 4 weeks 

beeeeep beeep, she didn’t even say bye ?

Dont get me wrong, people have squeegee's older then I've done window cleaning but wow. 

Happened to tlme countless times, mainly from facebook enquires. My favs are the ones that wanna argue to toss when the 4 windys they have gone through for £7 have binned em. 

Had one today. Four months ago asked me to quote for 4 weekly clean. Quoted £10 and he was delighted. Today asks to switch to 8 weekly so I up the price to £12. Most customers understand the reason without me having to explain. Not this one! ‘Why’s it gone up?’ He says.

‘Well sir,’ I said ‘it has actually gone down considerably from your perspective if you think about it, as now getting your windows cleaned is now only costing you £12 every 8 weeks instead of £20.’ He quits!

Not one payment has been straightforward from this customer in four months so I’m not surprised at his departure 

Wind o kleen said:

I had call today , how much do you charge for cleaning 7 windows on a bungalow,

£10  every 4 weeks 

beeeeep beeep, she didn’t even say bye ?

Click to expand...

Happens all the time, I even had 1 that accepted £10 based on a monthly clean but wouldn't accept £12 for a 2 monthly clean. 

Marko067 said:

Had one today. Four months ago asked me to quote for 4 weekly clean. Quoted £10 and he was delighted. Today asks to switch to 8 weekly so I up the price to £12. Most customers understand the reason without me having to explain. Not this one! ‘Why’s it gone up?’ He says.

‘Well sir,’ I said ‘it has actually gone down considerably from your perspective if you think about it, as now getting your windows cleaned is now only costing you £12 every 8 weeks instead of £20.’ He quits!

Not one payment has been straightforward from this customer in four months so I’m not surprised at his departure 

Click to expand...

As soon as i hear the question now, “can i shift to every other clean” the answer is no. It’s things like this that are killing the industry and making it hard for newcomers. Along with people who dont have their windows cleaned for a year and then want to pay standard rates. 

If they ask why, i just say to them, “would you let your employer half your income” no obviously, youd soon be looking around for another job. 

If inwas you id push it up to £25 rather than £12 mate, double the price and a £5 on top for the inconvenience of messing with standard schedules. Thats if you will tolerate it at all. I have maybe 5-10 custys left on the “every other time” stuff. I put a stop to it for new custies long ago as too many started asking. The only exceptions is if they live a street or two away from me and i really want that work as i love picking up work thats close to home because it can always be done on the return journey to home, & also if its an absolute dream of a job, good access and parking guaranteed no nightmare garden no telescopic ladder involved to get over an extension or veluxes in the extension etc. i want to keep this sort of work if i can.

Wind o kleen said:

I had call today , how much do you charge for cleaning 7 windows on a bungalow,

£10  every 4 weeks 

beeeeep beeep, she didn’t even say bye ?

Click to expand...

Could even be a new windie or competitor starting up and wanting to know your rates?.Which is why it is always best to tell them you have to see the property to give an estimate, you never know if the caller was legit and said yes to £10 every 4 weeks, you turn up and find you have to climb over the garage to do the rear etc.

I went and quoted 4 jobs all in the same street as they were fed up of the current cleaner been miserable and doing a shoddy job, the first job I quoted you could see he wfping was rubbish and that he did indeed do a shoddy job for £6 I was told, my price was £12.00 and fast forward turns out obviously not that bothered as I never got the jobs. 

As for switching from 4 weekly to 8 I charge between 40-50% more and only had one person decide not to continue, for some years now lads have said charge 30% and some still do but that pricing has being on the go for a few years now so I think 40% is fair and usually round it up if needed.

mike007 said:

Could even be a new windie or competitor starting up and wanting to know your rates?.Which is why it is always best to tell them you have to see the property to give an estimate, you never know if the caller was legit and said yes to £10 every 4 weeks, you turn up and find you have to climb over the garage to do the rear etc.

Click to expand...

Yep never quote blind. School boy error that one. She probably swore because she’s paying her current windie more. Without looking how could he quote?

Stevieboy said:

Yep never quote blind. School boy error that one. She probably swore because she’s paying her current windie more. Without looking how could he quote?

Click to expand...

mike007 said:

Could even be a new windie or competitor starting up and wanting to know your rates?.Which is why it is always best to tell them you have to see the property to give an estimate, you never know if the caller was legit and said yes to £10 every 4 weeks, you turn up and find you have to climb over the garage to do the rear etc.

Click to expand...

 All these assumptions 

I knew where she lived ,  I only take work on if I’m in that area already 

Wind o kleen said:

 All these assumptions 

I knew where she lived ,  I only take work on if I’m in that area already 

Click to expand...

Commented and made a opinion on what you wrote....am a Window Cleaner, not a mind reader!!!