Any tips on wording things pls

[Stratf01]

In my area houses are generally cleaned once every 4 weeks or 8 weeks. What I'd obviously like to do is word things in such a way that the customer is more likely to go for the 4 weeks rather than longer when quoting a job.

I don't mention giving an option really and say 4 weeks is the standard but wondered if you guys had any tips on helping with this please? ?

 

[spruce]

IMHO, simple; Don't offer 8 weeks, even if you have some customers on 8 weeks.
Pricing helps customers decide if pushed.

"We will be able to clean your home for £10 every 4 weeks (or once a month). We could start by doing them now while we are here, if you like." Say this without a pause. Now their mind is on the second sentence of agreeing to do them now rather than the cleaning schedule.

If the objection then arises stating that they only want a clean every 8 weeks, then you are going to have to respond to that. "We could offer a clean every 8 weeks by skipping your 4 weekly clean. If we did it every 8 weeks, each visit would require more cleaning and hence it would cost you £16" (or whatever you decide.)

Remember, your customer may decide on 4 weeks, but further down the line want to change it to 8 weeks. If you want to keep your customer and revert to a longer cleaning cycle, then you have to reiterate your higher cost you initially spoke about.

If the 8-week cleaning cycle never came up on the initial conversation, then you still say; "We could offer a clean every 8 weeks by skipping your 4 weekly clean. If we did it every 8 weeks, each visit would require more cleaning and hence it would cost you £16 (or whatever you decide.) If you stay at every 4 weeks, the price would be £10, the same as you are paying now." They are being reminded of the price difference.

In the early days, you want as shorter cleaning cycle as you can. But when your customer base gets bigger, you could well be grateful for the 8 weekly customers at the higher price @Stratf01 .

 

[spruce]

I know in the general run of things, there isn't much difference in effort cleaning every 8 weeks against cleaning every 4 weeks. But there can be.
We have a large house clean that is done every 4 weeks on a Friday as we have some internals to clean as well. It's the only week day the lady of the house is home.

4 weeks ago the weather was wet and raining as we couldn't work. I suggested to her that we could do the inside clean on Friday and clean the outsides on Monday when the weather forecast was favourable. She rejected that idea as she wanted all the windows cleaned at the same time. ??????
We couldn't clean the following 2 Fridays as we were away on holiday, so we cleaned this past Friday, which took us an hour longer. This was mainly due to baked on seagull poo on the glass roof of the conservatory extension covering their internal swimming pool. Even using hot water didn't speed the job up much.

We don't have an 8 weekly price, as this clean is 4 weekly as it also includes a business unit with 20 offices and a shopfront clean every 2 weeks.

 

[Iron Giant]

IMHO, simple; Don't offer 8 weeks, even if you have some customers on 8 weeks.
Pricing helps customers decide if pushed.

"We will be able to clean your home for £10 every 4 weeks (or once a month). We could start by doing them now while we are here, if you like." Say this without a pause. Now their mind is on the second sentence of agreeing to do them now rather than the cleaning schedule.

If the objection then arises stating that they only want a clean every 8 weeks, then you are going to have to respond to that. "We could offer a clean every 8 weeks by skipping your 4 weekly clean. If we did it every 8 weeks, each visit would require more cleaning and hence it would cost you £16" (or whatever you decide.)

Remember, your customer may decide on 4 weeks, but further down the line want to change it to 8 weeks. If you want to keep your customer and revert to a longer cleaning cycle, then you have to reiterate your higher cost you initially spoke about.

If the 8-week cleaning cycle never came up on the initial conversation, then you still say; "We could offer a clean every 8 weeks by skipping your 4 weekly clean. If we did it every 8 weeks, each visit would require more cleaning and hence it would cost you £16 (or whatever you decide.) If you stay at every 4 weeks, the price would be £10, the same as you are paying now." They are being reminded of the price difference.

In the early days, you want as shorter cleaning cycle as you can. But when your customer base gets bigger, you could well be grateful for the 8 weekly customers at the higher price @Stratf01 .

I never bring it up at all it's only ever the prospective customer that asks about alternative schedules, I have had more than I ever had asked this year but from long term customers,

one customer I thought was going to hit me with her walking stick the other day, she left her money with a neighbour 3 months ago and with a message to switch to 8 weekly after a price increase which had to from me inform her of a further increase she came across the street to pay me and I refused the payment and told her the change in frequency would result in a revised price she tried to pay to get them to do them which I refused to do and told her no way would I clean them unless the price increased, she huffed and puffed and told me she'd get someone else


I had considered switching to once per calendar month or every 5 weeks as I had too much work to manage this was back in March I am now down 35 jobs the majority because of the cost of living and my price increases, longer frequencies might be something I'll reconsider in the future and will no doubt be something lots of us may need to consider in years to come.

 

[spruce]

I never bring it up at all it's only ever the prospective customer that asks about alternative schedules, I have had more than I ever had asked this year but from long term customers,

one customer I thought was going to hit me with her walking stick the other day, she left her money with a neighbour 3 months ago and with a message to switch to 8 weekly after a price increase which had to from me inform her of a further increase she came across the street to pay me and I refused the payment and told her the change in frequency would result in a revised price she tried to pay to get them to do them which I refused to do and told her no way would I clean them unless the price increased, she huffed and puffed and told me she'd get someone else


I had considered switching to once per calendar month or every 5 weeks as I had too much work to manage this was back in March I am now down 35 jobs the majority because of the cost of living and my price increases, longer frequencies might be something I'll reconsider in the future and will no doubt be something lots of us may need to consider in years to come.

We have to be prepared and ready to adapt to the changing economic situation, which could well affect the way we are forced to do business. It could well be that the future is cleaning windows at a customer's request rather than a prearranged time schedule. We can't just walk in to our local men's barbers any more. We need to make an appointment, and the cost has risen from £10 to £15 for a basic hair cut since covid.

 

[BigFoot]

I only offer 4 weekly with a handful of exceptions. It’s a numbers game just stick to your guns and the vast majority will fall inline. You are offering a service and if they want your service theses are the terms, I can’t remember the last time it was an issue.

 

[Iron Giant]

We have to be prepared and ready to adapt to the changing economic situation, which could well affect the way we are forced to do business. It could well be that the future is cleaning windows at a customer's request rather than a prearranged time schedule. We can't just walk in to our local men's barbers any more. We need to make an appointment, and the cost has risen from £10 to £15 for a basic hair cut since covid.

I forgot to mention, I did drop some jobs to suit myself, I decided to hold off changing my schedule as I anticipated losses so job done for me.
I won't have an issue with longer frequencies as I get a bit older as I want things to be a tad easier without killing myself every week as I pretty much was at times since the year covid.

I can talk straight into a local Turkish barber's and it's £10 to get my head shaved.

 

[Iron Giant]

@Stratf01 maybe try a different schedule at a slightly higher price for example once per calendar month or once every 5 weeks if people are more inclined to want their windows cleaned less often best to do it now whilst you are still in the early months of your business.