Could my pricing be wrong?

[Master Jedi Alejandro]

Throwing my hat in the ring. I offer monthly & bi-monthly (4 & 8 weekly). I switched to this terminology as I find it means customers are less likely to ‘schedule’ my visits, which means moving them around is easier. 
 

However, this year I’m going to be pushing bi-monthly hard. I’ve found the bi-monthly cleans to be no harder and take no longer than the monthly’s, however I add a blanket £5 to the price (up to a certain amount, then I increase to £10, etc). It means we can make substantial more each day, while the customers are spending less. 
 

Let’s say we get two £15 jobs done in a hour. That’s £30. But if they are bi-monthly, those same jobs are now making me £40 an hour. 
 

Looking back I wonder if I should have went 6 weekly from the start. But I’m too established now to change that. But would recommend the monthly lads look at pushing bi-monthly work as well.  

 

[NewGuy]

Yeah, I started the same. I was running about all over the place and it was a nightmare for scheduling and moving work forward for next time. It was an ongoing pain in the ....

I got a grip on it very early on though and it's so much easier and better paid now we settled on a 6 weekly base frequency. I've left most of the 8 weeklies alone as they are bigger, better paid houses and I still take the occasional one at 8 weeks if it suits me. We still do a very few at 4 weekly, about 5 jobs I think off the top of my head. And a couple of really big 12 weekly jobs.

I agree, I'll retain some flexibility for those that won't affect my scheduling, ie, likely to be dependent on location etc. I do have some other existing customers that are 12 weekly, eg, single parents etc who I'll keep on 12 weekly. I would say that around 60% of my existing customers are already on 6 weekly.

I've found that many that started off on 4 weekly have asked to go on 6 weekly and I probably only have fewer than 10% on 4 weekly now. I've always advised 6 weekly but some insisted on 4 weekly, then realised I was correct that 6 weekly would be better. 

Once schools are open again, I'll get back out there seeking more customers and try my new tactics. 

 

[Iron Giant]

If someone asked for 12 weekly it would be classed as a first clean and it would be a first clean price so for a example a £10 job would be £20, 

I priced a job the other week which I mentioned in another post the other week, I went in high at £35 once every 4  as it's surrounded by trees, through the winter it will be an easy clean not so much through spring and summer with sap etc, they asked for a different frequency so I said £50 every 8 weeks and I kicked myself a bit after and should have maybe offered a 6 weekly at £45 then 8 weekly at £55, but I only do 4 or 8 

In previous discussions on frequency and pricing I worked out that a 4 weekly £10 job would need a 33% increase on the price to be 6 weekly rounded it up though for a bit extra to £13.50 

 

[Ian Docksey]

Yep, think I'm not going to mention 12 weekly option , and see how I go offering only 6 weekly clean.  

Thanks everyone. 

 

[High-tower]

Thats the best move. If they want any other frequency, its first clean prices and they can call and I'll book it in when it suits me.

 

[dazmond]

its gonna take you a long time to get enough customers if lots are going for 12 weekly...i do have a few 12 weeklies but these are stand alone large houses and i only offer this to these types of properties BECAUSE I HAVE LOTS OF 4 AND 8 WEEKLY WORK already......

you need a solid base of customers on more frequent visits IMO FIRST then you can start offering longer frequencies IMO....

 

[swc1]

If it's done right 6 weekly earns hundreds or more accurately thousands of pounds more per annum than 4 weekly. A hundred jobs a week at an extra £2 minimum. Times that by a month. Times that by 10 or eleven months, allowing for time lost to weather etc. It's no harder at all to clean a window at 6 weeks than at 4. It is often harder though at 8 weeks. And 8 weeks is also a long time to wait for our money.

Edit this is my experience, being about as far from the sea as it's possible to be in the British Isles. Different for the coastal operators with sea spray and seagulls. ?

I understand the numbers. 

But 4 weekly is the sweet spot for me. Every business I've owned (2 be exact) over the last 30 years have run on weekly or every 4 weeks basis.

If its not broke dont try and fix it.... ?

 

[swc1]

I think time scale varies from area to area where I am most offer 4-8 weekly I have a friend in Newcastle who has a window cleaner every 2 weeks but they are trad cleaners , if ones ask for  6 weekly I say we do 4-8 weekly and let them chose what they want , if they just say they want a window cleaner I say most have there windows cleaned every 4 weeks they say yes that sounds good , if they hesitate I will offer 8 weekly at a higher price it’s up to them to chose what they want , but at a guess I recon 90% choose 4 weekly . 

I only offer one option 4 weekly.

Besides 6 large hotel/resorts that I do quarterly. (Which will be replaced this year.)

It's the sweet spot for me. 

Cash flow its constant. Work is simple. Management of the rounds is simple. 

The next 2 quarters I will be adding approximately 80-100 new customers to the round. 

The up tick in residential request for service has exploded since the start of everybody sitting at home looking out of dirty windows.

 

[RWCleaning]

Can’t be bothered to read the other posts, but if you don’t offer 6 weekly then you aren’t a proper window cleaner 

 

[cleaniac]

The majority of my customers are BI-Monthly, I literally have a handful of monthly customers; but where I really make some serious coin for the time spent is on the quarterly cleans. 

In terms of scheduling; I have found the best way to organize the rounds is to sort it; 1st by frequency; and then by geographic location. It doesn't seem to make sense to some people, but it helps stop the issue of some rounds having too much work to complete on one day and then being short on the other days. I was trying to explain this to a quarterly customer who is a next door to a neighbour who is bi-monthly; he started trying to insist on doing them both together, it took a while for him to understand how that wont work when you have  to accomodate all their cleaning frequency requests; but I don't think he realised just how many customers i do have in his area.

So the round is  actually split up into 6 different schedules, on the 2nd Thursday of every  month I have two separate rounds in the same area, different sets of customers for alternate months, so one month one set of customers are cleaned, and the alternate month the other. I also have 12 additional rounds done quarterly on the 2nd friday in the same area, this basically results in me having pretty much the monopoly of that area. So I am always doing bi-monthly's on that 2nd Thursday, and quarterlies the 2nd Friday every month. Fridays work is 45% more profitable than thursdays work as a result, but that's ok as I can take friday a little bit easier than the thursday, so that's a chicken dinner! 

And that's for two days; I work full time 4 days a week monday to friday, often finishing by 3:00pm.

I have been through so many pain barriers with this job, i forget how cushty i have things with this pandemic. I used to complain abut the boredom of my job, now I am grateful to be in a business that is almost bullet-proof in these times. I made a promise to myself this year, to only focus on the positive. I am very lucky. 

 

[Part Timer]

. I made a promise to myself this year, to only focus on the positive. I am very lucky

And how long is this positivity going to last ?

 

[cleaniac]

And how long is this positivity going to last ?

I'm positive it will last, I am trying to change my mindset. 

?

 

[RWCleaning]

I'm positive it will last, I am trying to change my mindset. 

?

There’s no point in being positive 

 

[dazmond]

Grateful is the word.....I think I'm a lot like Marc in relation to being in this game a long time and its took many years to refine my round into what it is today....with lots of ups and downs(not just running up and down ladders either!)?

Short hours,flexible and really  good money....I'm getting my brand new car delivered on monday morning between 8-9am so I'll have all day to drive it and mess around in it....?

Times are very good for me personally....window cleaning has been the best thing I've ever stuck at......

 

[cleaniac]

Grateful is the word.....I think I'm a lot like Marc in relation to being in this game a long time and its took many years to refine my round into what it is today....with lots of ups and downs(not just running up and down ladders either!)?

Short hours,flexible and really  good money....I'm getting my brand new car delivered on monday morning between 8-9am so I'll have all day to drive it and mess around in it....?

Times are very good for me personally....window cleaning has been the best thing I've ever stuck at......

Another GTI daz? Has it been 3 years already.?

 

[dazmond]

Another GTI daz? Has it been 3 years already.?

GTD mate....DSG...last diesel car I'll ever drive most probably as we ll all be forced to get electric in 3 years time.....

 

[Master Jedi Alejandro]

GTD mate....DSG...last diesel car I'll ever drive most probably as we ll all be forced to get electric in 3 years time.....

You getting the brand new one? ?

And true, but I test drove a GTE a couple of year back. A lot closer to a GTI than a Leaf, that’s for sure! ?

 

[NewGuy]

Had two quotes to do recently.  I went in with a mindset of charging a minimum of my half hourly rate on a 6 weekly interval.  Managed to get both a flat and a 3 bed semi for £20 each on a 6 weekly interval.

Happy with that.

 

[cleaniac]

Had two quotes to do recently.  I went in with a mindset of charging a minimum of my half hourly rate on a 6 weekly interval.  Managed to get both a flat and a 3 bed semi for £20 each on a 6 weekly interval.

Happy with that.

That's good.

You must be looking at your min pricing as being the most profitable possible.

 

[Part Timer]

That's good.

You must be looking at your min pricing as being the most profitable possible.

That doesn't sound that positive ? To be fair when starting a minimum hourly target rate is as good a benchmark as any. Once established you can then look to achieve better priced work.

 

[Danfire]

I wouldn’t want to be doing 6-12 weekly we only offer 4-8 , but that’s just me ware we are if you did 12 weekly clean every clean would be like a first clean , but obviously it’s up to you but I would be charging considerably more for that time scale . 

I've got 6, 8's, 12 and one 16. The 12 weeky's are nothing like a first clean and neither is the 16.

If someone wants a less frequent clean it gets priced accordingly. 6 weeks @ £20, 8 weeks @£24, 12 weeks @ £30, 16 weeks @ £35. You get the general idea. My hourly rate is highest on the less frequent stuff and the client saves money, everyone's a winner (albeit the customer has to expect slightly dirtier windows between cleans).