Customer excuses

[Pjj]

My take on this, fwiw, is that in the current economic crisis, with very little money about, we need customers a lot more than they need us! Always incredibly polite to them, whatever the provocation - one unhappy customer is one too many as things stand, and people talk. Not just to each other but on social media.

I don’t agree with this we need good reliable customers not customers at any cost , obviously you need to sort the wheat from the chaff and get rid of ones that don’t meet your criteria , when starting out it’s easy to take on everything I did that and made a rod for my own back , better to build slower with quality customers than fast with pita ones , you will never keep everyone happy no matter what you do , the sooner ones realise this and move on the better , I agree ones will slag you off on social media , but you cannot prevent that , we have a 1 star review on Google by someone and we have never done any work for them , it’s just someone who likes doing this type of thing to a lot of buissinesses , Google won’t do anything about it that’s the annoying part . So you cannot stop negative reviews , don’t know your area but there is no shortage of money hear new work and enquiries coming in at quite a fast rate again , everyone ime speaking tt is experiencing the same you are in London there is certainly no shortage of money up there ??? . It’s good to keep customers happy and go the extra mile but not at any cost , once a pita always a pita

 

[Iron Giant]

I don’t agree with this we need good reliable customers not customers at any cost , obviously you need to sort the wheat from the chaff and get rid of ones that don’t meet your criteria , when starting out it’s easy to take on everything I did that and made a rod for my own back , better to build slower with quality customers than fast with pita ones , you will never keep everyone happy no matter what you do , the sooner ones realise this and move on the better , I agree ones will slag you off on social media , but you cannot prevent that , we have a 1 star review on Google by someone and we have never done any work for them , it’s just someone who likes doing this type of thing to a lot of buissinesses , Google won’t do anything about it that’s the annoying part . So you cannot stop negative reviews , don’t know your area but there is no shortage of money hear new work and enquiries coming in at quite a fast rate again , everyone ime speaking tt is experiencing the same you are in London there is certainly no shortage of money up there ??? . It’s good to keep customers happy and go the extra mile but not at any cost , once a pita always a pita

I totally agree with this, some people are just whiners and expect you to jump through hoops because they are paying you these just get dropped as there is only so much you can take,

I have a one-star review on Google as well the guy was from an area well away from me but Google did nothing it happens and no doubt I have had people whinge about me on private FB resident pages because I've dropped them or my prices are too high, but I also know lots of other customers sing my praises, we run successful businesses so an odd bad review or complaint once in a blue moon is a drop in the ocean to 100's and 1000's of jobs we both do and have done over the last 20+ years in business

 

[Clean zero]

I totally agree there is only so much you can keep putting up with eventually something has to give otherwise you will always be against it

 

[K in Kent]

We should always remain professional but that doesn't mean treating them like royalty. With some customers the more you do for them the more they expect and people like that can do one as far as I'm concerned.
And if you get a bad review so what? As long as the good ones outweigh the negative it's not a problem. The best way to deal with it is respond in a way that makes clear just what an unreasonable person they are. If someone is critical you don;t have to lay down and take it - respond in kind. Be polite but firm and the vast majority of people will be on your side.

 

[steve garwood]

We should always remain professional but that doesn't mean treating them like royalty. With some customers the more you do for them the more they expect and people like that can do one as far as I'm concerned.
And if you get a bad review so what? As long as the good ones outweigh the negative it's not a problem. The best way to deal with it is respond in a way that makes clear just what an unreasonable person they are. If someone is critical you don;t have to lay down and take it - respond in kind. Be polite but firm and the vast majority of people will be on your side.

This is why I’m so glad not to have a website or be on google.
I’ve been full up for years, so if I customer is rude, I can happily tell them to f*** off ???‍?.

 

[WombatPool]

Talking of rude customers I had one today - maintenance clean - last month I dealt with the husband who was easy going we had a good rapport and he appreciated his windows being cleaned with WFP.. But today when I finished cleaning the wife came out and said very abruptly ‘have you forgotten a window’ I said I don’t think so show me which one, she pointed to a window which I had just cleaned and said ‘this one look at all the water left on it’ (in the rudest tone you could imagine) I said it’ll dry spot less and went over how pure water works ect, she basically shouted at me that she wasn’t happy and the water everywhere looks awful. She told me not to come back next month but to come back in March instead. Honestly I’m tempted not to bother. The rest of my customers today were nice people and appreciated the service, that’s the customers I want!

 

[steve garwood]

Talking of rude customers I had one today - maintenance clean - last month I dealt with the husband who was easy going we had a good rapport and he appreciated his windows being cleaned with WFP.. But today when I finished cleaning the wife came out and said very abruptly ‘have you forgotten a window’ I said I don’t think so show me which one, she pointed to a window which I had just cleaned and said ‘this one look at all the water left on it’ (in the rudest tone you could imagine) I said it’ll dry spot less and went over how pure water works ect, she basically shouted at me that she wasn’t happy and the water everywhere looks awful. She told me not to come back next month but to come back in March instead. Honestly I’m tempted not to bother. The rest of my customers today were nice people and appreciated the service, that’s the customers I want!

What do you mean ‘tempted’ not to go back?

Surely you mean you’re definitely not going back?

 

[Pjj]

Talking of rude customers I had one today - maintenance clean - last month I dealt with the husband who was easy going we had a good rapport and he appreciated his windows being cleaned with WFP.. But today when I finished cleaning the wife came out and said very abruptly ‘have you forgotten a window’ I said I don’t think so show me which one, she pointed to a window which I had just cleaned and said ‘this one look at all the water left on it’ (in the rudest tone you could imagine) I said it’ll dry spot less and went over how pure water works ect, she basically shouted at me that she wasn’t happy and the water everywhere looks awful. She told me not to come back next month but to come back in March instead. Honestly I’m tempted not to bother. The rest of my customers today were nice people and appreciated the service, that’s the customers I want!

That would an instant dump for me

 

[WombatPool]

Yeah you’re rights it’s a DUMP from me


I’m out

 

[Ocahan01]

Talking of rude customers I had one today - maintenance clean - last month I dealt with the husband who was easy going we had a good rapport and he appreciated his windows being cleaned with WFP.. But today when I finished cleaning the wife came out and said very abruptly ‘have you forgotten a window’ I said I don’t think so show me which one, she pointed to a window which I had just cleaned and said ‘this one look at all the water left on it’ (in the rudest tone you could imagine) I said it’ll dry spot less and went over how pure water works ect, she basically shouted at me that she wasn’t happy and the water everywhere looks awful. She told me not to come back next month but to come back in March instead. Honestly I’m tempted not to bother. The rest of my customers today were nice people and appreciated the service, that’s the customers I want!

Definitely would have told her to go elsewhere. It still amazes me that anyone that lives in the uk or Ireland can complain about anything being wet, seriously? Over 200 days a year in rains and they get upset over a wet windowsill.
Not worth keeping as customers.

 

[K in Kent]

This is why I’m so glad not to have a website or be on google.
I’ve been full up for years, so if I customer is rude, I can happily tell them to f*** off ???‍?.

Fairplay to you and that's a great position to be in. But for most of us Google and reviews etc are a necessary evil. And with Google having approx 90% of UK search traffic we have to play by their rules.
But many small businesses tend to obsess over nagative reviews and over estimate the harm they can do. It's true that reviews are an important ranking factor in local pack results but it's perfectly acceptable and inevitable that every business will get the occasional bad review.
They will have no bearing on ranking or public perception if they are very much in the minority. Negative reviews are nothing to fear in isolation

 

[K in Kent]

Definitely would have told her to go elsewhere. It still amazes me that anyone that lives in the uk or Ireland can complain about anything being wet, seriously? Over 200 days a year in rains and they get upset over a wet windowsill.
Not worth keeping as customers.

You're quite right but this is also an example of the importance of educating customers from the outset about wfp so they know what to expect....but of course some still won't like it in which case tell them to go forth and multiply

 

[Yogi1872]

I don't think I've ever had a text saying leave the windows this month, probably because I don't text the night before, if they have builders at the house I obviously leave it until the works done, if any customer calls me with a problem they have I always think in my head, if roles were reversed here what would I see as acceptable to be done. But that works both ways too. When I had a cleaner weekly, if I told her not to bother this week I always said don't bother this week because x y or z . I don't think it would be acceptable to not tell them the reason. If I told her not to bother I still transfered her the money too. I'd like to think I'd have done that before I worked for myself but I'm not sure if I'd think the same way as I do now.

You might not even notice you do it but you see things differently from people who work as paye, in there heads they don't know that it has knock on effects for work schedule or total monthly income as they don't really think like that. In there heads it's no big deal as they just do another house extra instead of there's so money isn't lost. Whereas we as self employed people realise that canceling appointments etc shouldn't leave the ppl you have canceled out of pocket. I had to cancel the dog groomer to go to uefa cup final last year at very short notice. I said if the appointment isn't filled then I'd pay for it to make sure she wouldn't be out of pocket. Again, before I was self employed It probably wouldn't register in my head that through no fault of there own there loosing wages.

 

[Poles Apart]

In this present economic climate best not rocking the boat, give them a miss this time.. Probably an indication though that they will cancel cleans in the future if something minor comes up....

I don't stand for it if you don't set your stall out from the off you're leaving yourself open to abuse don't show any weakness tell them how you operate your round and what you expect from your customers if a customer says to me "leave it it's too cold, it's going to rain or it's been raining" I drop them by accepting it they will continue to repeat that pattern.

 

[Poles Apart]

I don't think I've ever had a text saying leave the windows this month, probably because I don't text the night before, if they have builders at the house I obviously leave it until the works done, if any customer calls me with a problem they have I always think in my head, if roles were reversed here what would I see as acceptable to be done. But that works both ways too. When I had a cleaner weekly, if I told her not to bother this week I always said don't bother this week because x y or z . I don't think it would be acceptable to not tell them the reason. If I told her not to bother I still transfered her the money too. I'd like to think I'd have done that before I worked for myself but I'm not sure if I'd think the same way as I do now.

You might not even notice you do it but you see things differently from people who work as paye, in there heads they don't know that it has knock on effects for work schedule or total monthly income as they don't really think like that. In there heads it's no big deal as they just do another house extra instead of there's so money isn't lost. Whereas we as self employed people realise that caHow donceling appointments etc shouldn't leave the ppl you have canceled out of pocket. I had to cancel the dog groomer to go to uefa cup final last year at very short notice. I said if the appointment isn't filled then I'd pay for it to make sure she wouldn't be out of pocket. Again, before I was self employed It probably wouldn't register in my head that through no fault of there own there loosing wages.

How do you conduct your round without texting?

 

[Exchef93]

How do you conduct your round without texting?

Just turn up and start cleaning? I don't text anyone, I don't even give them my mobile number, just the landline answerphone and email.

 

[Yogi1872]

How do you conduct your round without texting?

The windows are done on a 4 weekly schedule, tell them sometimes we could fall a bit behind with weather. We put a card through everytime so they know we have been, bank details are on the cards for paymeant.

Thats how I've always worked it and there's never been an issue, I think a text message would kinda give them an option to say don't bother because they have people round etc. My customers will be no different to anyones on here so I'd imagine if I done a text service then I'd have the same problems with people wanting to skip a month.

 

[Yogi1872]

I don't stand for it if you don't set your stall out from the off you're leaving yourself open to abuse don't show any weakness tell them how you operate your round and what you expect from your customers if a customer says to me "leave it it's too cold, it's going to rain or it's been raining" I drop them by accepting it they will continue to repeat that pattern.

That's all fine and well if your in a position where you have enough work so loosing it isn't an issue. When you haven't got much you need them more than they need you. I'd take them off my round at the moment if it happened but I'd be lying if I said I'd do it when I didn't have enough work.

Sometimes people ask if I can do there's just as a one off, I say I will but I take x4 of what it normally is. Some people pay it some people don't.

 

[Pjj]

The windows are done on a 4 weekly schedule, tell them sometimes we could fall a bit behind with weather. We put a card through everytime so they know we have been, bank details are on the cards for paymeant.

Thats how I've always worked it and there's never been an issue, I think a text message would kinda give them an option to say don't bother because they have people round etc. My customers will be no different to anyones on here so I'd imagine if I done a text service then I'd have the same problems with people wanting to skip a month.

We do exactly the same

 

[Chris34]

The windows are done on a 4 weekly schedule, tell them sometimes we could fall a bit behind with weather. We put a card through everytime so they know we have been, bank details are on the cards for paymeant.

Thats how I've always worked it and there's never been an issue, I think a text message would kinda give them an option to say don't bother because they have people round etc. My customers will be no different to anyones on here so I'd imagine if I done a text service then I'd have the same problems with people wanting to skip a month.

I text all mine, some I actually phone them up (old ladies without mobiles). It is true that you get the odd one that asks to skip the clean, usually though there is a good reason for it, but you are correct it does give the awkward ones a chance to ask to skip it and it does happen although not as often as you probably think.

There is a positive to texting though, sometimes they're not going to be in like if they're on holiday, so you can rearrange the clean the day before and add another job onto your day. If you get there and they're away on holiday with the gate locked then you've just lost that time in your working day and unless you have a job conveniently nearby you can't just add a job on. Same with building work etc, I had one before Christmas that said to leave it as was having the whole drive done, it would have been a waste of time turning up and I was able to replace the job and bring another one forward.

The other positive is the chance for extra work. Earlier this month I sent out a text to say I was coming to clean, the customer text back to say thanks and would it be possible to book their gutters in to be cleaned later in the month which I've actually just done this week for £80.

So yes you're correct it does give them the chance to skip it and I'd be lying if I said it doesn't happen, but it also has it's benefits.

For me I text because it's better service though, it helps me with locked gates but it also helps with the service, it's a nice thing to do to let them know beforehand that I'm coming rather than turn up out of the blue and a lot of them appreciate the texts. Put it this way, I can't imagine any of them finding the texts not useful, I think they'd rather have them than not.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

I don't text to ask them to leave gates open because I just use ladder and go over them. One used to send a text to leave them this month but because I clean above I didn't want to drop them. Now with the arrival of the baby they don't have the time to text me I guess.