Frequency

[Iron Giant]

I do  around 97% of mine on a 4 weekly cycle and never had a skip this time because they're still clean. The customer will typically dictate the frequency.

 

[Spartan]

same here IronGiant, the customer would let you know i suppose although over the years I've been cleaning I've always said its 4 weekly or not at all so that is how my work has been established.

If everyone was moved to a 6 weekly clean (with a modest price increase) my days earnings might increase along with more time to expand...

Well worth considering....

 

[Chris33]

Looks good price wise here but I would set a min price your happy with here, if that's 8 pound so be it.

Mines now ten quid, I had a few 7 or 8 quid small houses and ended up just dumping them to get better priced work anyway...

 

[spruce]

We had an older customer once tell me;

"I pay you to keep my windows clean, not clean them when they are dirty."

I wish she had made that remark earlier on in my window cleaning career. In the early days we would have been a little less accepting of customers skipping cleans if we knew how our business would develop over the years. I guess we were scared of being left with nothing so we bent over backwards to accommodate our customers.

"The most fertile source of insight is hindsight." (Morris Kline.)

.

 

[Elliot]

I am pretty strict and ruthless but fair with the customers . Back In the day all 4 weekly so were told  you will get 13 cleans a year . That means pulling em forward when I'm going away or Christmas and such . You don't lose any money that way . Obviously sometimes a 3 week gap can seem a bit quick  to come around . But they were told. Now over the last couple of years all new custys get told every 6 weeks , with the odd gap of 5 weeks if you fall during an holiday . All sweet . Obviously all my old 8 week custys have had to fall in line as well . But no grumbles , 

 

[chris clean]

I have everything from 2 weekly up to quarterly. Over 80% are 4 or 6 weekly though. For me all that's important is that they fit into my rounds and they meet the customer's needs. I have one road that I do all the houses on 4 weekly on one occasion then go back and do all the 6 weekly ones another day. Occasionally they land on same day which is a bonus. Just make sure I price accordingly 

 

[lbcleaningservices]

I have everything from 2 weekly up to quarterly. Over 80% are 4 or 6 weekly though. For me all that's important is that they fit into my rounds and they meet the customer's needs. I have one road that I do all the houses on 4 weekly on one occasion then go back and do all the 6 weekly ones another day. Occasionally they land on same day which is a bonus. Just make sure I price accordingly 

Same as me spot on
Its what the customer wants as long as aint taking the pee then all good [emoji123]

Sent using the Window Cleaning Forums mobile app

 

[Skxawng]

I do 98% mine wfp 4weekly and don't get anyone trying to skip cleans. I personally think the more frequently the better as it's more work each month and easier cleans as they're not as dirty. If they do want less frequent service I charge 10% extra rounded up for each month in between cleans.

 

[Cristian]

Some excellent replies here lads, thanks all for taking the time to share your experiences with myself and the other forum users! I think I have it sussed out now, Happy Days!!! :1f603:

 

[Elliot]

I suppose it all depends on how busy you are , also how busy you want to be . Before I banged em all on 6 weekly we were getting it all done in 3 days . Now it's 4 steady days , I don't like working Friday's  :1f603: .so for me it was like picking up some new work , but not paying for it , and not canvassing it . 5 years back I would have never thought I would be working this way , but I have definately hit the sweet spot .its a gamble changing the frequency of customers ,but for us it paid off . If I was starting out now as a new cleaner it would be 6 weekly all the time . 

 

[adamangler]

Mine are 4 weekly mainly but in reality quite often they end up being 5 weekly as if I pick up add on work it gets done asap and windows pushed back a bit and when I'm less busy with add odds in comes back into line. As long as I'm not more than a week behind I know im on schedule. So my round is actually 4-5 weekly. That's the good thing about wimdows is you can have some flexibility with it so it's good not to get into a rigid set day type routine. Tried to keep it a set routine of dame day every week the same customers but everytime I put it in a perfect working order something messes it up be it add on work, days off or weather delays etc. So now I have given up trying to keep it in perfect order and when I'm organising my work for each day I look what's due and pick the most compact out of it and do the same every day. Some mught have been due today tomorrow or a few days ago it doesn't really matter just take it day by day.

 

[Cristian]

Excellent info lads, you really have set my mind at ease on how to move forward here!  :1f44d:

 

[Dave B]

I do 98% mine wfp 4weekly and don't get anyone trying to skip cleans. I personally think the more frequently the better as it's more work each month and easier cleans as they're not as dirty. If they do want less frequent service I charge 10% extra rounded up for each month in between cleans.

I think longer frequencies are better

2 monthly as opposed to monthly means twice as many customers but also when the economic climate goes tits up customers are less likely to bin you as it isn't much of an expense

Safeguarding against recession or job loss etc

 

[spruce]

I think longer frequencies are better

2 monthly as opposed to monthly means twice as many customers but also when the economic climate goes tits up customers are less likely to bin you as it isn't much of an expense

Safeguarding against recession or job loss etc

A few months before the 2008 recession my son left his full time job and started window cleaning along side me. Although I had more than enough work for myself we needed to get some more in.

Then the recession hit I panicked as I estimated that we could well loose about 1/3 of our work due to the woes of British Steel, a then major employer in our area. So we canvassed like made and got in much more than we could cope with on the expectation of loosing a lot of work. It didn't happen. We lost 3 customers and 1 asked us back a couple of months later. 

When Tata Steel closed a couple of years back we also thought we would loose work as well. It didn't even cause a ripple in our workload.

I had one customer say that she would stop his beer money before she stopped us cleaning her windows.

We have had lost several commercial jobs during the same period. So my not having all our eggs in one basket is to treat commercial as the icing on the cake. For us our residential customers are our core business and to stop us I think we have got to be in a genuine 1930's American recession were people are genuinely destitute. 

Our round has a large portion of aged customers so we expect to sadly loose those regularly.

.

 

[Skxawng]

I think longer frequencies are better

2 monthly as opposed to monthly means twice as many customers but also when the economic climate goes tits up customers are less likely to bin you as it isn't much of an expense

Safeguarding against recession or job loss etc

That is true but at the moment, for me at least, its going smoothly. So maybe a good idea is now I'm almost at capacity workload wise whenever I pick up new customers make them 2 monthly so I can continue expanding my customer base and spreading the risk of losing customers.