upping the price this year anyone got a way of doing it

[slipknot]

Hey guys so due to the ancient price system my old partner put in place at £6 and £4 a house i did tell him that before Christmas that next year aka 2018 the prices need to go up to £10 min due to there being 2 of us and it working out at £5 a house sadly hes taken ill so will still be 2 people just not me and him, now ive noticed some people will complain and others won't bat an eye lid so i was wondering is there anyone else on here upping there prices and if so how do you go about informing your customers without causing them to blow a gasket 

 

[Incheck]

Is that just for the front of a house? I doubt you’ll be able to raise them to that figure when the prices are so low to start with, its a dramatic increase...better to raise them year by year in increments of 50p or £1, i will be doing this from now on as i’ve left it 3 years without raising prices which i now realise as a serious mistake but luckily i priced them high to start with so the increase wont be so dramatic. Better to send advance notice and raise them in march or april too rather than hitting them straight away after christmas when theyre spent


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[slipknot]

sadly i doubt ill be able to raise our current customers are many are set in there ways i have managed to raise a few a quid here and there but nothing higher but any new custys will start at £10 is what i ment i should have made it clearer

 

[Duncs]

£4 house up to £10 mmmmm

if you can get that your doing better than me

that will just bug them

 

[GSS Window Cleaning]

May i ask how you was even making a profit in the first place with them prices?? After tax and expenses you'd be on less than minimum wage? I have loads of £8 im putting up this week to £10 just putting a letter through explaining, rekon there will be a few moans and groans but if they do moan ill just say by all means get a quote off another window cleaner and they will be shocked at 2018 prices!! Everyone hates putting up prices and even if you did put them up £1 every year would take you 6 years just to get to £10 and they would still be underpriced. I brought a lot of work so couldnt exactly up the price but been doing them 7 years now so they know that im reliable so if they carnt accept a £2 increase to £10 which are cleaned every 6 weeks i may aswell give up window cleaning. 

 

[slipknot]

honestly GSS i have no idea the prices were set by my partner years ago and alot of customers are set in there ways and my partner stopped giving prices of houses this year when i told him times are changing, food, fuel, tax, and everything else goes up.

sadly with the current customers he has gave me im gonna have to work 3x as hard to make any money as a warehouse job would currently pay more but with me running all this from here on out im sure something can be done in the long run. it was shocking some weeks i would make £40 and others i would be making £300.

 

[Incheck]

This is my first time increasing prices, im going on +50 pence a face, so if they have the front cleaned it will be +50p, if they have the back cleaned as well it will go up by £1. Letters are ready for posting. If it goes well I will look to do this every april and not get left behind


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[Dave B]

50p increments just cause aggro for me

Gotta be whole £s

 

[adamangler]

Unfortunately you might struggle if the houses are way underpriced and have been for many, many years.

You might want to start getting new customers and then put the old ones up a few at a time as you go, dropping any that won't have it. You might need a lot of new work.

 

[slipknot]

thats a really good idea adam , i have found out if you do it by 50p it is not worth it if truth be told as i always find prices like 7.50 can be a nightmare sometimes when it comes to collecting in cash, its alright when doing it though bank transfer.

ill do that adam truth is where i work a lot of window cleaners have vanished haha

 

[Incheck]

50p increments just cause aggro for me
Gotta be whole £s

I did originally feel the same to be honest, however with it being the first time increasing prices i thought id play it safe. They’re all customers who’ve been with us from the start and they’re all payers so didn’t want to risk losing too many of them. Still Plenty of room for new custys and we are taking them on at much higher rates so haven’t got too much of a worry. The worst position i could be in is having a full schedule where everything is underpriced and thankfully that’s not the case.


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[Clisty1989]

look at it this way, put prices up by £2 on a £6 house, 3 say yes one walks. Your making same amount of cash, for less work, and replace the one who walks. I have been where u are when my father in laws own boss retired, he took over and took me on. Houses priced @£3-7 nothing more han a tenner. Some houses id have priced at £20+!!! 2 1/2 years later its still underpriced, but its getting there. He has 385 houses, and we were lucky to pull 450 a week, now were at 750 a week. Its not gonna be solved overnight. Id suggest an increase of £2 every 18 months, long enough for them to forget the old price, but short enough to eventually catch up with pricing. Combine that with canvassing and profits will rise. Its gonna b tough, good luck.

also think about staging it, do one day a week per month, so you have time to replace what you lose.

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

50p increments just cause aggro for me

Gotta be whole £s

Thought you only took 24k slabs? ?

 

[windymillers]

This is my first time increasing prices, im going on +50 pence a face, so if they have the front cleaned it will be +50p, if they have the back cleaned as well it will go up by £1. Letters are ready for posting. If it goes well I will look to do this every april and not get left behind


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Hi Incheck,

I am out of touch with postal costs but wont that cost you a fair bit to post all those letters out to your customers?

 

[windymillers]

Hey guys so due to the ancient price system my old partner put in place at £6 and £4 a house i did tell him that before Christmas that next year aka 2018 the prices need to go up to £10 min due to there being 2 of us and it working out at £5 a house sadly hes taken ill so will still be 2 people just not me and him, now ive noticed some people will complain and others won't bat an eye lid so i was wondering is there anyone else on here upping there prices and if so how do you go about informing your customers without causing them to blow a gasket 

Slipknot, what region of the UK are you in?

I am in a village in the east midlands and the going rate seems to be £8 for a 3 bed terrace house, £7 for a 2 bed semi bungalow and £10 for a 2 bed detached bungalow, £12 for a 3 bed detached house, traditional all including doors and sills.

 

[best]

What you will notice is how clever people are with percentage. ??
That's a 10% increase. Etc

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[slipknot]

Slipknot, what region of the UK are you in?

I am in a village in the east midlands and the going rate seems to be £8 for a 3 bed terrace house, £7 for a 2 bed semi bungalow and £10 for a 2 bed detached bungalow, £12 for a 3 bed detached house, traditional all including doors and sills.

im in the northwest

 

[mike007]

Hey guys so due to the ancient price system my old partner put in place at £6 and £4 a house i did tell him that before Christmas that next year aka 2018 the prices need to go up to £10 min due to there being 2 of us and it working out at £5 a house sadly hes taken ill so will still be 2 people just not me and him, now ive noticed some people will complain and others won't bat an eye lid so i was wondering is there anyone else on here upping there prices and if so how do you go about informing your customers without causing them to blow a gasket 

If you were charging me £6 for a service, and you were doing it for me over a period of time...then say I am going to charge you nearly double from now on....I would say thanks but no thanks.

Not just if you were doing my windows, but if you were doing a service on my van, or mowing my lawn etc.

It isn,t to actually do with being realistic about your pricing structure (the prices you inherited need to be addressed) It is the real hike the customer see. If their baked beans go up in price by nearly double, the size of the hike annoys them and they tend to use another brand, or go without beans for a while.

 

[slipknot]

the way i was going to do it was any new customers this year would be a min of £10 and the others would stay the same

 

[mike007]

the way i was going to do it was any new customers this year would be a min of £10 and the others would stay the same

Sorry I misinterpreted, although I think you should increase your current prices on your current customers if only by 50p that would mean your making extra £1-£2 per hour, your mates who work hourly paid would like  that sort of pay rise!!!

 

[Iron Giant]

If prices haven't being increased for quite a few years then even increasing all current jobs by £1-2 each will increase your income quite a bit.

A 50p increase is pointless IMHO although you may want to hold off on a increase until clients get used to you and know that you aren't going to let them down late March early April maybe should be long enough to put off.

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