Picking up customers

[Williams_Window_Cleaning]

Anyone else find it hard to pick up new customers? I go knocking doors and either none is in or they "already have a window cleaner".

Granted I probably dont go out as much as I should canvassing but my friend only does leaflet drops of 1000 and he picks up 10 or 15 customers each time it's crazy!

I'll post a picture of my leaflets I had a friend design them so they're pretty professional looking see what you think.

 

[ks789]

Anyone else find it hard to pick up new customers? I go knocking doors and either none is in or they "already have a window cleaner".

Granted I probably dont go out as much as I should canvassing but my friend only does leaflet drops of 1000 and he picks up 10 or 15 customers each time it's crazy!

I'll post a picture of my leaflets I had a friend design them so they're pretty professional looking see what you think.

View attachment 18827

 I think the flyers are fine, not much more worth putting on there really. Ive found flyers not so good as they might have been back in the day. Regards door knocking, I dont answer my door unless im expecting someone. Sign of the times really.You could put adds or your flyer up in shop windows? A lot say door knocking is best, but probably certain days/times of the week are better.Also i dont do facebook, though a lot swear by it.

 I think the flyers are fine, not much more worth putting on there really. Ive found flyers not so good as they might have been back in the day. Regards door knocking, I dont answer my door unless im expecting someone. Sign of the times really.You could put adds or your flyer up in shop windows? A lot say door knocking is best, but probably certain days/times of the week are better.Also i dont do facebook, though a lot swear by it.

Oh yeh, forgot, one thing that got me a lot of work, was putting an add in a couple of local magazines. best one was in this parish magazine for some village areas a few miles out. not so many cleaners out there so worked a treat.

 

[brianbadonde]

Oh yeh, forgot, one thing that got me a lot of work, was putting an add in a couple of local magazines. best one was in this parish magazine for some village areas a few miles out. not so many cleaners out there so worked a treat.

The parish magazines work well. And they are pretty cheap. I payed about £50 for a years worth of advertising and gained a good amount of work.

 

[spruce]

Anyone else find it hard to pick up new customers? I go knocking doors and either none is in or they "already have a window cleaner".

Granted I probably dont go out as much as I should canvassing but my friend only does leaflet drops of 1000 and he picks up 10 or 15 customers each time it's crazy!

I'll post a picture of my leaflets I had a friend design them so they're pretty professional looking see what you think.

View attachment 18827

Ask you current customers for referrals. We have found that these customers have been our most loyal.

Knock the neighbours of the houses you clean. We have numerous examples where this has worked on our round.

I believe the days of leaflet drops have been over for many years as the take up is just so low. The motor industry had success with this for many years but you hardly ever see a mail shot now. I don't think people even look at 'junk mail' these days.

 

[mike007]

Ask you current customers for referrals. We have found that these customers have been our most loyal.

Knock the neighbours of the houses you clean. We have numerous examples where this has worked on our round.

I believe the days of leaflet drops have been over for many years as the take up is just so low. The motor industry had success with this for many years but you hardly ever see a mail shot now. I don't think people even look at 'junk mail' these days.

How many go for your 8 weekly cleans compared to your 4 weekly......I would suggest getting rid of the 8 weekly from your Flyers so when you get a customer it,s monthly or you will need twice the number to earn a living if they are 8 weekly...and you know getting customers is hard.

 

[spruce]

How many go for your 8 weekly cleans compared to your 4 weekly......I would suggest getting rid of the 8 weekly from your Flyers so when you get a customer it,s monthly or you will need twice the number to earn a living if they are 8 weekly...and you know getting customers is hard.

I would also prefer 'All work guaranteed.'

A free reclean is a hornets nest waiting to be opened. What happens if it just one streaky window? Will the customer expect the whole house to be recleaned? It happened to us.

 

[Williams_Window_Cleaning]

I would also prefer 'All work guaranteed.'

A free reclean is a hornets nest waiting to be opened. What happens if it just one streaky window? Will the customer expect the whole house to be recleaned? It happened to us.

That's true it's happened to my dad before but I'd soon rather clean the whole house than lose the customer and earn a bad rep

How many go for your 8 weekly cleans compared to your 4 weekly......I would suggest getting rid of the 8 weekly from your Flyers so when you get a customer it,s monthly or you will need twice the number to earn a living if they are 8 weekly...and you know getting customers is hard.

You raise a fair point but it's mainly just information to show I offer that. When I go and quote people I often just state "I'll be here every 4 weeks" and most dont bother questioning it

The parish magazines work well. And they are pretty cheap. I payed about £50 for a years worth of advertising and gained a good amount of work.

We have a local newspaper delivered that I could advertise in which I have thought about before in all fairness

 

[THL4KEL]

Good leaflets will work but you have to drop literally tens of thousands and ideally you would need to outsource it to a deliverer like the Post Office, for it to be effective as there is only so many one person can drop in a day...

There's a guy on FB window cleaning that has 20 vans on the road and he built and builds his business via leaflets. He swears by them. Drops 300k leaflets at a time. You have to have the capability to deal with the drops though.

I only ever leaflet dropped myself and for every 1000 dropped maybe five jobs but those five could be be worth over a year - (5 jobs x £10 window clean charge a month x12 cleans a year= £600

So £600 a year for £45 investment (5000 flyers cost), not a bad profit. Its just either having the time or spending the cash for someone else to drop them.

The five thousand flyers could potentially show a return yearly of £3k based on getting 25 - £10 monthly window clean jobs out of them.

Definitely a good investment and you can target affluent specific areas as well if you drop them yourself ...

 

[dmw]

Good leaflets will work but you have to drop literally tens of thousands and ideally you would need to outsource it to a deliverer like the Post Office, for it to be effective as there is only so many one person can drop in a day...

There's a guy on FB window cleaning that has 20 vans on the road and he built and builds his business via leaflets. He swears by them. Drops 300k leaflets at a time. You have to have the capability to deal with the drops though.

I only ever leaflet dropped myself and for every 1000 dropped maybe five jobs but those five could be be worth over a year - (5 jobs x £10 window clean charge a month x12 cleans a year= £600

So £600 a year for £45 investment (5000 flyers cost), not a bad profit. Its just either having the time or spending the cash for someone else to drop them.

Definitely a good investment and you can target affluent specific areas as well...

As said,  The post office is more expensive for leaflet drops but it can hit the big off the beaten track houses where your average leaflet delivers fail to get near. 

 

[Tango]

Anyone else find it hard to pick up new customers? I go knocking doors and either none is in or they "already have a window cleaner".

Yup, I've been having these problems. My area is saturated with window cleaners. Yell.com has over 40 listed for my town and that obviously doesn't include those that don't use yell - like me and others who rely on facebook / websites etc instead.

Nice leaflet design but like others said, leaflets don't work great but with that said, i've probably had more luck than those quoting 3 jobs per 1000. I use basic B&W leaflets as i can't afford colour lol.. (I should of done double sided) but with that said, some peoples mindset is that colour glossy things mean an expensive price where as cheap leaflets mean cheaper. I also noticed that long roads (eg 2-300 houses) are a waste of leaflets. If you don't get any calls from the first few then the rest of the road will be the same. When i first started i used to target long roads thinking i'd pick up a few custys but i found that targetting the short roads worked better for me. But ultimately door knocking was king.. the trouble is like you i kept running into the same excuse of already having a windy.. 

That's true it's happened to my dad before but I'd soon rather clean the whole house than lose the customer

You'll probably still lose them anyway these days. Once you accept liability and agree to do the whole place again in their head (even if they know full well they're wrong) that means you were definitely at fault.. and how many are going to be forgiving when they can just pull the same gig on another windy?

 

[PureShine]

That leaflet looks awfully familiar ? haha.

We delivered 10,000 of the same type of leaflet as you and we gained 32 regular customers, around 20-25 of the customers were in contact with us within a week of posting them then the remainder booked over the weeks following that.

If no one is home when you're canvassing is it the time of day you are doing this? Canvassing may give you better results on a Saturday or weekdays between 6pm-8pm (when people aren't at work).

Leaflet in the weekdays, hit it hard when the people are at work as this won't be prime time for canvassing. I have always found the very best day for delivering leaflets is on a Sunday, no other stuff getting posted through and everybody is usually home, response was always much higher for us.

As said by THL4KEL leaflets in large numbers is when you see its true value. Delivering 1000 yourself is a hard slog but will slowly begin to bring in the customers

 

[Tango]

Cheers for the sunday tip

 

[Williams_Window_Cleaning]

That leaflet looks awfully familiar ? haha.

We delivered 10,000 of the same type of leaflet as you and we gained 32 regular customers, around 20-25 of the customers were in contact with us within a week of posting them then the remainder booked over the weeks following that.

If no one is home when you're canvassing is it the time of day you are doing this? Canvassing may give you better results on a Saturday or weekdays between 6pm-8pm (when people aren't at work).

Leaflet in the weekdays, hit it hard when the people are at work as this won't be prime time for canvassing. I have always found the very best day for delivering leaflets is on a Sunday, no other stuff getting posted through and everybody is usually home, response was always much higher for us.

As said by THL4KEL leaflets in large numbers is when you see its true value. Delivering 1000 yourself is a hard slog but will slowly begin to bring in the customers

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I dont believe we have the same leaflet! ?? my mate clearly ripped yours off I apologise.

Normally I do my canvassing either when I'm at work and target a few houses during the same street. Or for a few hours on my days off during the week.

Thinking about it I never tried between 6PM and 8PM or on weekends because that's usually time I finish myself although it's a good tip.

 

[THL4KEL]

Totally agree with Pureshine, late Sunday afternoon, people are home, not expecting mail. They pick it up and you have more of a chance they will look or read it it might not go straight in the bin . My flyers are mainly images, before and after shots. The less text the better.

I've dropped flyers that people got in touch 1 year later... For gutter/fascia/windows jobs. Some people hold onto them.

If your dropping them now don't expect instant calls it's January people are spent up but come February it will start again. 

I haven't dropped flyers for two years but I have five thousand in a box and I would like to say I will start dropping them this month to finally get rid of them.

I actually spoke with a local newspaper and they charge 150 quid for 3400 houses which I might just do... 

On a plus side flyer dropping keeps you fit if you walk fast good way to burn of the Christmas extra pounds. ?

 

[Williams_Window_Cleaning]

Totally agree with Pureshine, late Sunday afternoon, people are home, not expecting mail. They pick it up and you have more of a chance they will look or read it it might not go straight in the bin . My flyers are mainly images, before and after shots. The less text the better.

I've dropped flyers that people got in touch 1 year later... For gutter/fascia/windows jobs. Some people hold onto them.

If your dropping them now don't expect instant calls it's January people are spent up but come February it will start again. 

I haven't dropped flyers for two years but I have five thousand in a box and I would like to say I will start dropping them this month to finally get rid of them.

I actually spoke with a local newspaper and they charge 150 quid for 3400 houses which I might just do... 

On a plus side flyer dropping keeps you fit if you walk fast good way to burn of the Christmas extra pounds. ?

I know not to expect anything now (even had one customer say they cant pay because they spent up at christmas ?).

Tbh i havent bothered canvassing for December or january but I'm starting to think about it now I think sufficient time has passed to start again although my parents (who are window cleaners) say to leave it until march or april when spring comes.

 

[THL4KEL]

Best thing to do is do it every month. Target same houses over and over again. Eventually you build presence in the area.

 

[Williams_Window_Cleaning]

Best thing to do is do it every month. Target same houses over and over again. Eventually you build presence in the area.

Yeah thanks for your advice I'll try establishing a more regular routine of canvassing and see how it goes from there

 

[PureShine]

No probs mate. I though of it as a compliment that someone like the design lol. The canvassing hours are a ballache i know but this is when to strike, while the iron is hot and all that. The use of your time and doing particular types of advertising at certain times will help to maximise the conversion rate. When you are working out how to advertise be strategical about everything. When you are out working you could deliver leaflets to 5 houses either side of the house you're cleaning and then 10 opposite that house on the other side of the street. Its not big numbers bit any you get compacts your round.

 

[A.K WINDOWS]

It’s just pot luck , some areas are gold and some even if they have dirty windows are not bothered , just keep plodding away there’s a lot trying to do this business but like anything there not all liked by people for one reason or another so you will pick them up.

 

[spruce]

Just a comment. You have to be very careful about what you put on Forums @Williams_Window_Cleaning.

In this case @PureShine has seen copying his leaflet as a complement. Of course what we don't know is if both of you used the same web designer.

Back to the point; a few years ago Ionics used to follow each breach of the use of their logo with heavy handed threats. You could only use their logo on the side of your van if it had an Ionics system inside. They had trademarked their logo.

There was also another windie who copied another's sign writing and again had to pay to have it removed. He proudly displayed photos of his new lettered van on the forums for us all to see including the windie he copied it from.

 

[Williams_Window_Cleaning]

Just a comment. You have to be very careful about what you put on Forums @Williams_Window_Cleaning.

In this case @PureShine has seen copying his leaflet as a complement. Of course what we don't know is if both of you used the same web designer.

Back to the point; a few years ago Ionics used to follow each breach of the use of their logo with heavy handed threats. You could only use their logo on the side of your van if it had an Ionics system inside. They had trademarked their logo.

There was also another windie who copied another's sign writing and again had to pay to have it removed. He proudly displayed photos of his new lettered van on the forums for us all to see including the windie he copied it from.

Yeah thanks for that @spruce I was pretty shocked when I saw we had the same leaflet. I asked a friend of mine who's a window cleaner to make me a design. I may be young but I'm rubbish at photoshop and not very creative.

I reckons hes probably gone on the forum and seen his leaflet and just copied it.

In future I'll have to make them myself and then I know it's nothing to do with anyone else's design. In this case @PureShine was nice enough to let me use them for now but you're right it could've been a lot worse