Pricing past and present

[spruce]

This pic is one the reasons they will see some failure it had being done by one national and is now done by another, this pic is of a window at the back of a building were no staff go I presume, the front windows are almost spotless but still shoddy 

View attachment 18533

Employed staff can be very good at cutting corners when they see the opportunity to do so. Mind you, I'm guessing that if they cleaned these wfp they would have major issues with bleed down streaks from the top windows to begin with. Knowing big business, the cleaners will be given a virtually impossible time to clean the building so these guys start finding time saving measures.

As long as the account is paid who cares. Nobody will report poor workmanship in the building because the account will be managed at head-office. Over time what was an unacceptable standard of service become acceptable, then the norm and later the 'gold standard.'

One of the staff will be collared to sign the job off who has no authority to question the cleaning standards achieved.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Because banks online  security is outdated by years aka a pile of ?, I remember a discussion on radio 2 saying how some of the biggest banks have tech and systems from the 80's and online fraud is something they simply accept happens, this was 2 years ago and fraud is still massive 

They will be coming ?

Them Russians ?

Did a few detached houses yesterday and priced a £400k house. Told the guy it would be £20 a calendar month and he seem happy with it. He said the other guy traded the windows but they were covered with small lead squares. I don't know how he did it but i told him i would be using pure hot water through the pole. How can you possibly trade over pretruding lead strips? ?

 

[ks789]

Them Russians ?

Did a few detached houses yesterday and priced a £400k house. Told the guy it would be £20 a calendar month and he seem happy with it. He said the other guy traded the windows but they were covered with small lead squares. I don't know how he did it but i told him i would be using pure hot water through the pole. How can you possibly trade over pretruding lead strips? ?

 Lol them russians, thats the customer you want, loaded russian oligarch (is that how you spell it?) Money no object and happy to pay 100s for half hour work. 'In my country mr Bond water fed pole is a delicacy' ? ??  and just to keep in with the Bond theme, as its near xmas, heres that dodgy cat that used to love seeing people fed to crocs or whatever it was? cant remember ? 

 

[Iron Giant]

Employed staff can be very good at cutting corners when they see the opportunity to do so. Mind you, I'm guessing that if they cleaned these wfp they would have major issues with bleed down streaks from the top windows to begin with. Knowing big business, the cleaners will be given a virtually impossible time to clean the building so these guys start finding time saving measures.

As long as the account is paid who cares. Nobody will report poor workmanship in the building because the account will be managed at head-office. Over time what was an unacceptable standard of service become acceptable, then the norm and later the 'gold standard.'

One of the staff will be collared to sign the job off who has no authority to question the cleaning standards achieved.

It's a one/ground floor building under the nhs, they are known for poor workmanship and no doubt they will also cover your work area this firm is City ---- they have a green and yellow logo 

Them Russians ?

Did a few detached houses yesterday and priced a £400k house. Told the guy it would be £20 a calendar month and he seem happy with it. He said the other guy traded the windows but they were covered with small lead squares. I don't know how he did it but i told him i would be using pure hot water through the pole. How can you possibly trade over pretruding lead strips? ?

Got nowt to do with a certain nationality, the UK banks are lax with security. with a lot of big firms and goverment they don't like spending money but they will happily waste it. 

 

[spruce]

It's a one/ground floor building under the nhs, they are known for poor workmanship and no doubt they will also cover your work area this firm is City ---- they have a green and yellow logo 

Know them pretty well. Last time I saw them one of their employees was obviously feeling a little disgruntled. He stood in the back of his van and threw his petal hose reel out onto the road. He must have done it often as this hose reel had a wheel missing and looked like a scrap car that had just come out of the crusher.

They used to clean a library near us. The cleaner was filling a half drum of water from the tap which he pumped through a large resin di vessel lying on the floor of his van. By the look of the results, that resin was spent ages before.

But they could show accounts with an annual turnover of 2 million plus in those days, so that was one of the criteria for getting work with the NHS and other quasi (if that's the right term used in the UK) government departments

 

[scottish cleaning service]

We have a lovely health centre in town and the big glass windows haven't been cleaned for years. It even has a glass roof which is undescribable. We have a big problem with maintenance up here, only last month our shopping centre roof caved in. It had been leaking water for years and the answer was to put a bucket on the floor and put cones round it. Its just the way it is and i don't think it will change that's why the domestic market is good, folk realise they are living in an asset.

 

[Skxawng]

Them Russians ?

Did a few detached houses yesterday and priced a £400k house. Told the guy it would be £20 a calendar month and he seem happy with it. He said the other guy traded the windows but they were covered with small lead squares. I don't know how he did it but i told him i would be using pure hot water through the pole. How can you possibly trade over pretruding lead strips? ?

Simple. First clean/one off- app, blade then dry with scrim. Regular clean just wet n dry scrim and a lot of elbow grease. Used to have a street full of them. By the time I got to the top of the street my arms were ready to drop off! I don't do them trad anymore thank goodness!

 

[Guest]

Employed staff can be very good at cutting corners when they see the opportunity to do so. Mind you, I'm guessing that if they cleaned these wfp they would have major issues with bleed down streaks from the top windows to begin with. Knowing big business, the cleaners will be given a virtually impossible time to clean the building so these guys start finding time saving measures.

As long as the account is paid who cares. Nobody will report poor workmanship in the building because the account will be managed at head-office. Over time what was an unacceptable standard of service become acceptable, then the norm and later the 'gold standard.'

One of the staff will be collared to sign the job off who has no authority to question the cleaning standards achieved.

One of our guys was timed cleaning a house by a customer recently. 4 minutes!

A twenty pound job that would take me maybe 25 minutes at a leisurely pace.

Needless to say he’s no longer with us.

Some staff will cut corners at every opportunity. Others are too meticulous and slow.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Thats how i don't like employing anyone. I do everything by the book and what a pleasure i get when I'm pulled up about anything. Received some horrible texts regarding scratching a friends glass and she even told her neighbour who i also clean. Went up and checked it out and they were in the glass units which were 6 months old. She apologised but the trust was lost and i only charge her a fiver a month. If she wasn't a close friend i wouldn't go back. The other one was a neighbour who said i left runs from the top of glass. Went back and again they are inside the glass unit. I said i would swap the unit for a ton but she was embarressed  and told me not to bother. That is the only two complaints when trading and they had nothing to do with me. Wfp is a different matter when i later found out i was using a contaminated brush. Workers know that the complaints will end up with the boss and all the boss can do is sack them. Sometimes that's what they are looking for because of the low pay.

 

[steve garwood]

Thats how i don't like employing anyone. I do everything by the book and what a pleasure i get when I'm pulled up about anything. Received some horrible texts regarding scratching a friends glass and she even told her neighbour who i also clean. Went up and checked it out and they were in the glass units which were 6 months old. She apologised but the trust was lost and i only charge her a fiver a month. If she wasn't a close friend i wouldn't go back. The other one was a neighbour who said i left runs from the top of glass. Went back and again they are inside the glass unit. I said i would swap the unit for a ton but she was embarressed  and told me not to bother. That is the only two complaints when trading and they had nothing to do with me. Wfp is a different matter when i later found out i was using a contaminated brush. Workers know that the complaints will end up with the boss and all the boss can do is sack them. Sometimes that's what they are looking for because of the low pay.

Bit of a sweeping statement that.

Im on my third employee and all three of them have been brilliant.

I still keep in touch with the previous two, in fact Danny, my first employee, bought a round of me.

Not all employees are the same 

 

[THL4KEL]

What the boss can do especially if he is a decent boss is not just sack them. He can start off by inducting them into his company, give them some training on H&S and what his expectations are on how to clean, how to operate equipment, how to deal with customers, how to deal with complaints ect. Basically have a staff handbook with process / procedures for the job.

Then shadow them on some jobs when they start out and carry out a few checks on workmanship overtime checking his equipment is being looked after and company standards are upheld.

Ideally you work out the good from the bad in the interview process. 

 

[Iron Giant]

What the boss can do especially if he is a decent boss is not just sack them. He can start off by inducting them into his company, give them some training on H&S and what his expectations are on how to clean, how to operate equipment, how to deal with customers, how to deal with complaints ect. Basically have a staff handbook with process / procedures for the job.

Then shadow them on some jobs when they start out and carry out a few checks on workmanship overtime checking his equipment is being looked after and company standards are upheld.

Ideally you work out the good from the bad in the interview process. 

Or send them to the @steve garwood school of window cleaning/employer employee team building, I am guessing there is more than good fortune involved with Steve, I would be inclined to think what you have outlined above plus been a good employer 

 

[steve garwood]

Or send them to the @steve garwood school of window cleaning/employer employee team building, I am guessing there is more than good fortune involved with Steve, I would be inclined to think what you have outlined above plus been a good employer 

Thank you. I try not to have the persona of a ‘boss’ with them, more of a friend.

Don’t get me wrong, they know not to take liberties. 
I never, ever tell them to do anything. I always ask them to do it.

These little things have worked for me over the years.

Next year my worker Jake has been offered a job in Australia for two years with an uncle over there. If he takes it, I’m going to sell one third of my round to another windie I’m friends with, and go 3 and a half days a week.

I’ve got another 6-7 years to a big pension pay out, so want to start to ease down.

 

[Iron Giant]

Thank you. I try not to have the persona of a ‘boss’ with them, more of a friend.

Don’t get me wrong, they know not to take liberties. 
I never, ever tell them to do anything. I always ask them to do it.

These little things have worked for me over the years.

Next year my worker Jake has been offered a job in Australia for two years with an uncle over there. If he takes it, I’m going to sell one third of my round to another windie I’m friends with, and go 3 and a half days a week.

I’ve got another 6-7 years to a big pension pay out, so want to start to ease down.

I thought as much, always better to ask than tell, a little off will be my example my wife is to soft with our dog yet kicks off when he doesn't what she expects of him and he gets told off, yet after 6 years he still takes very little notice of her, he knows what is expected of him from me and will walk to heel and do everything that I ask of him, one stop whistle as he is racing towards a main road chasing after a deer and he stops and comes back on recall, we have an understanding/mutual respect and he puts me far above my wife no matter how much she spoils him. I am guessing you have always been a decent employer in the true sense of decent.

On the flip side a crappy employer along with crappy wages will no doubt, get or breed a crappy employee, as I have said in the past there is a balance in life. 


 

 

[Davy G]

I spent most of my life as an employee. Fixed, modest wages, little or no bonus. No real insentive other than my own conscienceous work ethics, the drive to try and better my life and the fear of losing my job and not being able to pay my bills and mortgage.

I've always believed that to get the most out of a worker It's better to treat them with respect and give a worthwhile financial insentive. Ie; a partial profit share and job and finish if feasible, but the work has to be done to a very high standard. Any complaints would have to be sorted out in the worker's own time.

My son and I work as business partners and best buddies and for the first time in my life I look forward to going to work in the mornings.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

When I joined the fire service we were getting 4 to 5% wages rises every year and everyone from the bottom to the top were happy. We were all looking forward to go to work. Then we went on strike and it was mayhem, i couldn't believe what i was seeing in the change in human behaviour. After strike we got 16% wage rise and everyone happy again bar station officers who got a £3.5k wage cut and they weren't very happy. Everything was fine till labour got kicked out and wage rises stopped and the happy times were well and truly over. No one now really interested now because the Politicians don't care unless there is a major incident or terror attack. That's the only time you see them so they can get their big baw faces on the TV. In the end it all comes down to one thing, give more money if you want to be liked, keep it the same or take money away and you will be disliked. The way they work now is by holding back the wage rises and many years later they give you a modest rise to look good. All it represents is some of the money you should have got if they kept up with inflation. 

 

[mike007]

Them Russians ?

Did a few detached houses yesterday and priced a £400k house. Told the guy it would be £20 a calendar month and he seem happy with it. He said the other guy traded the windows but they were covered with small lead squares. I don't know how he did it but i told him i would be using pure hot water through the pole. How can you possibly trade over pretruding lead strips? ?

Old fashioned way my son, moisten with applicator, squeegee off most of water(using a old rubber in squeegee) and polish with scrims.....windows were cleaned prior to the advent of wfp.

 

[mike007]

the main thing thats been missed when "scaremongering" that we will all be forced to lower our prices and work more hours to make the same money because of the hordes of window cleaners all fighting over too little domestic work(i doubt that very much!)is people buy people.......if your friendly,approachable,smart,polite,professional with a nice tidy sign written van,reliable,well established in affluent areas then you have absolutely nothing to worry about....

this sort of scaremongering has all been said before.......PROJECT FEAR!

personally ive never had it so good as a window cleaner...sometimes i have to pinch myself....i love the short hours and ive never earned as much money as i do now and ive recently stopped collecting after 26 years as most customers pay online these days.....happy days indeed....

and yes i have my work regularly canvassed and leafleted at least 5 or 6 times a year and have done for many years.....it doesnt bother me one bit as i make sure my own house is in order(regular,reliable and do a good job).

Yes but what if one of the other regular reliable window cleaners expand and gets another van and employee  working the area and underprices you and takes 20% of your customers?...you would HAVE to re-appraise surely!!!

 

[dazmond]

Yes but what if one of the other regular reliable window cleaners expand and gets another van and employee  working the area and underprices you and takes 20% of your customers?...you would HAVE to re-appraise surely!!!

it simply doesnt happen often enough to worry about it......generally customers dont jump ship to save a few quid to a another window cleaner ...in fact quite the opposite they tend to be fiercely loyal when you ve been cleaning their windows for many years.....i have lost the odd one or two but also picked up some of theirs as well....its swings and roundabouts..