Pricing please help

[Chris Ashurst]

If prices are that low it might be worth driving a little to a better priced area, ok so you have a few miles to drive before you start work but it might well pay better overall.
I assume you look like you are going to provide a quality service? i.e. company name on uniform, sign written van and look smart, be polite, explain glass, frames and sills etc?

I only started less than 12 months ago with a generous budget of almost 25k and its been the worst decision ever. Got a newish van all professionally wrapped and all clothing printed and always mentioned when giving quotes that I clean the windows, frames, sills and doors using purified water that dries leaving the glass perfectly clean. My idea was to offer a "better" service at a slightly higher price. On a lot of quotes even though the potential customer wasn't happy with their current/previous window cleaner they weren't happy to pay any more for a better service. After 10 months and 80,000 leaflets delivered and many hundreds of doors knocked I'd only got 86 customers (Didn't really warrant the reelmaster )
Out of those 86 customers only 1 agreed to set-up a direct debit. Now 26 of these 86 customers have either constantly failed to leave gates unlocked for access despite me texting them the evening before or have failed to pay via BACS or over 2 months or keep wanting to skip a clean, so I've got rid of all 26 leaving me with 60 customers Out of these 60 customers the majority of them have awkward access or are awkward in some way or other. In other words they are jobs that a well established window cleaner wouldn't take on.
If an area is flooded with cleaners it's almost impossible to build up a round. It's certainly impossible to build up a compact round.
I recently did 9 x £10 jobs and it took 5hrs due to having to get back in the van and sit in traffic between each job. That's £18 per hour
You read on the forums about lads with hundreds of customers, all compact work, hardly needing to move the van all day, and all on GoCardless ...unfortunately that ain't happening where I am. To be honest I wouldn't want hundreds of customers if the prices are too low as there's no way am I standing there scrubbing windows on a 4 / 5 bedroom detached house with conservatory for £15 like most here are. Should have tested the water with just a backpack and worked from the car to start with instead of diving straight in.
Anyways light at the end of the tunnel...spent a few grand on a couple of triple motor gutter vacs, carbon poles and generator and the money is finally coming in.
These people who refuse to spend £20 having the windows on their 5 bedroom detached houses cleaned will happily pay £100 having their gutters vacuumed even though it takes roughly the same time as cleaning their windows, so that's the direction I've gone down.
A lot of these really good compact rounds were built many year's ago, often started as traditional gradually moving customers over to wfp. I guess some parts of the UK like Cornwall for example have a shortage of cleaners and building a good compact round there could be done rapidly with good prices earning over £60 per hour no problem, but there are other areas that building any sort of a round is near impossible. I tried various areas within 10 miles of where I live. The tank and the reelmaster have gone, the vans suspension is much happier for it, and I'll continue to do the few good paying decent customers I have with the Nano trolley just to give me a bit of a change from the gutters. I've only had 20,000 gutter cleaning leaflets delivered and they've given better results than the 80,000 I had delivered for windows and no more chapping doors!!

 

[THL4KEL]

Majority of my customers it's an essential service... Whole world could be going to 5hit... As long as the window have been cleaned they are happy... Lockdown proved that with them...

 

[THL4KEL]

I only started less than 12 months ago with a generous budget of almost 25k and its been the worst decision ever. Got a newish van all professionally wrapped and all clothing printed and always mentioned when giving quotes that I clean the windows, frames, sills and doors using purified water that dries leaving the glass perfectly clean. My idea was to offer a "better" service at a slightly higher price. On a lot of quotes even though the potential customer wasn't happy with their current/previous window cleaner they weren't happy to pay any more for a better service. After 10 months and 80,000 leaflets delivered and many hundreds of doors knocked I'd only got 86 customers (Didn't really warrant the reelmaster )
Out of those 86 customers only 1 agreed to set-up a direct debit. Now 26 of these 86 customers have either constantly failed to leave gates unlocked for access despite me texting them the evening before or have failed to pay via BACS or over 2 months or keep wanting to skip a clean, so I've got rid of all 26 leaving me with 60 customers Out of these 60 customers the majority of them have awkward access or are awkward in some way or other. In other words they are jobs that a well established window cleaner wouldn't take on.
If an area is flooded with cleaners it's almost impossible to build up a round. It's certainly impossible to build up a compact round.
I recently did 9 x £10 jobs and it took 5hrs due to having to get back in the van and sit in traffic between each job. That's £18 per hour
You read on the forums about lads with hundreds of customers, all compact work, hardly needing to move the van all day, and all on GoCardless ...unfortunately that ain't happening where I am. To be honest I wouldn't want hundreds of customers if the prices are too low as there's no way am I standing there scrubbing windows on a 4 / 5 bedroom detached house with conservatory for £15 like most here are. Should have tested the water with just a backpack and worked from the car to start with instead of diving straight in.
Anyways light at the end of the tunnel...spent a few grand on a couple of triple motor gutter vacs, carbon poles and generator and the money is finally coming in.
These people who refuse to spend £20 having the windows on their 5 bedroom detached houses cleaned will happily pay £100 having their gutters vacuumed even though it takes roughly the same time as cleaning their windows, so that's the direction I've gone down.
A lot of these really good compact rounds were built many year's ago, often started as traditional gradually moving customers over to wfp. I guess some parts of the UK like Cornwall for example have a shortage of cleaners and building a good compact round there could be done rapidly with good prices earning over £60 per hour no problem, but there are other areas that building any sort of a round is near impossible. I tried various areas within 10 miles of where I live. The tank and the reelmaster have gone, the vans suspension is much happier for it, and I'll continue to do the few good paying decent customers I have with the Nano trolley just to give me a bit of a change from the gutters. I've only had 20,000 gutter cleaning leaflets delivered and they've given better results than the 80,000 I had delivered for windows and no more chapping doors!!

I do a lot of gutter clearances for people who are not my window cleaning customers. There have been times I have looked at the windows and they looked like they haven't been cleaned but when I spoke to the customer they are have been, by their window cleaner who just does the glass and has done for many years.

But the customer although not very happy with the standard is happy to stay with the same window cleaner because they have served them for the last 10/20 years....

You have come into this at a hard time, cost of living crisis ect..

 

[doce]

Window cleaning is not an essential service it's only cosmetic. A lot of people are not interested in maintaining perfectly clean windows, frames, sills and doors. They just want someone to come and clean them once they're filthy for Christmas of if sitting outside in the summertime.

Exactly that. It’s very much a discretionary service, and one of the first to go when incomes are stretched - as they’re starting to be, quite badly, in less affluent areas. Very much not a case of charging what you want, but what the local market will bear. Or maybe travelling 100 miles south for the work, but avoiding living there because of the housing costs!

 

[dazmond]

I only started less than 12 months ago with a generous budget of almost 25k and its been the worst decision ever. Got a newish van all professionally wrapped and all clothing printed and always mentioned when giving quotes that I clean the windows, frames, sills and doors using purified water that dries leaving the glass perfectly clean. My idea was to offer a "better" service at a slightly higher price. On a lot of quotes even though the potential customer wasn't happy with their current/previous window cleaner they weren't happy to pay any more for a better service. After 10 months and 80,000 leaflets delivered and many hundreds of doors knocked I'd only got 86 customers (Didn't really warrant the reelmaster )
Out of those 86 customers only 1 agreed to set-up a direct debit. Now 26 of these 86 customers have either constantly failed to leave gates unlocked for access despite me texting them the evening before or have failed to pay via BACS or over 2 months or keep wanting to skip a clean, so I've got rid of all 26 leaving me with 60 customers Out of these 60 customers the majority of them have awkward access or are awkward in some way or other. In other words they are jobs that a well established window cleaner wouldn't take on.
If an area is flooded with cleaners it's almost impossible to build up a round. It's certainly impossible to build up a compact round.
I recently did 9 x £10 jobs and it took 5hrs due to having to get back in the van and sit in traffic between each job. That's £18 per hour
You read on the forums about lads with hundreds of customers, all compact work, hardly needing to move the van all day, and all on GoCardless ...unfortunately that ain't happening where I am. To be honest I wouldn't want hundreds of customers if the prices are too low as there's no way am I standing there scrubbing windows on a 4 / 5 bedroom detached house with conservatory for £15 like most here are. Should have tested the water with just a backpack and worked from the car to start with instead of diving straight in.
Anyways light at the end of the tunnel...spent a few grand on a couple of triple motor gutter vacs, carbon poles and generator and the money is finally coming in.
These people who refuse to spend £20 having the windows on their 5 bedroom detached houses cleaned will happily pay £100 having their gutters vacuumed even though it takes roughly the same time as cleaning their windows, so that's the direction I've gone down.
A lot of these really good compact rounds were built many year's ago, often started as traditional gradually moving customers over to wfp. I guess some parts of the UK like Cornwall for example have a shortage of cleaners and building a good compact round there could be done rapidly with good prices earning over £60 per hour no problem, but there are other areas that building any sort of a round is near impossible. I tried various areas within 10 miles of where I live. The tank and the reelmaster have gone, the vans suspension is much happier for it, and I'll continue to do the few good paying decent customers I have with the Nano trolley just to give me a bit of a change from the gutters. I've only had 20,000 gutter cleaning leaflets delivered and they've given better results than the 80,000 I had delivered for windows and no more chapping doors!!

I've been window cleaning since Jan 1993 (so 32 years next month)You just can't expect to build a good round in less than 12 months. It just doesn't happen that quickly.I decided many years ago to concentrate on just one very affluent area 15 mins drive from home. I now have around 300 jobs in this area with a mixture of 3 bed semis,4 and 5 bedders,offices,children's homes,a large church and everything in between...

My goal has always been to work part time for a decent income with virtually no stress and I've definitely achieved that now after all these years.

I'm also virtually,exclusively window cleaning with the odd add on UPVC clean(conny roof,solar panels for existing customers).

I don't offer gutter clearing,inside window cleaning or any job that requires me to climb ladders to access windows anymore.

The reelmaster is a fantastic bit of kit and makes my working days easier. Mines nearly 7 years old and still going strong!

 

[ched999uk]

I only started less than 12 months ago with a generous budget of almost 25k and its been the worst decision ever. Got a newish van all professionally wrapped and all clothing printed and always mentioned when giving quotes that I clean the windows, frames, sills and doors using purified water that dries leaving the glass perfectly clean. My idea was to offer a "better" service at a slightly higher price. On a lot of quotes even though the potential customer wasn't happy with their current/previous window cleaner they weren't happy to pay any more for a better service. After 10 months and 80,000 leaflets delivered and many hundreds of doors knocked I'd only got 86 customers (Didn't really warrant the reelmaster )
Out of those 86 customers only 1 agreed to set-up a direct debit. Now 26 of these 86 customers have either constantly failed to leave gates unlocked for access despite me texting them the evening before or have failed to pay via BACS or over 2 months or keep wanting to skip a clean, so I've got rid of all 26 leaving me with 60 customers Out of these 60 customers the majority of them have awkward access or are awkward in some way or other. In other words they are jobs that a well established window cleaner wouldn't take on.
If an area is flooded with cleaners it's almost impossible to build up a round. It's certainly impossible to build up a compact round.
I recently did 9 x £10 jobs and it took 5hrs due to having to get back in the van and sit in traffic between each job. That's £18 per hour
You read on the forums about lads with hundreds of customers, all compact work, hardly needing to move the van all day, and all on GoCardless ...unfortunately that ain't happening where I am. To be honest I wouldn't want hundreds of customers if the prices are too low as there's no way am I standing there scrubbing windows on a 4 / 5 bedroom detached house with conservatory for £15 like most here are. Should have tested the water with just a backpack and worked from the car to start with instead of diving straight in.
Anyways light at the end of the tunnel...spent a few grand on a couple of triple motor gutter vacs, carbon poles and generator and the money is finally coming in.
These people who refuse to spend £20 having the windows on their 5 bedroom detached houses cleaned will happily pay £100 having their gutters vacuumed even though it takes roughly the same time as cleaning their windows, so that's the direction I've gone down.
A lot of these really good compact rounds were built many year's ago, often started as traditional gradually moving customers over to wfp. I guess some parts of the UK like Cornwall for example have a shortage of cleaners and building a good compact round there could be done rapidly with good prices earning over £60 per hour no problem, but there are other areas that building any sort of a round is near impossible. I tried various areas within 10 miles of where I live. The tank and the reelmaster have gone, the vans suspension is much happier for it, and I'll continue to do the few good paying decent customers I have with the Nano trolley just to give me a bit of a change from the gutters. I've only had 20,000 gutter cleaning leaflets delivered and they've given better results than the 80,000 I had delivered for windows and no more chapping doors!!

Sounds like you have been doing the right things but it hasn't worked for you. Switching to gutter vac may be working currently but I wouldn't put all your eggs in one basket, once spring comes the work may dry up a bit.
Have you tried upselling from a gutter empty to gutter empty and gutter, soffit and fascia clean as you could probably double your income per job?
Might be worth trying an area a little further than 10 miles away, ok so none of us want to be spending hrs on the road but say a 30min drive each way for a more affluent or less saturated area might work. Personally I would say 1% return on leaflets is good, some areas can be virtually zero.
If you can gain customers for window cleaning they they become the ones that gutter empty and clean is an easy sell and become your break and butter jobs.
Finding good customers is the difficult bit, it does take time and building a compact round is very very difficult these days (well in my area it is) that said, all my work is within 3 miles of my house, I have a few where I can do 2 or 3 houses without moving the van but most I do move the van. Gocardless is nice but it's not liked by a lot of customers in my area. I think some parts of the country like it more than others.

They do say a huge proportion of businesses fail within 12 months but that doesn't mean you have too. By branching into gutter emptying you sound like you are keeping afloat.
Hopefully we have good weather when we get to spring as that should make it easier to pick up customers.
I assume you have google my business setup, facebook, nextdoor, local lists etc? Website takes a long time to get towards the top and I don't find very good for bring in customers but I think it shows you are more professional if someone looks you up.

Good luck and keep us informed.

 

[Chris Ashurst]

Exactly that. It’s very much a discretionary service, and one of the first to go when incomes are stretched - as they’re starting to be, quite badly, in less affluent areas. Very much not a case of charging what you want, but what the local market will bear. Or maybe travelling 100 miles south for the work, but avoiding living there because of the housing costs!

I've only advertised in fairly affluent areas mainly big detached properties. But the amount of hassle with customers not paying and not leaving access is ridiculous. Problem is by texting the customer the evening before to remind them to leave gate unlocked, you are also giving them the opportunity to text back asking is it ok to skip this months clean and that's what's happening regularly. Some of these customers have 2 Tesla's plugged in on the driveway. I gave one quote of £20 for a 4 bed with conservatory and she went pale around the gills and he started shaking telling me their previous window cleaner only charged £14. They then asked how much just for upstairs and I replied £10. They both just stood there on their driveway in-between 100k worth of German cars shaking their heads. Unbelievably, they then asked if they were to go ahead with the upstairs was it OK if they could miss having the windows cleaned during the 2 months they're in the Maldives each year Most of my jobs are 4 / 5 bed mostly with conservatory for £20. Every one of these customers said their previous window cleaner only charged £14 - £15. Even at £20 it's ridiculously cheap for windows, frames, sills and doors including conservatory. The service is worth £30 at least.

 

[Part Timer]

I've only advertised in fairly affluent areas mainly big detached properties. But the amount of hassle with customers not paying and not leaving access is ridiculous. Problem is by texting the customer the evening before to remind them to leave gate unlocked, you are also giving them the opportunity to text back asking is it ok to skip this months clean and that's what's happening regularly. Some of these customers have 2 Tesla's plugged in on the driveway. I gave one quote of £20 for a 4 bed with conservatory and she went pale around the gills and he started shaking telling me their previous window cleaner only charged £14. They then asked how much just for upstairs and I replied £10. They both just stood there on their driveway in-between 100k worth of German cars shaking their heads. Unbelievably, they then asked if they were to go ahead with the upstairs was it OK if they could miss having the windows cleaned during the 2 months they're in the Maldives each year Most of my jobs are 4 / 5 bed mostly with conservatory for £20. Every one of these customers said their previous window cleaner only charged £14 - £15. Even at £20 it's ridiculously cheap for windows, frames, sills and doors including conservatory. The service is worth £30 at least.

Have you tried selling them a 2 monthly clean for £30, much less likely to cancel and it won't really take you any longer to do the clean. When I first started we got a few enquiries via phone call. When they asked what we would charge we said we'd have to view it but our minimum charge was £10, 90% of the time they put the phone down before we found out where they lived

Invariably you're fighting a losing battle if the previous cleaner was really cheap

 

[Chris Ashurst]

Have you tried selling them a 2 monthly clean for £30, much less likely to cancel and it won't really take you any longer to do the clean. When I first started we got a few enquiries via phone call. When they asked what we would charge we said we'd have to view it but our minimum charge was £10, 90% of the time they put the phone down before we found out where they lived

Invariably you're fighting a losing battle if the previous cleaner was really cheap

In many areas it's just looked at as a cheap non essential service. Potential customers don't realise that you might have 5 - 10k worth of kit in the back of the van especially if you're using hot water. With me charging £20 for a 4 /5 bed with conservatory, by the time you've got back in the van and drove to the next job a full hours almost gone, so you're messing about on £20 per hour.

 

[dazmond]

You will pick up good customers it just takes time. For 4 or 5 bedders £20 is simply too low IMO. They should be at least £25-£30 and cleaned 8 weekly. You'll find more people will pay more for a longer frequency clean.

 

[Pjj]

Exactly that. It’s very much a discretionary service, and one of the first to go when incomes are stretched - as they’re starting to be, quite badly, in less affluent areas. Very much not a case of charging what you want, but what the local market will bear. Or maybe travelling 100 miles south for the work, but avoiding living there because of the housing costs!

I have found the total opposite ones have said they must have clean windows and would cut back in other areas to have clean windows crazy but that’s how many feel .

 

[ched999uk]

I've only advertised in fairly affluent areas mainly big detached properties.

That could be the issue. I find that sometimes it's easier to get decent prices from the smaller properties. I found leafletting the 'posh' houses returned a much lower response rate. Maybe try the middle income areas, what used to be referred to as blue collar workers. Don't get me wrong some of the big detached properties can be worth doing but I find the less affluent customers are the most appreciative.

 

[THL4KEL]

I think a lot of it due to trust, if you own house worth a fortune, just because you get a knock on the door or get a leaflet through the letterbox doesn't mean your going to trust that person to come round your property every month. If I was you I'd target the whole town not just the richer properties.