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Time between cleans

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Craigmac

Well-known member
Messages
172
Location
Swansea
So I had customer today done the initial clean before I started she asked "You do the frames aswell" So the inner Darren came out "yes miss Smith frames, windows, sills and doors".

She went in and I started the service when I notice masking tape around the frames and paint spots on windows, frames and sills. So I am STRESSING at this point.

Finished the service said they needed a restoration job on the windows and call the painters back to sort it out as she wouldn't pay for them being sloppy.

I could not do it as I am not happy using strong strippers at this point. "Managing expectations" 

Anyway back to the point of this post. Customer wants an 8 weekly service. At what point would you have to 're use some form of degreaser or tfr?. 

The initial clean costs more due to time taken and chemicals used. So if I am back in 8 weeks and have to break out the degreaser then my £15 for a 15 min job suddenly turns into £15 for a 45min job.

Am I over thinking this and is 8 weeks just within the time where you would get away with just water?. It's in a one way street with light-medium traffic.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
At what point would you have to re-use degreaser/TFR - simply put, when it needs it, the job is to clean and maintain - if that’s not possible in the ‘timeframe’ you’ve priced it up at then you’ve underpriced it. From experience sometimes it’s a quick tickle and others the degreaser has to come out because the spiders have hatched and sh1t3 all over the sills. It’s a guessing game at first but once you’ve cleaned a job a few times you get to know what to (kind of!) expect. As part timer said - some monthly cleans are harder/dirtier than bi-monthly purely due to location or surroundings.


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I have a mixture of 6 weekly & 8 weekly rounds. I find 8 weekly the best priced. An average £20 house you can always quote  £25/£28 on a 8 weekly time frame in my experience. But yes, some 8 weekly’s on a busy road will noticeably be worse. But no way would you need tfr for a 8 weekly window clean (in my opinion)

I have 3x 16weelky cleans on my rounds, they probably only take 10/20% longer than if they were done monthly. 

 
I recently changed how I quote to deal with this. I used to discuss a price and try and sell them a 4 week clean instead of an 8 based on how clean the windows would be. I would tell them all about how we are in the business of maintaining clean windows... Poor poor results. Over 80% were going for 8 weekly cleans.

Now I ask the customer how often they want them cleaned. It throws them so they don't have time to think about saying 4 weekly and moving to 8 weekly after the first clean or any dodgy tactics like that. I give the cheapest price for 4 weekly and normally whack 5/6 quid on for 8 weekly. I think this is the right thing to do. Why should loyal 4 week customers pay the same as someone who is going for 8 weeks?

I turned up to an 8 week clean on Thursday (A week late because she wanted her conny roof doing too) and the house was plastered with spiders webs, took ages longer getting rid of them all. Don't get me wrong it isn't always like that, through the winter she's only slightly longer than a 4 week clean. This was one of my first customers so I am only charging £15, that would be a fair rate for a 4 week of this size but lesson learned on that point!

 
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