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dealing with new customers

G

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How do you deal with new customers? I have a really annoying problem and I think it mostly due to Internet advertising... lots of leads from online good.. right? Not always and some are a pain in the ass!

I normally do new customers on a Saturday, and I would say 1-5 "Internet only" new customers are a nightmare generally.

Becoming more and annoying:

1.They arrange a time and date, you go there, they forgot and nowhere to be seen!

2.They tell you they have x amount of windows you get there an there is x10 as many plus they are so dirty you could use them as a blackboard! You tell them its going to be more and they get pissy!

3.This one just pisses me off, on my website I said we can only do houses where we can park in the drive, or on the road closeby the house due to having a hose and even make them tick the box on the website! I get there an there is cars parked both sides bumper to bumper down the entire road, the house is jointed to another house each side and you have to go five houses down the road and then right around the back... because they wont let you go thru the house. (I have no problem if can go thru the house or park without sight of the house to be cleaned!.. but the entire road is full of cars!)

This is happening more and more from online advertising now I have a good google ranking.

I expect its people which struggle to get a window cleaner because of this and look online!

How can you say this to new customers on the phone.. If you live down a shitty road with no parking, and no access to house, and your windows are really dirty and its a one off **** off, nicely /emoticons/smile.png but they will not tell you this on the phone before hand!

Its every Saturday and I am ****** lol as you can see, but im sure others experience this problem? How do you stop time wasters?

 
sounds like youre not flexible enough,its getting to you ,the little things. you need to take on a load of wogs to teach you how to eat sh/t and keep smiling

i tend to quote a middling price online say ten quid , then when you get there sometimes i win cos its smaller or i might lose cos a tad bigger no matter

way i see it ,all work is good work. imagine if you were getting no response from your online effort, now that would really be a good reason to whine.

 
How do you deal with new customers? I have a really annoying problem and I think it mostly due to Internet advertising... lots of leads from online good.. right? Not always and some are a pain in the ass!
I normally do new customers on a Saturday, and I would say 1-5 "Internet only" new customers are a nightmare generally.

Becoming more and annoying:

1.They arrange a time and date, you go there, they forgot and nowhere to be seen!
Send a reminder text in the morning, or even just when you're on your way. I do this and never hada problem.

2.They tell you they have x amount of windows you get there an there is x10 as many plus they are so dirty you could use them as a blackboard! You tell them its going to be more and they get pissy!
Always give a rough quote on the phone."It'll be ABOUT £___ butwithout seeing it I can't be sure". Never had a problem with this either.

3.This one just pisses me off, on my website I said we can only do houses where we can park in the drive, or on the road closeby the house due to having a hose and even make them tick the box on the website! I get there an there is cars parked both sides bumper to bumper down the entire road, the house is jointed to another house each side and you have to go five houses down the road and then right around the back... because they wont let you go thru the house. (I have no problem if can go thru the house or park without sight of the house to be cleaned!.. but the entire road is full of cars!)
I'm no wfper, but surely this is limiting your work? Why not get a little trolley, or even a backpack for these occasions?

This is happening more and more from online advertising now I have a good google ranking.

I expect its people which struggle to get a window cleaner because of this and look online!
Scrap the online booking as its heavily open to abuse, and instead get a simple enquiery form, that way you get to respond instead of your computor dropping you in the ****.

How can you say this to new customers on the phone.. If you live down a shitty road with no parking, and no access to house, and your windows are really dirty and its a one off **** off, nicely /emoticons/smile.png but they will not tell you this on the phone before hand!
Always charge double for the first clean and assume they are minging, if they are not then its is a bonus.

Its every Saturday and I am ****** lol as you can see, but im sure others experience this problem? How do you stop time wasters?
Sounds like your biggest problem is your lack of interaction with the new customer. You need t be talking or emailing them to get an idea of what the job is about before agreeing to anything, and even then your price has to be vague until you see it.

 
Agree with the internet enquires - they are often more challenging.

But - I have been quite surprised about how many new enquiries are from people which my customers have kindly recommended. I include my website address with every form of contact with anyone (including texts) so I would imagine that they are just forwarding the website to their friends.

Lastly, if you are high up on google ratings then as you say quite a few enquiries will be coming through......I'm still on page 2 billion & 16...... so when I reach that stage I'll be coming to you for advice as at the moment I only get about 1 per day which I don't think has much to do with people sitting at their computer on day 3 going 'Think I've finally found a good one dear.....shall I fil out the enquiry form then?'

 
I do like the idea of a contact form as then you have the option to follow-up the enquiry or simply totally ignore it.

If they have spent time to fill in a complex contact form then normally this should weed out the timewasters surely?

If you’re thinking of trying to do an online booking system for customers to book online then you can forget that one as they don't work for mobile services like window cleaning for obvious reasons.

Regarding appointments, pricing jobs etc then it’s down to the individual how they go about this.

 
Just dont do estimates over phone or email? When pepole are emailing me and tell how many windows etc, they got i say thats a very nice count you made but i have to see it myself before giving you a price, never had a problem.

Some ppl try to mess over the internet say i only got 10 windows, then you tell em 10quid. You then show up and there is 30 windows instead and the custy goes a little angry and say "but you said it would be 10 quid". They try to make you feel guilty and clean them for 10 quid even though the price should been 30 quid and they know it..

Those ppl are the reason why i never quote over phone or email.

 
I'm just too lazy to go and quote a job as cheap as window cleaning unless I am in the area already. I much prefer to give them a rough price, and then change it on the day if needed. Double first clean charge usually covers any problems if I am a bit out. "I'll do it today for the price we agreed, but your monthly price is going to be a £___ I'm afraid". They're usually happy with this. My worst nightmare is turning up and giving a price, only to be told that they are looking for more quotes, so I'd rather sift the cheapskates out on the phone than waste diesel and time driving to them. I suppose my problem is that most people are out in the day, and the bulk of my work is half an hour from home in the city, and my evenings are mine.

 
I mostly go to see the job first as 99% of my work is within 2 miles of my house

Recently as i know which areas have which type houses i have started quoting witout seeing but only after aski.g if they have extension or conny etc..then i will go look but this town is divided into little areas and the way it is built all the 3 beds in 1 area are identical and the 2 beds etc so am never far out..and of course there is always google maps if I'm not sure

 
same as having to go same house three times to get your coin

take in time fuel, had one this week still hav,int got payment

weighed it up today not worth stress hassle over £15

the doylum was in the house makes it worse

 
I'm using google maps street view to quote, but you can get caught out, sometimes a property on the front can look small, get there and it goes on forever in the back. Shouldn't be so much of a problem in the UK though.

 
hate new jobs but on the other hand ...do need em...but its just having to get to know new people getting them to trust you etc takes time...

had a new one awaiting a quote for days but keep forgetting...:eek:

at the end of the day new business should really up your prices so is worth the effort..

but some people are of course the messers others have dropped...:whistle:

 
window cleaning is far too cheap to bother going out to quote, id rather be out a couple of quid than go quote only for them to turn you away.

 
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