Customers who demand a set time or day

How do you work around these nose awkward of customers. The ones who say it has to be a Friday or can you call in the afternoon or between 10-11?

Today I only have 5 customers left to do so was gonna get them done then come back and sort my van as it's a mess. But one custy wants me to go after 12 and do does another custy but there 15 mins apart. Then another needs me to go at 11 to get back access. So basically today is going to be a mess about for £50.

Should I dump them or try to move other work to coincide with them. They are some of my best payers to be fair

I feel like I would be better dumping theses types and spend the time canvassing.

Also how many customers do you have to get thru to have your round as you want it. I have as many ex customers as current ones! It's hard to find a good custy who leaves gate unlocked and pays online promptly most are pain in the ****.

I've got a few (less than ten off the top of my head) customers who need me there at a certain time because of access issues (having to go through the house) or to fit in around their work etc. At the moment i put up with it because it's not a massive deal having to fit around two people a week. I do it on the understanding that I'll do my best buying can't always guarantee that I'll be able to accommodate them. If I had dozens of customers who gave me this problem is probably look at culling them.

I've been lucky that I haven't gone through too many customers. Every couple of weeks I'll get someone leave, normally because they can't afford it I think. Thankfully I'm taking on new customers left, right and centre at the moment as well as getting plenty of one-offs which usually end up becoming regular customers.

My approach to this would be to offer them an appointment service, they can name a time and day but there is a call out charge, say add on £10, if they don't agree then dump.

Tell them politely that you don't offer a personalized service. If they want cleans done at specific times then that's fine, but you need to charge for that. So a £10.00 clean becomes a £25.00 clean for example. We can't work the same way as mobile ladies hairdressers.

Expect them to get annoyed and dump you, but you need to help them understand that a personalized clean restricts you in the number of cleans you can do a day and so therefore affects the profitability of your business. Remember, doing a clean to a specific time costs you time traveling and then moving on to the next appointment. So it isn't just cleaning time. You also need to plan a bigger time space between appointments as being late for the next appointment will aggravate your next customer as they will already be grieved a paying a premium price.

I guarantee that even although some may initially accept your appointment terms, they will move on as soon as they can find a newbie who will pander to their time frame demands and charge the going rate. I wouldn't expect you will be cleaning any of the 5 in a year's time.

Difficult customers don't see themselves as the issue, and they will treat each new window cleaner the same way as the previous one who dumped them or that they dumped.

When I first started out I had this problem too, I tried explaining it not possible to drop everything when i got others to do, so I stop doing it.

My mother once asked if I could cleaned her friend windows which I was more than happy to do so.

I spoke to the woman she started telling me what time and the best day to be round, I put my foot down and said I don't work like that, I can text you the day before so you can leave the gate unbolted.

She said she won't leave the gate unbolted so I said I'm more than happy to climb over the fence, She said don't do that you might damage my fence!

So I told her you better off finding another windows cleaner cos this is not gonna work & told my mother not to bother recommending me to people from now on, I find my own work.

How do you work around these nose awkward of customers. The ones who say it has to be a Friday or can you call in the afternoon or between 10-11?
Today I only have 5 customers left to do so was gonna get them done then come back and sort my van as it's a mess. But one custy wants me to go after 12 and do does another custy but there 15 mins apart. Then another needs me to go at 11 to get back access. So basically today is going to be a mess about for £50.

Should I dump them or try to move other work to coincide with them. They are some of my best payers to be fair

I feel like I would be better dumping theses types and spend the time canvassing.

Also how many customers do you have to get thru to have your round as you want it. I have as many ex customers as current ones! It's hard to find a good custy who leaves gate unlocked and pays online promptly most are pain in the ****.

Click to expand...

I've got a few of them, sometimes we need to be firm with them and tell them we work off a schedule and cannot guarantee a time of day, but if they leave their gate open we will lock it when we are finished

you are the boss, nice to let them know. if it dosent mean you are going out of your routine thats fine, remember fuel costs ,

your the boss!!!myself personally-I would only accommodate them if its in my daily run of work.fit them in to suit you not them to suit themselves.

I do am or pm & try work round it which I usually can do. Other then that they wait.

I have as many ex customers as current ones! It's hard to find a good custy who leaves gate unlocked and pays online promptly most are pain in the ****.

Click to expand...

I would say that's about right Adam. - I reckon since I started I have probably dropped about 50%, however this can not all be the fault of the customer, some of it has to lay with our over eagerness to build a round so you accept jobs with bad / no access, you knock on doors where the house already looks rather pikey and expect them to be the sort that take pride in their home etc then you get the ones where as you are talking to them you get the sense you should just say 'sorry sir, not the job for me thank you' and walk away, but no, we grab what we can when building up and starting out. It is not till you are into a few hundred customers that you start to weed out the wasters and difficult jobs and it is amazing how many of them there are.

My approach to this would be to offer them an appointment service, they can name a time and day but there is a call out charge, say add on £10, if they don't agree then dump.

Click to expand...

I agree, I have told many that I can say morning or afternoon, that is it. I have one that dictates the time I call at and they pay £25 for a job their neighbor pays £12 for.

make ur run work round them can u move the awkward ones to different days ? if not then say well i will be there between 3-4 instead of them settin a time

I won't entertain those sort of demands

It seriously impacts your day like @spruce said

It's not just the 10 minute drive there but the drive to get back on track after and the fact that you work for you not them

Hi Adamangler welcome to the world of Domestic window cleaning.its a nightmare. I used to have my own office and window cleaning company turning over well over a million pounds On the window cleaning side not 1 house all shops pubs offices.All had to be cleaned same day every week or monthly come rain or shine.No collecting just invoice and 99% chec was on door mat 2to3 weeks later. After 20 years running the company i had a very good offer to sell. So i did and spent 15 years in Spain. I have now been back in the uk for just over a year ,and on my return started a window cleaning company. Well here is my take on running a domestic round if you want to earn £3000 a month you need at least £6000 of work for all the reasons you have found ( not this month none payers late payers and just people moving) I think window cleaning has become just like any service industry at the moment,the customer is always right .If you are not flex able about the way you work you will spend all your time .Trying to get new customers to replace the ones you dumped.

This is all dependent on how busy your round is. Once you are packed these custies become irrelevant.

The early years except a bit of running around, but now I'm completely full, anyone who requires specific days, its a case of adious

So long..farewell. .auf wiedersehn..goodbyeee

So long..farewell. .auf wiedersehn..goodbyeee

Click to expand...

Hosh checkel, gulegular. That's goodbye in Turkish. (got a little appartment in altinkum, so picked up the lingo). Clever git ain't I /emoticons/wink.png

I only know how to swear in turkish

My mate suleiman taught me

Called the guy in the kebab shop the son of an english whore as i didn't know what it meant and he told me to

He was rolling around in stitches while the guy was trying to chase me with a kebab knife

I only know how to swear in turkishMy mate suleiman taught me

Called the guy in the kebab shop the son of an english whore as i didn't know what it meant and he told me to

He was rolling around in stitches while the guy was trying to chase me with a kebab knife

Click to expand...

That's similar to what I did to my mate in the wimpy. He wanted to tell the waiter he enjoyed his meal, so I told him to say "ben shishman ve boktan heriff". The waiter roared up. My mate says to him "what did I say". He replied" you just told me your a fat idiot" /emoticons/biggrin.png

I have a few customers like that. I dont worry too much as I tend to make them my first job in the morning, then u can move on for the rest of the day. I must admit that they are long term customers who pay a premium for the privilege

Don't know how to spell it Steve but I'll try and spell it phonetically

Englais orros pa joo joo

Probably very wrong on the spelling

sounds like something that Jar Jar Binks thing from star wars would say!