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Commercial window cleaning

Shinebright89

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Messages
5
Location
Birmingham
Hi my names mark a window cleaner from Birmingham. I have been a window cleaner for 8 years now but I want to take my business to the next level and go into commercial cleaning. I’m finding it very difficult to get the jobs as company’s are just not interested as they already have a window cleaner, looking for some advice on how to get them commercial jobs can anybody help me thanks

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My experience tells me there is no magic formula, basically perseverance and a bit of luck. Once you get started you do get the odd job from business around where you're working. 

There are local business groups, usually involving a £10 breakfast somewhere. Never gone down this route but might be worth a try. 

 
My experience tells me there is no magic formula, basically perseverance and a bit of luck. Once you get started you do get the odd job from business around where you're working. 
There are local business groups, usually involving a £10 breakfast somewhere. Never gone down this route but might be worth a try. 


Yeah that’s what I thought so demoralising though constantly being told no and there not prepared to hear your quote think ill keep plugging away at it thanks for the reply


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Yeah that’s what I thought so demoralising though constantly being told no and there not prepared to hear your quote think ill keep plugging away at it thanks for the reply


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In the early days we cold called a big office block and spoke to the Office Manager who was interested in a quote. We walked round the block and came back in to speak to her, she then started asking us questions about had we risked assessed the job and how would we go about doing it. After we had told her about the raised manhole covers round the back being trip hazards and we would start early to minimise parking and office staff problems she asked us what the price would be, when we quoted her, £150 I believe, she said is that for inside and out we replied yes. We were obviously cheaper than the current window cleaner, who wasn't doing a very good job, so she asked us to email her our insurance and RAMS. 

After 4 weeks of hearing nothing I called in again to see if we were successful, she wouldn't come down from her office to see us but told the receptionist to tell us she was sticking with their current window cleaner ? So even if you get to quote you aren't guaranteed to get the job.

 
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In the early days we cold called a big office block and spoke to the Office Manager who was interested in a quote. We walked round the block and came back in to speak to her, she then started asking us questions about had we risked assessed the job and how would we go about doing it. After we had told her about the raised manhole covers round the back being trip hazards and we would start early to minimise parking and office staff problems she asked us what the price would be, when we quoted her, £150 I believe, she said is that for inside and out we replied yes. We were obviously cheaper than the current window cleaner, who wasn't doing a very good job, so she asked us to email her our insurance and RAMS. 
After 4 weeks of hearing nothing I called in again to see if we were successful, she wouldn't come down from her office to see us but told the receptionist to tell us she was sticking with their current window cleaner [emoji44] So even if you get to quote you aren't guaranteed to get the job.

Yep seems a very demoralising process getting commercial work good when you get it though



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I think getting any commercial contracts can be down to not what you know but who you know or just a stroke of luck being in the right place at the right time , don't give up trying because once you get one and you provide a good service others soon follow by word of mouth recommendations, facilities managers, estate agents and the likes all talk to each other just don't get to demoralised why you waiting for it to happen.

 
I think getting any commercial contracts can be down to not what you know but who you know or just a stroke of luck being in the right place at the right time , don't give up trying because once you get one and you provide a good service others soon follow by word of mouth recommendations, facilities managers, estate agents and the likes all talk to each other just don't get to demoralised why you waiting for it to happen.

I completely agree I have 1 commercial job think I got a bit excited when I got it which lead me to try and get more but the job came from a new residential job so as you say it’s who you know I won’t give up trying but think I now feel a little more relaxed about it after hearing from you guys thanks for all the reply’s


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We are lucky been window cleaning  20 years and started doing commercial back then , once you are well established and do a good job you will find companies contacting you , I think it also depends where you are in the country there isn’t that many that do big commercial down hear so that helps I think in some places there are so many cleaners fighting over stuff that prices are very low in situations like that you can earn far more doing well price domestic than commercial, if I could just do commercial I would as it’s good money down hear but it’s not as reliable as domestic , just keep plugging away if that’s the route you want to go down  ,

 
We are lucky been window cleaning  20 years and started doing commercial back then , once you are well established and do a good job you will find companies contacting you , I think it also depends where you are in the country there isn’t that many that do big commercial down hear so that helps I think in some places there are so many cleaners fighting over stuff that prices are very low in situations like that you can earn far more doing well price domestic than commercial, if I could just do commercial I would as it’s good money down hear but it’s not as reliable as domestic , just keep plugging away if that’s the route you want to go down  ,


Yeah that is a big thing in Birmingham there seems to be a lot of cleaners but residential don’t seem to be a problem for me I get recommended quite a bit. looking for commercial work is new to me so maybe I shouldn’t get to down hearted so soon I would only really like a few commercial anyway just to give my income a little boost thanks for the advice


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Start looking at your existing customers. Talk to them about it. Make up some blag story to start a conversation if that helps. Just make sure your current customer base knows that you are looking for commercial work. If they work at an office or a factory they may not have even thought about you cleaning it because they see you as their household window cleaner the same as employees of a place you are cleaning are less likely to ask you to clean their own windows.

I have a handful of commercial customers. All but 2 are places my customers work. Of the 2 I got elsewhere one is a chinese takeaway and another found me on Google my business. They told me they called as I also clean solar panels and they will need that doing next year!

 
Out of interest, what extent do you guys go to when cleaning solar panels? I’ve never done any but just from looking at them, they are often dirtiest around the edges (aluminium surrounds i think they are) you can’t possibly get to these by hand and looks like it would be a real pain to do wfp. Of course it doesn’t make any difference to the performance of the panel, but for asthetical purposes, do you guys muck around trying to get these green/slime/moss free? In my mind it would take ten times as long as the face of the panel itself. I often find this with velux windows on kitchen extensions to put it in a similar context. The glass isn’t the issue it’s the framework that often takes much longer. Some jobs when i come up against them on a first clean i feel like i should be charging £5-£10 each as i really do find them time consuming & wonder sometimes if other wfp guys dont bother and just do the glass [emoji848]

Do you guys literally just wfp the panel face and leave it at that or do you try for the whole works?

Thanks

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I've only ever done one panel job in 18 months wfp and that was on a bungalow.
I went over the panels twice to kill time and then brushed over the visible aluminium edges which were greeen with algae I charged £60 for 30 minutes work which earned well as I was doing that street anyway, and the customer said they were generating more energy.
But I'm not pushing that side of the business as for taller houses I'd have to buy a bigger pole that probably would be hardly used.

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I do my own once a year with degreaser and rinse with tap water. I have found the tiles below the panel has plenty of moss now because of runoff from panel. I will be spraying this area with Bio to hopefully kill it off. This was my best year for generating and I have had them 6yrs. First clean was in March this year and it made a great difference. Not much demand for cleaning because most are on green deal and the customer doesn't get the feed in tariff.

 
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