This week is sponsored by, "can we leave it"

Hi Guys,

My first winter full time and i am finding a lot of people are saying, can we leave it till spring, Can we skip this month, Can i change to bi monthly, etc etc.

Is this normal in the early days of your round, sorting out the less reliable customers shall we say. And is this something everyone experiences around winter time? 

Cheers

Dan

Yh I get it abit this time of year leave it till January or spring November is always a funny time of year aswell 

When I started 20 years ago I had a few  like this I now explain to every customer that we work in all weather all year so when I take them on that’s the terms that they are agreeing to , if they then want to leave it till spring I remind them of the agreement and tell them I won’t be coming back as there slot will be taken by someone who wants my services all year , if they want to go bi monthly till spring that’s fine with a price rise , if not then again they are dumped . I do app

 when you are starting out that it’s a difficult situation but if you let people dictate to then you will always have this problem we now don’t have this issue any more 

No, not really, but I do have a stable well built up round with the bread and butter being commercial.

That said I do have a lot of requests for one-offs around the holidays, so that's up to you if you want and have time for that.

I’ve a couple say it to me last couple of weeks, who normally are fine. Maybe mixture of poor weather & expensive month.

I don’t mind the odd person saying can we leave it once, if it becomes a habit I explain to them that they either have it cleaned or I’ll have to cancel their service. 

I get a few that I don't mind about but as your only starting out you are probably getting costumers that have been dropped by other window cleaners for this reason.

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i get a few that skip December, moneys tight for some this time of year,but for me it helps get all my work done,and a couple of weeks off in the middle of winter!!

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I get a few, wish I got more in winter, and I've only got about 80 residentials ?

I get the odd one like that. Just make a mental note to include them in the next round of price rises to make it worthwhile.

When you're starting out you will unfortunately get more of these.

Pjj said:

When I started 20 years ago I had a few  like this I now explain to every customer that we work in all weather all year so when I take them on that’s the terms that they are agreeing to , if they then want to leave it till spring I remind them of the agreement and tell them I won’t be coming back as there slot will be taken by someone who wants my services all year , if they want to go bi monthly till spring that’s fine with a price rise , if not then again they are dumped . I do app
 when you are starting out that it’s a difficult situation but if you let people dictate to then you will always have this problem we now don’t have this issue any more 

Click to expand...

Spot on.


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No, it's not the norm at all if you are saying a lot then it must be quite a few, I have had 3 people ask me in over 18 years.

DJT said:

Hi Guys,
My first winter full time and i am finding a lot of people are saying, can we leave it till spring, Can we skip this month, Can i change to bi monthly, etc etc.
 
Is this normal in the early days of your round, sorting out the less reliable customers shall we say. And is this something everyone experiences around winter time? 
Cheers
Dan

Click to expand...

How have you acquired this work that keeps dropping off?


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I have a couple or three that are "going away" so have asked please can we leave it?

I would love to bluntly so "NO" we cant, just to see the reaction.

You will get odd ones and hopefully that is what is happening to you...the odd one.... not as you wrote "lots? If you are getting lots then perhaps they only wanted their windows done the once and they misled you,or misunderstood that you did them Monthly or whatever.

If there's a genuine reason, then I'll accept it. Otherwise I just don't bother coming back ? occasionally I've had people then phone me up or see me in the street and apologise, then I have been known to take them back on with no further problems. This time of year I don't take it to heart, as I struggle to keep up any way. 

I've had a few this year. One pretended she was moving away, another told me straight she believed that winter window cleaning is a ''new idea''. I had one last week who text back and said ''It wouldn't make a difference with this rain''. The rain cleared up by the time I text back. They've been good customers otherwise, the job takes 10-12 minutes and I charge them £13 & they pay by GC. If they were jokers who messed me around with payment and cancelled a lot I would have just knocked them on the head. As someone said above, mental note and include them in my next price increases.

I've had 3 cancel on me since I began a few years ago. 2 were mum and daughter who lived next to each other and it was a nightmare. I just priced them high and did a gutter for them at correct price. The daughter was not long in getting rid of me and I was over the moon. I told the other windy to watch out for them. He began doing it and never went back, they cant get a windy now to do it. The other one was an old man who's wife got put in a home, I think he has given up. I still talk to him but he is not the same. 

I had this last week, it's very rare it happens but the guy in question said I think I'll leave it for a while till the weather improves.. I said yes ok no problem that's your choice no hard feelings but if you do contact me in the future the price will have changed dramatically... he started to stutter like he was under the impression id knock money off to continue cleaning through the winter months.. in one way it's a pain but in the other sense I can just crack on with all the other work I have to do, and forget about that house ?

I don't knock doors anymore canvassing as it attracts this kind of Customer.

My customers want a regular, reliable window cleaner. 

I want, regular, reliable customers.

For me, it works both ways.

All Customers are reminded of my Business terms when took on. We can if necessary inform the Customer when we will be coming AM or PM so they can leave any gates on the latch or be there if it's through the House, the Customer has to work around us we had one previously who asked us to attend early morning as they were going for Lunch this was a first time clean which was dirty obviously not dirty enough to arrange another time for Lunch we will not tolerate Customers dictating to us. Customers who are likely to be out on any visit and there is no  access to the back must sign up for Go Cardless there is no option for Bank Transfers as we chose how we are paid.