“ I don’t like the water method”

Got a little fed up today so decided to change a few houses from trad to wfp. No problems with 80% of customers. 1 old lady says I don’t like it when you use that machine that’s not what I’m paying for”

to be honestly love i thought. You pay for your windows to be cleaned the end result is the same so wtf does it matter to you? 

Cant understand why some people are in the dark ages! Your windows are not worth me risking life and limb funnily enough. And besides this is the modern way to clean isn’t it? Most effective. Safest. You wouldn’t tell a Gardner to not use an electric/petrol mower because you don’t like that method. No gardener is using his 1 inch toe clippers to mow the lawn. No carpenter is going to be using a hand screwdriver to put in 8 inch bolt screws. No he’s going to use an impact driver as that helps him/her out. Why should window cleaning be any different.  The world moves on! Wouldn’t ask an office building type worker to hand write 50 copies of the same document. No you use a printer/copier.

Another customer. Now ex custy says. I don’t like the mess..... I paused. I said what do you mean the mess? The water that’s left all over the floor. She said 

well in around an hour or two that will all be gone just like natural rainwater. I didn’t even bother. I said ok. No problem thanks for the business let me know when you want to continue again. Good luck getting a trad cleaner for 45 windows plus roof lanterns! Rant over aha! Have a great day all. 

People don't like change, the wfp is the norm now and has been for a while and there are very few trad cleaners now and they are declining more and more. I am just starting myself and I am struggling more to get customers but if it was me I would be like you what does it matter how they are cleaned its the end result that counts. I think customers are stuck in the dark age with the price they pay I went canvassing before woman answered the door she said she already has a window cleaner, I asked how much he charged she said its quite dear £12,  this was for a 4 bedroom detached and when she said that I was shocked £12 dear. the problem is how much they have paid in the past £3 or £6,£8 it varies. Our old window cleaner charged £3 ours is a 3 bed semi detached with a conservatory.

I had one woman who s windows we cleaned for several years with wfp always happy with the results, one day she was at home on holiday from work and saw us doing the windows and came out and went nuts “  look at all this water on the walls and on the path”  !!!! I said to her what happens when it rains ??? unfortunately she didn’t seee the funny side of it and is now an ex customer this was years ago and still won’t speak when we do her  Neighbors, there is no pleasing some people 

unfortunately some customers dont like it.....i reckon ive lost around 30 jobs in 9 years WFP.........8 or 9 who just point blank refused from the start....?

BUT!......ive picked up a lot more work in the last 9 years BECAUSE i use WFP so its still a win win.....

i was trad for 17 years so it was a big change but most customer were fine about it.....

Josh Foster said:

how much would you charge for terraces thanks

Click to expand...

personally i dont take on terraced houses but if  you can just clean fronts only and get a run of them you can make a good hourly rate....i guy down south charges £10 and can easily clean 8-10 an hour which is fantastic....i doubt people where i work would pay £10 for just fronts but even if i got £5 or £6 per front if i had 10 in a row its still £50-£60 an hour.....

You'll get moans galore when you change from trad to WFP ; The one thing i've found is that customers who are used to trad cleaners will say they've had a bad window cleaner , but if a bad window cleaner uses the WFP method the customer blames the method not the man.

When I changed from trad to wfp I think I lost less than a handful of jobs , most liked it as it cleaned the frames better than just a quick rub  with a scrim , these days I don’t clean windows trad apart from a couple of shop fronts and insides on our commercial jobs hate it with a passion now 

Rowan said:

You'll get moans galore when you change from trad to WFP ; The one thing i've found is that customers who are used to trad cleaners will say they've had a bad window cleaner , but if a bad window cleaner uses the WFP method the customer blames the method not the man.

Click to expand...

Exactly this mate! 

I still have this copied and pasted ready to send to a customer when it was converting the majority of the round or if it’s a newbie. Pretty much exactly like you said but

[SIZE=17pt]It will be using the ultra pure water method it is by far the safest and most efficient way to get clean and best results I found that there have been many customers who contacted me who had a previous Window Cleaner who may have used that particular method and they didn’t like it, now I would say to those customers that it may be that the results that you got were not because of the method but perhaps because of the individual cleaner like for example if you had an old Window Cleaner who used the traditional methods and he was a bad cleaner you wouldn’t say that those methods are bad you would say it was that particular individual that did a bad job.  more often than not sometimes cleaners can forget to change the filters in the water which can leave streaks on your glass Or they just haven’t done a proper thorough enough clean it is a very temperamental method and it takes a long time to get it right and to master the way I do it, I leave clean clear results once they have dried naturally I do all the glass frames and sills every single time all included in the price.[/SIZE]

they are like the flat earth believers deaf dumb n blind to everything but themselves,  i had 1 cancel because she didn't like her walls left  wet my reply was   you live in the bloody lake district love  your walls get wet every other day how do you cope !!!!   sadly i said it in my head  really i just smiled and waltzed off 

When I changed from trad to wfp over ten years ago I changed my round over an area at a time over a few months and everyone got a little flyer explaining why ... health and safety and higher insurance costs (and Mrs. Custy, what would happen if a window cleaner fell on your property when there is a safer way of cleaning readily available, hmmmm?) being the main arm twister. 

Obviously I explained the benefits of being able to reach roof lights, windows over conservatories, dormers etc. But when I spoke face to face I would tell them I knew of quite a few window cleaners who had had bad falls from ladders including one who never worked again.

By doing that you will put the guilt on them if they as a customer try to insist you continue. Make it absolutely non-negotiable and be prepared to walk away. I only lost a handful. WFP is much more widespread nowadays too.

I've had quite a few who have seen me working with the pole and asked me to start theirs not realising that they are supposed to air dry. They act all surprised when you don't dry them off, but soon come round, especially once they see how good they look when dry. 

One of the first customers I lost 11 years ago was adamant she wasn't going to let me near her windows with WFP. She packed me up in favour of a trad guy. Today I discovered that she thinks he still does hers with ladders, but he has made the switch to wfp and she evidently doesn't realise yet. I'd love to see her face when she realises because she was quite rude with me over it.

It works both ways. We picked up a job the other day. Large trad company were doing it previously. 

Different person showing up every time, some doing a half good job some doing a **** job, back bedroom window above the conny never touched all the usual saga. 

We showed up and it was a pretty poor show. Frames were black with soot, UPVC front door had clean panes but plastic was green with algae. 

Conny sills has never seen so much as a magic sponge they were as grey as grey can get. I dont know how they lasted so long as the customer had to renew the contract every 3 months. 

That being said there are some hard working old school trad cleaners round here that are good.

I often think how can it be done in this day & age. It takes at least twice, if not 3 times as long to trad a house to the same standard as wfp. Cant reach half the windows, walking on dodgey roofs, cant work when the weathers naff. But...expenses are less. Upkeep of a trad system is much less than upkeep of wfp i guess. 

Had three neighbours contact me for a joint discount on their houses, and I gave them a really good price.

When I was there the customer was smiling all over happy to have clean windows again. Then an hour later i got an angry email about leaving spots. So I went back and did all the windows again, scraping off some old bird muck I missed with a scraper on a pole.

I also went over all three houses again, making sure there were no runners.

Then I got another angry email the same night about results still not being good enough. So I offered to come by and clean them all from a ladder to make sure they were absolutely super perfect, and then continue with wfp.

The customer then continued telling me how they have had a cleaner for 8 years that never left a mark and never dripped water all over etc. etc.

I just had her contact a colleague instead and never bothered to charge any of the three. My colleague was a bit puzzled and asked why I didn't get one of my subcontractors to do the three customers. And while I do have someone working for me that is trad only, I just don't want the customers.

My company is wfp based, and that's my decision. Having people on my own route that insist on trad would be undermining my own business. Besides the price wasn't any good for trad work, and even less so when subcontracting.

I may have one on the fence at the moment I think, new job house only around 8 months old cleaned yesterday first time in 6 months upon quoting in person she told me the other lads were just too quick and left marks on the windows, I told her that any stickers, silicone or building materials on the windows is part of a builders/sparkle clean and it's the housebuilders responsibility to ensure these are removed and told her that all windows should have been checked upon moving in, this is also stated on my website and new clients are made aware to read the information page about the service I provide.