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The move to gocardless

Maund

Active member
Messages
166
Location
Anglesey
Currently I accept cash or bank transfers. I post cards through the door which has all my banking information on for customers to pay online. 

It turns out that the majority of my customers like to always pay me late, or just not pay and ignore me. 

I am nearly 3 years into my business, and bad debts are starting because of this. 

I am no longer enjoying my work because it feels like I'm working for nothing. 

I have tried to get one of those card reads for Izettle, square etc.. But for some reason neither of the companies are letting me have one, I have created an account, but it keeps saying error, I rang them and they said that there isn't a high enough trust level? WTF? 

Anyway. 

I have thought about going gocardless before, but I couldn't imagine my customers wanting to sign up to it, or possibly losing customers. 

But now I feel like I have no choice but to try and get them to sign up for it, or else I'll be in deep sh*t with money issues. 

So I'm wondering if any of you have transitioned from cash and bacs to then only offering gocardless, and how that change had an effect on your business, if you lost customers etc

And if customers that are on gocardless cancel the direct debit, or somehow find a way to not bloody pay you? 

Just don't get people, they want you to clean their windows but try their hardest to not pay you. 

 
So far this year we have lost one new customer who wouldn't sign up to GoCardless. It is mandatory that you sign up to GC if you wish for me or my franchisees to clean your windows. The DD must be in place before we clean your windows. 

During this year we have had a small push to get customers on to GC and were currently at about 650+ on Gc out of over 2000 customers. We was hitting nearly 50-60% on GC but rapid expansion and sloppy admin has lead to customers signing up for cleaning but not via GC.

My advice is that new customer have to go onto GC and start off on a soft campaign for getting customers on board.

I started with stickers first on my slips and got a handful of customers on board, then i did a leaflet campaign followed my an email campaign but that was next to useless! Lastly i did a text message campaign which was the best return on sign ups. If I was to do it all again I would still do the same as it was implemented slowly. 

There is lots of ways to hook them onto GC like free cleans, giveaways, no price increase for X amount of years. I have a new method for next year which i will try as i would like to get our average up to 50-60% again. Although my latest Franchisee is on 100% sign up so far and that will NOT change. 

 
I think the best thing you can do for your peace of mind is start transferring them on to GoCardless, you’ve pretty Mitch identify it yourself and although it is extra work to get them signed up once they are signed up it reduces the hassle tenfold. 

Run a few text promotions like ‘this Christmas as a gift to our loyal customers we are introducing a hassle free subscription to make life a little easier ‘ add a link to GoCardless. You could offer late payers a free clean or half price if the sign up ( worth the hit in my opinion). You work quicker as a result so could earn more. Set yourself small goals of ten customers transfers over per month, you’ll soon get into the swin* of things! 

Good luck!

 
I was cash only, then bank and paypal. Now we are gocardless only, and believe me we lost some along the way. But we now have several 100 on cardless and want 1000 in a year max.  

So before considering getting them all onto gocardless please consider your marketing for new work, especially if you want to go gocardless 100%.

Due to what you may lose come ultimatum time ie after the letters and offers asking them to move to goc, you will undoubtedly have some hard liners who you lose.

So get that website worked on, get your Google biz page optimised and make sure your fb presence is good and then plunge into this. Itll remove a lot of stress later because you'll have secured a lot more natural enquiries to replace people and will make you feel less like a prisoner of the customer (as harsh as that sounds) 

 
Mine was a slow process over maybe 2 years to get good numbers on GC, I tried various methods having it on payment cards sending texts to some, also over that time I was culling and replacing jobs with only GC sign ups the last stragglers that had been a bit slow in paying at times but had been on my rounds for 8 years or more they got a letter when I switched banks, to say that the account they had been paying into was now closed and the only option was GC

Also over this time, I had been doing all the other stuff like pushing on FB with links to GC a good website with a very good payments page with plenty of info on there so new and old GC sign ups had the info right there in front of them, I had lost a few who wouldn't make the switch and a few quoted jobs that didn't want to sign up, no big loss as I have 300 on GC now soon to be 298 as I am dropping 2 jobs, but they will easily be replaced. 

 
Currently I accept cash or bank transfers. I post cards through the door which has all my banking information on for customers to pay online. 

It turns out that the majority of my customers like to always pay me late, or just not pay and ignore me. 

I am nearly 3 years into my business, and bad debts are starting because of this. 

I am no longer enjoying my work because it feels like I'm working for nothing. 

I have tried to get one of those card reads for Izettle, square etc.. But for some reason neither of the companies are letting me have one, I have created an account, but it keeps saying error, I rang them and they said that there isn't a high enough trust level? WTF? 

Anyway. 

I have thought about going gocardless before, but I couldn't imagine my customers wanting to sign up to it, or possibly losing customers. 

But now I feel like I have no choice but to try and get them to sign up for it, or else I'll be in deep sh*t with money issues. 

So I'm wondering if any of you have transitioned from cash and bacs to then only offering gocardless, and how that change had an effect on your business, if you lost customers etc

And if customers that are on gocardless cancel the direct debit, or somehow find a way to not bloody pay you? 

Just don't get people, they want you to clean their windows but try their hardest to not pay you. 
dont you text remind your customers if they ve not paid you within 14 days of the clean?this is what i do....also get a SumUp card reader to take payments there and then at the door(contactless or chip and PIN)....you can also take card payments over the phone with SumUp with their virtual terminal....

most of mine either pay by BACS/cash or card at time of clean and the odd standing order....my debt list is usually anywhere between £500-£1500 outstanding at any one time(im a sole trader).....im ok with this as ill get my money in eventually.......i dont need it straight away anyway......

ive only had to write off £8 this year!(she moved without telling me!)......

 
70% of our customers pay via bacs , the rest are cash, we send reminders to customers, u do get a few bad payers etc but this is part of business,

Also it is normal to be owed 20-30% of your round value. so if you take 10 grand per month it is normal to be owed 2/3 grand.

The bigger your round the more money u will be owed, i have a good knack of identifying bad paying customers and i just bin them and replace them :)

 
How does GC actually work? Is it a direct debit that comes out on a set date or does the customer still have to agree to payment. I just want to know if they can refuse to pay & your still chasing cash without the hassle of collecting?

 
Once signed up you can either set a date for money to come out each month or click on a button on GoCardless terminal to take the money once work is done. A very basic description of it but that’s effectively what it does

 
Once signed up you can either set a date for money to come out each month or click on a button on GoCardless terminal to take the money once work is done. A very basic description of it but that’s effectively what it does
So by the clicking of button method it just automatically takes the money & doesn’t need to be authorised by the customer? I’m only asking to know if a customer can refuse payment & what happens then? 

btw I don’t actually get customers refusing to pay me lol. Just don’t want hassle with them as it’s easier not to pay someone if they’re not standing there in front of u.

 
So by the clicking of button method it just automatically takes the money & doesn’t need to be authorised by the customer? I’m only asking to know if a customer can refuse payment & what happens then? 

btw I don’t actually get customers refusing to pay me lol. Just don’t want hassle with them as it’s easier not to pay someone if they’re not standing there in front of u.


they sign up once no more approval necessary it just comes out automatically once you creat the demand ‘pushing the button’. They receive an email from GoCardless and a few days later it comes out and lands in your bank. 

 
they sign up once no more approval necessary it just comes out automatically once you creat the demand ‘pushing the button’. They receive an email from GoCardless and a few days later it comes out and lands in your bank. 
Oh right, looks like the way forward. I have an iZettle card machine that needs charging every 5min since I had it even tho the batteries are meant to be amazing on them, ****! Collecting is a ball ache so I might sign up to this in the new year & introduce it gradually.

 
It's definitely the way forward. All new customers now are told it's the only way I now take payments. It's peace of mind that if you do £200 of work you will definitely get £200 in your bank. 

I use it through Aworka software and it's so simple to set up and use.

 
My simple method :

Price a job in the presence of the prospect customer, agree a frequency (usually 6 weekly), agree a price, write the price and frequency on the back of my business card, put card in a small Ziplock sandwich bag, hand it to the new customer. Tell them that they will be notified the day before each visit so that they know I'm coming and can leave the gate unlocked and the payment (cheque or cash) in the bag under something out the back.

No ruddy third party : Gc, Dd, or b trans involved in my business.

like I say simples. No long term depts tolerated.

Each to their own of course, crack on with what ever system you prefer. ?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Currently I accept cash or bank transfers. I post cards through the door which has all my banking information on for customers to pay online. 

It turns out that the majority of my customers like to always pay me late, or just not pay and ignore me. 

I am nearly 3 years into my business, and bad debts are starting because of this. 

I am no longer enjoying my work because it feels like I'm working for nothing. 

I have tried to get one of those card reads for Izettle, square etc.. But for some reason neither of the companies are letting me have one, I have created an account, but it keeps saying error, I rang them and they said that there isn't a high enough trust level? WTF? 

Anyway. 

I have thought about going gocardless before, but I couldn't imagine my customers wanting to sign up to it, or possibly losing customers. 

But now I feel like I have no choice but to try and get them to sign up for it, or else I'll be in deep sh*t with money issues. 

So I'm wondering if any of you have transitioned from cash and bacs to then only offering gocardless, and how that change had an effect on your business, if you lost customers etc

And if customers that are on gocardless cancel the direct debit, or somehow find a way to not bloody pay you? 

Just don't get people, they want you to clean their windows but try their hardest to not pay you. 
Do you allow folk Multiple cleans with bad debt or just then one? I don’t use GC, just BACS and by running a 0% tolerant ‘no pay no next clean’ policy I’ve found it’s really helped. At the moment I’m about 3% down over the year in bad debt. What helps is using software which shows me who owes so I don’t reclean them and can let them know of such. I’ve had a number pay me ‘on the day’ using this method. 

 
Do you allow folk Multiple cleans with bad debt or just then one? I don’t use GC, just BACS and by running a 0% tolerant ‘no pay no next clean’ policy I’ve found it’s really helped. At the moment I’m about 3% down over the year in bad debt. What helps is using software which shows me who owes so I don’t reclean them and can let them know of such. I’ve had a number pay me ‘on the day’ using this method. 
 I’m the same, if a customer owes me from the last clean I skip it until they pay. If they can’t pay for one they won’t pay for 2!! Got rid of 99% of my messers now tho

 
I've not long started accepting GC. So far I have just mentioned it to a few client I know it will suit, and about a dozen has signed up.

I have amended my slips and invoices to promote it, but as yet not gone to print with those. 

I like the idea of mass txting customers whiçh I may do. Also being hardline on this with new customers. 

I'd love to ditch evening collections, so I am all for this method of payment. For the low charges, its hard not justify not offering this, to the "always out", or "never have cash on me" customers.

 
I have an iZettle card machine that needs charging every 5min since I had it even tho the batteries are meant to be amazing on them


Definitely send it back and tell them that you want a replacement, 

I've had one since January of this year and have charged it twice.

It gets a fair bit of use too.

 
Definitely send it back and tell them that you want a replacement, 

I've had one since January of this year and have charged it twice.

It gets a fair bit of use too.
Took your advice, I went on the live chat. They simply agreed to send another that’ll be here in a couple of days.??

 
So by the clicking of button method it just automatically takes the money & doesn’t need to be authorised by the customer? I’m only asking to know if a customer can refuse payment & what happens then? 

btw I don’t actually get customers refusing to pay me lol. Just don’t want hassle with them as it’s easier not to pay someone if they’re not standing there in front of u.


The customer can cancel the direct debit after you have hit the process payment button, it's part of the direct debit guarantee which is a key selling point in selling the direct debit option to your customer.  It's there to prevent say you processing a payment for £1,000 when it should be £100, like a safeguard for the customer.  However they have never cancelled on me so far, and think about it, why would they?  You have done your job and processed the payment as required, if they cancelled the direct debit then unless it was for a damn good reason, they would be chucked off my customer list.

You can set it to be authorised by the customer first but don't do that, just set it up to be not authorised, they can cancel it though.  

 
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