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Anyone seen this sent in text reminder?

Baldmonkey

Well-known member
Messages
709
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Uk
Have seen this from a window cleaner in my original home town, he said he was offering the text service to remind people and was getting a lot of people using that opportunity to cancel... He said he has seen a decrease since using it and only had a a few moan about it.... 

**cancelled cleans after this message will be charged a slot fee of £3.50 as your slot has been reserved for you and can't be filled at such a late stage**

What's people thoughts or experience with anything like this, I've started text service and had a few cancel within minutes of sending it but didn't want to upset people by using something like this. 

 
Have seen this from a window cleaner in my original home town, he said he was offering the text service to remind people and was getting a lot of people using that opportunity to cancel... He said he has seen a decrease since using it and only had a a few moan about it.... 

**cancelled cleans after this message will be charged a slot fee of £3.50 as your slot has been reserved for you and can't be filled at such a late stage**

What's people thoughts or experience with anything like this, I've started text service and had a few cancel within minutes of sending it but didn't want to upset people by using something like this. 
To be honest, I may add that to mine. You'd need to alert customers, or put it in T&Cs before, but at the moment folk are struggling with Corona redundancies and reduce income, so probably not the kindest at the moment. However, in the future it would be a good add!

 
To be honest, I may add that to mine. You'd need to alert customers, or put it in T&Cs before, but at the moment folk are struggling with Corona redundancies and reduce income, so probably not the kindest at the moment. However, in the future it would be a good add!
Yeah I know what you mean being kind is very important at the minute, thought it was a good idea and possibly a bad one all at the same time, ?

 
Have seen this from a window cleaner in my original home town, he said he was offering the text service to remind people and was getting a lot of people using that opportunity to cancel... He said he has seen a decrease since using it and only had a a few moan about it.... 

**cancelled cleans after this message will be charged a slot fee of £3.50 as your slot has been reserved for you and can't be filled at such a late stage**

What's people thoughts or experience with anything like this, I've started text service and had a few cancel within minutes of sending it but didn't want to upset people by using something like this. 
Nope..bad bad idea. You want to hope that none of your customer occupations are in law or commercial litigation. Totally unenforceable & illegal under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

It's an inconvenience not a transferable cost incurred by your company. Even if you put in your terms & they said 'up yours' not paying it - you would later need to demonstrate how you incurred the said cost & show evidence of it? Can you imagine saying this to a commercial client? And no the law does not distinguish any difference between the type of entity you do business with - for instance a charging system that is different between commerical & residential customers would be considered predujicial.

'Yeah errr.. i don't levy it to commerical cause they won't pay it!' Dam straight they won't cause they aren't stupid. Credit your customers with the same resepct & if this is a problem make a blanket price increase in charges to cover the eventuality. If it becomes too onerous then dump the garbage & replace it with better custom.

Moreover, if you are using any kind of debiting system you are going to run into issues when they claim a chargeback, yuk this is just so badly thought out I would be embarrased to connect my company with such malpractice.

 
Have seen this from a window cleaner in my original home town, he said he was offering the text service to remind people and was getting a lot of people using that opportunity to cancel... He said he has seen a decrease since using it and only had a a few moan about it.... 

**cancelled cleans after this message will be charged a slot fee of £3.50 as your slot has been reserved for you and can't be filled at such a late stage**

What's people thoughts or experience with anything like this, I've started text service and had a few cancel within minutes of sending it but didn't want to upset people by using something like this. 
It’s a complete waist of time and not worth the paper it’s written on , yes you have a verbal contract with them but it’s not worth trying to peruse it , why is the guy loosing so many customers?  Sounds to me like he’s either doing a poor job ,or unreliable we loose a handful of customers each year out of thousands . 

 
Nope..bad bad idea. You want to hope that none of your customer occupations are in law or commercial litigation. Totally unenforceable & illegal under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

It's an inconvenience not a transferable cost incurred by your company. Even if you put in your terms & they said 'up yours' not paying it - you would later need to demonstrate how you incurred the said cost & show evidence of it? Can you imagine saying this to a commercial client? And no the law does not distinguish any difference between the type of entity you do business with - for instance a charging system that is different between commerical & residential customers would be considered predujicial.

'Yeah errr.. i don't levy it to commerical cause they won't pay it!' Dam straight they won't cause they aren't stupid. Credit your customers with the same resepct & if this is a problem make a blanket price increase in charges to cover the eventuality. If it becomes too onerous then dump the garbage & replace it with better custom.

Moreover, if you are using any kind of debiting system you are going to run into issues when they claim a chargeback, yuk this is just so badly thought out I would be embarrased to connect my company with such malpractice.
In addition to this, you may have found for a few months people play ball with your idea but the skippers and slow payers will just creep back into their old ways guaranteed. You want a long term solution ie reliable customers or and reliable payment methods, not a short term shot across the bows which this is. 

 
I would think something like this is more efective,

Windows cleaned tomorrow etc, an if you get a not today reply, send on the following  "Please note when you receive this message our rota and worksheet for the day is complete and last minute cancelations cause disruptions, we would always ask if you need to resceduale please allow us the curtasy of 48 hours notice.  Yours Mucky to Clean windie !!

 
I would think something like this is more efective,

Windows cleaned tomorrow etc, an if you get a not today reply, send on the following  "Please note when you receive this message our rota and worksheet for the day is complete and last minute cancelations cause disruptions, we would always ask if you need to resceduale please allow us the curtasy of 48 hours notice.  Yours Mucky to Clean windie !!
Yeah seems a good solution

 
It’s a complete waist of time and not worth the paper it’s written on , yes you have a verbal contract with them but it’s not worth trying to peruse it , why is the guy loosing so many customers?  Sounds to me like he’s either doing a poor job ,or unreliable we loose a handful of customers each year out of thousands . 
When I spoke to him he said he wasn't losing customers, quite the opposite, he said he had quite high retention rates and had some people on a list should slots become available. 

He gave me the impression that he was offering a regular text service to remind customers to open gates etc and some where taking the **** and using the text reminder to see an opportunity to say "not this month thanks" and it was really ******* him off... I drop texts when I remember and don't have too much issue, odd one or two but not that bad

 
I would think something like this is more efective,

Windows cleaned tomorrow etc, an if you get a not today reply, send on the following  "Please note when you receive this message our rota and worksheet for the day is complete and last minute cancelations cause disruptions, we would always ask if you need to resceduale please allow us the curtasy of 48 hours notice.  Yours Mucky to Clean windie !!
This is a little more considerate...but forgive me Philip. You are giving the advance notice the day/evening before (since you used tomorrow) but asking for the client to give you 48 hours notice to cancel/reschedule.

Hehehhehe oh god that tickled me. To paraphrase, we want you to give us notice before we give you notice so please read our minds when we are about to forward you the access texts! A cracker... ?

 
I very rarely get cancellations from text the night before customers...if I do its usually for a good reason......even if I did get more than usual I wouldnt dream of charging them a small fee....totally unenforceable and definitely not good for customer relations IMO!??

 
I use a non reply text service works a treat ?

But no seriously I don't get all that many, if they do it's usually genuine. If they give any incline of cancelling just for their own convenience, ie weather forecast bad, they're still clean etc I just drop them tbh. A small charge is more of a threat than something he could enforce.

 
**cancelled cleans after this message will be charged a slot fee of £3.50 as your slot has been reserved for you and can't be filled at such a late stage**
This is just going wind up customers...

I get the odd cancellation after sending out a text reminder but it's rare & it's usually for a good reason (eg: house being painted). Serial offenders I just drop.

 
If you get a cancellation text then I also think the best thing to do is to let them know (in a friendly way) that it has an effect on the rest of your day. Nothing too serious, because at the end of the day it's not a serious problem.

 
It’s a complete waist of time and not worth the paper it’s written on , yes you have a verbal contract with them but it’s not worth trying to peruse it , why is the guy loosing so many customers?  Sounds to me like he’s either doing a poor job ,or unreliable we loose a handful of customers each year out of thousands . 
Can you imagine calling round in the evening, knocking on the door and asking for your £3.50 !!!!! ????????

 
If people say not this time (unless on holiday or bereavement in family) I just remind them I only do 4 or 8 weeks as on a schedule & that will have to be little extra next time as will be dirtier normally sorts them out. Had one change her mind straight away & said yeah let's carry on with tomorrow..

 
Think it's fair to say we've all had cancellations by text at some point. I'm a slight oddball though, i have a text go to them the evening before but i also have them go out the saturday before for the week ahead. Yes you got that right, my lot get two reminders / chances to cancel. Why? Cos if they get a text on the saturday then by monday they've had chance to get out and get the money from the cash machine etc and can't complain that they've not got any money to pay me with or that it's short notice. It also gives them chance to tell me what day is best for them - rather than getting a text the night before and then cancelling me cos they've gone to see aunty flo the same day etc. I've found this works rather well and i get fewer cancellations than i did with just the evening before texts. 

The downside s that this does kinda tie me up a bit if i wanted to not go out on a particular day.

 
Think it's fair to say we've all had cancellations by text at some point. I'm a slight oddball though, i have a text go to them the evening before but i also have them go out the saturday before for the week ahead. Yes you got that right, my lot get two reminders / chances to cancel. Why? Cos if they get a text on the saturday then by monday they've had chance to get out and get the money from the cash machine etc and can't complain that they've not got any money to pay me with or that it's short notice. It also gives them chance to tell me what day is best for them - rather than getting a text the night before and then cancelling me cos they've gone to see aunty flo the same day etc. I've found this works rather well and i get fewer cancellations than i did with just the evening before texts. 

The downside s that this does kinda tie me up a bit if i wanted to not go out on a particular day.
I see this being a problem when you're fully booked up, letting the customer change what day. Might be worth a revisit at that stage.

 
Think it's fair to say we've all had cancellations by text at some point. I'm a slight oddball though, i have a text go to them the evening before but i also have them go out the saturday before for the week ahead. Yes you got that right, my lot get two reminders / chances to cancel. Why? Cos if they get a text on the saturday then by monday they've had chance to get out and get the money from the cash machine etc and can't complain that they've not got any money to pay me with or that it's short notice. It also gives them chance to tell me what day is best for them - rather than getting a text the night before and then cancelling me cos they've gone to see aunty flo the same day etc. I've found this works rather well and i get fewer cancellations than i did with just the evening before texts. 

The downside s that this does kinda tie me up a bit if i wanted to not go out on a particular day.
I don't want dirty cash these days, bewildered as to why some still want to use cash apart from the older folks who are inherently used to cash, direct debit been my biggest slice of payments, I won't allow custys to dictate what day I am calling it's my way or the highway,

Getting back to real subject custys are forewarned that I don't accept doorstep cancellations and if gates are locked despite them getting a text I will charge the full price, of course if I turn up and there is family emergency or they are having a new patio layed or something I will use a common sense approach and charge accordingly for the fronts or waive the cost and just charge as normal the next clean. 

 
So perhaps it might be helpful to tell you how we/I handle these; I am afraid we only have 1 example of this this year (Covid-19 related) - remember we are VAT registered contractors so we predominetly operate at the prestige end of the market, very little residential - people don't do business with us because they are worried about money (before I get any flak for the way its structured) - I think there is most certainly elements that you guys could use to present the right, professional response (assuming you wish to).

Naturally this is an email but you get the idea:

Following our recent deployment to (STREET NAME) I note that you opted to decline services at point of delivery, which is creating a slight service issue for us. As a result of 2 access denials in succession (YOUR COMPANY) must re-allocate your service slot, particularly as it is being rejected at point of delivery.

This effectively denies the same slot to other customers & as a consequence renders our workloads inefficient with nowhere to park the associated costs. As it is too late at that stage for us to replace a vacant slot once allocated.

Out of politeness & respect we always issue notice prior to any change of terms / price or account status. In your instance it is to comply with Bob’s (name changed to protect ID) desire to retain a cancellation opt out & to notify you that we have placed your account into suspension as a result of that requirement.

Until then you know where we are when you feel ready to receive us again.

The reply we got was heartwarming, considerate & apologetic. This customer is going nowhere & we have established boundaries, underlined our terms of access & nobody is inconvenienced. This customer has already recommended us to two more clients.

 
I do find texting customers can be problematic in a small amount of cases, for awkward customers i know dont have a good reason for cancelling the clean after I have text them,I text back reminding them that I do have to charge 50% extra the next clean as it will take longer when they have not been cleaned in 3 months ( I work a 6 weekly round schedule). I genuinely do charge 50% extra for first cleans and one off cleans so I feel this is fair and in 10 years i have many times managed to 'train' bad irregular customers using this method!

 

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