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Customer loyalty

Danfire

Well-known member
Messages
702
Location
Petersfield
True story. 

Tuesday morning, cracking on with my first clean when I'm approached by a sweet, grey haired, elder lady. "When you clean the flat upstairs, the water drips down and marks my windows".

I explain that will always happen, I'll clean her windows when I'm finished but I really need to have a chat with her window cleaner to arrange either I have her as a customer or he takes my upstairs customer.  "Oh no" she says, "Rob has cleaned my windows for years, I wouldn't dream of changing, he's like a member of the family". "No problem" I tell her, "I'm snowed under, he can have my customer".

I notice she's watching me as I clean her windows, digging out the little bits of moss growing in the corners that Saint Rob, the son she never had, has obviously been cultivating for years.  She walks out to the front of her flat to witness her grey frames miraculously turning white in front of her very eyes. She then utters, "you're my window cleaner now, I'll tell Rob he's finished". ?

Sorry Rob, a better gun just rode into town.

 
True story. 

Tuesday morning, cracking on with my first clean when I'm approached by a sweet, grey haired, elder lady. "When you clean the flat upstairs, the water drips down and marks my windows".

I explain that will always happen, I'll clean her windows when I'm finished but I really need to have a chat with her window cleaner to arrange either I have her as a customer or he takes my upstairs customer.  "Oh no" she says, "Rob has cleaned my windows for years, I wouldn't dream of changing, he's like a member of the family". "No problem" I tell her, "I'm snowed under, he can have my customer".

I notice she's watching me as I clean her windows, digging out the little bits of moss growing in the corners that Saint Rob, the son she never had, has obviously been cultivating for years.  She walks out to the front of her flat to witness her grey frames miraculously turning white in front of her very eyes. She then utters, "you're my window cleaner now, I'll tell Rob he's finished". ?

Sorry Rob, a better gun just rode into town.
Great that you got a new customer, although she will be expecting that kind of deep clean everytime now and if it's a flat with a few windows so I'm sure the price you charge is not that great so just be careful not to be all of a sudden stuck doing a ground floor flat for 20 minutes for £7-8. 

I made that mistake when I started, I had time on my hands so I deep cleaned alot of windows but now I'm busier everything gets a scrub with the brush and sills wiped down and onto the next house. Nobody has said anything yet but I can even admit my cleans arnt as deep as they used to be (I used to get pink stuff out and go round frames ?).

 
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Great that you got a new customer, although she will be expecting that kind of deep clean everytime now and if it's a flat with a few windows so I'm sure the price you charge is not that great so just be careful not to be all of a sudden stuck doing a ground floor flat for 20 minutes for £7-8. 

I made that mistake when I started, I had time on my hands so I deep cleaned alot of windows but now I'm busier everything gets a scrub with the brush and sills wiped down and onto the next house. Nobody has said anything yet but I can even admit my cleans arnt as deep as they used to be (I used to get pink stuff out and go round frames ?).
No, this'll be sweet. £10 for the upstairs flat, she'll be the same. WFP fifteen minutes and the pair will be done in tip top order. I really need more here (and in my own market town) as I'm on call for the fire station and this block is just round the corner from the station. The majority of my work is in the next village up the road which is too far away to respond from. 

The more I can get in my home town the more hours I can stay on call for, I need to transition my work here but I'm so flat out I don't have any time for canvassing and I much prefer people to see the standard of my cleans (and myself) and approach me (which happens quite a lot). Just got to resist the temptation to keep taking stuff on in the village up the road but because that's where I am the most that's the place where most the new stuff comes in, I price it high (higher than existing) then it's too good to give up.

 
Just a heads up, you can rinse lower windows when your doing ones above, you don’t need to clean them. Of course, always off your service, but if they don’t want it say you’ll rinse the windows when your done. It’s what we do and they never complain after that. 

 
Window cleaning will pay more than firefighting ever will, me personally id pick up work wherever it comes and jack the service in ?
Personally i like the balance. I don't think i could do windows full time without the brigade. If I was to give up wholetime and do windows I'd move near a retained station to keep a toe in! Money's great but it's not everything!

Yeah but it’s no where near as fun as being a firefighter, is it? Whee-ooo Whee-ooo Whee-ooo ?
And of course this is true ?

 
True story. 

Tuesday morning, cracking on with my first clean when I'm approached by a sweet, grey haired, elder lady. "When you clean the flat upstairs, the water drips down and marks my windows".

I explain that will always happen, I'll clean her windows when I'm finished but I really need to have a chat with her window cleaner to arrange either I have her as a customer or he takes my upstairs customer.  "Oh no" she says, "Rob has cleaned my windows for years, I wouldn't dream of changing, he's like a member of the family". "No problem" I tell her, "I'm snowed under, he can have my customer".

I notice she's watching me as I clean her windows, digging out the little bits of moss growing in the corners that Saint Rob, the son she never had, has obviously been cultivating for years.  She walks out to the front of her flat to witness her grey frames miraculously turning white in front of her very eyes. She then utters, "you're my window cleaner now, I'll tell Rob he's finished". ?

Sorry Rob, a better gun just rode into town.
Now that is the best thing I think I've read on here..... and a good laugh too. Quality always wins hands down. I'm still chuckling.

 
Depends what rank you are a GM or AM will earn more than the avarage window cleaner ever will ???
I wont argue that mate, however they arent really firefighting roles at them dizzy heights.

How many fire service are on this forum?! Has anyone jacked in wholetime to go on the windows?

 
Depends what rank you are a GM or AM will earn more than the avarage window cleaner ever will ???
Not maximum hourly rate they won't. We don't hit the dizzying heights all the time but I wouldn't mind betting there's not many on here that have overpriced a job because they didn't want it and it ended up quicker and easier than anticipated. When that happens the sky is the limit and I've definitely had some that have been north of £80 per hour.

You'd have to be a chief of two brigades to hit those numbers. That being said, a area manager is likely to be on more per annum than a windie.

 
I'm wholetime as well and the pension is keeping me in the job.
The pension is good in case something happens and you can't work but you pay a lot for it. Best job in the world if you want to learn something else while staying in the brigade. Most of the guys I worked with were involved in another job and some were even running a company but takes it out of you physically. Great, when retirement finally beckons and you see a nice lump sum and a monthly income. ? 

 
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