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Another Cull again.

Den

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Just took another 7 clients off my rounds this week for various reasons. 

3 of them have new puppies but don’t like to pick up the mess they make.

two of them were originally  good clients just gone bad with late payments.

the other two where relatively new and turned out messers.

 
Like others have said I like a good drop off, any time of year. Always more customers to be found even at Christmas. Had a big upsurge of newbies past three weeks, I'm guessing but with lockdown there's more people inside looking at dirty windows and see me across the street, easy peasy!

selling a batch of work off too as I'm so full up, these are the types of customers above. Decent to a certain degree, they pay but I have to wait and text reminders etc. Will be happy if they get gone and they are out of my way, save on fuel, put that towards a electric van perhaps haha.

 
Like Part Timer says, put their price up and you’re in a win win. 
They don’t accept and you’re rid of them or they accept and you’re quids in. 
Unless they’re a bad payer! In that case they get told why they’re being dropped

 
I very rarely drop customers as they are an asset. Did get rid of one this week as she late payer & sometimes says leave it even though £12 every 8 weeks, some just aren't worth it. 

 
I've found on some jobs this year parking and access has become a p.i.a I dropped 2 jobs last week because of this as I wasn't going to be chewing on, I just explained to the custys about the access issues and they understood, I have a more few jobs I am looking to drop and I will just be honest with them.

some will spit their dummy no matter why you choose to drop them, as for damaged rep I've not had anyone slate me on social media that I am aware off but some jobs just need culling 

 
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I’m going to do this again in the new year. 
Dropped one today (the owner of Bromley football club). Says to me ‘next time you are round, I’ll get you doing the insides’. 
‘I don’t do insides’ I replied

‘You will if you want me to remain a customer’ he replied 

‘In that case, I don’t. Have a nice Christmas’

Won’t have people speak to me like that. Rude bellend 

 
I’m going to do this again in the new year. 
Dropped one today (the owner of Bromley football club). Says to me ‘next time you are round, I’ll get you doing the insides’. 
‘I don’t do insides’ I replied

‘You will if you want me to remain a customer’ he replied 

‘In that case, I don’t. Have a nice Christmas’

Won’t have people speak to me like that. Rude bellend 
i would drop him too...i also dont clean insides for any of my customers.....

i had an email today off a long standing customer asking could he go to a quarterly clean from next year.....its a £10 4 weekly job on a large estate of 3 bed semis!i told him NO.....the only other option is 8 weekly....but the price will be slightly higher....he agreed but i dont think he s happy.......i couldnt care less really...he always pays late too......

 
I came to the conclusion a while ago that I need to ditch some jobs in the south east of the island and find more in the north where I live. We are only talking maybe six miles away but traffic and clunky access plus a couple of badly priced jobs and it starts to take a toll.

I need 2021 to be more productive and that needs us to be more efficient and to develop work that facilitates that objective.

 
How do you drop a customer without potentially damaging your reputation?
I tell 6 of them  the truth (without being rude) 

The 7th customer who was a two monthly agreed to my terms about regular cleaning after one clean told me to come back in the new year she was a Facebook customer, so I blocked her on my phone and Facebook if she tries to contact me she won’t get answer can’t stand liars and messers.

 
I’m going to do this again in the new year. 
Dropped one today (the owner of Bromley football club). Says to me ‘next time you are round, I’ll get you doing the insides’. 
‘I don’t do insides’ I replied

‘You will if you want me to remain a customer’ he replied 

‘In that case, I don’t. Have a nice Christmas’

Won’t have people speak to me like that. Rude bellend 
I was sure there was a punchline coming with that one...

 
Just took another 7 clients off my rounds this week for various reasons. 

3 of them have new puppies but don’t like to pick up the mess they make.

two of them were originally  good clients just gone bad with late payments.

the other two where relatively new and turned out messers.
I have a 'dormant' sheet on my customer spreadsheet.... I managed to shift a few onto there yesterday after work! ??

 
I have a cull every year during the Xmas break. It’s a very satisfying process, refining rounds to make them more compact and more prompt payers.

 
I had a good customer I had to drop. Well priced, good payer but the place looked a bit like Steptoe's yard. Didn't have an issue but when a new puppy appeared I thought "this doesn't bode well". Sure enough, dog muck started appearing in the back garden, I tried to be very careful but after a couple of incidents I decided to never go back.

The mistake I made was not telling them but I didn't really make the decision to strike them off until I'd stewed on it for a little while. When I was cleaning in the road a van stopped outside the house I was doing, Mr Steptoe asked me if I was coming to do his place, I had to tell him I wasn't and why (politely), he drove off in a huff.

When I was cleaning his neighbour his wife came to the fence to also berate me for not speaking to them about the issue. I tried to tell her I felt awkward about having that conversation, was trying to avoid it etc. 

Had to drop a few when they get dogs.

Probably drop one other in the new year, £30 job, takes about 45 minutes but the only house in that road (but in the same village as most the work). 8 weekly and she always waits until 6 or 7 weeks after the clean before sending the transfer, by which time I've usually sent 3 reminder texts, that's bad form in my book, she's done it for years and I know she's always going to pay, that's why she's survived this long but I think her time has come. Alternatively, I could message her with something like

"Due to the continued success and ever increasing clients there is no longer time to send out text reminders. For customers that required this service a reminder will be sent out one week before the clean is due and payment will be required in advance. This measure will save Liss Window Cleaning a lot of administration time and this saving will help us to keep our prices down".

Balls in their court then.

 
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I found it really annoying that when they purposely wait 6 or 7 weeks before they pay. I just keep sending them messages one customer I must if sent 6 tx she finally caved in but if so pay in the end worth it

 
I found it really annoying that when they purposely wait 6 or 7 weeks before they pay. I just keep sending them messages one customer I must if sent 6 tx she finally caved in but if so pay in the end worth it
That's what I used to do with mine, leave it a fortnight and then start the weekly reminder texts but this particular lady, now I know her pattern of behaviour I leave her five weeks before the reminders start.

Sometimes I really hope she doesn't pay so then I can drop it (nobody gets a second clean until the previous is paid for) but she always pays with days to spare before it's due.

 
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