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Has anyone changed form 4 and 8 weekly to 6 weekly only ?

adamangler

Wakefield Window Warrior
Messages
4,263
Location
Wakefield
Im sick to death of constantly resheduling my rounds every week, its becoming a nightmare having 4 and 8 weekly. I cant keep up, im 3 weeks behind and everyday im pulling jobs aroud in cleaner planner trying to put things in order. Then i miss jobs out and have to either skip them or go out of my way to mop them up

Im seriously considering changing to just 6 weekly, no 12s either!

I would like to just have 6 weekly, all in a perfect order form A-Z

Im not really worried about the 4 weeklys, im always behind anyway so doubt they will raise an eyebrow. I think the problem will be convincing a lot of the 8 weeklys, i know for a fact some will object but then again i could just dump the ones who dont but dont want to lose dozens of them....

Should i tell them, to be honest im thinking just start doing them 6 weekly and wait till they say something...

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Buried in another thread from last week some of us were discussing this very topic. Naturally there are differing views but I've made the decision that I'm only going to offer 6 weekly to new customers. There will be some discretion for 12 weekly but I'll only offer this for the more expensive properties or those that are struggling financially. 

I'll in due course notify my current customers that I'll be doing this but at the moment I'm inclined not to rock the boat yet. 

I'll be following this thread with interest.  

 
I think you'll be missing a trick if you don't offer 12 mate. Give them a little discount for 6 weekly (if the price allows) and hike the price up for 12 weekly. I reckon you'll find a bunch of them giving you the old "skip mine this time" and not thinking it a problem if you only offer 6 weekly. You'll probably find it's ones where you do their neighbours and it's just awkward to cancel them so they'll get away with skipping again and again too. I do 4, 6 and 8 week cycles, they all know the price is more for the longer cycles and I think this contributes to the low rate of people skipping.

 
Yep. I’ve got about 10 left to inform, then I’ve changed all the 8 weekly’s to 6 weeks. I was shocked at how easy it was. Haven’t lost any. About 6 asked to go to 12 weekly at a slightly higher price. 
 

I personally wouldn’t just change without informing. I gave them all 2 cleans notice so they felt like they weren’t being forced. Some said ‘I thought you were 6 weekly already?’ Some said “yeah that’s fine our last window cleaner was every month”

I think 6 weeks is perfect. Do it. Start informing tomorrow. By April/June can all be done. 

 
I think you'll be missing a trick if you don't offer 12 mate. Give them a little discount for 6 weekly (if the price allows) and hike the price up for 12 weekly. I reckon you'll find a bunch of them giving you the old "skip mine this time" and not thinking it a problem if you only offer 6 weekly. You'll probably find it's ones where you do their neighbours and it's just awkward to cancel them so they'll get away with skipping again and again too. I do 4, 6 and 8 week cycles, they all know the price is more for the longer cycles and I think this contributes to the low rate of people skipping.
If i do 6 and 12 i will have exactly the same problem i have now, nothing will have changed. I just want one frequency

 
Yep. I’ve got about 10 left to inform, then I’ve changed all the 8 weekly’s to 6 weeks. I was shocked at how easy it was. Haven’t lost any. About 6 asked to go to 12 weekly at a slightly higher price. 
 

I personally wouldn’t just change without informing. I gave them all 2 cleans notice so they felt like they weren’t being forced. Some said ‘I thought you were 6 weekly already?’ Some said “yeah that’s fine our last window cleaner was every month”

I think 6 weeks is perfect. Do it. Start informing tomorrow. By April/June can all be done. 
Thanks, im probably worrying about it too much. I would rather not have any 12s to be honest i might just dump those who wont change, Ive got pretty much a 50/50 split of 4 and 8 at the moment.

 
If i do 6 and 12 i will have exactly the same problem i have now, nothing will have changed. I just want one frequency
Yeah I know what you mean man, just seems you might be replacing one problem with another is all I was thinking. I imagine 6/12 weeks is easier to manage than 4/8 though, there’s more time in between cleans if you fall behind and want to catch up etc. What is it about the 2 cycles that annoys you?

 
I’ve considered this 6 weekly only as mine should be 4 and 8 but in reality it’s 5 and 10.

 
Thanks, im probably worrying about it too much. I would rather not have any 12s to be honest i might just dump those who wont change, Ive got pretty much a 50/50 split of 4 and 8 at the moment.
You’ll lose some if you don’t offer 12 weekly. I started asking my 8 weeklys if they’d mind moving to 6 weekly since I went back after Christmas. So far I’ve had 55 agree to move to 6 weekly, 2 move to 12 weekly, one big property want to move to 12 weekly but I decided that it wouldn’t be worth myself doing it as the windows would be filthy and would be massively underpriced. I’ve also had 5 people (6 properties) say they want to stick with 8 weekly. At the moment I’ve said I’d keep them and try to rotate them amongst the 6 weekly schedule as they’re good customers. 
 

I’m heading out tomorrow to another day of 8 weekly cleans and debating whether or not to ask them. I have a feeling they would all want to go to 12 weekly. I messaged one of them earlier to run it past him and sure enough, he wants 12 weekly. 
 

I’m having less success than others have had doing it. I’m reasonably expensive so think that may be one reason. 

 
You’ll lose some if you don’t offer 12 weekly. I started asking my 8 weeklys if they’d mind moving to 6 weekly since I went back after Christmas. So far I’ve had 55 agree to move to 6 weekly, 2 move to 12 weekly, one big property want to move to 12 weekly but I decided that it wouldn’t be worth myself doing it as the windows would be filthy and would be massively underpriced. I’ve also had 5 people (6 properties) say they want to stick with 8 weekly. At the moment I’ve said I’d keep them and try to rotate them amongst the 6 weekly schedule as they’re good customers. 
 

I’m heading out tomorrow to another day of 8 weekly cleans and debating whether or not to ask them. I have a feeling they would all want to go to 12 weekly. I messaged one of them earlier to run it past him and sure enough, he wants 12 weekly. 
 

I’m having less success than others have had doing it. I’m reasonably expensive so think that may be one reason. 
I don’t understand why anyone would do 12 weekly , that’s 4 visits per year ,I dont see it’s worth doing it would have to be huge money for me to want to do it , plus you would need loads of customers , jobs would take 4x longer  to do , down hear 4 weeks you cannot see through the glass on costal stuff , again it must be area specific , I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have been asked for  12 weekly , Ime guessing about 90 % of our domestic ask for 4 weekly Evan jobs £40- 100 per clean want monthly we di some 8 weekly but not that much . With us it’s 4 or 8 weekly take it or leave it . 

 
That's the thing when you have fixed your round based on one frequency or multiples of ie: 4&8 or 6&12. I made the decision very soon after starting, that my base would be 6 weekly. Probably at least 90% are that frequency. The rest are about 5 four weekly shops and businesses. A very few 12s. And the rest, mainly big houses at 8. The sooner into a business this is done the easier it is. It probably won't be easy to change an established frequency base.

 
I don’t understand why anyone would do 12 weekly , that’s 4 visits per year ,I dont see it’s worth doing it would have to be huge money for me to want to do it , plus you would need loads of customers , jobs would take 4x longer  to do , down hear 4 weeks you cannot see through the glass on costal stuff , again it must be area specific , I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have been asked for  12 weekly , Ime guessing about 90 % of our domestic ask for 4 weekly Evan jobs £40- 100 per clean want monthly we di some 8 weekly but not that much . With us it’s 4 or 8 weekly take it or leave it . 
There’s no doubt I wouldn’t offer it on the coast, and I’d prefer to have 6 weekly but I can charge a good rate still. I did one today that’s 12 weekly. It takes 20 minutes and I charge £20. 

 
That's the thing when you have fixed your round based on one frequency or multiples of ie: 4&8 or 6&12. I made the decision very soon after starting, that my base would be 6 weekly. Probably at least 90% are that frequency. The rest are about 5 four weekly shops and businesses. A very few 12s. And the rest, mainly big houses at 8. The sooner into a business this is done the easier it is. It probably won't be easy to change an established frequency base.
I can understand someone choosing to offer 6 weekly but 12 weekly is a non starter 4 visits per year is one off jobs in my books it’s not a regular contract 

 
There’s no doubt I wouldn’t offer it on the coast, and I’d prefer to have 6 weekly but I can charge a good rate still. I did one today that’s 12 weekly. It takes 20 minutes and I charge £20. 
Ok so thats £1 per muinit we do that on every 4 weekly job as a minimum so wouldn’t call that good money in fact very poor I would want considerably more than that for a 12 weekly job , that’s only £80 per year as mark said @cleaniac he wants to earn at least £200 per customer per year , Ime not belittling what you are doing but think you should seriously look at your pricing , Wiltshire isn’t a poor area they should be paying double those figures .

 
Ok so thats £1 per muinit we do that on every 4 weekly job as a minimum so wouldn’t call that good money in fact very poor I would want considerably more than that for a 12 weekly job , that’s only £80 per year as mark said @cleaniac he wants to earn at least £200 per customer per year , Ime not belittling what you are doing but think you should seriously look at your pricing , Wiltshire isn’t a poor area they should be paying double those figures .
As ever, it depends where it Wiltshire. Thats good money to me. I get that over the course of the year it’s not a lot, and as I’ve said, I’m not encouraging people take it, but if you get a few that you schedule in with the 6 weekly cleans in one area it’s a nice supplement to the daily  income with no extra travel involved. 

 
If your jobs are mostly 4 weekly then making the switch had to come with a price increase otherwise you will lose £1,000's a year every 4 weekly job will need increasing by 35% so a £10 job will needed to be £13.50 and so on. 

 
If your jobs are mostly 4 weekly then making the switch had to come with a price increase otherwise you will lose £1,000's a year every 4 weekly job will need increasing by 35% so a £10 job will needed to be £13.50 and so on. 
No because my round is roughly 50/50 split 4 and 8. So the 8s will make up for the 4s

 
If your jobs are mostly 4 weekly then making the switch had to come with a price increase otherwise you will lose £1,000's a year every 4 weekly job will need increasing by 35% so a £10 job will needed to be £13.50 and so on. 
Not quite right, big fella. If you only add £2 you will still be up. Because, and this is the important bit I keep stressing. You will have freed up one space in every three for another let's say £12 job. You are not trying to get the same income per annum from each of your existing customers. They will in fact pay less per year. You're bringing in new paying customers so will earn a lot more per annum with the same amount of work done and the same number of visits overall.

As I said before. Run it by a decent accountant.

 
As ever, it depends where it Wiltshire. Thats good money to me. I get that over the course of the year it’s not a lot, and as I’ve said, I’m not encouraging people take it, but if you get a few that you schedule in with the 6 weekly cleans in one area it’s a nice supplement to the daily  income with no extra travel involved. 
I totally understand what you are saying , but £20 for a 3 monthly  clean. Is just way to cheap  you could be doing a 6 weekly job that will be easier and cleaner and more regular for that money , I feel you are selling yourself short , each to there own  but I feel the customer is taking you for a ride . 

 
I totally understand what you are saying , but £20 for a 3 monthly  clean. Is just way to cheap  you could be doing a 6 weekly job that will be easier and cleaner and more regular for that money , I feel you are selling yourself short , each to there own  but I feel the customer is taking you for a ride . 
In this scenario I’d be taking myself for a ride as I’m the one happy with the price ?.

As I’ve said, it does have benefits though. Another one being it’s another customer to refer you. This particular customer led to me getting 2 more family members on a 6 weekly. 
 

It’s interesting you think that though. I have a customer on a 6 weekly clean (3 bed semi), I have to walk over a garage but it takes me 15 minutes, probably closer ten minutes to do her windows. She got rid of the last company because within the space of a year they’d increased the price from £20 to £26, and then tried to increase it again to £30. To me, and clearly to her, that’s extortionate. But it does show some people will pay it in the area. 
 

I don’t know why but feel like I need to reiterate that I’m mid-high priced based on what I know of the other cleaners around me. I probably get between 60%-70% of my quotes. 

 
In this scenario I’d be taking myself for a ride as I’m the one happy with the price ?.

As I’ve said, it does have benefits though. Another one being it’s another customer to refer you. This particular customer led to me getting 2 more family members on a 6 weekly. 
 

It’s interesting you think that though. I have a customer on a 6 weekly clean (3 bed semi), I have to walk over a garage but it takes me 15 minutes, probably closer ten minutes to do her windows. She got rid of the last company because within the space of a year they’d increased the price from £20 to £26, and then tried to increase it again to £30. To me, and clearly to her, that’s extortionate. But it does show some people will pay it in the area. 
 

I don’t know why but feel like I need to reiterate that I’m mid-high priced based on what I know of the other cleaners around me. I probably get between 60%-70% of my quotes. 
Ime not criticising what you are doing but just feel you could be maximising  more profit , there is no right or wrong if you are happy with the price that’s fine , we all have some under priced work for what ever reason , maybe  the work we do gets a lot dirtier as we are on the coast ?? We disown jobs in London 8 times a year and they are always filthy when we do them . I like the 4-8 weekly routeen as less customers are needed  and that’s what most want , we are doing some 8 weekly stuff this  afternoon and it’s running a week late so 9 weeks they are that bad you can hardly see through them and have green algi  growing on the frames , if we did them12 weekly they would look like they had never been cleaned ????

 
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