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Ideas to cover sick days

LongRoad

Member
Messages
31
Location
West Midlands
Hi All.

Any people on here that have multiple vans, how do you cover a round if member of staff calls in sick? Do you have a way to still cover that round for the day, or do you just reschedule it? 

It's causing me a headache as customers are annoyed when I have to cancel then reschedule them, they get the cancellation message when they've already left for work, then angry cause they've already left back gate locked for the day. Any ideas how to resolve this?

Any suggestion or ideas would be great

 
Hi All.

Any people on here that have multiple vans, how do you cover a round if member of staff calls in sick? Do you have a way to still cover that round for the day, or do you just reschedule it? 

It's causing me a headache as customers are annoyed when I have to cancel then reschedule them, they get the cancellation message when they've already left for work, then angry cause they've already left back gate locked for the day. Any ideas how to resolve this?

Any suggestion or ideas would be great
We run 2 guys per van , so one will still carry on as normal  and at the end of the week  guys on the other vans will help out , sometimes ones will offer to start early/work late to catch up . To be fair we rarely get ones off sick 

 
We run 2 guys per van , so one will still carry on as normal  and at the end of the week  guys on the other vans will help out , sometimes ones will offer to start early/work late to catch up . To be fair we rarely get ones off sick 
Do you still end up cancelling some of the jobs the 2 man van was planned to do that day due to 1 man only able to do a certain amount of it?

I run 1 man per van at the moment. Ideally want to find a way to cover the days work for a man that might be off sick, when it happens, although not often, i lose customers as a result. 

 
If you're not hands on then could you not step in as cover
I do everything possible to not do any work on the windows myself. I want everything to be completely self sustaining without me. Although its my easiest option to resolve the problem i think theres a way logistically i can solve it. Although i just havent been able to work that bit out yet.

 
Do you still end up cancelling some of the jobs the 2 man van was planned to do that day due to 1 man only able to do a certain amount of it?

I run 1 man per van at the moment. Ideally want to find a way to cover the days work for a man that might be off sick, when it happens, although not often, i lose customers as a result. 
Yes one man will get behind on daily work schedule but buy the end of the week it will all be done or 99% of the time it will be . All my guys work all the rounds on a rota so they know all the jobs  we would cancel some of the add on jobs if we had to . 

 
Yes one man will get behind on daily work schedule but buy the end of the week it will all be done or 99% of the time it will be . All my guys work all the rounds on a rota so they know all the jobs  we would cancel some of the add on jobs if we had to . 
Sounds similar to me. I also play catch up, usually back up to date within a week. Its the customers that cancel me permanently as a result that im trying to stop. Any ideas on how to have something in place where i can get it covered at the short notice. We start out to first job at 7.30am, the person calling in sick usually im notified by 6am/6.30am which gives me not much time. 

Your idea of cancelling add ons to get upto date is a good one, but we dont do add ons at all so i cant give it a go

 
Sounds similar to me. I also play catch up, usually back up to date within a week. Its the customers that cancel me permanently as a result that im trying to stop. Any ideas on how to have something in place where i can get it covered at the short notice. We start out to first job at 7.30am, the person calling in sick usually im notified by 6am/6.30am which gives me not much time. 

Your idea of cancelling add ons to get upto date is a good one, but we dont do add ons at all so i cant give it a go
I can honestly say we have never had anyone cancel due to being late  obviously if we had a £ 10 job to do  and a £1000 job the more expensive one is going to get priority , if it was domestic jobs unless it’s some of our very wealthy clients they will then get done as soon as we can get to them    I have not had a problem with occasionally being late due to holidays , sickness , we always prioritise our large commercial jobs and large domestic and do our best to keep them on time but a few days late is hardly life threatening in my books and customers understand we all need time off or get ill now and then . 

 
I can honestly say we have never had anyone cancel due to being late  obviously if we had a £ 10 job to do  and a £1000 job the more expensive one is going to get priority , if it was domestic jobs unless it’s some of our very wealthy clients they will then get done as soon as we can get to them    I have not had a problem with occasionally being late due to holidays , sickness , we always prioritise our large commercial jobs and large domestic and do our best to keep them on time but a few days late is hardly life threatening in my books and customers understand we all need time off or get ill now and then . 
I think the problem is that I send text reminders the evening before for gates to be left unlocked. Id say 90% of my customers keep their gate locked so if I didnt send the reminders Id end up with a load of front only cleans. They cancel as the gate has been left unlocked for the day for no reason when the clean isnt done and generally seem very annoyed. Being honest iv lost a good few over time as a result

 
Im afraid its part and parcel of having staff, i know you said you dont want to cover it yourself but your the boss, if you aint sern to be helping out the lads when needed then i think youll struggle to get them to do a bit extra to help you.

P.s that sounds alot more patronising than its ment to, its just my opinion.

 
Sounds like you have quite a few, or had quite a few, very demanding customers. We do commercial work countrywide where we have to give at least 2 weeks notice, so the PM company can let residents know we are coming on a specific day. On the bigger sites it's 2 days. However with this we have the weather problems and did cancel a big job in London due to 40+mph winds.

If the customers can't accept an apology with a genuine reason then I wouldn't lose any sleep if they left. 99% certain other companies will miss scheduled visits as well.

 
Im afraid its part and parcel of having staff, i know you said you dont want to cover it yourself but your the boss, if you aint sern to be helping out the lads when needed then i think youll struggle to get them to do a bit extra to help you.

P.s that sounds alot more patronising than its ment to, its just my opinion.
Haha i dont find it patronising. The lads I've got are a great team and they always put a proper shift in, if im honest I cant fault them and know I could have much worse staff (which I've had in the past).

I can go out, 6 hours on the glass and problem solved but it goes against what I'm doing.

Although I'm not there yet, probably not even close but I want to build a self sustainable business that doesnt need me. As I'm building everything up I'm trying to resolve all issues as I go along by putting structure and fall backs in place for when things go wrong.

 
I think the problem is that I send text reminders the evening before for gates to be left unlocked. Id say 90% of my customers keep their gate locked so if I didnt send the reminders Id end up with a load of front only cleans. They cancel as the gate has been left unlocked for the day for no reason when the clean isnt done and generally seem very annoyed. Being honest iv lost a good few over time as a result
Ok we never have txt customers I won’t take on work that requires that , but I do understand in some areas and types of work it may be nessassary to do so  guess Ime lucky like that I deliberately built my rounds  to avoid this situation . I don’t think there is a simple answer to this situation if you are getting a lot cancel due to this is it possible to replace them with jobs that don’t have locked gates ? We won’t take on any jobs  with access issues unless we are given keys or codes ,simple as that . 

 
Sounds like you have quite a few, or had quite a few, very demanding customers. We do commercial work countrywide where we have to give at least 2 weeks notice, so the PM company can let residents know we are coming on a specific day. On the bigger sites it's 2 days. However with this we have the weather problems and did cancel a big job in London due to 40+mph winds.

If the customers can't accept an apology with a genuine reason then I wouldn't lose any sleep if they left. 99% certain other companies will miss scheduled visits as well.
Good point there about accepting an apology. Its rare we get sick, and i reckon some customers could be more understanding.

 
Haha i dont find it patronising. The lads I've got are a great team and they always put a proper shift in, if im honest I cant fault them and know I could have much worse staff (which I've had in the past).

I can go out, 6 hours on the glass and problem solved but it goes against what I'm doing.

Although I'm not there yet, probably not even close but I want to build a self sustainable business that doesnt need me. As I'm building everything up I'm trying to resolve all issues as I go along by putting structure and fall backs in place for when things go wrong.
As you say you are still building and if you arnt prepared to get hands on when required then Ime sorry to say I feel that’s your own fault , I have 5 staff and have chosen to still do the work I don’t ask or expect my guys to do something I cannot or won’t do myself , I think you need to take a more flexible approach and muck in when needed as this would probably solve the problem.

 
Ok we never have txt customers I won’t take on work that requires that , but I do understand in some areas and types of work it may be nessassary to do so  guess Ime lucky like that I deliberately built my rounds  to avoid this situation . I don’t think there is a simple answer to this situation if you are getting a lot cancel due to this is it possible to replace them with jobs that don’t have locked gates ? We won’t take on any jobs  with access issues unless we are given keys or codes ,simple as that . 
No text reminders would be the dream, everybody has gates in the areas i work, the houses were built this way and nearly all lock the gate. I did think about stopping the text reminders and going over the gates but thats another problem in itself. Without them texts id have hardly any work so im pretty much stuck with doing them

 
No text reminders would be the dream, everybody has gates in the areas i work, the houses were built this way and nearly all lock the gate. I did think about stopping the text reminders and going over the gates but thats another problem in itself. Without them texts id have hardly any work so im pretty much stuck with doing them
Yes it’s a difficult one , I remember turning down fronts only work from day one as felt it was a waist of time , then read comments on the other forum about a guy who basically did nothing but fronts only and made a very good living from it , we now do quite a few front only on terraced Victorian houses very good earners wish I had more of them to be honest , could this be an option ? 

 
Yes it’s a difficult one , I remember turning down fronts only work from day one as felt it was a waist of time , then read comments on the other forum about a guy who basically did nothing but fronts only and made a very good living from it , we now do quite a few front only on terraced Victorian houses very good earners wish I had more of them to be honest , could this be an option ? 
We do front only jobs, i meant if i didnt message customers about gates id be planning a day of full houses but id only end up being able to clean the fronts due to gate being locked. Front only can be a good earner, quick to do and cuts travel time between jobs. Definitely worth doing. I use the front onlys sometimes to cover last minute cancellations due to holiday or building work, as they dont need the text reminder and keeps the days earnings up.

Im starting to wonder wether it would be worthwhile getting another person in for cover, say for holidays, sick or at times when theres an over-generation of work he could manage that. I dont know. I think my brain is going into meltdown thinking too much

 
We do front only jobs, i meant if i didnt message customers about gates id be planning a day of full houses but id only end up being able to clean the fronts due to gate being locked. Front only can be a good earner, quick to do and cuts travel time between jobs. Definitely worth doing. I use the front onlys sometimes to cover last minute cancellations due to holiday or building work, as they dont need the text reminder and keeps the days earnings up.

Im starting to wonder wether it would be worthwhile getting another person in for cover, say for holidays, sick or at times when theres an over-generation of work he could manage that. I dont know. I think my brain is going into meltdown thinking too much
Having someone add hock might work but would they be available at short notice ? And what would be the standard of there work if only doing stuff now and then. 

 
Having someone add hock might work but would they be available at short notice ? And what would be the standard of there work if only doing stuff now and then. 
Ad hoc would be better, in a financial sense but i think any good worker worth having will want stable hours and full time. Ad hoc may bring a mentality thats different to what i look for. I think if i was to try to do it that way it would have to be a full time member of staff, i know it will come at a cost but flip side would be things would run very smooth. I dont know. I think at this point im toying with ideas and just doing my own head in haha

 
Perhaps employ another permanent worker. But don’t fill his time with window cleaning jobs increase your one off jobs fsg, gutter cleaning etc.

if you get a sicky then put one offs on hold and just do windys.

or perhaps have a 2 man team for one offs that you use for windys in an emergency. 
Hope that makes sense. 
You could even move the lads/lasses around so they are familiar with everything.

One thing to note, I studied as a Stress Management Consultant years ago. If you are starting to have a high sicky rate then something maybe wrong with morale, management, salary etc.

hope this helps.

 
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