Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Craig 72 on November 20, 2009, 08:59:35 pm
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Cleaned a road of about 25 houses yesterday and for the half or so who weren't in I dropped a card though the door saying I would be round to collect tonight.
First three doors I knocked on:
Door no1:A bloke says his wife deals with it and she's not there.Wouldn't fork out himself.We're talking about a fiver ffs.
Door no2:A lady says,"Oh yes,I saw your card but I totally forgot and haven't got any money on me."
Door no3:A bloke answers the door to which I say,"Hi there,I cleaned your windows yesterday".The moron just replied,"And?".I had to stop myself from laughing.'And' I thought I'd just pop round for a quick chat you mug.
There must be better ways to spend a Friday night surely.Tosspots the lot of em.Right,I'm getting drunk now...
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OOOOOOOO when the blokes say "and?" that boils my blood.
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I have always dumped the crap custys, that works for me ;)
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I certainly will be dumping prats like this when my round gets bigger but can't afford to at the mo.Some people though are just so bloody rude and thoughtless.I'm still new to this lark but finding out that it's not quite as stress free as I imagined before I started. >:(
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Get those envelopes and train them up to send them to you, or sort out bank transfer payments.
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Yeah I think I'll start considering that.
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I know EXACTLY what you mean Craig, it was the same for me when I first started. It does get better though honest. I'm a bit weird I suppose as I enjoy collecting and doorknocking. My best one when collecting was:
Knock on door,
kid answers, yes?
me, window cleaner
kid, "Dad do we need a window cleaner?"
Dad "NO"
me, no your windows have been cleaned
kid "Dad, windows are already cleaned
Dad, "How much?"
X euros
(Sounds of dad searching and swearing and breaking into kids piggy bank)
Kid comes back to the door with a hand full of small change.
Next time round they canceled, (Hubby was going to clean them from now on blah blah)
But otherwise I enjoy the banter with 99% of my custies.
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There must be better ways to spend a Friday night surely.Tosspots the lot of em.Right,I'm getting drunk now...
make them send cheques works for me never collect again and have not for 5 years
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i know how you feel, i think we all get nights like that but sometimes it goes well, i went out tonight and collected all bar 4 no answers. it took me 3 hours though
so i am getting drunk now as well ;D
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As it happens most of my customers are as nice as pie.There's just a few who seem to be a pain in the arse but that's life I suppose.I was peed off earlier but I'm mellowing now I've got some booze inside me. ;D.That bloke who said 'And?' though....Grrrrrrrrrr.
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SAEs I take it for those that leave envelopes?
Do you find that you are getting the cheques sent in the post or are you effectively having to collect in the end anyway?
I think going down the envelope route has got defo merit. Particularly when factoring the cost of your time spent collecting it's a no brainer.
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Get those envelopes and train them up to send them to you, or sort out bank transfer payments.
do you pay for the stamp or hope they'll coff up?
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I ordered a ruck load of address tickers from Vistaprint (cost £3 ish for about a million!), stick them on smal white envelopes and leave them with my note. All my customers pay this way now and 90% within a week 1/2 at most. Every blue moon someone will forget but 99% pay this way with no problem.
Educate nicely and they will understand, takes a few months but they soon get the hang of it (let's face it, posting a cheque is pretty hard so give them poor custies some time.....).
No collecting for me since I restarted window cleaning the 2nd time, love it 8)
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Get those envelopes and train them up to send them to you, or sort out bank transfer payments.
forget the envelopes, and train them to send the payments or charge them for not.... SIMPLES ;)
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Craig,
it's time to start your wish list. everyone you want to loose goes on the list, then as you can, you dump?
it makes me feel better looking at the list from time to rime ;D
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I ordered a ruck load of address tickers from Vistaprint (cost £3 ish for about a million!), stick them on smal white envelopes and leave them with my note. All my customers pay this way now and 90% within a week 1/2 at most. Every blue moon someone will forget but 99% pay this way with no problem.
Educate nicely and they will understand, takes a few months but they soon get the hang of it (let's face it, posting a cheque is pretty hard so give them poor custies some time.....).
No collecting for me since I restarted window cleaning the 2nd time, love it 8)
Steve - do you add stamps to said envelopes or do custies sort this themselves?
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I do a bit of rubbish clearance work on the side and I cleared an industrial unit that used to be a printers recently.Got my hands of boxes and boxes of envelopes so it'll give me a chance to utilise them.A lot of them are big though so it might be amusing to put A4 sized envelopes through peoples doors for cheques. ;D
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Thats alright mate, tell em theyd have been binned otherwise, its called recycling
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get your money then dump them,
dont collect ever again,
print a " your windows have been cleaned today, please forward a cheque making it payable to.................using the addresed envelope provided..... or if you wish to use internet banking please use the following details.
Account number......................
Sort code................................
Could you please pay this within 3 DAYS.
Thank You."
It WILL WORK!
you just have to train them up.
I swear, i have NO bad debt.
every single customer pays within one week
And i find the more i put them details out. there are more and more people using internet banking each month... as opposed to sending cheques.
The cheques coming through my letter box are becoming less less, and more people are paying online...
When you first send these details out, a few customers may say, i dont use internet, i dont use cheques,.....
Tell them if you dont catch them in, when you clean... we need to make other arrangements... but tell them you DONT COLLECT.
They will then arrange to leave it somewhere for you.
And after a while, you will get fed up of the odd one not playing the game..... and you will dump them... and replace with a new customer, who you will train up from the onset.
Hope this helps.
Gary.
p.s. dont stamp the envelope, just print some address labels and stick them on an envelope..
1000 self seal envelopes £11..ebay.
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I can’t understand why anyone would want to go out collecting, it makes no sense, After a day’s work why would I want to go around all my jobs again therefore increasing my working hours and decreasing my hourly pay.
If you enjoy knocking on doors that much, use the time to knock on new ones to gain work.
You are running a business! Unless you work for someone else and get paid hourly, it’s essential that EVERYTHING you do relating to that business is productive.
Apart from being better for you, SAE's and online payments are better from the customers point of view, no way would I like some clown interrupting my evening at home asking for cash. I would get rid of him on that basis alone.
How many other professions come round your house these days with their grubby paws out asking you to empty your kids piggy bank or give them your wife’s shopping money.
In my opinion collecting is degrading, outdated and unprofessional.
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all i do is make envelops with my business name on,slips inside who to make it paybale to and to be fair no 1 is ever late and they pay the stamp them selves never had any comments.
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i find monday or tuesday evening better for collecting than friday!a lot go shopping on a fri or are getting ready for a night out/in!i usually go collecting for 2 hrs a week.a lot pay when i clean or sometimes i spend 15mins at the end of day getting some in.i do use s.a.e on some custys though if there scattered out of the way accounts.
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when you feel your round is big enough id drop them!
the bloke who said and! ive had that before - id had a bad week and i nearly lost it. i rang the bell and this bloke flung open the door and says what! i say hi there window cleaner - i cleaned your windows yesterday, when he said and! i said and ive come to get bloody paid!
he then said sorry and paid up.
customers need to understand that you are effecting your income.
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I agree with most on here. I only have one customer who pays in the day I clean, the rest all pay by bank transfer, dast and easy and a lot less stressful, highly recommend
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The advantage of collecting is that you get to know the customer and can build up a relationship /trust and good will with them.
I then agree with a polite note through the door with a SAE for accounts that have gone over 3 cleans.
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this is my preferred method
although some custies i have known for a long time start preferring to transfer or post cheque
this is fine with me
dont like it form day one though
i dont spend a huge amount of time collecting
i dont like it but once you get stuck in its ok BUT 99% of my work is compact so i can do this
if it was spread out i wouldnt so can see why if you have lots of £20 + jobs spread around cheques is the way forward!!!
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It's not that I mind collecting,but when leave a note saying that I'll be there at a certain time and people still mess about it does grate a bit.As I say I'm still relatively new to this and trying to find the best way to go about things.I think I will definitely start thinking about the S.A.E method.I'm surprised people say don't bother with a stamp though.I would have thought some people would get a bit arsey with having to provide their own stamps.
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I never used to collect, but some customers just take ages, and when i ask why they just say they forget and think i would collect.
So from the new year i will be doing it differently for all local work
I will ask if they want to pay in person at the door they need to phone me to confirm payment collection for the following saturday (so i know they will be in or be prepared to pay) - otherwise i will insist they pay via cheque, paypal or BT.
A lot of my customers are actually pleased ive taken this decision. So ive listened to my customers requirements and taken their views on board..
But all new customers will be getting a price increase to cover collection.
Off course there are annoying downsides to collections - There is a good side to collection - you actually get to meet your customers and have a chat with them which promotes a social interaction with them, you both know who each other are.
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I ordered a ruck load of address tickers from Vistaprint (cost £3 ish for about a million!), stick them on smal white envelopes and leave them with my note. All my customers pay this way now and 90% within a week 1/2 at most. Every blue moon someone will forget but 99% pay this way with no problem.
Educate nicely and they will understand, takes a few months but they soon get the hang of it (let's face it, posting a cheque is pretty hard so give them poor custies some time.....).
No collecting for me since I restarted window cleaning the 2nd time, love it 8)
Steve - do you add stamps to said envelopes or do custies sort this themselves?
no stamp, just an SAE
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I certainly will be dumping prats like this when my round gets bigger but can't afford to at the mo.Some people though are just so bloody rude and thoughtless.I'm still new to this lark but finding out that it's not quite as stress free as I imagined before I started. >:(
By the time I had a full round (and more) I had a dumping list that would have been nearly half a round from a ladder. So I had to do the dumping a bit at a time.
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certainly will be dumping prats like this when my round gets bigger but can't afford to at the mo
Craig if these customers are not paying when they should you cannot afford to keep them
Drop them and use your spare time to find customers who WANT you and who will pay
it does get easier, follow some of the excellent advice on this forum and life will get better
one other thing for anyone new, quite often the customers you pick up easily are ones who have previously been dumped by other w/c because of how difficult they are, nobody and i mean nobody drops a good customer
keep at it
Gordon
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I can’t understand why anyone would want to go out collecting, it makes no sense, After a day’s work why would I want to go around all my jobs again therefore increasing my working hours and decreasing my hourly pay.
If you enjoy knocking on doors that much, use the time to knock on new ones to gain work.
You are running a business! Unless you work for someone else and get paid hourly, it’s essential that EVERYTHING you do relating to that business is productive.
Apart from being better for you, SAE's and online payments are better from the customers point of view, no way would I like some clown interrupting my evening at home asking for cash. I would get rid of him on that basis alone.
How many other professions come round your house these days with their grubby paws out asking you to empty your kids piggy bank or give them your wife’s shopping money.
In my opinion collecting is degrading, outdated and unprofessional.
You might think me a bit shallow ;) but I may have stumbled upon a way to increase your tips.
I was out collecting last night and one of my customers gave me a nice bottle of red wine as a christmas tip, it was a fair walk back to the van and I only had 5 more customers in that street so I held onto the wine till I was done collecting.
3 of the 5 saw the wine, made some comment and promptly gave me a nice tip as well.
Now I am not suggesting anything here but......... ;)
Neil
You arrogant twit
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;D ;D ;D :D
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I always leave a slip saying that I've cleaned the windows today and circle which day I'm coming to collect.
I also leave it at least 3 days and would never collect on a Friday night or at the weekend. Never had any problems and the beuty is that every customer has the right amount ready when I call. Happy Days
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i know sometimes i have loads to collect but they are not in and i have no money to go pub with or to go cinema.it realy annoys me