[Steve H]

fellas, just a bot of advice when pricong for new work. I like to do a good job for the clients and when you get a first job with a client often there guy has let them down ot whatever. Either way the sills and upvc are usually proper dirty as they havent been done for a while, do you guys price up to take that into account, or just take it on the chin and think how long it might take after that first visit and price it accordingly.

Thanks in advance fellas

Steve
All the upvc on connies make them heavy going on the first visit - the one i did today looked like new when i finished - using Ecover on the upvc, could have charged em for a new connie, added £5,000 to the value of the house for sure 

[Ian101]

On a first clean we charge extra if theyre minging.

Some go for it some dont but the ones who dont prob turn out to be the 1 off brigade.

A recent one we had was about 2 months ago, little end terrace with a conny almost same size of house ... whole lot minging as "the last window cleaner just stopped coming" ..... possibly translates to "were crap customers" 

quoted her as follows

"Our standard price for this type of house is £30 but once you become a regular monthly customer it drops to £14"

her reply was the last one only charged £8 so as polite as I could just said well you can call him if you prefer.

long story short got the job but didnt end there as when we cleaned it no one home so texted her to say all done and left bank details / enverlope for payment ..... yes will sort tonight when get home came her reply.

Fast foward 2 weeks and no payment so went round to collect but no 1 home so called her which went to voicemail so left message.

Another 5 days no payment so called her .. voicemail .. left message .. no payment
Another 3 days called her .. voicemail ... left message ... no payment
so now calling her everyday and going to house but no 1 home.

After a few days of this got an apologetic text and promise of payment of the £30 which landed that evening.

Another text telling me she has set up a standing order for the £14 every month so future payment wont be delayed ... thought not cleaning house until I see standing order land in my account. ..... guess what still waiting !!

[Steve H]

i think im going to give the clients 2 options when im quoting for connies (dirty connies that need the upvc cleaning to look half decent)

1) I can either charge them double for the first clean (not double the whole price, unless all the windows in the house are minging as well - just double the price of the connie) then do a great job cleaning the connie and upvc and reduce to normal price from then on.

2) Just price up for the windows and tell them that i wont be touching the upvc.

The probelm with doing it all (upvc and windows) at normal price is that it takes forever. It took me just over 2 hours today to do the bungalow and connie, which is probs twice as long if not more thsn it would normlly take - should we take that on the chin to get a customer??? i dont mind some of them, but feel if i sold it well enough i could get more for that first clean.

I had a client the other day who insisted that they paid me extra for the first clean, as it took me ages and they were concerned that i wouldnt come back if i wasnt making any money - i felt like they were almost offended that i was too cheap!  so i think you have to be careful not to come accross as just that cheap!!