[mark dew]

For about 3 months now i have been looking at each job and worked out how much i would charge if i was to quote again. As a newbie still i fInd it quite hard to drastically increase my prices. Which was needed for some jobs to make them viable.

Now, 2 months ago i had a job which i'd originally priced up at £8. It used to take me about 35 minutes. Anyway, the last time i left her a note saying i couldn't clean them at £8 because it took me 45 minutes to clean. That was it.
I didn't really want to lose the job, only i'd boxed myself in with a price of £8 when it was worth £13.
Understandably i never heard from her again.

A week later i was cleaning 2 cottages both priced at £14. They took me almost an hour each. After i finished the 1st cottage i said to the woman that she had X amount of windows and i would have to increase my price to £20. Explaining that i would quote £25 now but i could keep it to £20.
She was shocked when i told her, but only at the amount of windows that she had. Very happy to pay £20 for the service i had provided regularly for almost 2 years. Next door the same.
Today i did a job that i'd originally quoted £8 for. You've gotta see this 1 to believe how underpriced it was. I'd put it up to £10 3 months ago and told her that it would go up again in july. This one takes me about 45-50 minutes now.
When i finished, i told her that the price would be going upto £15 from next month. She hummed and harred and wasn't happy with the increase. "But £15." She kept saying.
I told her that it was more a reflection on how underpriced i'd quoted originally and i had bit the bullet for almost 2 years. But the job was not viable at less than £15.
She kept on about what an huge increase it was, blah blah blah. Her husband runs a company and they have always been worth a few quid. (I've known them most of my life). In the end i told her that £15 is my bottom line, it is NOT negotiable and if she needs to think about it then give me an answer next month when i come back to do the neighbour. She then asked if i'd increased the neighbours price. I told her i hadn't, she was paying a fair price.
(Divide and rule. As long as 1 neighbour is happy then i'm there to stay.)
This upset her even more.
I told her she'd be lucky to find a quote under £20 but i will leave it anyway as "....this job isn't viable!" She wasn't happy, but agreed to £15.

I know this is a ramble but there are 2 morals i've learned from this.

1. Price correctly to begin with and i won't resent working there.
and
2. Explain price increases face to face. Address their concerns. They might not be happy but if you can explain your reasons well, most people will accept.

If this also fails:

DROP 'EM!!!

[D.Salkeld_Ltd]

Well done Mark.

No1 is the most important.  Remember it is suprising what people will pay for window cleaning.  Try it, you'll be surprised - I was!! after 20 years!

David

[chris@c.m.s]

Marc I'm almost in the same boat, I have two roads where the houses take about 45 mins each I've met 2 other w/c rs and were all charging about the same £8.50 - £10.00 tried getting others at £12 still under what they should be and its a firm no thanks or I'll let you know,  prices can be so effected by area, affluance and size of house, with that I meen my best work is smaller terrace houses with 7 windows and a door that are happy to pay £7 rather than the previosly mentioned and more than double the cleaning who's owners still cant understand why they cant keep a w/c.
 
 

[mark dew]

cheers david, i do feel better now i have done it. But i worked for over a year resenting the job at £10 and was really up for increasing the pice or dropping it there and then. In the past i have dropped a few 'cos the increase seemed too much for my sensitive soul to ask, but most times i would have preferred to have kept them on at a fair price. Not top price.

Chris, i found the terraced house used to be my best earners per hour.
But 90% of my work is rural and it was hard to price up a house with 5X more windows at 5X the price. Am getting there now but its been a learning curve.

This last month i have re-priced 3 houses that were underpriced in the beginning and while i would have gone higher if i was quoting 1st time, i am now £17 better off a month for no extra work.

Not much financially but the real benefit is that each job i have is now profitable on its own and there are 2 more days i don't groan when i get up in the morning.


anyways, good luck with your 2 streets.

[Londoner]

Its absolutely classic. When you are starting out and you want the work you underprice. Sometimes you can just get it wrong and underestimate whats involved.
But after that you suffer every month and eventually you end up seething over what was your mistake in the first place.
Even now I do it and I should know better.
I believe its hard to put up a price once you have started doing it at a lower price. Other than cost of living type increases the customer will just get annoyed.

It depends where you live, round here I would rather just drop the customer and canvass another road somewhere else but not everyone can do that.

[gsw]

i had my worst 2 accounts paying £8 each, I told them that in January the price would go up to £12 as I had underpriced and they had benefitted for over a year! then gave them the option of an 8 week service at £16.00.....no price increase ...they both went with the 8 week! so I'm happy and they are (nearly!)

I have found when quoting now that it always makes sense to quote for a 4 week and an 8 week clean....this stops the smart a£$&** trying to catch you out, so mostly for me it is £12/£16.
hope this helps
greg

[Londoner]

One of the things that really has come out of this forum is how similar are the problems we all face over prices.

We all of us go round and round in circles and the only thing that I take comfort from is knowing that I am not alone.

The trouble is we all know what the problem is but that doesn't help solve it.

I will be starting soon to canvass a whole new round from scratch and I know that I will making all the old mistakes all over again. Its like something from Groundhog Day.

[dustycorner]

Hi all,

I cant' believe some of the prices other wc's quote most of my round is in suffolk, although i live in a norfolk town.There are wc's where i live charging £3.00 for a 2 bed house i wouldn't do the fronts for that.

Cheers Mark.

[Londoner]

Always been the same. I am also amazed the other way though. I can't believe what some of the window cleaners get away with.

[dustycorner]

Too true,

I know of a wc who when it rains put his payment slip through the customer letterbox without doing the work.

Cheers Mark.

[Mike George]

I know of a wc who when it rains put his payment slip through the customer letterbox without doing the work.

I got a £12 house because their last window cleaner did that.

I've been going for 4 weeks now and got just over 50 customers, and I think I've got the pricing about right, but I nearly lost my nerve this morning when a man in one house told me I'd "never get work at those prices mate" (£12 for a semi with a 5-sided bay at the front) and he only paid £6. An hour later I got a call from one of his neighbours who was more than happy with the price.