So many of you on this thread must have rocks in your heads.
Why O why O why do you put up with the utter rubbish customers you have posted about on here?
All these things should go into room 101 immediately.
Doing a first clean for the same price as a regular clean.
Collecting money from any customer.
Texting beforehand to arrange/tell 'em when you are going.
Accepting a cancellation from a regular customer. (unless the scaffolding is up or summat)
Going up a ladder.
Blading off wfp water.
I do two of the things on your list but only sometimes.
First cleans I often charge more - but not always. It depends on the windows' condition, how much I want/need the job and my gut feeling about the customer's future intention regarding a regular service.
Text the evening before: For years I only had maybe three or four jobs where I did this. I had found it to be a hassle - not so much the texting but the relying on the customer to leave access. I even used to turn work down if pre-notification was involved. These days I do have rather more than three or four. Apart from two of them who are fine, the rest are a pain and will be dropped as soon as I feel able. I got drawn into an unsavoury argument recently with a (ex) customer who often didn't leave the padlock unlocked. I shouldn't have bitten but no-one's perfect. It's not just about "no access". It can easily mean that the workload is short that day because it's too late to arrange another job - unless another is due in that area or on the way home where no pre-arranging is needed. Also, pre-arranging due to access problems leaves the workload short at peak holiday times (customers away) and it balso gives the less committed customers a chance to reduce the cleaning frequency. Once I've upped my workload, I will be dropping many of the pre-arranged jobs.