[cottonbud10]

how do you tell customers who you,ve had for the last 5 years,and never increased there clean,that things have to go up.I have a bungalow that is huge and takes me the best part of one hour to do,,all for £7.50.I wan,t to put it up to at least a tenner,but don,t want to upset the good rapour we have.any ideas ?? thanks  kev

[S.A.J]

Just put the price up don’t be scared the customer will understand.

I’ve just put houses up from £10 to £12 and some from £10 to £14 not a single customer battered an eye lid, one even said about time you put your prices up.

If you don’t put prices up your business will go backwards cos of the coast of living these days

Hope all this makes sense

Stuart
SAJ Window Cleaners Ltd

[macc]

Ive been putting all my prices up this month & i only have 3 days to go. Once you have got started you will find only a few will moan, most say ok.

I have only lost 1 & to be honest i'm glad  .

What i do is put them up each year, mainly a £1, some only 50p, if you do it yearly you only have to do a small increase & they are happy. I made the same mistake, i was leaving it too long & the increase was huge.

Be confident & tell them the increase & try to do small ones & regular, (yearly).

Macc

[david68]

Hi
You could slip a letter through the letter box ( but watch out for your fingers.. )

The letter will tell them of your increase and phone number if they want to contact you.

You will find most will accept

Dave

[KarlJones]

personally I like the look of...
5% every year rounded up to the next 10p*, I prefer enforce in Oct but thats just my inexperience maybe.

*eg, 5.00 and 5% = 5.25 round up to 5.30
5.30 and 5% = 5.56 round up to 5.60

in this case gives a 12% increase in two years and does not feel that bad to customer.
5.60 and 5% = 5.88 round up to 5.90
5.90 and 5% = 6.20

and so on.  I know window cleaners like to move in 50p increments but I think it is a bit much for the lower, sometimes bread and butter, end of the market

PS, in relation to the actual question.
Put it up to £10 because next year you will want it at £10.50 just to stop you doing it for free.  At the very least tell the customer that you should be putting it up to £10 and feel that £9 this year and £10.00 next year will be easier for her/him

If they drop you, you can come and work for me for £7.50 an hour

7.50 and 5% = 7.87 (7.90)
7.90 and 5% = 8.30
8.30 and 5% = 8.72 (8.80)
8.80 and 5% = 9.24 (9.30)
9.30 and 5% = 9.76 (9.80)

which is not far off the £10 you want.

[cottonbud10]

thanks for the help,i know i,m the boss and it,s up to me to make sure i charge a fair price for a fair job,after all where else could you get a skilled person to do a job for 7.50 an hour..ha..ha

[simon knight]

Hi Kev, £7.50 ph was at the low end 5 years ago! I can't believe any reasonable customer would object to you earning £10 ph.

[Mr.G]

at first I thought you said "put it up BY £10 an hour" which'd be perfectly reasonable! but- i think youd be likely to be told to shove your squeegee up-  up a rather unusual place to keep it!

[cottonbud10]

hi mG,NO i meant to put it up to a tenner,not put it up a tenner,do you get me.Sorry on reading what i,d written i se how you saw it, i had better get myself back to school,bad...granma....grammer i mean