[Llaaww]

I pick up loads of work by offering to clean inside.
 
I don't understand why I come across so many people who are surprised that I will do it.
Is there a problem with cleaning inside?

When I tell people that I can clean the inside as well the usual response is complete surprise.

Am I the only one who can see both sides of a window?

[Chris Cottrell]

when you have so much to do you'll wish you never offered

Chris

[captain lard]

I do the insides of my own house but in terms of doing them for a customer have only done them twice. Once was for an elderly lady and it was only her kitchen window. The second time I had three upstairs windows above a porch roof which I couldnt get at with my extension pole due to distance/angle. I offered to go into the house to do them as they swung inward to allow you to get at them from inside the owner said. But once in the house I wished I hadnt agreed to this as getting access to the windows was a nightmare. One window was blocked by an office type desk with a PC on it, the other two windows had a ton of junk in front of them and it was a real pain to get to the window.
As a result of this I decided to try to avoid doing domestic insides unless the customer made sure there was easy access to the window and anything from the inside sills was removed before I cleaned if you see what I mean.
If you are pricing for the insides and have the access / time issue priced in then fair do's mate but I would be wary.

[Llaaww]

For the well established boys out there, you are leaving yourselves vulnerable if you do not clean inside as well as out. 

One of my key pitches is that windows have two sides and the job is not a good job unless it is done right(in and out).

For newbies, if you want to win lots of good jobs, offering to clean inside as well as out is a great way to develope new business, either commercial or domestic.

This seems to be a gaping hole in the market at the moment, one which I have been making good use of recently, in the last 10 weeks I have picked up about £10,000pa in commercial sites, more than 75% has been due to to the offer of cleaning the inside of the glass.

[captain lard]

You did not say you were talking about commercial and I am not really established. My comments regarding my own experience relates to domestic work only.
£10,000 pa sounds impressive but it really depends on the breakdown of the price per job doesnt it and how long each job is going to take to see if you have a well priced set of jobs or not.
A lot of posts I have read here regarding commercial work talk about quoting for inside and out as the customer has requested that. Other posts simply talk about the external clean.
Are you pricing both the inside and outside before you offer a price for both aspects of the job or are you pricing only the outside and throwing in the inside clean as a freebie to get the job? You dont really say how you are approaching it in terms of your pricing.

Or are you saying it just doesnt occur to potential commercial customers to ask for a quote for an internal clean as well? If your point is the latter I see exactly what you mean, customers might not think a cleaner will be prepared to tackle an inside clean.

[Trevor Knight]

We always offer insde and outs for our domestic customers and at a premium of 1.5 times the cost of outside its a good earner.

Regarding the commercial side of things, it is an expectation that should the customer require insides cleaning that you would be prepared to do it. Any w/c who operates an outside only service particularly in the commercial sector will find it difficult at times.

[gary evans]

We always try to persuade our client to have internal on commercial, i have only 1 that is covered by cleaners, & about 20 on one contract that are restricted access out of 300 plus commercials.

To pick up £10,000.00 commercial you must be good, i,d like to know your sales pitch, do you price low/rasonable/high or what to get the deal. It is very competitive to say the least.

Are these premises of awkward access, this we over came on one large contract, which we gained by using poles. Most still dont like to.

Gary

[Londoner]

I find it takes three times as long to clean the insides. I also have encountered all the usual nightmares of having to move furniture, ornaments, assorted junk etc. In general its more trouble than its worth.

After saying all that I can think of a few houses where I would gladly clean the insides because they are so filthy. One in particular, you could clean the insides with a paint scraper. Yet they are happy to pay me time and time again to clean the outsides.  

[captain lard]

I have a handful of houses where the insides are really filthy and I always wonder why they are bothered about getting the outsides done.

[russ_clark]

They are a pain and I only do a few on a regular basis.
It is always an option on the rainer days to offer to do the insides though
 

[Chris Cottrell]

One thing I have noticed since using WFP's that a lot of customers have never seen me use a blade and are really suprised when they learn I do Insides to, some have in the past asked "how are you going to them, with that?" to which I normally reply with "I have a lot of towels, I'll just lay them down 

Chris

[LSB]

i always include the insides on all commercial quotes !
i do the occaissional insides for domestic customers as and when they ask me ( i dont advertise it ) at the same price again for the inside . i dont do it by appointment , just if they are in , and ask when i turn up .