[thewindowcleaner1]

Question
 has any one out there ever used a canvasser to door knock after a leaflet drop, if so what if any problems did you come across, how did you pay them by the hour,or min basic plus commission any input would be welcome as I'm looking at idea's to put my bussines growth up a gear.

Alan

[rosskesava]

Hi

The problem we had was the canvasser did not do what we asked and paid him to do.

We paid out a fair bit of money and were puzzled as to why his results were worse than ours so we we set him up to call on me. He never called and he never called on any of our neighbours eithers.

Unless you know for a fact that the person is 100% reliable then don't do it.

Also, you have no way of knowing just how good that person is in terms of your business.

We wasted about £200 finding that out. We ended up with just one long term £12 job but loads of wasted phone calls and a fair few calling at the house of the potential customer.

Cheers

[williamx]

Alan

I have used a door knocker who only targets big houses £20 to £40 bracket.

All she does is knock doors to find out if they would like a window cleaner, if they say yes, she takes their details and I go around and price up the job.

I pay her the full 1st clean but I spread this out over 4 Cleans.

[thewindowcleaner1]

Thanks williamx
That's the kind of idea I've been playing with payment for goods produced spread over a period so the longer they do it the better the money becomes. I was also toying with the idea of teaching them how to quote for a job (the main problem I see with this is under priceing to get the job)

thanks to everone so far would still be very intrested to hear any more input on the thread

Alan

[williamx]

Alan
I would not train them to price the jobs for the following reasons

1  The sales rep might underquote big time and its very hard to up the prices once this happens.

2  If you only quote for the job you know what you have told the customer and they can't complain that you have not done a good job because your sales rep said you would do this that and the other.

3  And finally you are selling a service which is not just the cleaning you will do but the greatest asset your company has YOU.

[thewindowcleaner1]

Again thanks williamx sound reasons for not training anyone else to give quotes, these reasons have been taken on board.

Alan

[gaza]

William : very good idea looks as though I might need a canvasser, but couldnt you charge one and a half cleans 1st clean so you dont lose out so much.                                                                                  Mind you you could ask the customer how much they are paying the w/c at the moment then under cut him this method certainly works.
much to my cost.

 oh wise one

[williamx]

Gazza

I don't believe in undercutting to get the job, also if I happen to be cheaper than other cleaners in the area I am not going to raise my prices just to make things equal, I have always tried to offer my customers what I consider a excellent service at the cheapest price possible.

The same applies when someone works for me, I have always paid "top dollar".

You will find that in so doing you will get a better quality of staff who will be most loyal/honest and as helpful as you could wish for, occasionally you will pick a bad apple but they are easily found out and off they go.

Now go in peace

[The Bear]

Your spot on William!