[Lee13]

Hey all,

I'm in my 3rd month of trading, and so far all has been going pretty well.

I'm trying to get my round more organised, and one way I see myself of achieving this would be to have all customers on 4 weekly, that way I would know exactly what is going on etc each week, making life a lot easier. Having said that, I do feel I can charge slightly more on a 6 weekly cycle as it seems more affordable for the customer.

I know that not everyone would like there windows cleaned this frequently, and to be honest, most of my customers are on a 6 week cycle, some are 8.

What got me thinking more into this was a conversation I had with a commercial window cleaner local to me. He said when he did residential, he would offer just 4 weekly.

Just wondered what you guys offer?

Cheers
Lee

[erithwc]

hi

all my work is 6 weekly what i did was i looked a map worked out what radius & areas i was going to cover then split the areas into six groups that way you don't find your self runing around in circles and i canvass them areas a week or two before they are due aswell

[Helen]

We all offer frequences that we would like to work by, but at the end of the day you have to be flexible to some point with your customers.  For example if you get a £100 house it probably won't be monthly, but are you going to turn it down, because it doesn't suit your schedules? Most of yours are 6 weekly and some are every other month. Are you going to try to change your existing custies to the 4 weekly cycle...they are not daft and will quickly work out how much more this will cost them! You started at  6 weekly for some reason, so why change it now?
Why not go for all 6 weekly cleans from now on for new custies (bearing in mind the flexibilty as above) and ask your 8 weekly if they would mind moving to 6 weekly,
Personally have never done every 4 weeks, always been monthly, 6 weekly, 2 monthly etc. Once you are up and running and with more custies, the scheduling will become more easy and you should be more organised

[Wc Solutions]

mainly ours is 4 weekly and some 8 weekly and the odd big houses 3 months on domestic work anyway.

[Lee13]

Helen - I'm not trying to pull the wool over the customers eyes and stick them all on a 4 weekly at all.

I'm interested to hear how other people are managing their rounds. I want to avoid making the mistakes other people may have made when they started. I don't want to get the the point where I have say 250 customers all on different frequencies dotted all over the place.

I know there will always be the odd exception where you'd pick up a customer that wants them done every 3 months, but you can't be picky when your starting up.

[Jack Wallace]

Get George, best 50 quid you will spend.
Then it does not matter what frequency they are, you will allways know what’s due.

95% of my work is 4 weekly, 5% 8 weekly, 2% as and when.



I also believe five out of four people have trouble with fractions. 

[Lee13]

Haha, Thanks Jack.

Yea I use George, saves me bags of time.

[Perfect Windows]

Mine are on 6/12 only.  No-one has ever asked for another frequency, as I never state any other options, so it's not working out too badly.

The only fly in the ointment is one commercial job that's quarterly, though four weeks' holiday over the year will get that back on track.

Vin

[Smudger]

We have the majority on 4 wky  with 8 wky and 12 wky depending on house size and what the custy wants,

as long as it divides into 4 wky pattern  when we get 8 wky cleans i try to balance them against another 8 wky - so one month i do all the 4 wky's + 2 8 weekers the next time round the 4 wky's + 2 different 8 weekers - sometimes all works out - other times not so well.

i cover over 15 villages so days are dedicated to that village in an effort to keep things compact.

if most of your work is 6 wky i would change the 8 weekers to 12 wky  and run multiples of 6

Darran

[lee09]

Hi
10 years ago all mine were 4 weekly but now I recommend 8 weekly if their not on a busy main road. 8 weekly also give you a little more flexibility, if you go to a 4 weekly a couple of days early they moan but if you go to an 8 weeker a few days early they rarely notice. It also reduces the "has it been a month already" and the leave it today crew

But most of all ask them what they want.

Lee

[Paul Coleman]

Mine are on 6/12 only.  No-one has ever asked for another frequency, as I never state any other options, so it's not working out too badly.

The only fly in the ointment is one commercial job that's quarterly, though four weeks' holiday over the year will get that back on track.

Vin

Pretty much how I do it too but 12 weekly is uncommon.  That way the work all gets done when in an area - either every time or every other time.  If I have a 12 weekly job it  has to be priced a lot better though.
I do have other work (mostly commercial) that I do on various frequencies.  Because I might be going to a place just for that one job it has to meet certain criteria.  It has to be large enough to justify going there just for the one job (or be a job that is adjacent to such a job so it can be done at the same time) OR it has to be very local.  Occasionally I will make exceptions but the way I see it is that the less I have to pay in travel costs, the more more profitable the business is.  That may even be reflected in the prices my customers pay (or I may just spend it on sweeties).

[Perfect Windows]

Pretty much how I do it too but 12 weekly is uncommon.  That way the work all gets done when in an area - either every time or every other time.  If I have a 12 weekly job it  has to be priced a lot better though.

12 weekly is 50% more in my case.  38% of my customers are on 12-weekly.  I love doing them; my days are so much more profitable, while the customer ends up paying much less over the year.  Wins all round.

Vin

[windowswashed]

Commercial 4 weekly or calendar monthly and rest are 6 weekly with the odd 12 weekly and a handful of really old monthly customers and two annual jobs.

[lee_dewing]

lee, it is a tricky one knowing what is the right frequency.

I decided to do monthly had the odd few want bi-monthly, tried i was always late got pi55ed of with people moaning it's 10 weeks not 8 weeks.

So just do monthly.
What i say to new custy's is i come on calander month (same date every month, but can be a few days late)

In reality it takes me 5 weeks to get round i very rarely get a not today, if i show in 4 weeks i would get custy's moaning it can't be that time again! if i show up in 6 weeks get some saying, i nearly did windows myself

Do what you feel is right, i wouldn't make to many options, you'l just make your life difficult.

imo, i went into window cleaning because it is a simple repeat business.

I want to keep it that way.

As you get busier lee you will not be able to be so obliging because you wont have time.

I think most people are happy to find a good relialble w/c, i have had a few say they were going to leave it as i wouldn't do bi-monthly, then a couple of months later came back to me.

I have wrestled with the frequency thing myself but now i look at it like this.

The bus stop round the corner runs to a  specific time table.
The people that want their service don't argue and get on board.
The ones that want it their way end up walking.

[Crystal-clear]

Im trying to keep mine all 8 weekly i have a few 12 weekly and a few 4 weekly i think ill make the 12 weekly 16 weekly and the last of the 4 weekly 8 weekly 

But i think it all depends on the mentality of your customers in london most people dont like there windows cleaned so regularly when i pick up a customer and say its 8 weekly they seem happy 

i know for a fact if i changed them all to 3 monthly they would like it even more!
But i know alot of Wc in london do their customers 4 weekly i dont know how i would keep my round together if i was so regular!

they just are quite content on having the windows dirty saving cash then getting a clean when they are really dirty so they can see the difference and know what they are paying for.

[Perfect Windows]

The thing I think you need to work on is that mixing, say four and six-weekly gets complicated.  Sometimes they are overlapping, sometimes not.  Throw in eight weekly and you're really juggling.  If you stick to x weekly and 2x weekly, say 4 and 8 or 5 and 10 or 6 and 12, it fits together much better and isn't really too hard to organise.

Vin