[steve k]

Just a thought...??
I was doing the back windows of a customer the other day and the houses either side of me (who I do not clean) have filthy windows over their conservatories...both look like bedrooms so they must want them clean. Does anybody clean JUST these windows for people who have a window cleaner but who cannot do them.
I was thinking of knocking and offering to do them while I was there for £5 - 2/3 minutes at most.

[Andrew McCann]

Hi Steve.

Thats a bit dodgy ground to be on I reckon. What I would do is to canvass the houses to see if they are happy with their existing window cleaner. If not.. then I would explain that by using WFP I can do those windows and charge accordingly.

Andrew

[preston powerblast]

I will not do an odd window.
But its a good sales pitch.

[steve k]

Andrew, I don`t mean take the whole job...just as an extra for your WFP...like a conservatory roof. I would happily go to clean a conservatory roof where someone has requested that service. They probably have a window cleaner but it wouldn`t enter my head if I was there to clean a roof.
If I had a 100 customers in one area who paid me £5 to clean the windows (usually 2 windows) above their conservatory, I would be very pleased and this would not have any impact whatsoever on a window cleaners round. Probably unlikely they would pay that though...just a thought.

[Grafters Cleaning Services]

it don't seem to be worth the hassle to get the system up and running just for 1 or 2 windows, besides if they already have a w/c using trad methods i think he/she would be somewhat upset at your tatics?

[steve k]

I`m sorry, I must not be making this clear...the trad cleaner is not doing the windows above his customers conservatory because there is a conservatory roof in his way and he does not have WFP!!
Therefore, there is an untapped goldmine on every estate where there are conservatories. Surely we are not suggesting that these homeowners need to accept uncleaned windows while we have the means to offer them this service.

NOT...NOT...NOT their house windows...
NO intrusion whatsoever on their existing window cleaner

I am suggesting, as an added service in your advertising, much like you advertise conservatory roof cleaning, (I do) that you offer to clean innaccessible windows.
I`ll tell you what Grafters, if someone rang me tonight and offered me a run of houses at £5 each for 2 windows I would be over the moon.
I reckon with moving between houses and just doing those 2 windows on each house would be 5 minutes max. We are talkinh in the region of £60 per hour on a compact site. Even halving it if not so compact is still £30 an hour.

There are lots on here who do conservatory roofs on properties where they do not clean the windows.

Anyway...just a thought

[Grafters Cleaning Services]

i can see your logic steve, but if i were you i would tread carefully on this one.

as a avid wfp user myself i know we can get to windows that trads can't reach (sounds like an advert for larger)

anyway my point being is that if you were to do this the customers may prefer your methods and sack the other w/c in favour of using you

now this would be good for your income however, if i were a trad w/c and i lost a lot of customers due to someone using wfp i would not be to happy

but all said and done we live in a free world (or so they tell me) with free enterprise

Jay

[s.hughes]

I agree, at the end of the day you are not poaching other peoples work, but would a customer have 2 w/c. If you were to charge £5 for 1 or 2 windows then surely the customer would decide to have you do all the windows for a little bit extra. She's happy, you're happy but not the other w/c.
It may work out that you did the windows every 2 or 3 months and then thats not so bad. However I would feel very uncomfortable if another w/c was doing extras for my customers and I think most on this forum would say the same. Good thing I got a wfp.
Anyway like Jay says its a free country and its up to you but thats my thought on it, not that thats worth anything

Steve

[craig jwc]

If you are doing their neighbours house then they will probably notice after a while and probably ask you.
I picked up a new customer today opposite where i was working. This guy came over and asked me if i would do his windows.
I told him that he had a w/c already.
He replied that he'd been watching me for a few months now and thought i did a better job than his w/c so he got rid of him.
He said that he didn't clean the frames and didn't clean one of the windows at the back because he couldn't reach it with his ladders.
I gave him a price which i know was higher than his w/c and he said it was fine.

I won't take work off others but as he already got rid of him plus i didn't go looking for the work he came to me, i don't think i was out of order.

I have 1 customer that has another w/c and he only cleans the front.
They saw me working in the street and asked me to price the back and side of the house. This is when i found out they had a w/c but he will only do the fronts as he can't reach over extension to get the top windows.
He dosen't have a problem with this as he is not interested in wfp.

Craig

[macc]

what i did was to talk to the window cleaner who had the job and he jumped at my offer of doing them with the aggrement of his customer. everyone happy.

[Sir Squeaky]

Well if some wfp'er tried that on my accounts it wouldn't happen again.

I'd soon educate the customer on that one too.....It's poaching someone's customers.

This is exactly what I meant the other day about brush users thinking(wrongly) that they are superior.

[Ian_Giles]

Although you may not actually be taking work off the other window cleaner, if I were the other window cleaner I would be a very unhappy chappie if I saw you doing this on an account of mine.
It's highly unlikely the customer would stay with 2 window cleaners, just for the sake of arguement lets say you have picked up 20 accounts where you just clean the window above the conservatory that their main window cleaner cannot get at (I don't think that would ever happen by the way) should a customer actually do this, of that 20, several of them at the very least will want to swap window cleaners.

You may not have set out to poach the work of the other window cleaner, but in the end that is what's going to happen.

I have no compunction about taking work off another window cleaner, it's a free market after all.
I would never deliberately set out to do so though, nor would I undercut to get work.
The ones I do not take work off are the window cleaners I actually know personally.
Where a potential customer to ask me to clean their windows in place of their existing window cleaner, I would endeavour to find out who the window cleaner was first.
Were it say Roger or Tosh (who are both very local to me) I would refuse the business. period.


Ian

[steve k]

Squeaky,
it goes like this:

me:" would you like the windows above your conservatory cleaned every 4 weeks for £5.00"

them: "yes please"

after 2 cleans:

them:" would you clean all my windows like that please"

me: "no, you have a window cleaner, I just clean these windows above your conservatory"

END OF STORY

I would NEVER take another WC work.

You go the shop for  a pint of milk and a loaf of bread, the first shop has the milk but no bread. Do you go without bread...no, you go to another shop for your bread. "
Both shops have provided you with same service but different items.
One shop is not superior than than the other.

If your customer NEEDED her conservatory roof cleaning, do you get the hump when someone with WFP is called in to do the job?
If you do...why?

They are there to clean the roof, not the windows.
You may as well get the hump when the gardener turns up in case he tries to get the window cleaning...or the postman...or the milkman.

I agree entirely that it would be OUTRAGEOUS if the WFPer turned up and tried to canvass for the regular window clean as well...but I am assuming that the majority of people on here wouldn`t let a thought like that enter their heads

[Sir Squeaky]

me: "no, you have a window cleaner, I just clean these windows above your conservatory"

Trouble is sticking to the line above.

If you could offer an extra window you'd put the customer off the other guy, and you'd end up taking it anyway.

If your customer NEEDED her conservatory roof cleaning, do you get the hump when someone with WFP is called in to do the job?
If you do...why?

Why? Because I'm perfectly happy to do the job myself.
Although I'll admit that it is the one job you can't do better by hand.

Anyway, does this mean I can knock on the doors of all my customers with flat roofs and balconies and offer to do those windows?
Wouldn't dream of being so desperate for work I'd do that to someone.

I've got more people with windows not accessable with wfp than ladder, regardless of what others say...I've counted.


Rog. (looks like I got my morals from Ian! )

[Morph]

I wouldn't poach another window cleaner...

Maybe fry one or two!!  But never poach,  yeeuuch!

[genesis_windows]

every post ive ever read from squeaky seems to contain alot of anger and resentment towards wfp users.
get over it , get a life or get a system
viva la revolution!

[Morph]

Naa, be cool Rog!  You're ok by me as you are.
You've got to respect the guy Genesis_ , after all he's been on this forum longer than most.  He's surrounded by wfp users where he lives(Tosh and Ian Giles), he's surrounded on here now with us all asking mainly about wfp related issues, but he's still here making helpful contributions most of the time.
He's just determined to be "Last of The Mohicans". 
Look at his Avatar!  I mean!  His last one was Victor Meldrew!!  You ain't gonna change Squeaky's mind easily.

Having said all that, I don't think he's closed his mind to changing over to wfp.  He just hasn't fully convinced himself........ yet.

Am I right Rog?  Am I?   Am I?    Go on, say I am?  It won't hurt to admit it

Go on....Sometimes, just sometimes....you are seriously thinking about it.
I sense it through the screen

Pj

[H h20]

Naa, be cool Rog!  You're ok by me as you are.
You've got to respect the guy Genesis_ , after all he's been on this forum longer than most.  He's surrounded by wfp users where he lives(Tosh and Ian Giles), he's surrounded on here now with us all asking mainly about wfp related issues, but he's still here making helpful contributions most of the time.
He's just determined to be "Last of The Mohicans". 
Look at his Avatar!  I mean!  His last one was Victor Meldrew!!  You ain't gonna change Squeaky's mind easily.

Having said all that, I don't think he's closed his mind to changing over to wfp.  He just hasn't fully convinced himself........ yet.

Am I right Rog?  Am I?   Am I?    Go on, say I am?  It won't hurt to admit it

Go on....Sometimes, just sometimes....you are seriously thinking about it.
I sense it through the screen

Pj

LOL i like your post Morph,ye you are right about Squeeks,he`s a sound guy,we have digs about each other(all in good fun) him being a ladder man and me being.....well..........sensible and safe,i must a gree with you about him trying to convince himself buying a wfp,i recon hes in the closet and when he finally comes out it will be with something impressive ,Gaz

[Morph]

Yep, he'd be a tough adversary, but I reckon that's the sort to stick by you, if you can convince him.

Rattle that skeleton Squeaky,

Pj

[Jeff Brimble]

By the time you see the bandwagon passing, its toooo late to get on.