[Crystal-clear]

So your typical bay window semi up north was doing for about £7 to £8 always once per month everyone wanted it monthly.

down south £15-£25 never monthly normally 2 montnly so say thats £20 it works out £10 a month,and the cancelation rate is a massive 50% between first and 3rd clean,i also find that everything is an issue

anyone els had experience in what im sayin ie have you had a round up north then moved south or have you got an opinion i would like to hear,

maybe its the price or maybe its because i never canvassed on large scale as i did down south i did canvass up north a bit and the canvassed customers were easy compared to these,,

all i know is up north if i were to pick up say 8 houses i would get excited knowing im expanding slowly and people know that its regular you havnt gota drill it in there heads or charge more on the first people just know..

but down here if i pick up 8 its the otherway round i become worried, and start analyzing as to which ones will cancel first i know the rates down here are greater fine, ,, but you constantly need to top up and the fun factor is gone ....

maybe im wrong thou is it the same everywhere these days , ive been back about 3 years maybeup north is getting harder too?

dont know... what i do know is ive built a very decent sized round in the last 2-3 years and worked very hard but pushing past my goal seems challenging to the point that im kinda wondering if i should sell up and run away back up north where people are more relaxed?

i would much prefer doing a £4 front once a month to a £10 front 2 montnly but not have these cancelation,

[bobplum]

COME HOME SON

[Crystal-clear]

lol wey aye lad ! , £6 see ya next time happy people , over here its £20 now p off lol if you lowered it to say a tenner it would be the same thing , the window cleaning culture up north is just amazing...

[AuRavelling79]

You must train them when you take them on.

Southern softy, down south, full of verbal persuades custy and keeps them.

Northern "say nowt, talkin's fer gurls" numpty down south, gets problems.

Southern softy, oop north now has too much verbal and gets problems.

Northern numpty, oop north - no problems.

Exception to the rule -  Tosh - who beggars belief as he is verbal like a southern softy but sounds like Jimmy Nail.

[Crystal-clear]

You must train them when you take them on.

Southern softy, down south, full of verbal persuades custy and keeps them.

Northern "say nowt, talkin's fer gurls" numpty down south, gets problems.

Southern softy, oop north now has too much verbal and gets problems.

Northern numpty, oop north - no problems.

Exception to the rule -  Tosh - who beggars belief as he is verbal like a southern softy but sounds like Jimmy Nail.

.


thats the thing i find my self having to explain cleaning to people,.. down here its like this

cust>>but i dont think they need doing that often

me>>"well you see madam dirt tends to show after about 4 months, so when we come in 8 weeks its more of a keep it clean or dirt prevention service rather then a cleaning service you never see them looking at this state and thats why its cheaper,"

up north , "ya wat? dirt prevention service can you just clean my windows mate? !! and non of this 2 montnly crap i want you here every 4 weeks".. lol


in fact the word maintenance clean if i said that up north they wouldnt understand what i mean.

down here thats my main word..
lol

you see what i mean , i just found it alot easyer i dont know maybe im just having a bad week, what set it off was a leaflet call customer (so strong lead) the clean was £25 2 montnly. i doubled it for £50 then offered her a regular clean of the front for £10 so first clean £50 2nd clean £10 and still aint biting.... needs to talk to husband,it anoyed the hell out of me i actually went home soon after,

i dont understand it its been 3 years and still i dont understand why some people here are so hardend up to a reasonable price and cleaning frequency 2 montnly £10 get your backs cleaned when you need em....but no would happily pay alot more for a one off, i end up spending longer and doing a couple of inernal windows as a freebie too and a one off is all it is ;....it was worse before i used to do single values but i soon learned the hard way still thou..


i would never have got £50 for a first clean up north maybe that house would be £12-£15 but it would be monthly and it would pretty much be for life...which is better.

i think the only reason why the price is higher here is because the customers dont have the mentality as they do up north, i used to be stuck in a street all day, if i hit an area without a window cleaner i would pick up the entire street down here its nothing like that

down here its just one off crazy and you gota work bloody hard to keep them regular a little bit of charm ,reasonable prices and 2-3 montnly or forget it!
oh and make sure you charge em more on the first otherwise its goodbye

[Small but perfectley formed]

They are dirty ba57ards down south 

[Granny]

Hi Crystal
We've got a legacy - you know like they are talking about the Olympics legacy - which we all know won't happen.
But while the southerners were growing flowers and p*$$1ng about on punts and boats etc..
We northerners were up to our ar$e5 in black muck and coal and coke filth churning out the stuff.
That's where the two week window cleaning round came from - simply because that's how often they needed doing!
Used to live beside a brick works with the grinding of the clay mixed with the crude oil, the coal and coke and diesel trucks you could have your windows cleaned every week!
G.

[Crystal-clear]

Hi Crystal
We've got a legacy - you know like they are talking about the Olympics legacy - which we all know won't happen.
But while the southerners were growing flowers and p*$$1ng about on punts and boats etc..
We northerners were up to our ar$e5 in black muck and coal and coke filth churning out the stuff.
That's where the two week window cleaning round came from - simply because that's how often they needed doing!
Used to live beside a brick works with the grinding of the clay mixed with the crude oil, the coal and coke and diesel trucks you could have your windows cleaned every week!
G.

also i think that might be a factor and horrible weather always i guess thats why they needed me so much windows really needed doing each month ,

[rosskesava]

thats the thing i find my self having to explain cleaning to people,.. down here its like this

cust>>but i dont think they need doing that often.............................


...................................................down here its just one off crazy and you gota work bloody hard to keep them regular a little bit of charm ,reasonable prices and 2-3 montnly or forget it!
oh and make sure you charge em more on the first otherwise its goodbye

You must live in a very different 'down south' to the one I live in.

I have virtually none of the problems you mention what so ever and yes, most of my customers are monthly and yes, I do have streets where I clean most of them and yes, I do charge quite a high price.

[Crystal-clear]

thats the thing i find my self having to explain cleaning to people,.. down here its like this

cust>>but i dont think they need doing that often.............................


...................................................down here its just one off crazy and you gota work bloody hard to keep them regular a little bit of charm ,reasonable prices and 2-3 montnly or forget it!
oh and make sure you charge em more on the first otherwise its goodbye

You must live in a very different 'down south' to the one I live in.

I have virtually none of the problems you mention what so ever and yes, most of my customers are monthly and yes, I do have streets where I clean most of them and yes, I do charge quite a high price.

maybe i need to canvass brighton then!,. lol

if its all monthly and you canvass? then thats amazing i too often hear 50% drops over 3 cleans not just me.

i just want to do my job!
when you go out canvassing what % sticks?

[Crystal-clear]

maybe the wind being near the coast helps keep the windows dirty?

[rosskesava]

I've havn't canvassed for ages as most of my new work is either referral or due to the sign writing on my van. I did start all over again for the third time 3 years ago and I did some leaflets then and the return rate was about 4% or 5% whereas the return for door knocking was about 2%. What's got me more work than anything else is the sign writing on my van. It's got no fancy slogan or anything like it, it just says 'window cleaner' and my phone number.

If any window cleaner is loosing 50% after 3 cleans then either they're charging to much or not doing a very good job. My own experience around here is that most wfp users think a few minutes spraying water at a window after a quick scrub is all that's needed and it's money for old rope.

There's one window cleaner around here who goes on this forum from time to time and to read what he posts, you'd think he does an immaculate job every time but the truth is that while he thinks he does a fantastic job, he actually does a cr*p job. I know because I've now got 5 of his customers.

My own opinion is that there is a high turnover of wfp window cleaners for an obvious reason. If you charge more, the customer expects more.

Being on the coast does help a bit especially with customer who are right next to it. After high winds, some phone me even if the 4 weeks isn't up because of the salt and chalk.

I honestly can't see why it should be any different where you are to where I am. Dunno? If you're doing a good job then it should be the same?

Maybe try lowering your prices a bit and charging the same for a first clean as for subsequent cleans. I do and I put time into the first cleans to get the 'wow' factor in that when the customers looks at their windows and frames after the first clean they think 'wow'.

Cheers.

[Crystal-clear]

thanks for the post ross,

4% or 5% from leaflets? thats bloody amazing you would be a millionair!


ive got years water fed pole expirence , i certainly dont just do a quick job dont forget i kept a very stable round up north where non of this was going on for ages.

no the cancelation is not due to work quality and not really price £15-£20 all round semi detached house inc frames glass doors. 2 montnly.
i have to charge more on the first if i didnt it would be worse the first clean is never the problem its normally the next, people are bloody tight i guess.

i do have alot of good customers too but im finding expanding extreamly challenging as mentioned


maybe i need to go to a coastal city where people need us more then we need them wind and sea = dirt!

up north it was like that down here its a bit inbetween i need the customer and the customer needs me however the customer can live without me if u know what i mean

[rosskesava]

Sorry - I didn't mean it to sound like you don't do a good job and my comment weren't aimed at you.

My comment were more meant that in general most wfp users, etc, etc, and that way of cleaning does affect customers because so frequently I hear about how the previous window cleaner only took 10 minutes to do the whole house etc, etc so the customer is already primed to be more critical.

Yup, 4% to 5% and no, I'm not a millionaire as I can only do so much on my own and I've been down the road of employing and all that. I'm a bit more sedate nowadays. With leafleting, I was carefull as to where I leafleted based on previous experiences of the types of places where I/we/they got the best results and the best days of the week and other environmental factors such as the weather.

With coastal work, the salt, and around here - salt and chalk, only goes a short way inland. Houses higher up get salted windows much further inland than houses lower down so choose somewhere hilly and concentrate on the side of the hill facing the sea and those that are just over the top of the hill away from the sea. A good time to leaflet is just after high coastal winds (which can be much lower inland) so use a good wind observation website for recent historical data.

Maybe for expanding your business, which isn't 'extremely challenging', it's instead a 'problem', maybe concentrate on the add ons, like gutters, sofits and facias, and all that with your existing customers but I still can't understand why you're getting so many cancellations.

[dazmond]

i have a very well established round in the north west and i get very few cancelations.i also do very little leafleting and canvassing.most new work comes from word of mouth and recommendation.

most run of the mill domestic work is monthly and customers are fine with that.the 2 monthlies are fine as well.the usual cancellations are due to moving,losing jobs etc.

it seems you had no problems when you were living up here?

sounds to me like the southerners are not that keen on you even if you do a good job?

or maybe their just funny buggers!!

[Perfect Windows]

I'm in the South and I really don't see the problems you're having.  We lose about 10% - 20% over the first year; people who wanted a one-off, people who didn't think through the concept that they were going to be paying out regularly for a while, etc, etc.

We offer 6-weekly and 12-weekly, which may help - about 60% take the 12-weekly, for which we charge a 50% uplift.  They pay it happily, as their windows are clean most of the time and they can see a difference when we do clean.  Takes longer to build a round but it's lovely once you're there.

Like Rosskesava, we spend a lot of time on first cleans so that people can see a major change when they get home.  I think that helps a great deal.

I occasionally call customers after a couple of cleans and check that we've done a good job.  I just say "we had a minor problem with the equipment today so it's just a quick call to check that yours are OK".  That line focusses them on looking for problems.  While on the phone they often walk round the house and report.  Keeps you on top of quality and reminds the customer that you actually do care about them.

Vin

[AuRavelling79]

Ross - isn't Brighton an area with a high proportion of homosexuals? And don't homosexual men have a reputation for being a bit more particular about cleanliness than "yer average bloke"?

Perhaps that's why you've got an area of men on monthlies? (Pun intended)

 

[Crystal-clear]

like im prob making worse then it really is in reality im chocka blocked with more then enof work for my self and have started subbing out odd days to keep up to date and do have very decent custies

however its that 50% between the first 3 cleans which anoys me and i have a rule do the best job you can spend longer to get the right rince on, time aint a problem as the first clean they pay more,

maybe its the canvassing side of the customers in general and being london areas where people havnt got time to visit each ohter so a deep clean once a year would suite these folk, its gota be something cos my pricing is inline and that massive 50% never happened up north:)

however a bit of good news my 2k leaflet drop produced 2 phone calls and 2x first cleans £25 then £18 2 monthly so thats 1 one off (anoying) and 2 promising customers from 2000 leaflets those 2 were all over it gona try this leafleting thing out larger now.

perfect im doing 8 weeks which is quite reasonable 12 weeks ill prob get less problems i knew that at the time but from going from a monthly and fortnightly round up north i was like 2 monthly is bloody insane didnt want to think about 12 weeks!

[rosskesava]

Ross - isn't Brighton an area with a high proportion of homosexuals? And don't homosexual men have a reputation for being a bit more particular about cleanliness than "yer average bloke"?

Perhaps that's why you've got an area of men on monthlies? (Pun intended)

 

The majority of homosexuals don't act homosexual and for the average person who isn't that way enclined or made or whatever, they wouldn't pick up on it.

Most think that homosexual means running around with a duster worrying about dust and going oh la la while arguing loudly and theatrically with their camp homosexual partner about what radishes to buy for tonight's supper.

Of the many homosexual men I know, including one of my sons and a brother, most are just like ordinary blokes when it comes to cleanliness. Being a queer don't make a scrap of difference. In fact, I'd care to bet that a more than a few manly blokes you know are closet homosexuals even if they are married with kids and you'd never pick up on it what so ever.

It's a fact of life just as it's fact that there are a lot of gay blokes who post on this forum who don't say and don't give any indication, apart from one or two on the 'any other non cleaning related topics' part.

[AuRavelling79]

Thanks for putting me in the picture Ross ...