[lee_dewing]

Hi  Everyone.

Did a standing order letter and sent to a few late payers; basically a couple of mums over my daughters school.

They walk past me as if I don't exist(owing me money), gets a bit silly, would just sack em but dinner ladies and know my daughter.

Fallen out with neighbours in the past who mucked me about for payment; say fallen out just stopped talking to me as offended when asked for payment and got hump when told em not doing anymore

I'm not a nasty guy if anything i'm more the opposite friendly and easy going but some see that as a green
Light to muck me about.

As said given standing order forms to two mums from school (posted through their doors)
Letter states can you set up standing order and then contact me to let me know it's done.
Nothing heard yet so ta tar.

Got a few others i will use this method on.

My question is has anyone rolled this option out to all custies, heard best way to do it inform custie of price increase of £1 but give custie the option of no price increase if they go standing order.

The other thing i was thinking is if a custy is on standing order how hard is it for them to update standing order for future price increases?
You know what a pain some people can be; is it difficult to get em to tweak standing order to new price/do they keep forgetting.

Thanks in advance Lee

[James archell]

Letter states can you set up standing order and then contact me to let me know it's done.
Nothing heard yet so ta tar.

Ask them if they have, they may have set it up Lee but not told you. If not maybe thats the time to bin them.

[SunShineCleaning]

All my customers have had a chance to go SO. I put the price up and offered a reduced price if they did it. Some just don't like them and would rather pay more. I am planning to do it again with some offer of say Thornton's chocolate as a gift if they accept. A small bar is less than £1 and I will openly say I am trying to bribe them. TBH if you offer a number of payment options you have to accept that they will choose.  If they are bad payers you can insist. You run the business.  Any problems at school then go see the head.

[lee_dewing]

Hi  Matt, yep i've jumped the gun there.
I'l add i have asked standing order to be set up at end of this month but won't be there til after.

So I'l be at custies after payment is in my bank or not. (will see )

Sunshine what was your price increase and not to intice custie to standing order.

Say for a £15 job and a £6 job (I was thinking £1 across the board or should i go for £1.50 - £2/ what was your average Sunshine?)

Was thinking of hiking some up £2-£3 (underpriced ones) but that might be pushing a bit too hard, can lose a bit but not too much.

You can make under priced work pay and it's better than no work.
Thanks Lee.

[SunShineCleaning]

Lee

I look at my prices every 2 years. If they feel underpriced then they are put up to a level that I am comfortable with. There are many reasons to have a higher price and late payers is one of them.

They all get a note as seen below and an option to go on SO.

As an example I had some £10 houses which should be £12 they were offered a SO price of £10 for 10 cleans or PAYC price of £12.50.

Even though they know differently they 'feel' like they are still paying the same amount as it is still £10.

Some opted for SO others payed the extra, I lost none. One trick is to tell them the last increase date which in this case was Jan 2008. I often tell them when the next review will be, in this case 2014.

Then when I have cleaned they get a note as below. The LHS stays the same and the RHS changes depending what I want to sell or tell them.

As I run George it keeps track of payment and where we are plus or minus.

10 cleans give me leyway with weather like this last month and time to catch up as needed. SO customers know they will get a priority clean and so far it has worked well.

At all costs I try not to find reason to argue with people, rather, kill them with kindness. It really throws them and as you can see from the first doc, I don't mind them knowing that some pay late and will charged accordingly. The trick is to be really kind when telling them they are not the sort of customer that gets any special treatment.   

I hope this helps, feel free to ask any questions.

Stuart

Apparantly the uploaderis full so I can't post the documents!!

[SunShineCleaning]

Lee

I don't know if you can access the pdf from this links below?


https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Work/Price%20inc%202012.pdf?w=AAAMYUMXhpuxBHvfqgjgH70qbcdcGRvwwVxHcB9IXEFP8w

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Work/Winter%20SO%20payers.pdf?w=AADe8mAe1B5RlKJHxrN6vNJ6UXle-A5ewlNLgicUWJZHUA

[formb]

Lee

I don't know if you can access the pdf from this links below?


https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Work/Price%20inc%202012.pdf?w=AAAMYUMXhpuxBHvfqgjgH70qbcdcGRvwwVxHcB9IXEFP8w

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Work/Winter%20SO%20payers.pdf?w=AADe8mAe1B5RlKJHxrN6vNJ6UXle-A5ewlNLgicUWJZHUA

Not unless we are logged in to your dropbox account......

[SunShineCleaning]

Maybe these links will work:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59669722/Price%20inc%202012.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59669722/Winter%20SO%20payers.pdf

[lee_dewing]

Hi Stuart, thankyou very much for post and PDF's (excellent)

On this risk of sounded Stupid (or more than usual )

As an example I had some £10 houses which should be £12 they were offered a SO price of £10 for 10 cleans or PAYC price of £12.50.

Even though they know differently they 'feel' like they are still paying the same amount as it is still £10.

So £10 job is done 10 times/cleans, do you divide this amount by 12 monthly instalements?
£10 in twelve standing order payments would=£8.33p

Or does custie pay twelve payments of £10 (£120 total?)

Unlike the pay as you go custie who would pay £125 (£12.50 x 10 cleans)
If this is the case do some custies think there's not much saving.

Oh; what does LHS and RHS mean?

Sorry if I seem like i'm splitting hairs; am genuinely intrested in how you do this; as great idea and especially at moment while waiting for the big THAW

Many thanks Stuart.
Lee (nice but dim )

[SunShineCleaning]

The price was £10

It went up to £12 if they paid by SO and £12.50 if they didn't.

I call 10 times per year

£12 x 10 visits = £120 so £10 per month covers it.

If a house is £15 then

£15 x 10 visits = £150 so £12.50 per month

and so on.

It works well to transfer them to SO when you price increase as it 'feels' less money.

LHS = Left  hand side of the doc

[formb]

Maybe these links will work:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59669722/Price%20inc%202012.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59669722/Winter%20SO%20payers.pdf

I see what you are trying to do but for me that's just too complicated.


Keep it simple.

[SunShineCleaning]

It's not really complicated. They pay 1/12th of their yearly spend.

[lee_dewing]

It went up to £12 if they paid by SO and £12.50 if they didn't.

So £5 saved if custie goes to Standinding order.

It works well to transfer them to SO when you price increase as it 'feels' less money.

I understand what your saying Stuart

I bet there's always 1 or 2 custies that want a debate though

Thanks alot for clearing that up and thanks for PDF's
Lee

[SunShineCleaning]

Yes that's how they see it.  In reality they pay 50p  extra  for not doing SO

[lee_dewing]

The box of chocs Stuart, to bribe custies onto s/o, don't do it near valentines you might get alot of angry husbands getting the wrong impression.

Either that or their mrs will b0ll0ck hubby "why don't you get me chocs"

On 2nd thoughts it might be roaring success to bribe custies near valentines as it's 95% of the time you deal with women.

Oh ps. what % of my customers is a realistic to get to s/o 30%
Thanks Stuart.
Lee

[SunShineCleaning]

Once they are on SO they seem to stay. I dont know the exact % for me at the moment prob 25-30%

I had a while with just 2 customers. You have to offer it to them on every visit for a few months before they notice it or do something about it.

When I have something to offer I always write out all my tickets and if they are in and pay cash give it to them to read anyway. It takes a while to filter them over but so far so good.

As for getting bother from the customers with the chocolates, it's not happened yet. The husbands may get it in the neck though.

These are the ones I have got in the past:

http://www.thorntons.co.uk/thumbnail/Chocolate-Toffee-Fudge/Chocolate-Bars/Chocolate-Bars/pc/2198/c/2200/2200.uts

It works out at £1.66 each customer which is a 16p loss per visit, however if the price is going up anyway it's no issue and you have just bought their loyalty for a long time.

[lee_dewing]

Nice one.

Thanks Stuart.