[G Griffin]

Had that with an Asian customer a while back, he said I was on surgeons wages.

The answer to that old chestnut is "Yeah, I earned less when I was a surgeon, which is why I started in this business"

Vin

No, say "just pay up and I promise you won't feel a thing".

[SPE]

... him and hes a "qualified joiner"

Been doing this house for at least 4 maybe 5 years. For £8, put it up last year to £9...its easy £10 house, maybe even £12. Anyway, cleaned other day and he said

"£9, and your finished?"
yes?
"thats good money isnt it?"
erm well...
"im a qualified joiner and i dont earn the money you do, you could easily earn over £40 an hour"

 

And? Go do some windows if its that big a deal. Sacked? Erm no mate DUMPED

Many self employed trades are having a rough time in recent years,( window cleaning doesn't seem to be one of them )
I've a mate who is a self employed joiner who earns £15 to £20 ph , I consider him to be far more skilled than me in a trade that would have had to be learned over a longer period of time, not to mention a greater responsibility whilst working on a customers property or the outlay for professional power tools.
This now ex customer of yours probably had a bad day, looks at the £9 he's paying you for what , 15 mins work ? and compares it to his lot.
Can't say I blame him really

[Dominic Carnell]

This kind of "it's alright for them" attitude really annoys me. If your customer is jealous of what you earn as window cleaner then the simple solution is for him to quit being a joiner and start a window cleaning business.

The same as when people moan about the CEO of Tesco earning £xxx a year... well, stop moaning and start working towards being a CEO!

I think your response next time should be "Yeah it's really good money, why don't you do it?"

[LWC]

... him and hes a "qualified joiner"

Been doing this house for at least 4 maybe 5 years. For £8, put it up last year to £9...its easy £10 house, maybe even £12. Anyway, cleaned other day and he said

"£9, and your finished?"
yes?
"thats good money isnt it?"
erm well...
"im a qualified joiner and i dont earn the money you do, you could easily earn over £40 an hour"

 

And? Go do some windows if its that big a deal. Sacked? Erm no mate DUMPED

Many self employed trades are having a rough time in recent years,( window cleaning doesn't seem to be one of them )
I've a mate who is a self employed joiner who earns £15 to £20 ph , I consider him to be far more skilled than me in a trade that would have had to be learned over a longer period of time, not to mention a greater responsibility whilst working on a customers property or the outlay for professional power tools.
This now ex customer of yours probably had a bad day, looks at the £9 he's paying you for what , 15 mins work ? and compares it to his lot.
Can't say I blame him really

Building up a big customer base like i have doesnt happen over night either mate. As Dominic says he can do windows himself if hes that bothered. Ive been doing this for 12 years now, and my dad (used to help dad in summer holidays when i was younger to) and grandad did it !

Not to mention wet rainy days and COLD winters!

[Blue Sky 2]

Its always been the same, jealous people, the question from customers I hate " how long will it take" they want to work out your hourly rate.

[wfp master]

... him and hes a "qualified joiner"

Been doing this house for at least 4 maybe 5 years. For £8, put it up last year to £9...its easy £10 house, maybe even £12. Anyway, cleaned other day and he said

"£9, and your finished?"
yes?
"thats good money isnt it?"
erm well...
"im a qualified joiner and i dont earn the money you do, you could easily earn over £40 an hour"

 

And? Go do some windows if its that big a deal. Sacked? Erm no mate DUMPED

should have asked him if he wanted to do an apprenticeship in window cleaning.

[8weekly]

Its always been the same, jealous people, the question from customers I hate " how long will it take" they want to work out your hourly rate.

Hourly rate and hourly pay ar totally different hings. I agree though. I hate it when they complain "that was quick!".

[SPE]

... him and hes a "qualified joiner"

Been doing this house for at least 4 maybe 5 years. For £8, put it up last year to £9...its easy £10 house, maybe even £12. Anyway, cleaned other day and he said

"£9, and your finished?"
yes?
"thats good money isnt it?"
erm well...
"im a qualified joiner and i dont earn the money you do, you could easily earn over £40 an hour"

 

And? Go do some windows if its that big a deal. Sacked? Erm no mate DUMPED

Many self employed trades are having a rough time in recent years,( window cleaning doesn't seem to be one of them )
I've a mate who is a self employed joiner who earns £15 to £20 ph , I consider him to be far more skilled than me in a trade that would have had to be learned over a longer period of time, not to mention a greater responsibility whilst working on a customers property or the outlay for professional power tools.
This now ex customer of yours probably had a bad day, looks at the £9 he's paying you for what , 15 mins work ? and compares it to his lot.
Can't say I blame him really

Building up a big customer base like i have doesnt happen over night either mate. As Dominic says he can do windows himself if hes that bothered. Ive been doing this for 12 years now, and my dad (used to help dad in summer holidays when i was younger to) and grandad did it !

Not to mention wet rainy days and COLD winters!

I realise that , i am a window cleaner too,
merely an observation that we have it pretty good compared to many other tradespeople who I would regard as having skills greater than ours that they would have served several years as an apprentice to achieve. All said and done when they get the hump you can kinda see why.

[davids3511]

... him and hes a "qualified joiner"

Been doing this house for at least 4 maybe 5 years. For £8, put it up last year to £9...its easy £10 house, maybe even £12. Anyway, cleaned other day and he said

"£9, and your finished?"
yes?
"thats good money isnt it?"
erm well...
"im a qualified joiner and i dont earn the money you do, you could easily earn over £40 an hour"

 

And? Go do some windows if its that big a deal. Sacked? Erm no mate DUMPED

Many self employed trades are having a rough time in recent years,( window cleaning doesn't seem to be one of them )
I've a mate who is a self employed joiner who earns £15 to £20 ph , I consider him to be far more skilled than me in a trade that would have had to be learned over a longer period of time, not to mention a greater responsibility whilst working on a customers property or the outlay for professional power tools.
This now ex customer of yours probably had a bad day, looks at the £9 he's paying you for what , 15 mins work ? and compares it to his lot.
Can't say I blame him really

Building up a big customer base like i have doesnt happen over night either mate. As Dominic says he can do windows himself if hes that bothered. Ive been doing this for 12 years now, and my dad (used to help dad in summer holidays when i was younger to) and grandad did it !

Not to mention wet rainy days and COLD winters!

I realise that , i am a window cleaner too,
merely an observation that we have it pretty good compared to many other tradespeople who I would regard as having skills greater than ours that they would have served several years as an apprentice to achieve. All said and done when they get the hump you can kinda see why.

Yeah but you are underestimating our skills at building and maintaing a high quality customer base. If this guy could match LWC at that he'd be out working, not sat at home brooding over his 'expensive' windy.

[8weekly]

... him and hes a "qualified joiner"

Been doing this house for at least 4 maybe 5 years. For £8, put it up last year to £9...its easy £10 house, maybe even £12. Anyway, cleaned other day and he said

"£9, and your finished?"
yes?
"thats good money isnt it?"
erm well...
"im a qualified joiner and i dont earn the money you do, you could easily earn over £40 an hour"

 

And? Go do some windows if its that big a deal. Sacked? Erm no mate DUMPED

Many self employed trades are having a rough time in recent years,( window cleaning doesn't seem to be one of them )
I've a mate who is a self employed joiner who earns £15 to £20 ph , I consider him to be far more skilled than me in a trade that would have had to be learned over a longer period of time, not to mention a greater responsibility whilst working on a customers property or the outlay for professional power tools.
This now ex customer of yours probably had a bad day, looks at the £9 he's paying you for what , 15 mins work ? and compares it to his lot.
Can't say I blame him really

Building up a big customer base like i have doesnt happen over night either mate. As Dominic says he can do windows himself if hes that bothered. Ive been doing this for 12 years now, and my dad (used to help dad in summer holidays when i was younger to) and grandad did it !

Not to mention wet rainy days and COLD winters!

I realise that , i am a window cleaner too,
merely an observation that we have it pretty good compared to many other tradespeople who I would regard as having skills greater than ours that they would have served several years as an apprentice to achieve. All said and done when they get the hump you can kinda see why.

Yeah but you are underestimating our skills at building and maintaing a high quality customer base. If this guy could match LWC at that he'd be out working, not sat at home brooding over his 'expensive' windy.

Quite. One of my customers is a property developer that started as a chippy. There is more to making money that sawing a bit of dowel at equal lengths.

[SPE]

I think there is a bit more to being a qualified joiner than sawing dowel in to equal lengths as well to be honest  more so than cleaning a window.
A £9 job "that is easily a £10, possibly a £12 "doesn't sound like a "high quality customer" to me either. And I am not knocking that because that's what most of my work ranges from..
My point was that from time to time a customers perception of our prices and earning potential will cause some resentment especially if they are self employed and have invested a great deal of time and money learning their trade.
Running a successful window cleaning business takes a lot of organisation and motivation (especially through the winter months), not sure I would really define it as a skill though (imo). But this side of this business is never seen, considered or appreciated by customers who do the maths and see us on £40+ an hour. I'm just saying consider yourself fortunate, you get paid very well for what you do compared to other tradespeople.

[Sean Dyer]

I did a £9 house on thursday ,, 8 window 3 bed semi job
takes less than ten mins to park up unload, clean, load up and drive off

As she came to door to pay she said , that was very fast
5 mins later as im driving down the road got a call saying the downstairs windows had not been done?

Thought she was trying to be funny, but when i turned up it was what i thought it would be, which is that the double glazing is old and blown.

Always feel like those kind of jobs begrudge us though as we do them so quick.
ps i tradded the bottom windows , and had a little chat so she felt like i cared, quick job = long job

[SPE]

I did a £9 house on thursday ,, 8 window 3 bed semi job
takes less than ten mins to park up unload, clean, load up and drive off

As she came to door to pay she said , that was very fast
5 mins later as im driving down the road got a call saying the downstairs windows had not been done?

Thought she was trying to be funny, but when i turned up it was what i thought it would be, which is that the double glazing is old and blown.

Always feel like those kind of jobs begrudge us though as we do them so quick.
ps i tradded the bottom windows , and had a little chat so she felt like i cared, quick job = long job

:)know that feeling !
in complete contrast I have my favourite "one off job" to do today (only 3-4 times a year when they call)
Its a rural location 20 mins from me, only a 3 bed semi but a big conny roof and insides (conny only insides). takes inside of 3 hours but they always insist on paying me an hours travelling time on top, some people are just nice   

[LWC]

Yes on other hand you cant beat the ones that DO appreciate you. Ive been cleaning a house since i started and they moved the other day, house was underpriced but did it anyway, they moved to a slightly smaller house with conserv.

As it was them i said "keep same price" and they said no and put it up from £12 to £15. 

[PoleKing]

Yes on other hand you cant beat the ones that DO appreciate you. Ive been cleaning a house since i started and they moved the other day, house was underpriced but did it anyway, they moved to a slightly smaller house with conserv.

As it was them i said "keep same price" and they said no and put it up from £12 to £15. 

I've had a couple do that.
Always go that extra mile for them.
They appreciate it and I appreciate them.
It's mutually symbiotic.

[Tom-01]

I quoted a job for a woman who then phoned up taking bits and pieces out of the quote because it was 'too expensive' and a 'high hourly rate' - she worked it out on it taking two of us 8 hours. My colleague was there for 1.5 hours and then both of us for a further 3.5 hours. When I had got there she had got him doing loads of extras that weren't even quoted in the first place, then complained that we didn't wash her fascias, when that was one job she said not to worry about as they weren't that bad, and I had even sent email confirming what we were doing. The price was £325, she said 'You've earned over £70 per hour thats ridiculous bla bla bla I worked it out on 8 hours its taken you half the time etc' I then tried explaining the costs involved - tax, wages, petrol for vans, petrol for pressure washer, my time picking up roofing stones, paying for the roofing stones, costs producing pure water, equipment depreciation oh and we're a business so we need to make a profit. The quote was for a job, not an hourly rate.

She said I was calling her a liar, I said no you're not a liar I'm saying you're mistaken. And if I had worked out the hourly rate prior I would have charged you more - she went mad

The lesson there is that if you get aggro about price when quoting walk away - every single person who whinges about price at any time isn't worth doing.

[rosskesava]

The lesson there is that if you get aggro about price when quoting walk away - every single person who whinges about price at any time isn't worth doing.

I've only quoted that last sentence.

I agree with that absolutely 100%.

Some times some people have questioned the quote but when I've explained it they've then accepted the price but those who then carry on about the price, dump them before you do the first clean.

Also, those who still question the price after the first clean having accepted the price when quoting the job, dump them as well.

Another 'dump them' class of person that I find hard to explain is those you just get a feeling of 'not right' about when either quoting the job or doing the first clean. It's odd just how many times in the past that gut feeling has turned out to be correct.

During this last year I ran things on a simple basis. Both the customer has to be completely happy about the price and I also have to be happy to clean their windows or I don't take the job on. I've turned down some seemingly good work but the end result has been non hassle easy new work.

[dazmond]

the fact is any customer who complains about your "hourly rate" is just nosy and also deluded.

they just dont understand that £5,000 a years gone in overheads every year(sometimes more!)on van expenses,insurance,tax,equipment,fuel etc,etc.

they dont think about no holiday/sick pay,bad weather,van repairs.accountant fees.

at the end of the day its none of their business.if a customers starts complaining or being nosy about what money they "think" im earning they get dropped.

luckily ive only ever had a few here and there.less than 1% of customers!

also you only earn when "on the glass" which is usually only 6 or 7 hours a day.


regards


dazmond