[SeanK]

Who in their right mind will pay £222 for 6 cleans if they can get 12 for £300 to be honest I would tell him to get lost just
for mentioning it.
Mate your not thankful enough that you work in an area full of rich dummies, I wonder how many who read your posts
think to themselves this guy wouldn't last 10 minutes in my area.

Sean, if you're interested (and I'm pretty sure you're not - this answer's for anyone reading with an open mind) I started the 50% uplift so that I could offer 12-weekly cleans but so that not many people would take it up - I didn't want to have to gain the bigger numbers that it would take to fill the round.  I was offering  12-weeklies at a 25% uplift but uptake was too high so I hammered up the price.  Much to my surprise people still took up the deal and, fool that I am, I enjoyed getting more per hour.  It's also noticeable that the 12-weekly customers very rarely cancel. Much less often than the 6-weekly.  So they slowly tend to take over the round.

It isindeed possible that I live in the only place in the UK where people are stupid enough to want to do this.  Oh, and the outskirts of Bimingham where someone on here does it with great success.  And Cumbria.  Both people on here who contacted me and discussed it before going ahead and succeeding.  So perhaps the three of us live in the three areas where it works.

An alternative is that customers quite like the idea.  Just a thought.

No Vin people like what they can afford to like, you work in an area where you can demand high prices for your service so
people have no choice but to take a less frequency clean in order to afford it.
In areas where the prices aren't so high the incentive is less and the only people who tend to want longer frequency cleans
are people who don't really want to pay for a window cleaner in the first place.

[8weekly]

Who in their right mind will pay £222 for 6 cleans if they can get 12 for £300 to be honest I would tell him to get lost just
for mentioning it.
Mate your not thankful enough that you work in an area full of rich dummies, I wonder how many who read your posts
think to themselves this guy wouldn't last 10 minutes in my area.i

Sean, if you're interested (and I'm pretty sure you're not - this answer's for anyone reading with an open mind) I started the 50% uplift so that I could offer 12-weekly cleans but so that not many people would take it up - I didn't want to have to gain the bigger numbers that it would take to fill the round.  I was offering  12-weeklies at a 25% uplift but uptake was too high so I hammered up the price.  Much to my surprise people still took up the deal and, fool that I am, I enjoyed getting more per hour.  It's also noticeable that the 12-weekly customers very rarely cancel. Much less often than the 6-weekly.  So they slowly tend to take over the round.

It isindeed possible that I live in the only place in the UK where people are stupid enough to want to do this.  Oh, and the outskirts of Bimingham where someone on here does it with great success.  And Cumbria.  Both people on here who contacted me and discussed it before going ahead and succeeding.  So perhaps the three of us live in the three areas where it works.

An alternative is that customers quite like the idea.  Just a thought.

No Vin people like what they can afford to like, you work in an area where you can demand high prices for your service so
people have no choice but to take a less frequency clean in order to afford it.
In areas where the prices aren't so high the incentive is less and the only people who tend to want longer frequency cleans
are people who don't really want to pay for a window cleaner in the first place.

No disrespect to Southampton, but it's not exactly
Knightsbridge. If I set up in Bradford I'd be charging similar prices to what I charge now. If I couldn't get customers I'd do something else.

[Perfect Windows]

No Vin people like what they can afford to like, you work in an area where you can demand high prices for your service so
people have no choice but to take a less frequency clean in order to afford it.
In areas where the prices aren't so high the incentive is less and the only people who tend to want longer frequency cleans
are people who don't really want to pay for a window cleaner in the first place.

Sorry Sean but that really doesn't make sense.  If I charge too much (whether it's 6-weekly or 12-weekly) they don't have to use me.  Do you think we're the only window cleaners in Southampton?  And never forget  that almost all of our customers come from a leaflet with our prices on it, very clearly, so they have thought it over.

Here you go, here are the window cleaners with a Google Maps presence in Southampton -  there will be plenty more unmapped:



36 in a map covering about ten miles side to side.  And as far as I know we are the most expensive cleaner on that map.  Plenty of people in Southampton will do houses for a tenner a month.  A guy close to me (but not on that map) does large detached houses for £7.50.  Guy (also not on that map) does big semis in our street for £8.

Do you think I'm Don Corleone, sitting with a gun to their heads saying "use me  or your brains will end up on the wall"?  To suggest that "people have no choice" is not really based on facts.

[8weekly]

36 in a map covering about ten miles side to side.  And as far as I know we are the most expensive cleaner on that map.  Plenty of people in Southampton will do houses for a tenner a month.  A guy close to me (but not on that map) does large detached houses for £7.50.  Guy (also not on that map) does big semis in our street for £8.

Do you think I'm Don Corleone, sitting with a gun to their heads saying "use me  or your brains will end up on the wall"?  To suggest that "people have no choice" is not really based on facts.

That's the thing. There are cheap windowcleaners everywhere. If people choose to be one that that is their own fault.

[Perfect Windows]

No disrespect to Southampton, but it's not exactly
Knightsbridge. If I set up in Bradford I'd be charging similar prices to what I charge now. If I couldn't get customers I'd do something else.

That's so disrespectful.  Southampton is mainly full of aristocrats who moved from Knightsbridge to get away from the hoi-polloi.

[windowswashed]

Another thing to consider if extending the frequency is that you can charge more but what happens when you're full to the brim with work and start getting behind if you fall ill or family, van problems, holidays, etc and customers are wondering are you ever coming back to clean the windows on a frequent basis as they will start looking at cheaper, more regular and reliable window cleaners when they are sick of looking out of dirty windows.
It's easier to fall behind and catch up on work that is monthly and six weekly then two or three monthly work when you are stretched to the max with no free time to play catch up. I've lost good work trying to take on too many new customers occasionally.

[lee_dewing]

I think perfect windows (vin?)
And 8 weekly.

Are better qualified to answer this.

But I would imagine if running late the top end work takes priority.

If i was ill and new I was going to be late I would call/text/write to my customers.

The way I see it if I could increase my earnings by 30-50% I would work window cleaning for only 3 days a week.
Guaranteeing working in dry weather never falling behind schedule.

Then with the extra time fit in some f/s/g cleaning or conservatory cleaning, maybe patio cleaning in spring summer.
Also gutter clearing autumn winter.

These would be add ons.
The bread and butter would be window cleaning.

[Perfect Windows]

Another thing to consider if extending the frequency is that you can charge more but what happens when you're full to the brim with work and start getting behind if you fall ill or family, van problems, holidays, etc and customers are wondering are you ever coming back to clean the windows on a frequent basis as they will start looking at cheaper, more regular and reliable window cleaners when they are sick of looking out of dirty windows.
It's easier to fall behind and catch up on work that is monthly and six weekly then two or three monthly work when you are stretched to the max with no free time to play catch up. I've lost good work trying to take on too many new customers occasionally.

All I can give you is my experience.  When I was about to start the first franchisee we stretched the 6-week round out to 8 weeks.  That meant the 12 weekers were 16 weekly.  We had some complaints from the 6-weeklies but none from the 12-weeklies.

On the other side of that coin, I'm pushing to five weeks at the mo to tie up with Christmas and, again, the only comments have been from 6-weekly customers.

I suspect that the 12-weekly customers just expect us to turn up once in a while and don't bother to keep track in their heads.

[SeanK]

No Vin people like what they can afford to like, you work in an area where you can demand high prices for your service so
people have no choice but to take a less frequency clean in order to afford it.
In areas where the prices aren't so high the incentive is less and the only people who tend to want longer frequency cleans
are people who don't really want to pay for a window cleaner in the first place.

Sorry Sean but that really doesn't make sense.  If I charge too much (whether it's 6-weekly or 12-weekly) they don't have to use me.  Do you think we're the only window cleaners in Southampton?  And never forget  that almost all of our customers come from a leaflet with our prices on it, very clearly, so they have thought it over.

Here you go, here are the window cleaners with a Google Maps presence in Southampton -  there will be plenty more unmapped:



36 in a map covering about ten miles side to side.  And as far as I know we are the most expensive cleaner on that map.  Plenty of people in Southampton will do houses for a tenner a month.  A guy close to me (but not on that map) does large detached houses for £7.50.  Guy (also not on that map) does big semis in our street for £8.

Do you think I'm Don Corleone, sitting with a gun to their heads saying "use me  or your brains will end up on the wall"?  To suggest that "people have no choice" is not really based on facts.

How does it not make sense are you telling me that if you offered your customers an extra 4 cleans per year for free
they wouldn't take it ?
You can highlight all the competition in the world but if that competition cant do a decent job then its no competition.
I clean windows on a six weekly rota and after the six weeks they are more than ready for a clean, I cant see anybody who
would leave them for another six weeks unless they had no pride in their property or couldn't afford to do otherwise.
I dread to think what reception I would get if my customers windows had 11 weeks worth of dirt on them over the Christmas
holidays.

[paulben]

I changed from 4 weekly to 5 weekly when son moved away so was on my own . Use 5th week to catch up or have time away . Customers were ok with this never increased prices as not much more dirt on windows .

[Perfect Windows]

How does it not make sense are you telling me that if you offered your customers an extra 4 cleans per year for free
they wouldn't take it ?
You can highlight all the competition in the world but if that competition cant do a decent job then its no competition.
I clean windows on a six weekly rota and after the six weeks they are more than ready for a clean, I cant see anybody who
would leave them for another six weeks unless they had no pride in their property or couldn't afford to do otherwise.
I dread to think what reception I would get if my customers windows had 11 weeks worth of dirt on them over the Christmas
holidays.

That first sentence is one of the weirder things I think I've read on this forum.  No, I'm not.  Nor am I saying that if you shoot someone inthe foot it doesn't hurt or that Santa Claus exists.

I have generally cheaper and often capable competitors.  I have pretty normal range customers in a very wide mix of houses, not skanks.  As for your fears about your customers and their poor windows at Christmas, I don't seem to have that problem.  My reception is always good.


Anyway, back to the OP's question: If you offer your customers the option to have half frequency for a 50% uplift in price, some of them will be happy to make the change.  You'll be happy to make more money per hour.  No-one will be forced into anything against their will.  Everyone involved will be happy.  Now that's a rare result and one worth aiming for.

[Mick Kent]

My customers moan about there windows getting dirty after 4 weeks! If i left them 12 weeks then my god i wouldnt have many customers left.
I think what Vinnie is saying is that his customers choose to have them done 12 weekly at the higher price? I cant work out how or why they would rather the 12 week frequency but they clearly do.
charging 50% more means he would earn a great deal more on the plus side but on the flip he will need a lot more customers to make it work which again he has so maybe learn from him and his ways.
10x£20 houses a day £200  Sean 6 weekly
10x£30 houses a day £300. Vin 12 weekly

[Dave Willis]

I try and get everyone on six weekly - I can't handle the odd frequencies, (I can't even handle the six weeklies) how do you guys cope with the fluctuating work load?

[Perfect Windows]

We each have a route round every street where we have customers and we follow that route every six weeks.  If a customer is  12-weekly, we do them every other time we're in the street.  Very easy to keep track with Aworka (or, I suspect, any other round management system, right down to a round book filled in by hand).

The fluctuations tend to balance out, i.e. the 12-weeklies end up out of phase with each other over the whole round.  I won't give numbers but my last two runs around the route were within 5% of each other in terms of number of cleans.

One small difficulty is when neighbours are 12-weekly and get out of phase but there are ways around that.

Vin

[Perfect Windows]

My customers moan about there windows getting dirty after 4 weeks! If i left them 12 weeks then my god i wouldnt have many customers left.
I think what Vinnie is saying is that his customers choose to have them done 12 weekly at the higher price? I cant work out how or why they would rather the 12 week frequency but they clearly do.
charging 50% more means he would earn a great deal more on the plus side but on the flip he will need a lot more customers to make it work which again he has so maybe learn from him and his ways.
10x£20 houses a day £200  Sean 6 weekly
10x£30 houses a day £300. Vin 12 weekly

Yes, that's the downside - with 2/3 of custies on 12 weekly, our round needs to be 66% bigger for us to be full.  That needs to be balanced against what ends up as a 33% increase in turnover over only having 6-weeklies.

A day of 12-weekly cleans really is a day to relish.

Vin

[robert mitchell]

I am one of vins competitors in southampton and i can certainly confirm there are everything from guys in estate cars charging next to nothing right up to vin with his high prices and long frequencies , the estate i live on gets canvassed and leafleted most weeks .

What he is doing is obviously working for him and i don't see any reason to knock it .

Personally i do 4/8 weekly and most want 8 weekly but i do find the 4 weekly ones would never entertain a longer frequency  ......everyones different .

I used to have a customer that insisted on 2 weekly , the windows were still clean every visit !

[SeanK]

My customers moan about there windows getting dirty after 4 weeks! If i left them 12 weeks then my god i wouldnt have many customers left.
I think what Vinnie is saying is that his customers choose to have them done 12 weekly at the higher price? I cant work out how or why they would rather the 12 week frequency but they clearly do.
charging 50% more means he would earn a great deal more on the plus side but on the flip he will need a lot more customers to make it work which again he has so maybe learn from him and his ways.
10x£20 houses a day £200  Sean 6 weekly
10x£30 houses a day £300. Vin 12 weekly

Or from the customers point 8 cleans at £20 =£160
                                                                 4 cleans at £30 = £120
A saving to the customer of £40 a year, again I'm not saying it doesn't work for Vin but what type of person would
take up that deal, that's what I cant get my head around not that it isn't a benefit to the window cleaner.

[lee_dewing]

I can see what your saying Sean not a big saving to customer.

But I find the bigger houses love it, seems to be the richer they are the tighter they are!

I remember reading once that "don't expect people to think the same way as you"

By giving new people a choice for me monthly or bimonthly I seem to rarely get a no when quoting.

I understand one of the posts saying you need more customers for an extended service but as I'm full, I can stay as I am constantly run late and lose earnings.

Employ, don't want to go there yet.

Or select parts of my round to go bimonthly splitting the work load into a more manageable schedule.
Getting around to my customers more promptly and earning more.

Thanks for all the posts.
Lee.

[Dave Willis]

I'm putting mine on one clean a year of £160, should get loads of holidays I think.

[Jonny 87]

I'm putting mine on one clean a year of £160, should get loads of holidays I think.

That's the American way. (And Australian/New Zealand as well.)

I think there on to something.