[martin hulstone]

I do work in rain if it doesn"t affect my job, light rain, not landing on the glass etc, but yesterday for instance, i dont believe i would have been providing a service for my customers, i would have merely been earning a wage for myself!

[Jonny 87]

Jonny 87 dont be silly lol.

A few on here don't know the difference between opinion and fact.

With you working in rain you must be desperate don't ya know

 

[SeanK]

I think the problem is some on here don't know what the difference is in rain and a storm.

[Carl2009]

The weather is always a conversation starter on here. It all depends on:
1. Your own financial situation - mortgage, loans, employees.
2. Where in the country you are - do you service estates away from  the coast and busy roads or are you in Blackpool doing guest houses?
3. The type and direction of rain - onshore from the sea with plenty of wind? Just vertical drizzle or moderate rain?
4. Is there significant wind with it? Is the water blowing off the sills / away from the glass on rinsing?
5. Are your customers home or at work? If they are not home they don't moan.
6. Are they retired or not? Retirees tend to be on fixed incomes and don't want to see you when it's "raining". Oh you can try and "train them" but they begrudge it I for one want custies to be pleased to see me.
7. How far do you have to drive to the round you plan on doing? If it's a schlepp then getting in half a day can mess up your week.
8. Do you price right? If you do you'll be able to afford to drop the odd day each month.
9. Do you leave spare days in the month for bad weather and other unforeseen events? If not, why not. Put your prices up and implement this.

Personally this last fortnight has been as bad as anything I've known since I started in 2009. I am lucky in that I don't have a mortgage, loans or employ, I have priced right and leave spare days (even though I've used them all up now). I'm unlucky because I live in a wet part of Wales, 900 feet up, with a lot of retired custies and I have to travel quite a way for different rounds as i'm rural. This means if it comes in half way through a day and the day gets cut short it can really mess up my week. We also get a LOT of wind and wind is worse than rain often - you can finish a house and the windows are unsatisfactory by the time they've dried.

We all have our crosses but I do feel that I don't expect my customers to pay for a less than perfect result. Any clean should last a day or two at the very least and hopefully in normal weather a couple of weeks on your "standard" house. Anyway cleaning in anything more than light rain with little wind is miserable no matter what gear you have on.

I wonder what the winter will bring...

[Jonny 87]

I do work in rain if it doesn"t affect my job, light rain, not landing on the glass etc, but yesterday for instance, i dont believe i would have been providing a service for my customers, i would have merely been earning a wage for myself!

And is that necessarily a bad thing? Or do you not think being reliable regardless of the weather is just as much of a service?

It's here that lies the problem. It's a grey area. As Number23 says its opinion. Not fact.

You have two choices......

Work in poor weather but provide a reliable service for your customers...

Or

Only clean your customers Windows in good weather, but your always late.

[SeanK]

I do work in rain if it doesn"t affect my job, light rain, not landing on the glass etc, but yesterday for instance, i dont believe i would have been providing a service for my customers, i would have merely been earning a wage for myself!

Martin these same guys will be debating in a few weeks time on how they where able to get better money by offering
a better service, like I have said some of them blow more wind than the storms.

[Dave Willis]

Another record day today for me.

[Walter Mitty]

I did as full a day as I wanted to today (9.30-3.30).
It was dry down here in the south-east corner, apart from light spray a couple of times for five minutes.  It was pretty windy though, but definitely workable.  I earned a little more than I planned, so all good.

[8weekly]

I completely agree, no point when it's wet and windy.

I wouldn't be best pleased if I paid for a service without some benefit from it.

I haven't done any of my residentials for a week now, and won't resume until I can give my customers the decent service that they deserve.

John

so you ve not earned any money for a week now john?

so going by your mindset i shouldnt have worked this morning as it was forecast storms and rain this afternoon?

i disagree totally.i cleaned plenty of bird muck,bird strikes and snail trails off windows this morning.most of the customers who were home paid me there and then no problem.

That's right Daz, I haven't earned for a week. No big deal, I'll be busy enough catching up when the weather improves. 

John

So what happens next week when/if we get lovely weather. Your now behind schedule and your customers are annoyed because there Windows are filthy.

I always say this..... You've got two options/scenarios.

If you don't work in bad weather you either...

1) only have a part time round,

Or

2) you are always unreliable and behind schedule.

For me (and my customers)the lesser of the evils is just to crack on (within reason) and keep to schedule. This way the customers know when to expect me, and I also earn a lot more than if I was to take a few days off every other week.

No one expects me to turn up in the weather  we are having here. Even when I am a little behind, it's more from my perspective than my customers', so there is always plenty of scope for flexibility.

I must be doing something right though, as I don't owe or claim a penny. 

John

Good man. I reckon some of the boasters, BS on here going out in all weathers are clearly just desperate for cash and live hand to mouth?

Next, they will be talking about "paperwork".

Old jelly boots. 

[Carl2009]

I do work in rain if it doesn"t affect my job, light rain, not landing on the glass etc, but yesterday for instance, i dont believe i would have been providing a service for my customers, i would have merely been earning a wage for myself!

And is that necessarily a bad thing? Or do you not think being reliable regardless of the weather is just as much of a service?

It's here that lies the problem. It's a grey area. As Number23 says its opinion. Not fact.

You have two choices......

Work in poor weather but provide a reliable service for your customers...

Or

Only clean your customers Windows in good weather, but your always late.

I'm not sure that I can agree with this. It's not good service to clean someone's windows knowing in a short time - a matter of hours even - they will be as bad as when you arrived, indeed it's morally wrong, especially if the customer is vulnerable. Nor is good service to turn up and clean someone's windows when they don't want it (though they don't vocalise it). In addition it's not a case of only clean windows when the weather is "good"; it's about thinking strategically about how you can provide the best service at a value-for-money price (that doesn't mean the cheapest) at a frequency and timeliness that the customer and you are happy with.

Experience tells me that most people don't know you are late by a day or so (that's all it would be if you planned and priced correctly); indeed I bet i'm not alone in hearing people say "Is it a month already". If you've heard that you've made my point for me.

[Stoots]

dont have so much work so that if you miss a day you have to work weekends to catch up, feck that

get 3/4 days worth of windows a week so then youve room to breath, fill the rest of the time in with one offs or just work shorter days, work a little less, earn a little less and live a lot more imo

[Johnny B]

I do work in rain if it doesn"t affect my job, light rain, not landing on the glass etc, but yesterday for instance, i dont believe i would have been providing a service for my customers, i would have merely been earning a wage for myself!

And is that necessarily a bad thing? Or do you not think being reliable regardless of the weather is just as much of a service?

It's here that lies the problem. It's a grey area. As Number23 says its opinion. Not fact.

You have two choices......

Work in poor weather but provide a reliable service for your customers...

Or

Only clean your customers Windows in good weather, but your always late.

I'm not sure that I can agree with this. It's not good service to clean someone's windows knowing in a short time - a matter of hours even - they will be as bad as when you arrived, indeed it's morally wrong, especially if the customer is vulnerable. Nor is good service to turn up and clean someone's windows when they don't want it (though they don't vocalise it). In addition it's not a case of only clean windows when the weather is "good"; it's about thinking strategically about how you can provide the best service at a value-for-money price (that doesn't mean the cheapest) at a frequency and timeliness that the customer and you are happy with.

Experience tells me that most people don't know you are late by a day or so (that's all it would be if you planned and priced correctly); indeed I bet i'm not alone in hearing people say "Is it a month already". If you've heard that you've made my point for me.

I agree with you Carl. My customers (most of whom have my phone number and I theirs) would be phoning me if they thought I was excessively late. Very, very rarely does this happen.

I live in the south west of Ireland (an area of high unemployment, elderly and welfare claimants) which also suffers a wetter and sometimes windier climate than average for this country.

All these  factors have to be taken into account, as I would almost certainly go out of business very quickly if I tried to enforce any conditions on my customers by working in inclement weather.  At the same time, I have a family to support, and at my age, my employment options are very  limited, so I have to balance these factors carefully in order to provide the kind of service my customers want, and at the same time make a reasonable living.

I've lived in Ireland for over 4 years now, started up from scratch in the middle of the biggest recession in recent memory, haven't claimed and don't owe a penny. I'm happy with the way things are. True, it's been over a week since I have been able to do my residentials, but I'll be flying once the storms have passed.

John

[Frankybadboy]

we love the rain 

[KS Cleaning]

I work on a 4 weekly schedule, I usually work a 4 day week which gives me flexibility, If I am a few days late this month because of the weather, I just bring it back the next month, eg. route 1 let's say was due on Monday but due to the recent weather it didn't get cleaned until Wednesday/ Thursday, next month route 1 will still be cleaned on the Monday, if any customer says I am a few days early, I tell them I was late last time and I have to bring it back in to keep to my schedule and not to worry, over the year you won't get any more than 13 cleans and in most cases it will be 12 cleans due to holidays.

[Johnny B]

we love the rain 

Come to Ireland then Franky. You'd be like a pig in you know what! 

John

[Frankybadboy]

we love the rain 

Come to Ireland then Franky. You'd be like a pig in you know what!

John

skin water proof so i dont see a problem

[8weekly]

The thing is that if & when you employ someone, you just have to carry on. If it's hammering it down, sit it out in the van, but that's an extremely rare occurrence here. Perhaps twice this year? 

The other thing to bear in mind is that if you plan to employ, or God forbid  work full time and have a full round (5 days a week 8:30-4  then you have to carry on. It's not about "hand to mouth" as some suggest, it's about maximising your income.

Whatever you think, people really don't complain and if they do, give them a guarantee. If they still aren't happy either dump or skip.

[gary999]

worked 9am-1:30pm until rain got really heavy..no  strong winds though

[SB Cleaning]

The thing is that if & when you employ someone, you just have to carry on. If it's hammering it down, sit it out in the van, but that's an extremely rare occurrence here. Perhaps twice this year? 

The other thing to bear in mind is that if you plan to employ, or God forbid  work full time and have a full round (5 days a week 8:30-4  then you have to carry on. It's not about "hand to mouth" as some suggest, it's about maximising your income.

Whatever you think, people really don't complain and if they do, give them a guarantee. If they still aren't happy either dump or skip.

Exactly...

All my custys know I do a 24 hr guarantee...I think I've had 2 call backs in 6 years

[dazmond]

im not gonna earn 40-45k a year having a day off every time its bad weather!

granted the weathers been a bit crap lately but ive only had 2 afternoons off(today and yesterday) so im only a day behind which ill easily catch up on by working this sat.

its looking workable for the rest of the week lads!