[nathankaye]

Sod explaining about my living costs. Truth is that's nothing to do with your custards, end of story. If you wish to put your prices up, regardless of reason, the custard either takes it or leaves it.

Cant believe im quoting slacky!
But hes right.....thats there choice as it is our choice to amend our prices.
We expect them to at least acknowledge the fact that prices go up.........to suck it up and continue employing us. But the simple truth........they dont have too, the market is saturated with window cleaners more than willing to do it cheaper!!
Or else there wouldnt be a market for "Go compare" and we wouldnt have to put up with the annoying adverts. But thats what people do..   or dont you shop around when it comes to renew your van insurance, or gas/electric bills or drive around for the cheaper petrol station.......same principles applies for our customers

[nathankaye]

Had exactly same thing a few weeks ago, went up,£3 from 27 to 30
8'weekly so, yearly increase 6 cleans at 3 , basically I've been sacked for the sake of £18 per year....
  Unreal.
This sacking was also after a long email explaining costs of living situation etc

Mr B

One of my customers who i had for over ten years sacked me because of a pound increase.....why??
Because to them my job was even easier now that im not up n down a ladder taking longer to clean their windows. So why should i be paid more for doing so!
Fair enough i will get someone who doesnt know difference and they will pay my asking price.. without getting into my cost of living and work expenses bla bla blar...

Or everytime you pop into your local shop is there a notice above every price increase......." sorry about the increase......hope you dont mind but petrol costs have gone up, so its got knock on effects and supply costs have gone up. We have no choice....sorry!!"
😂😂😂

Plus that email hit the spam bucket straight away

[Clearview]

Sometimes its down to sheer jealousy. You can see the customer doing the maths in their heads "He charges me £20 for a job that takes 30minutes, that means he makes £40 per hour". And that means you don't  fit  the box they want you to be in as their window cleaner / house boy.  They don't like the fact that you're making more money than they are.
What they forget of course is that you're running a business & there is a difference between business TURNOVER & profit.

[dazmond]

Sometimes its down to sheer jealousy. You can see the customer doing the maths in their heads "He charges me £20 for a job that takes 30minutes, that means he makes £40 per hour". And that means you don't  fit  the box they want you to be in as their window cleaner / house boy.  They don't like the fact that you're making more money than they are.
What they forget of course is that you're running a business & there is a difference between business TURNOVER & profit.

.....and driving about in  brand new vans and going on 5 star holidays!

[Stoots]

So what's the best way of approaching a rise.

I was thinking a letter 2-3 months before giving a date (let's say 6th April)

Notifying them after that date their clean will increase by X amount. Obviously if they are in you can explain in person along with the letter (or just shove it in their hand and run  )

To be honest I think a blanket increase say £1 every 2 years would be easier to get them used to it.

Obviously those underpriced jobs need to come into line so all work is on a level.

Do you think it would be viable to say to the customer  "if there's any problem with the price increase, speak to me and I will see why I can do" or would you just be hard   and it's a like it or lump it? Perhaps this would depend on the custy...if you don't like doing that job anyway and you don't care then maybe you be firm, if it's an easy job and they are great payers maybe you can say, you know what I'd rather keep you on then lose you over a quid. Are we perhaps being too greedy in some cases? Especially since most of use will be increasing way above the rate of inflation.

[Shrek]

So what's the best way of approaching a rise.

I was thinking a letter 2-3 months before giving a date (let's say 6th April)

Notifying them after that date their clean will increase by X amount. Obviously if they are in you can explain in person along with the letter (or just shove it in their hand and run  )

To be honest I think a blanket increase say £1 every 2 years would be easier to get them used to it.

Obviously those underpriced jobs need to come into line so all work is on a level.

Do you think it would be viable to say to the customer  "if there's any problem with the price increase, speak to me and I will see why I can do" or would you just be hard   and it's a like it or lump it? Perhaps this would depend on the custy...if you don't like doing that job anyway and you don't care then maybe you be firm, if it's an easy job and they are great payers maybe you can say, you know what I'd rather keep you on then lose you over a quid. Are we perhaps being too greedy in some cases? Especially since most of use will be increasing way above the rate of inflation.

See what you can do? Nooooooo
You 'Hi , your price is going up £1'
Custy ' erm what can you do for me? I'm not happy with that.'
You ' ok , il keep you at the same price '
Custy '  '

You - back to square one 

[Slacky]

I used to tell them. They just get the new price now on the slip that goes through the door.

[Slacky]

Do you think it would be viable to say to the customer  "if there's any problem with the price increase, speak to me and I will see why I can do"

Yes thats viable. For them.

[nathankaye]

You definately do not ask them if they are not ok with the increase, thats a one way ticket to problems!

I just let them know that i have to adjust their price which will be £x on next clean.
That gives them 4 weeks to let me know not to do them, if not they are still my customer.
You have to stop being scared of running your business incase you loose one or two customers!!! Just remember all the new customers you may have picked up in the last couple of months as in technically youve already replaced them if they say no!

[Stoots]

It costs money to replace customers though through marketing costs.

Of course if you are in a position where they fall on your lap then you are laughing. However most of my customers have been gained through a lot of effort or expense.

Just seems daft to lose a great paying, reliable income source for the sake of a quid. Some of my not so good customers I could care less about mind.

[nathankaye]

It costs money to replace customers though through marketing costs.

Of course if you are in a position where they fall on your lap then you are laughing. However most of my customers have been gained through a lot of effort or expense.

Just seems daft to lose a great paying, reliable income source for the sake of a quid. Some of my not so good customers I could care less about mind.

Buy isn't it the same......its a bit daft of a customer to loose a good worker for a couple of quid! 😕
Im sure you must have had walk ups or people contact you through word of mouth??? Or in space of a year you must have gained more new customers than lost (be it physically or financially). If you are, then your not really loosing a customer as you already replaced them with customer x a couple of months back who actually pays more than what this one does anyway 😉

[P @ F]

This is what i used , it worked just fine bar 2 moaners

[Shrek]

This is what i used , it worked just fine bar 2 moaners

I used this earlier in the year !! Thanks - only lost one , happy days 👍

[dazmond]

So what's the best way of approaching a rise.

I was thinking a letter 2-3 months before giving a date (let's say 6th April)

Notifying them after that date their clean will increase by X amount. Obviously if they are in you can explain in person along with the letter (or just shove it in their hand and run  )

To be honest I think a blanket increase say £1 every 2 years would be easier to get them used to it.

Obviously those underpriced jobs need to come into line so all work is on a level.

Do you think it would be viable to say to the customer  "if there's any problem with the price increase, speak to me and I will see why I can do" or would you just be hard   and it's a like it or lump it? Perhaps this would depend on the custy...if you don't like doing that job anyway and you don't care then maybe you be firm, if it's an easy job and they are great payers maybe you can say, you know what I'd rather keep you on then lose you over a quid. Are we perhaps being too greedy in some cases? Especially since most of use will be increasing way above the rate of inflation.

your overthinking it.just notify them a month/2 months prior to the rise either face to face,by text or scribbled on their invoice.be firm and do not mention anything about a "problem".most will be fine.occasionally you ll lose 1 or 2 but IME its very rare.you ll still be quids in.

i put over 200 accounts up a quid or two and only lost 2 jobs back in april purely to pay for my van rental(the rise easily covers it).

[AuRavelling79]

Say for arguments sake you have 100 customers at an average price of £15.00 per clean. The 100 custies are making you £1500 per clean.

So you put prices up by £1 average to £16.00. Now you make £1600 per clean. Let's say 4 cancel. Now you have 96 customers at £16 totalling £1536.

So you are getting an extra £36 for 4% less work. Lovely.

More likely 1 or 2 will cancel so less work and even more money and more time to take on new custies.

Now lets say you put up prices by £2 to £17.00. Lets say 6 cancel. Now you have 94 x 17 totalling £1,598 for 6% less work.

But there will come a point where it will be counter productive. Prices going up by 5 to 15% maybe tolerated by most. I bet a 50% rise would only be tolerated by a smaller number. A 100% rise by almost no-one.

[AuRavelling79]

"Hi, Hope you're well, Just to let you know we will not be continuing with your window cleaning services. The unexpected price increase has made it financially un-viable for us."

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your concern as to my health; I am very well and I hope you and your family are too.

I appreciate your letting me know that your finances are in such a precarious state that the increase I have applied is making the present level of household expenditure unviable for you.

I have been giving some thought as to how you can become financially viable once more and that along with cutting out having clean windows you might consider extra part time work? For example with the 12 weeks holiday in the teaching profession you could get seasonal jobs such as Santa or one of his elves at Xmas, or a job as a Yellowcoat in the summer at Maplins.

The benefits would be compounded if you were to cut out your skiing holiday to Switzerland or your Caribbean cruise in summer. I know you do not have to pay towards a pension if you want a viable retirement as I do but nevertheless your being abstemious with your finances now will surely help in the future.   

Once again thank you for custom to date; it has been much appreciated although I must confess that your leaving has made room for two viable customers from my long waiting list of fair minded folk who appreciate having a good and reliable window cleaner.

May flights of angels transport you to your rest.



Clearview.
P.S.  Teachers! ... Leave them kids alone!

[nathankaye]

"Hi, Hope you're well, Just to let you know we will not be continuing with your window cleaning services. The unexpected price increase has made it financially un-viable for us."

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your concern as to my health; I am very well and I hope you and your family are too.

I appreciate your letting me know that your finances are in such a precarious state that the increase I have applied is making the present level of household expenditure unviable for you.

I have been giving some thought as to how you can become financially viable once more and that along with cutting out having clean windows you might consider extra part time work? For example with the 12 weeks holiday in the teaching profession you could get seasonal jobs such as Santa or one of his elves at Xmas, or a job as a Yellowcoat in the summer at Maplins.

The benefits would be compounded if you were to cut out your skiing holiday to Switzerland or your Caribbean cruise in summer. I know you do not have to pay towards a pension if you want a viable retirement as I do but nevertheless your being abstemious with your finances now will surely help in the future.   

Once again thank you for custom to date; it has been much appreciated although I must confess that your leaving has made room for two viable customers from my long waiting list of fair minded folk who appreciate having a good and reliable window cleaner.

May flights of angels transport you to your rest.



Clearview.
P.S.  Teachers! ... Leave them kids alone!

Wouldnt it be funny and amazing if someone had the balls to actually reply like this......im gonna keep this under my belt for when im told something to the effect of their finances

[Walter Mitty]

If someone cancelled over £1 a clean, they probably were about to cancel anyway.

[JackieW]

My  God, what has the world come to when someone has decided they no longer want their windows cleaned at the offered rate.

[nathankaye]

For me, i prefer people to be upfront. A spade is a spade for instance.
Thats my moan and we happen to be on a forum full of window cleaners who also at times would like a small rant thinking that its a safe place to do so as we all can relate to it.
But we all have different egos and are all mostly men so rather than just letting someone rant we feel the need to correct them or fix it..........rather than it being what  it is,,,,,,,a pointless rant!

 😂😂😂  No i sound like my mrs 😭