[dazmond]

Same as yourself Cookie, for me doing a decent job gives me as much satisfaction as getting paid, nothing more soul destroying
than cleaning windows which are going to be dirty again in a few hours.
If I have to do a 6 hour day instead of a 5 hour day next week to make up for the lost work its no big deal.

....and thats the difference between me and you sean.if you want to consistently earn  better money i wouldnt even consider it.

its all about the money for me.sod what the windows are gonna be like tomorrow as long as i can clean a month/2 months worth of dirt off today.what do you do?go and check them the next day to see if their dirty again?

[Johnny B]

I always look at it from my customers' viewpoint.

I don't work in heavy rain or windy weather because I see it as a waste of effort and my customers' money. They appreciate that and have spread my name and reputation all over the town, so I am never short of work and as I love the job, they are happy and I am happy.

We all have our own ways of working, and so long as our ways work for us and our customers, then none of them are wrong.

John.

[dazmond]

The 24 hour complaint guarantee is nonsense as most people wont complain even if they aren't happy but at the end of the day we all have to make a living therefore its about getting the right balance between giving a decent service and earning a worthwhile amount to keep you in the game.
When my customers pick up my windows cleaned card I like them to be able to see a cleaned window if cleaned on a Friday then I want them to see the same when they get up on a Saturday morning therefore I wont work in conditions that I believe will prevent this from being the case, do I need to be this fussy ? who knows, all I can say it make for me it makes for a happier work life.

you dont work in the rain either do you sean?my work schedule would be all over the place and id lose thousands a year if i had your attitude.thankfully i dont as its all about earning the money (come rain or shine.)

[rosskesava]

So how bad has the wind been so far??

Bad enough , for me living in a coastal town.
I can normally gauge from the state of my trucks windscreen once its been parked up for an hour as to whether I am wasting my time cleaning windows. By end of yesterday afternoon it was pointless.
I would fully understand my customers frustration in that situation if their windows were only going to be transparent for a matter of hours and opaque for the next few weeks yet I expected to be paid for that privilege. I tend to adopt a common sense approach .

Same here. It depends where you live. Living in a coastal town is not the same as living inland. When we get storms they come from the SW  which means there will be salt in the air which can sometimes go a few miles inland.

Last Thurs I had five jobs in one road right next to the sea front. Had I cleaned them they would by today be plastered in salt so I'll be doing them on Monday instead.

[richard groves]

So how bad has the wind been so far??

Bad enough , for me living in a coastal town.
I can normally gauge from the state of my trucks windscreen once its been parked up for an hour as to whether I am wasting my time cleaning windows. By end of yesterday afternoon it was pointless.
I would fully understand my customers frustration in that situation if their windows were only going to be transparent for a matter of hours and opaque for the next few weeks yet I expected to be paid for that privilege. I tend to adopt a common sense approach .

Same here. It depends where you live. Living in a coastal town is not the same as living inland. When we get storms they come from the SW  which means there will be salt in the air which can sometimes go a few miles inland.

Last Thurs I had five jobs in one road right next to the sea front. Had I cleaned them they would by today be plastered in salt so I'll be doing them on Monday instead.

Common sense in action

[Slacky]

So how bad has the wind been so far??

Bad enough , for me living in a coastal town.
I can normally gauge from the state of my trucks windscreen once its been parked up for an hour as to whether I am wasting my time cleaning windows. By end of yesterday afternoon it was pointless.
I would fully understand my customers frustration in that situation if their windows were only going to be transparent for a matter of hours and opaque for the next few weeks yet I expected to be paid for that privilege. I tend to adopt a common sense approach .

Same here. It depends where you live. Living in a coastal town is not the same as living inland. When we get storms they come from the SW  which means there will be salt in the air which can sometimes go a few miles inland.

Last Thurs I had five jobs in one road right next to the sea front. Had I cleaned them they would by today be plastered in salt so I'll be doing them on Monday instead.

Common sense in action

Don’t encourage him.

[Dry Clean]

The 24 hour complaint guarantee is nonsense as most people wont complain even if they aren't happy but at the end of the day we all have to make a living therefore its about getting the right balance between giving a decent service and earning a worthwhile amount to keep you in the game.
When my customers pick up my windows cleaned card I like them to be able to see a cleaned window if cleaned on a Friday then I want them to see the same when they get up on a Saturday morning therefore I wont work in conditions that I believe will prevent this from being the case, do I need to be this fussy ? who knows, all I can say it make for me it makes for a happier work life.

you dont work in the rain either do you sean?my work schedule would be all over the place and id lose thousands a year if i had your attitude.thankfully i dont as its all about earning the money (come rain or shine.)

I don't work in heavy rain there's a difference, I need to make a living just like everybody else on here if you need to work in
all weathers to make a living that's fair enough I can do the same without having to clean in torrential rain  and stormy weather,
the joke is next week you'll be posting on the importance of quality.

[dazmond]

we all better get used to this weather lads.we have a lot more wet weather and named storms in the winter months than we did 20 years ago thats for sure.

[Walter Mitty]

I always look at it from my customers' viewpoint.

I don't work in heavy rain or windy weather because I see it as a waste of effort and my customers' money. They appreciate that and have spread my name and reputation all over the town, so I am never short of work and as I love the job, they are happy and I am happy.

We all have our own ways of working, and so long as our ways work for us and our customers, then none of them are wrong.

John.

But would they be OK with all paying x% extra to cover your lost time throughout the year (x could be any number between 5 and 25 depending on how easily some will stop work due to weather).

[JandS]

It isn't the customers job to worry about your lost time, the bills you have to pay how much your gear cost etc they just want their windows cleaned.
Priced correctly there should be no reason to have to work in torrential rain muck spreading.

[Stoots]

Anyone who won't clean a window because of what may or may not happen in the next few days is simply playing at running a business.

It's all about the dough, I am paid to clean a month's worth of dirt of the windows and that's what I do.

Won't clean in rain, won't clean if it's going to rain, when do you clean ? This is the UK it's always about to rain. Just crack on until it's totally unworkable and who doesn't like it gets dumped.

[Cookie]

Some interesting responses - I guess it's ultimately up to the individual how he/she runs their business.

Looking at the latest BBC reports however it seems to be the West that was hit hardest & I can tell you it's been pretty wild out there today! I'm near the coast, close to Fishguard, roughly between Porthcawl & Aberystwyth, both featured in the BBC report,  so I think I made the right decision yesterday in putting off the work. I'll put in a few extra hours this coming week to catch up.

The number of times I've had to do this in the past year I can count on one hand so it's not really a problem for me.

 

[Dry Clean]

I always look at it from my customers' viewpoint.

I don't work in heavy rain or windy weather because I see it as a waste of effort and my customers' money. They appreciate that and have spread my name and reputation all over the town, so I am never short of work and as I love the job, they are happy and I am happy.

We all have our own ways of working, and so long as our ways work for us and our customers, then none of them are wrong.

John.

But would they be OK with all paying x% extra to cover your lost time throughout the year (x could be any number between 5 and 25 depending on how easily some will stop work due to weather).

Yes its why guys like Johnny don't need to work in horrendous weather, there's only two reasons to work in a storm need or
greed.

[nathankaye]

I also work in rain and the first time i did, i was quite hesitant. I upgraded to wfp because of the ability to work in the rain. I got fed up of being off work for weeks at a time and not earning.
I educated all of my customers by way of a letter or a link to my website and any new customers simply get told that I work in the rain as it doesnt effect the quality of the clean it just depends how wet n cold i want to get!
So the first time i did i was hesitant like i said and waited next day for complaints ad i told them all I offer a 24hr quarantee!  I got no complaints when working and no complaints came in. Infact a little old lady stopped her car on the street i was working just to tell me I was righy and how clean her windows were!!  Well that made my day because if anyone would complain its the old dears. I've never looked back or been hesitant again since that day.

I have a routine that allows me to get my work done and done with satisfactory results on time. This is because I work in the rain, however if it means being off work for one day because of torrential rain, then I will do. Not because of the quality of results (as ive not had a complaint due to working in rain yet!) but because i dont want to get soaked and possibly become ill and have to take even longer off work

[richard groves]

I also work in rain and the first time i did, i was quite hesitant. I upgraded to wfp because of the ability to work in the rain. I got fed up of being off work for weeks at a time and not earning.
I educated all of my customers by way of a letter or a link to my website and any new customers simply get told that I work in the rain as it doesnt effect the quality of the clean it just depends how wet n cold i want to get!
So the first time i did i was hesitant like i said and waited next day for complaints ad i told them all I offer a 24hr quarantee!  I got no complaints when working and no complaints came in. Infact a little old lady stopped her car on the street i was working just to tell me I was righy and how clean her windows were!!  Well that made my day because if anyone would complain its the old dears. I've never looked back or been hesitant again since that day.

I have a routine that allows me to get my work done and done with satisfactory results on time. This is because I work in the rain, however if it means being off work for one day because of torrential rain, then I will do. Not because of the quality of results (as ive not had a complaint due to working in rain yet!) but because i dont want to get soaked and possibly become ill and have to take even longer off work

I don't mean to sound patronising but did you read the post title before embarking on your essay ?

[nathankaye]

I also work in rain and the first time i did, i was quite hesitant. I upgraded to wfp because of the ability to work in the rain. I got fed up of being off work for weeks at a time and not earning.
I educated all of my customers by way of a letter or a link to my website and any new customers simply get told that I work in the rain as it doesnt effect the quality of the clean it just depends how wet n cold i want to get!
So the first time i did i was hesitant like i said and waited next day for complaints ad i told them all I offer a 24hr quarantee!  I got no complaints when working and no complaints came in. Infact a little old lady stopped her car on the street i was working just to tell me I was righy and how clean her windows were!!  Well that made my day because if anyone would complain its the old dears. I've never looked back or been hesitant again since that day.

I have a routine that allows me to get my work done and done with satisfactory results on time. This is because I work in the rain, however if it means being off work for one day because of torrential rain, then I will do. Not because of the quality of results (as ive not had a complaint due to working in rain yet!) but because i dont want to get soaked and possibly become ill and have to take even longer off work

I don't mean to sound patronising but did you read the post title before embarking on your essay ?

Touchè Barry   
Give yourself a pat on the back me old man!

[paul alan]

I worked today!!!

Storm on its way and already pee'ing down with large gusts of wind, I got soaked but it didn't kill me.

I sat this morning contemplating whether to do these first cleans another day but I reasoned with myself that its best to do em in the bad weather so the customers know right off the bat that I work in all weathers, what better way to illustrate it?

But... if I would of rang these newbies today and said I cant clean today due to bad weather then that would of set false expectations.

I didn't get a single complaint, not one.

The big "USP" with the pole system for me is "it cleans the frames" so the glass may not be perfect after a bad weather clean but the rain and wind wont blow all the cobwebs and spider poo back on the frames.

So the glass may not be perfect...but what in life is???

[richard groves]

I don't know what's worse, having to work in a storm or work on a Saturday 

[paul alan]

ha...im working tomorrow!

SAD... maybe but I'm achieving something.

Do the things others wont do today so you can have the things others cant have tomorrow, or some BS like that.

Either way I'm going somewhere even if I'm not sure where it is yet?

[KS Cleaning]

Anyone who won't clean a window because of what may or may not happen in the next few days is simply playing at running a business.

It's all about the dough, I am paid to clean a month's worth of dirt of the windows and that's what I do.

Won't clean in rain, won't clean if it's going to rain, when do you clean ? This is the UK it's always about to rain. Just crack on until it's totally unworkable and who doesn't like it gets dumped.

On the flip side you could say that anyone who works from 9 - 2 is 'playing at running a business'.  If others choose to work a few more hours per day to afford themselves the luxury of a day off when it's a day of rain it makes perfect sense to me.