[chopsie]

I said it once before.

I say it again.

I will be shot down.

I PUT THE NEXT CLEAN DATE ON THIER BILL.

And clean on that day.

I have a locked gate policy. If its locked on thr agreed day, tough. Full payment still due.  We clean what we can and move on.

So what happens if there is torrential rain, high winds, heavy snow, your van breaks down, illness etc? 

[dazmond]

I said it once before.

I say it again.

I will be shot down.

I PUT THE NEXT CLEAN DATE ON THIER BILL.

And clean on that day.

I have a locked gate policy. If its locked on thr agreed day, tough. Full payment still due.  We clean what we can and move on.

NOOOOOOOOO......!!!!(unless you want to create more hassle for yourself)

[dazmond]

on topic i rarely get any problems with customers as the "only clean when im in" brigade have been weeded out..most work is "turn up and clean" and the ones i do text the night before are not messers....

today im on estate work and i only had one customer to text last night out of 25 jobs....

[Arnold Palmer]

I said it once before.

I say it again.

I will be shot down.

I PUT THE NEXT CLEAN DATE ON THIER BILL.

And clean on that day.

I have a locked gate policy. If its locked on thr agreed day, tough. Full payment still due.  We clean what we can and move on.

Ticking time bomb. This approach isn't scalable in my opinion.

Eventually there will be a problem, when that happens they'll think you've let them down. All of them.

I.e a massive freeze, throwing all your rounds back a week or more, I wouldn't fancy trying to contact 1000s of customers trying to tell them we won't be round on the date I said we would.

[paul alan]

I'll commit to night before txt, as I can pretty sure what the weather is going to be like tomorrow!

But I wouldn't want to commit to a date a month ahead, owt could happen over a month.

[Marc Stock]

You lot make me laugh. 

I have been working this way for a long time and i tell you this. It works.

The comments about snow and bad weather, well of course if there is snow and bad weather the customer isnt stupid they dont hold me to account because i cancelled the agreed date.

We had that snow recently, no problems. Sent a group text out to those for the 3 days i was affected; that the clean had been rescheduled and gave a new date to all of them. Took 10 mins to text 60 odd customers easy peasy.

Now if there is a big freeze apocalypse, so what it makes no difference. I suffer just like you do, just because there are next dates on bills its irrelevant. I will if necessary just resume as and when things improve like you all.

Everyone knows in this game you allow contingency days. Just because i give the next date it doesnt mean all of a sudden i have no contingency plan.

IMO this is the only way to scale up a good profitable window cleaning business. I will eventually have employees, working 9 till 5. They will be provided with waterproofs and the correct clothing to cope with all weathers.

My schedual is set on 4 working weeks a month. So on many of the months there are always spare days when there is a part of a 5th week in the month.

Every single one of my customers think that the next clean date idea on thier bill is simply awesome. It sets me apart from the competition, the customers apprecate it more, its more organised, and it runs like a business and i get alot of respect for it.

Basicly you all are just wanting to work when you want. If you feel like it today or not. And thats ok, but for me i am building a business that is organised and efficient.


 

[Arnold Palmer]

We had that snow recently, no problems. Sent a group text out to those for the 3 days i was affected; that the clean had been rescheduled and gave a new date to all of them. Took 10 mins to text 60 odd customers easy peasy.

60, fine. How about 4000?? How fine do you think that would be?

[Arnold Palmer]

Basicly you all are just wanting to work when you want.

Absolutely not. We work every day.

[Arnold Palmer]

Every single one of my customers think that the next clean date idea on thier bill is simply awesome.

I'm sure they do. Not so much when it eventually goes tits up.

I aim for the same date every month, my customers are happy with that and aren't expecting me.

[NWH]

Put the next clean on there bill lol you can keep saying it m8,that will never work when your rammed with the thing called work pal. If I did that I would give myself so many headaches it’s unreal,I text customers if I need to over £100 + all the others I do as and when I can get there sometimes I’m a month 6 weeks late at least.

[Arnold Palmer]

Everyone knows in this game you allow contingency days. Just because i give the next date it doesnt mean all of a sudden i have no contingency plan.

IMO this is the only way to scale up a good profitable window cleaning business. I will eventually have employees, working 9 till 5. They will be provided with waterproofs and the correct clothing to cope with all weathers.

My schedual is set on 4 working weeks a month. So on many of the months there are always spare days when there is a part of a 5th week in the month.

Yeah, you're gonna need to fill those gaps when you've VAT bills, PAYE and wages to pay.

[Stoots]

I think k the way you do it works well for you as a sole trader Marc or even a couple of employees.

 But like others have said so you think it works on a big scale?

I can't see it.

What if you have 10 vans let's say 300 customers due on one day, you have to re contact them all if it's torrential rain

Even worse what if you lose a half day, so 150 customers cleaned, 150 you have  to re schedule which would throw the entire thing out as you would be going back and forth with to areas. I reckon it would be a never ending cycle of chasing your tail.


I don't think it scales either, but if you do fair enough.

[Marc Stock]

Ok all good points. But again i am going to buck against the general opinions here.

If you have 4000 customers to contact, you can use software to send out texts. A database will handle that no worries, i doubt very much your sitting there with your mobile phone doing it.

Say i have 10 vans, and 300 custies due on one day. And its 'torrential rain' for half a day and i am 150 customers behind.

 It's of no consequence if they have a next clean date on thier bill or not is it. Thats just the way it is. What you do.is you take those vans that owe the 150 cleans, and rebook them as a block on your contingency days.

 Like i said a database with texting facilities can easiley handle rescheduled days.

Anyway..You do your thing. Ill do mine and lets see.

[Smudger]

I said it once before.

I say it again.

I will be shot down.

I PUT THE NEXT CLEAN DATE ON THIER BILL.

And clean on that day.

I have a locked gate policy. If its locked on thr agreed day, tough. Full payment still due.  We clean what we can and move on.

I won’t shoot you down mark I have worked love or this since day one - all goes like clockwork - THE biggest complaint I hear from new customers about their old windy is being reliable not down to the hour or even day but week!

Customers love to know their next clean date and all the lads work each round the same way so their times during the day work out similar - yes sometimes rain stops play but from the outset custy’s are informed that we wil be up to date no later than 3 days of the due date

THIS IS after all a SERVICE industry

Darran

[Marc Stock]

Every single one of my customers think that the next clean date idea on thier bill is simply awesome.

I aim for the same date every month, my customers are happy with that and aren't expecting me.

So in effect you are already doing it then arnt you?  I just tell then what yhe expected date is.

[Marc Stock]

I said it once before.

I say it again.

I will be shot down.

I PUT THE NEXT CLEAN DATE ON THIER BILL.

And clean on that day.

I have a locked gate policy. If its locked on thr agreed day, tough. Full payment still due.  We clean what we can and move on.

I won’t shoot you down mark I have worked love or this since day one - all goes like clockwork - THE biggest complaint I hear from new customers about their old windy is being reliable not down to the hour or even day but week!

Customers love to know their next clean date and all the lads work each round the same way so their times during the day work out similar - yes sometimes rain stops play but from the outset custy’s are informed that we wil be up to date no later than 3 days of the due date

THIS IS after all a SERVICE industry

Darran

OMG IS THIS SOMEONE WHO MIGHT ACTUALLY SEE WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT?

I THANK YOU SIR! 

[Arnold Palmer]

Every single one of my customers think that the next clean date idea on thier bill is simply awesome.

I aim for the same date every month, my customers are happy with that and aren't expecting me.

So in effect you are already doing it then arnt you?  I just tell then what yhe expected date is.

No. There is no need for me to contact them because they're not expecting me.

The issue isn't sending out of the messages, I could do all 4000 in seconds. It's the repercussions.

[Smudger]

Dont worry mark - you won’t change their minds !

Let’s face it some of them say it’s impossible to employ so setting a schedule of works is well out of their comfort zone.


I’m well behind soupy on windy customers @ 1500 but not encountered a problem yet

Darran

[Smudger]

Why would you need to send out 4K ?

Darran

[Arnold Palmer]

Why would you need to send out 4K ?

Darran

I'd have had to in March, a week of snow threw us back a week, we were a week late until the last couple of days in March.