[James Styles]

Cheers for all the advice guys, appreciate it, also as mentioned at least it’s getting me more cleaning experience and I can filter out the messers, eventually I should have a nice reliable round

[James Styles]

Quote from: James Styles on April 29, 2019, 05:36:05 pm
Picked up 9 customers today in just 4 hours canvassing 


great, just wait till you lose half of them over the next couple of cleans.

Canvassing is the fastest way to build work but its the fastest way to lose work also.

Not sure what you mean, if I do a good job why would I lose them?

You will always ALWAYS get ‘messers’ - these are people who can’t be arsed paying you until you’ve sent them 10 messages every month asking for payment, you will always get customers who are desperate for their windows to be cleaned regularly then sack you off. Not many but these people exist and the main thing is to just move on , don’t dwell on the fact you’ve done a good job and you can’t understand why they aren’t paying you or they’ve sacked you off. Just move on 

Told ya 

Not really, I had one messer out of 24 customers gained from canvassing 

[Shrek]

You asked the other week

 ‘ not sure what you mean, if I do a good job why would I lose them?’

http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=215291.40

I never said all customers were messers , I said you will always get messers. Pre warned you , that’s all. You just gotta move on buddy

[nathankaye]

One thing to bare in mind James, don't ever take this personally. These types of characters will take what they want from you regardless, if your a nice bloke or not.  If you spent ages and above n beyond to do so.  All they wanted was a quick fix to put them on for another year or so, before they contact someone else and agree to whatever terms and slag their last window off, for "doing a bad job" or "he just stopped coming" etc etc.
So don't take it personally, don't let it knock you. Learn from it and move forward. Sadly it will happen many more times probably. Even us experienced guys n girls can still get caught out

[windowswashed]

Be direct with customer and ask them if they are looking for a one off clean or a regular service. If majority of houses in the street are clean and the one you have been asked to clean is black as the ace of spades, the chances are it's a one off clean. If they also ask you if you can clean gutters, soffits whilst you're there the chances are that it's an end of tenancy clean and you won't be seeing them at that address on your next visit.  At least charge one and a half to two times the price if only to cover your time as regular customers will accept it.

[NWH]

I can’t think of  anywhere that you would spend an hour scrubbing glass for n hour for £12.

[james peters]

Quote from: James Styles on April 29, 2019, 05:36:05 pm
Picked up 9 customers today in just 4 hours canvassing 


great, just wait till you lose half of them over the next couple of cleans.

Canvassing is the fastest way to build work but its the fastest way to lose work also.

Not sure what you mean, if I do a good job why would I lose them?

You will always ALWAYS get ‘messers’ - these are people who can’t be arsed paying you until you’ve sent them 10 messages every month asking for payment, you will always get customers who are desperate for their windows to be cleaned regularly then sack you off. Not many but these people exist and the main thing is to just move on , don’t dwell on the fact you’ve done a good job and you can’t understand why they aren’t paying you or they’ve sacked you off. Just move on 

Told ya 

Not really, I had one messer out of 24 customers gained from canvassing 

sometimes they wont start messing you around until the 3rd , or 5th clean or so on.
you have yet to find out how those 24 canvassed will turn out

[The Jester of Wibbly]

It's normal to be on your guard for the first 3 cleans of any new customer in case they are a messer.   Either they cancel, or they are a bad payer, or a not this time brigade, or its raining not today bunch, or pita.  After that they tend to be fine most of the time.

It rarely happens but best keep all your witts about you for this messer filter time frame.

[Jonny 87]

I started in 2010, bought a small round of Mayb 60 customers and built from There, I’m now at about 500 or so, and nice solid monthly round.

To be honest, I have never charged more for a first clean. I’ve been caught out about 20 times at most I’d say over the 9 years.

Just take it on the chin and move on.

Areas are different, granted, but I’d keep going as you are. If you have spare time anyway, then a few messers aren’t going to hinder your progress overall. You’ve got to balance that with the fact of putting some customers off because of the double charge.

[nathankaye]

On a positive note, all we have mostly to contend with, is working out if they are a potential messier, whilst the Americans wonder if they should carry a side arm or not



😂

[Splash & dash]

I think this all comes down to inexperienced canvassing when we quote we always stress it’s a 4-8 weekly price , we always charge double the price for a first clean this will sort out the messers who only want a one off job they will say I’ll have a think about it and you will never hear back from them , the only ones that don’t get charged double are existing customers family’s  or close friends , and Evan then if they are that bad it’s double the price we vary rarely don’t get the job as when you explained it takes a lot longer on the first clean they understand that and realise you are going to do a decent job

[james peters]

since jan 2018
gained 182 customers
retained 104
I am very strict with payment so a lot of the customers I let go because they were slow payers ( I run a tight ship)
I prefer to move on rather than have annoying slow payers etc ... there are good ones out there to be had .
I have been in the game 27 years  so this is how I do it ... just keep growing slowly .
all new ones were charged a first clean price , so I havn't really lost out,
had I not been charging a first clean price I  would be very frustrated ......
projecting on another year and a half my retained figure will be around 210 new customers
gradualy growing year on year.

[RPCCS]

I have one which was every month between April and end of Oct, beginning of Nov. Normally I don't entertain these types, just dump them, but I have known the family for many years, so just kept it on. This year I'm a bit late ,as weather in April was crap, so I went a couple of weeks back, and he says, we haven't negotiated the price yet. I said the price doesn't need negotiating, it hasn't gone up since last time. Cutting it short, he had been talking to others in the village and discovered they were only paying a fiver for a flat, his is a farmhouse.and £15.
So because I wouldn't reduce the price, he only wants them done every other month, to make it "balance out". So come October, I will make it the last time, 3/4 times a year? Not worth me bothering.

[nathankaye]

I let my 4wkly customers know, they can always go 8wkly but it does come with a price increase, normally an extra £5min added.
If they went 12wklyi simply thank them for their custom and politely explain I don't offer that duration.
I have a customer at 8 wkly which is £30 for the house, then on the next visit I do their large conservatory for an extra £50 on top. So that is my only exception to the rule as that is cleaned every  16wks