To get to 100 customers when you first started up? Just curious really, I’m at about 35 now started up bout 2 months ago, I do about 3 days canvassing a week for 3-4 hours a time.
Everyones experience will be different James. You might be in an area which is over subscribed with window cleaners. WFP has made window cleaning more attractive to many who would never have considered it previously.
Things have completely changed in this industry over the past 15 years. As traditional cleaners the vast majority of our cleans were 2 weekly and never more than 4 weekly.
If you are running on an 8 weekly cleaning cycle then you will need 4 times the number of customers.
So I wouldn't get disheartened with your results. Just keep plodding away.
In the early days we were also short of work. So we offered add on services; conservatory roof cleans, gutter clearing and fascia, gutter and soffit cleaning. Try to clean a garage door for an addition £2 as part of the clean. We also offered internal window cleaning but we discourage that now.
Make your customers work for you. Ask each of your customers for recommendations of family and friends locally. Some won't but we had a customer and his wife who brought us in at least a dozen new customers. Those new customers also referred more to us. Nowdays, the majority of our customers are from recommendations of other customers.
I remember embarrassing my son and stopping the van twice to speak to a person cleaning their own windows. I got a window cleaning job from the second one which we had until he moved away 5 years later.
Door knock and/or leaflet neighbours of the houses that you clean. "We clean the windows of the Gibsons at number 21 and wondered if we could quote you for cleaning your windows."
If you are cleaning the windows at the Gibsons and the neighbours are in the garden, greet them over the fence and ask. If they say no, don't fail to greet them the next time you see them. Always be friendly. People buy from sales persons they trust.
We cleaned 4 houses in a cul de sac but not the 5th sandwiched between 2 of them. We always asked them how they were and how their narrowboat was etc. 8 years later he asked us to clean his. He always cleaned his own but had had a heart attack so decided that climbing a ladder wasn't a good idea.
The other question that comes to my mind is how many quotes are you doing to achieve your 35 customers. We have always said that the ideal is around a 40% acceptance rate. If you need to gain customers quickly then price to around 60%.
If you are getting 50% of your quotes then you have 70 potential customers, so you are doing well. Remember, you are in this for the 'long haul.'
It will take time before your customer base starts to snow ball.
