[Clean Cloth]

I had an anonymous call from someone yesterday.
He had a business card that I had dropped last year.
Asked who he was speaking to, so I introduced myself.

"How much do you charge?"

For a window clean?

"No conservatory roof"

I would need to look at the conservatory first as they vary in size and accessibility.

"Can you give me the price now"

From experience I prefer to see the job first before giving a price.

"No, bye".

I want the work but he sounded very stuck up and untrusting.

Do you quote for work without looking at it first?
I know you can google pic a property but I bet he would not have given me his address if I had the chance to ask him for it.

[deeege]

I had an anonymous call from someone yesterday.
He had a business card that I had dropped last year.
Asked who he was speaking to, so I introduced myself.

"How much do you charge?"

For a window clean?

"No conservatory roof"

I would need to look at the conservatory first as they vary in size and accessibility.

"Can you give me the price now"

From experience I prefer to see the job first before giving a price.

"No, bye".

I want the work but he sounded very stuck up and untrusting.

Do you quote for work without looking at it first?
I know you can google pic a property but I bet he would not have given me his address if I had the chance to ask him for it.

Don’t worry about it, some people are just very untrusting especially at the moment.

I never quote or even give a ballpark figure over the phone, if you do you are setting a ceiling for what price you can get.

[Smudger]

I nearly always go and look at work like this - you can never trust a customer to give an honest opinion of size
at worst they can send photo's

for people like the guy who rang you I would say prices range from £80 to £400 - exact price will be given when Im on site

Darran

[AuRavelling79]

The guy is a plank. You did the wise thing.

[Stoots]

For add on work I ask for pictures, if they don't send them I don't quote. I never go out to quote I can't be arsed.

If it's for window cleaning I can usually guess if they tell me the street and type of house etc.

[AuRavelling79]

Basic window clean I will often give an estimate or use Google maps after if I feel that they are genuine.

Conny roof never on the phone.

[Clean Cloth]

Thank-you for your replies, good to hear from others with more experience.

When I first started I did want to see even window cleaning jobs before quoting but now I am happy to ask if the property is a house or bungalow, semi or detached, conservatory or none and quote on the phone. It can save a drive out just to be told they will get back to you.

But for a conservatory or FSG I do want to see the job first. With a conservatory, the roof could be plastic or glass, pent or Georgian roof, maybe a valley against the property making cleaning more difficult.

[NWH]

Something slightly different I had a new enquiry from someone close to where I clean 3 others she said can you give me a quote I said yeah fine,went along she wanted me to clean the back extension only said she wanted it joined in with the others only to let slip just wanted a 1 off.
They were a younger couple plenty of money though etc,I think we will have problems in the future with younger customers they don’t think like generations gone by just want things doing when they do.

[Clean Cloth]

Yes, maybe.
Last year I did get a couple of calls asking for a 1 off conservatory clean and FSG clean as their regular window cleaner did not offer those services. I did price them well (for me and this area) and got them both.

However the gentleman yesterday did sound like a pensioner.

[NWH]

I have plenty of work more than enough I won’t ever do 1 off cleans no point,if you’ve got good stuff up the road no matter what you are charging 2-3 times still  won’t earn anymore and even if you did who’d want to be getting cement and labels off on a weekly basis not me.

[SB Cleaning]

I would of got him to send a photo of the job, I have been doing this for a while now and it works well.

[NWH]

If it’s to far out I say please send me a photo of all 4 sides of the house and including all you want me to clean,I’ve turned up a couple of times and they’ve said don’t forget the pool with more glass than the house lol.

[Richard iSparkle]

we give them a minimum price and ask them to take 3 pictures from different sides then quote from those.

it save so much time rather than driving around the place

you might get a bit stung sometimes, but it works both ways, and even if it takes 1 hr longer than you thought... you've saved yourself the time not visiting to quote

R

[NWH]

It can be done like this but you can’t beat seeing it really,I like to talk to people and meet them that’s not that gets you the job.

[steve rix]

We will only ever quote if if we have been to the jo. The houses vary so much around here. People will always miss something out  in "error" on deliberatley.
Bu we are very old fashioned!!

[NWH]

Some people might not like you or more importantly to me I might not like them,takes about 5-10 seconds to sniff out time wasters and troublesome customers.
I prefer it if they’ve had a window cleaner sometimes if they just didn’t like him that way I know they  want a regular clean,nothing worse than someone that doesn’t know how it works by that I mean you’ll turn up clean send a text and they pay.

[harleyman]

Should of asked for a post code and then looked at Google earth to gt a bit of an idea👍

[Mike Burd]

I never go out to quote. It’s all done over the phone.

[Klean07]

I quote on phone too either get them to send pictures via WhatsApp or look on Rightmove or Google maps. However I quote a conservatory roof last week after seeing pictures they had sent but when I got there I realised that job was under priced because there was a gutter along the side of it which I couldn't see on picture that was full of weeds etc! The thing that saved it though was the next door neighbour wanted theirs done too so happy days.

[lal]

 
  I do all my estimates on the phone from descriptions customer give me, or photos they send, plus using Google maps,
  but i always emphasise  to the customer that its an estimate that I'm giving them reflecting on the information they
  are giving me, it works out ok 99% of the time, i only go and quote jobs that are nearby where i live, or close to jobs that
  i'm doing during the week.
  I found when i started out 8 years ago, that going out of your way like a few miles to quote jobs, i met a lot of time wasters,
  and i met a hell of a lot of them, so i decided enough is enough,  I would say i get about 75% of the jobs i quote on the phone,
  so at least the ones i don't get, i haven't wasted time & fuel going out to them.