[Steven Biggs]

 

[Suffolkcleaners]

Haha there are some funny folk down here. I’m not Suffolk born and bred just somehow ended up here 😂

[G Griffin]

It’s called desperation and the fact they have to go out to earn enough for it to work when employing,if you had 1-2 employees the vast majority of the time you wouldn’t need to do this. How many days do you get in a year that you need to send workers out when it’s raining stair rods,when it’s windy and raining like that imo that’s not right.

The same could be said that desperation applied to you when lock down came along and you carried on cleaning - it's different opinions - we will clean commercial in light to medium rain - residential most certainly not - a big part of that  its awful working in the rain - I don't like it, I won't do it, I don't make the staff do it, it's easy to catch up over the next day or so

Darran

Good post.

[Smudger]

Don’t feel sorry for  us up north . I live in Yorkshire . Like you said you live in Suffolk . Case closed .

Even Norfolk people laugh at Suffolk 

Darran

[NWH]

Wind rain blowing a gale can hardly get in the van coz the wind is constantly blowing the door shut,he shouts over his shoulder so you’ll pay the 100 online then yeah to the customer 🤣🤣,yeah that would be desperate.
I’ve always said you should earn enough when  employing it should all be factored in to your overall prices,I know that and I don’t employ half a dozen people.

[Dry Clean]

I cant see anything wrong in getting your employees to make up their lost hours up,  I suspect that's how most if not all employers who rely on decent weather work it, as long as its not forced on them then another choice would be to let them use holidays to make up the shortfall.

[NWH]

When you employ you have to suck some of it up weather etc,when I look over the course of a whole year there’s not a massive amount of days you can’t work or do something like a weatherboard-roof clean. Once you’ve had weeks-months working flat out you pray for rain lol.

[Richard iSparkle]

I think I'm just concerned on making things as simple and regular as possible in my business, and making a profit

our customers just aren't as bothered about us cleaning in the rain as some of the window cleaners are on here.

i try not to make assumptions about what i think my customers want and just try to listen to what happens and what effect it has on my business.

i'm sure if they weren't happy they would have mentioned it in the last 10 years. they seem happy enough to let us know when they aren't happy about other things so i just assume if they haven't moaned they aren't bothered by it.

so long as our customers are happy enough, and it makes my business simpler i'll do it

i'm happy for you chaps who want to stop work in certain weathers to carry on doing that too 

[SB Cleaning]

I think I'm just concerned on making things as simple and regular as possible in my business, and making a profit

our customers just aren't as bothered about us cleaning in the rain as some of the window cleaners are on here.

i try not to make assumptions about what i think my customers want and just try to listen to what happens and what effect it has on my business.

i'm sure if they weren't happy they would have mentioned it in the last 10 years. they seem happy enough to let us know when they aren't happy about other things so i just assume if they haven't moaned they aren't bothered by it.

so long as our customers are happy enough, and it makes my business simpler i'll do it

i'm happy for you chaps who want to stop work in certain weathers to carry on doing that too 

So your telling us that in 10 years you've worked in all.sorts of wind and rain and never had a complaint or been turned away on the doorstep by a customer because of bad weather?

[Smudger]

I think Richard is trying to convince himself thats the case


Darran

[Stoots]

I'm supposed to be taking on an employee shortly.

I've offered him a 30 hour per week contract. So will work 4 out of 5 days from Monday to Friday.

So should mean I can shift days about due to weather and if we only get 3 done one week then can do 5 the next and so on.

If rain stops play at say 12pm he would get paid for the hours done and catch the other hours up at the earliest convenience.

And I've told him he can do overtime if the weather allows (and I have the work)

[NWH]

I think I'm just concerned on making things as simple and regular as possible in my business, and making a profit

our customers just aren't as bothered about us cleaning in the rain as some of the window cleaners are on here.

i try not to make assumptions about what i think my customers want and just try to listen to what happens and what effect it has on my business.

i'm sure if they weren't happy they would have mentioned it in the last 10 years. they seem happy enough to let us know when they aren't happy about other things so i just assume if they haven't moaned they aren't bothered by it.

so long as our customers are happy enough, and it makes my business simpler i'll do it

i'm happy for you chaps who want to stop work in certain weathers to carry on doing that too 

Richard if you have lots of customers that pay 15-20 quid you may get away with it but if people are paying 80-100 quid they won’t and I wouldn’t take the Pi** by cleaning them in that kind of weather either,it was the same when I had work done on my house and the Patio layer tried to lay slabs in minus temperatures,tracksuit trainers off you go.

[simon w]

What you have to remember chaps is not everyone on CIU are cleaning domestic windows all year round. Our customer base is mostly contract commercial and the dates are agreed at the beginning of the year with the customer and stuck to. In fact the customers don't want dates cancelled they want them carried out as agreed and weather conditions really play no part in this. We've had plenty of internal work to do this week during the worst weather (internal communal windows in large blocks of city centre flats) although we've had a good soaking working outside too. Bottom line is I'd never run any business where I'd pay staff wages for doing nothing as in no income coming in wouldn't even contemplate it but I can see it may be an issue for those that only do regular domestic work in typical suburban settings. If this was the sort of work I did and employed I think I'd at least have them pressure washing or FSG cleans every time the weather went sour, but paying them for doing nothing no chance it's never going to happen. We are quite strict with working hours it's 8-5pm Mon-Fri regardless of weather hot cold wet or whatever we work.

[NWH]

Commercial is different to a degree but I still wouldn’t go out to clean windows outside in terrible weather insides obviously yes but not outsides even on commercial work,I wouldn’t turn up to clean domestic work in any rain I would at least park up and wait for it to stop and if it didn’t I’d finish for the day,like I’ve always said you should be able to do enough when the weather is ok to work in to not have to worry about the odd day unless you really need the money and if that’s the case my opinion is you need to either re think you’re work or prices.

[Stoots]

Commercial is different to a degree but I still wouldn’t go out to clean windows outside in terrible weather insides obviously yes but not outsides even on commercial work,I wouldn’t turn up to clean domestic work in any rain I would at least park up and wait for it to stop and if it didn’t I’d finish for the day,like I’ve always said you should be able to do enough when the weather is ok to work in to not have to worry about the odd day unless you really need the money and if that’s the case my opinion is you need to either re think you’re work or prices.

You are assuming people Need to work in the rain, I don't think that's the case for most. They Want to work in rain because its more profitable. For most of us its all in the head, I can count on one hand the amount of times people have anything to say about me cleaning their windows in the rain yet in my mind I'm paranoid that everyone is going to sack me off which isn't the case. I've worked in some awful weather without anyone saying a word.

[Richard iSparkle]

I think I'm just concerned on making things as simple and regular as possible in my business, and making a profit

our customers just aren't as bothered about us cleaning in the rain as some of the window cleaners are on here.

i try not to make assumptions about what i think my customers want and just try to listen to what happens and what effect it has on my business.

i'm sure if they weren't happy they would have mentioned it in the last 10 years. they seem happy enough to let us know when they aren't happy about other things so i just assume if they haven't moaned they aren't bothered by it.

so long as our customers are happy enough, and it makes my business simpler i'll do it

i'm happy for you chaps who want to stop work in certain weathers to carry on doing that too 

So your telling us that in 10 years you've worked in all.sorts of wind and rain and never had a complaint or been turned away on the doorstep by a customer because of bad weather?

No I’m not saying that.

I’ve had customers complain about all sorts in 10 years

Had quite a few complain we left windows to dry...

Had some complain we were too fast

Others complain we were too expensive

A few complain we don’t include conny roofs in a standard clean

What I am saying is we’ve been cleaning all weather for 10 years plus and it’s not been a source of significant compliants.

Sometimes a new customer complain me the first time. Sometimes they ask us to skip them. We just explain we clean all weathers, your windows will be fine when they dry, if they aren’t give us a call and we’ll clean them again

That’s it.

Like most things it’s a state of mind. If you don’t think it’s a problem the customer will go along with you.. same as DDs, or paying in advance, or WFP vs trad, or most things really.

Be as rude as you like about it but I know what we do and how our customers react.

If we lost a lot because of it we wouldn’t do it. If we got lots of complaints or call backs we wouldn’t do it.

I’m not stupid. I’m a business man. If it lost me custom I’d adjust our approach

In balance this is the best option for us. It keeps us on time for our customers. We don’t reschedule a lot. It keeps staff work days simple. They work set days and are off set days. It keeps my weekends free. I like that.

I’m sure you who haven’t tried it this way do know far better than me though. Because you’re on a forum and you can use a keyboard right? 

[Smudger]

I’m sure you who haven’t tried it this way do know far better than me though. Because you’re on a forum and you can use a keyboard right? 

Richard -  a reply just dripping in sarcasm -

I see you changed from never a complaint to not a significant number,  the main thing I have learnt over the years is not all customers complain, many when unhappy do put up with a poor clean or when you clean in the rain but not happy will just jump ship as soon as another cleaning service comes along, so along with complaints take a look at your retention rates, if your bleeding customers other than moving house and deaths then somewhere they are not satisfied with your service

Darran

[Simon Trapani]

I think if it's working for you, then fair play to you Richard

[Dave Willis]

Just one word.

Goretex

[Steven Biggs]

I think I'm just concerned on making things as simple and regular as possible in my business, and making a profit

our customers just aren't as bothered about us cleaning in the rain as some of the window cleaners are on here.

i try not to make assumptions about what i think my customers want and just try to listen to what happens and what effect it has on my business.

i'm sure if they weren't happy they would have mentioned it in the last 10 years. they seem happy enough to let us know when they aren't happy about other things so i just assume if they haven't moaned they aren't bothered by it.

so long as our customers are happy enough, and it makes my business simpler i'll do it

i'm happy for you chaps who want to stop work in certain weathers to carry on doing that too 

Richard if you have lots of customers that pay 15-20 quid you may get away with it but if people are paying 80-100 quid they won’t and I wouldn’t take the Pi** by cleaning them in that kind of weather either,it was the same when I had work done on my house and the Patio layer tried to lay slabs in minus temperatures,tracksuit trainers off you go.

exactly mr big shot . Southern window cleaner . You can get away with cleaning loads of compact £10 / £20 jobs up here in pigeon racing land when the weather is a bit dodgey . But you darent turn up and clean a £100 southern gaff . Cos the Arrogant arsehole customer thinks you are having a giraffe.. unless you wanna sweat your b******s off cleaning the insides all day long .