[Tyler Williams]

Finally going to do it!

All new customers get signed up on Gocardless immediately theres no other payment option.

But now I have the fun task of converting my old customers to gocardless.

I've got 50 customers to sign up. Printed off the letters and will be posting them tomorrow.

To the guys that have done this too, what experiences did you have? If people don't sign up how do you go about convincing them? Do you go round a few days later to talk to them or post another letter?

Thanks in advance 👍🏻

[hotsteam]

I have not done it yet, why do'nt  you say if you sign up to gocardless your price is fixed for 12 months !
if they do'nt want to,tell them how much the price will go up  !   

[Splash & dash]

Are you aware of there charges ?... I think it’s a slippery slope they have already increased them quite considerably and as more people sign up they will put them up again they can basically hold you to ransom I feel that you will also loose a lot of potential customers as many will not sign up to it , I looked at it a while ago before there price rise and decided against it m Ime so glad now that   I didn’t go with them , we accept cash ,cheques ,and bacs  good for us and all customers . Don’t put all your eggs in one basket would be my advice .

[Steven Biggs]

Finally going to do it!

All new customers get signed up on Gocardless immediately theres no other payment option.

But now I have the fun task of converting my old customers to gocardless.

I've got 50 customers to sign up. Printed off the letters and will be posting them tomorrow.

To the guys that have done this too, what experiences did you have? If people don't sign up how do you go about convincing them? Do you go round a few days later to talk to them or post another letter?

Thanks in advance 👍🏻

but why ?

[Stoots]

Thing is good customers will pay you promplty and if they forget a reminder will get them apologising and sending you payment.

Those that need 3 or 4 reminders everytime or worse never pay at all get filtered out and dumped.

Ive thought about it a few times, but unless you have a cash flow problem i dont think its worth it because once you are locked in you are stuck with their fee increases and it wont be easy getting customers off it.

[Tyler Williams]

I have not done it yet, why do'nt  you say if you sign up to gocardless your price is fixed for 12 months !
if they do'nt want to,tell them how much the price will go up  !   

I tried the first time by offering discounts etc and got a fair few to sign up but not enough. This time I've printed of letters asking them to sign up as of 21st October but its less of a choice and more if they don't do it then I won't be coming back

[Tyler Williams]

Are you aware of there charges ?... I think it’s a slippery slope they have already increased them quite considerably and as more people sign up they will put them up again they can basically hold you to ransom I feel that you will also loose a lot of potential customers as many will not sign up to it , I looked at it a while ago before there price rise and decided against it m Ime so glad now that   I didn’t go with them , we accept cash ,cheques ,and bacs  good for us and all customers . Don’t put all your eggs in one basket would be my advice .

I'm fully aware of the charges I already ise them for 50% of my round. Its 1% plus 20p of the transaction. Its very very unnoticeable but I get its not for everyone. I personally just know it will make my life easier with less admin so I can focus on other parts of my business

[Tyler Williams]

Thing is good customers will pay you promplty and if they forget a reminder will get them apologising and sending you payment.

Those that need 3 or 4 reminders everytime or worse never pay at all get filtered out and dumped.

Ive thought about it a few times, but unless you have a cash flow problem i dont think its worth it because once you are locked in you are stuck with their fee increases and it wont be easy getting customers off it.

You are 100% correct there that good customers will pay and will pay on time. I've weeded out quite alot of rubbish customers recently but for me Gocardless makes it so there's one less thing to do when I get home.

Personally I just like the idea of it for regular cleans ut makes sense but again I know it isn't for everyone and there are some on here who don't like it.

Each to their own

[NWH]

Ok all well and good but you have this customer that pays you 3-4K a year and they say no I don’t want you debiting my account when you feel like for the windows thanks,what do you say to them.

[Simon Trapani]

I think he’s talking about an average residential. I’m sure there’s the odd exception.

[Tyler Williams]

Ok all well and good but you have this customer that pays you 3-4K a year and they say no I don’t want you debiting my account when you feel like for the windows thanks,what do you say to them.

I have nothing near that level of money. BUT if I did I would explain how direct debit works that I cant take money when I feel like it and explain they are backed by the direct debit guarantee meaning EVEN IF that happened they can get their money back by asking the bank.

Appreciate your help coming up with situations that could arise

[NWH]

This is why this system is useless for certain people you can’t dictate to a particular type of customer-person this is how you’ll pay me,if they ask fair enough but I can tell you if I did this it wouldn’t be accepted by many.

[Tyler Williams]

This is why this system is useless for certain people you can’t dictate to a particular type of customer-person this is how you’ll pay me,if they ask fair enough but I can tell you if I did this it wouldn’t be accepted by many.

Certain people yes. But at the end of the day if its your business can you not ask for payment how you want? Otherwise its not your business its your customers.

Its been trued and tested by a few window cleaners on here like Richard at Isparkle or Lee pryor or Darren at Greenpro clean

Like I say though each to their own

[NWH]

Lol m8 they are cleaning many good large properties no doubt but look on Darrens YouTube and see the video of what his favourite type of property is it’s my worst,and if a business has 3-5000 customers the majority will be quick smallish jobs so like I said I wouldn’t want to upset or rock the boat with jobs that equate to 1000s a year,who cares if a 10-15 quid a month job jumps ship but different if it’s 1 job that in theory is paying your van payments each month.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth and all that I know who to badger for payment and all that without them getting Pi**ed off,if not I’ll wait and always get paid in the end and when I do it’s been worth waiting for.

[dazmond]

Finally going to do it!

All new customers get signed up on Gocardless immediately theres no other payment option.

But now I have the fun task of converting my old customers to gocardless.

I've got 50 customers to sign up. Printed off the letters and will be posting them tomorrow.

To the guys that have done this too, what experiences did you have? If people don't sign up how do you go about convincing them? Do you go round a few days later to talk to them or post another letter?

Thanks in advance 👍🏻

each to their own but i wont be offering this to my customers as most pay by BACS which is free.....i have a rolling debt of between £500-£1500 at any one time...at present its £950-00.....however i dont live hand to mouth and im way ahead of my bills and have plenty of savings behind me so it makes no difference whether i get paid today or next month.....

i find i have a steady drip of money dropping into my account most days......

i can fully understand you implementing gocardless esp if you want to grow into more than a sole trader but for me i dont like the thought of a company taking a cut of my money just for getting paid and relying on them for ALL of my business payments...over the course of a year it will be a substantial amount......

i do have a card machine and they take a small transaction fee(1.7 %) but im finding i dont use it much........but it still comes in handy from time to time......this is the only charge i have to pay for getting paid....

[swanson]

All i offer is cheque Bacs cash and thats it nice
and simple.

[Shrek]

So let’s put this into perspective...

1000 x £15 monthly jobs = £200 transaction fee
+ 1% of 15k = £150

£350 monthly fee

Yearly cost for collecting payment for you is £4200 at their current rate.

That’s a lot of dosh to pay out to a middleman

[NWH]

It’s only worth using that system if you are collecting lots of smaller payments who wants to be chasing up 20-40 quid for maybe 2 cleans,if you are cleaning 5-8 jobs a day that are bigger payers it’s easy to keep on top of who owes what.
These systems work with a business that has multiple vans each cleaning 30-40 small jobs a day where it is so easy to lose track of who owes what,I can work a week and know who’s not paid.

[NWH]

So let’s put this into perspective...

1000 x £15 monthly jobs = £200 transaction fee
+ 1% of 15k = £150

£350 monthly fee

Yearly cost for collecting payment for you is £4200 at their current rate.

That’s a lot of dosh to pay out to a middleman

Yeah and once you start using a system like this and it’s in place you can no longer function or will struggle to without it,I can see the purpose and that it would work well but the volume of work would need to be quiet large and manually chasing payment worthless in monetary terms.
As for Greenpro clean watch one of his videos he says it himself turnover 9 grand a month and end up with 50k a year lol paying for a system to collect payments on those figures is it worth it,I don’t think so.

[Ched]

So let’s put this into perspective...

1000 x £15 monthly jobs = £200 transaction fee
+ 1% of 15k = £150

£350 monthly fee

Yearly cost for collecting payment for you is £4200 at their current rate.

That’s a lot of dosh to pay out to a middleman

With takings of £180,000, £4K2 isn't too bad. Imagine how much time it takes to drop a payment card, receive payment, cash cheque and check the custy has paid x 1000 a month. As opposed to a single click and then a summary of payment info.
You are quite right it's not for everyone but admin time needs to be taken into consideration.