Hi All I'm a long time lurker and learnt alot from you guys. Finally
Started in jan and already up to 109 customers. All trad but plan to go over to wfp. How did you explain to your customers the change. I know I m a long way behind but live in Suffolk so always backwards lol
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You don't. You practice and practice on your own windows, your families windows and your friends windows until you look and feel confident using wfp. Then you just carry on. You might lose a few customers, but WFP is an accepted cleaning method these days.
There will always be a few who generate questions. Wait for them to broach the subject.
You can always just level with them. "You have always known that investing in WFP was expensive, so you wanted to try window cleaning to see if you could justify the future expense."
"You've quickly learnt that working off ladders is a risk you can no longer take."
" You want to stay alive for your family."
"Cleaning with pure water leaves your windows much cleaner for longer, and we can get into corners and flush out dirt that we couldn't do before."
" We value your privacy, and cleaning your upper floor windows from the ground affords you that privacy."
We changed a trad round over to wfp 18 years ago. Customer's didn't understand deionized water technology back then, so we had to explain in detail the system. Most still had no clue after each explanation. A few even offered I could help myself to water from their outside tap after my in-depth deionized water explanation.
Eventually, I didn't bother to explain any more.
"What do you put in your water to make our windows so clean?" "It's not what we put in, it's what we take out." "Oh."
"What water do you use?" "Its magic water." (Being from Africa, I could get away with saying that.)
I also told a few that we had a choice between water fed pole or an ultrasonic cleaner. "The first generation ultrasonic cleaner was so heavy it needed two of us to carry it. But all we had to do was point it at your windows, pull the trigger and in seconds the window was clean. Then they brought out a MK2 version which was much lighter, but it was so expensive I would have to remortgage my house to pay for it. I decided that due to cost, this system was the better option. Had I gone the ultrasonic route I would have had to increase your window cleaning price to £75 (or whatever price would shock them) which was another negative."
The other day, my lad reminded me that I hadn't told the ultrasonic cleaner story for a long time, and he missed seeing a customer's memorized face listening to it.
