[Stoots]

I know this has been discussed before and im pretty sure ive asked this myself but im serioulsy considering changing the frequency of all my work.

4 and 8 weekly is just doing my head in and has been for years! constantly having to re order work all the time and move it about on cleaner planner

i want to go with just 1 frequency, order it A to Z and be done with it 

im about 60% 8 weekly and 40% 4 weekly

not sure whether to change all the 4s to 8 and have 8 weekly only or try to change everyone to 6 ?

[Smudger]

just go all 8 wky

start faffing with the 8 seekers and our getting yourself into a lot of agro - they are 8 weekly for a reason nd won't like 6 weekly

all the 4 weekly - either let them know you no longer offer this option or move the schedule and see if any notice

Darran

[Splash & dash]

We only do 4 and 8 weekly domestic and find the two frequencies work well together especially when work is in the same area . We don’t however use any app programs ime old fashioned and prefer spreadsheets , 90% of ours are 4 weekly , I think frequency is an area thing most here want 4 weekly not 6 or 8

[jo5hm4n]

I've thought about going 6 Weekly just so its a bit easier for those switching from 4 and 8 weekly customers.

It just feels like a ton of hassle though.  I think it would be easier to convince 4 weekly to go 8 weekly than it would be to convince 8 weekly to go 4 weekly.

Now that ive been doing this 10 years i think 6 or 8 weekly is actually better than 4 weekly tbh.

Most of my customers are 4 weekly, but ive noticed we get better retention/quality/payers from those on 8 weekly cleaning.

[Stoots]

Well I've noticed that giving the option of 4 or 8 when quoting results in 80% plus choosing 8 weekly.

4 and 8 becomes a headache when behind schedule because if I get a week behind on 4s I have to let the 8s get 2 weeks behind so they sync up. So 8s end up being 10

Wonder if I could get away with changing the 8s to 7 

There's not really a way to do it is there and keep all the customers   

[Smudger]

Well ultimately actually keeping on time would keep all your customers and keep them happy.

I offer 4 or 8 weekly but increasingly push 8 weekly at the higher price with less and less discount for 4 weekly.

Example 8 weekly £25 with a 4 weekly £22 when a year ago 4 weekly would have been £19

In this day and age I think 4 weekly is too frequent

Darran

[Splash & dash]

Well I've noticed that giving the option of 4 or 8 when quoting results in 80% plus choosing 8 weekly.

4 and 8 becomes a headache when behind schedule because if I get a week behind on 4s I have to let the 8s get 2 weeks behind so they sync up. So 8s end up being 10

Wonder if I could get away with changing the 8s to 7 

There's not really a way to do it is there and keep all the customers   

Could you not say next visit will be approximately 4 or 8 weeks  most should be fine , we get behind with bad weather and holidays sickness etc only stuff that’s done 100% on time is commercials if we are running late  that are on set contract dates .

[Splash & dash]

Well ultimately actually keeping on time would keep all your customers and keep them happy.

I offer 4 or 8 weekly but increasingly push 8 weekly at the higher price with less and less discount for 4 weekly.

Example 8 weekly £25 with a 4 weekly £22 when a year ago 4 weekly would have been £19

In this day and age I think 4 weekly is too frequent

Darran

We do a lot of costal stuff that after 4 weeks the Windows are opaque , some of the hotels we do are done weekly when the weather is bad this then puts us behind on houses . As for pricing  most of our stuff is 4 weekly as that’s what most ask for down here , a 4 weekly job that’s £25 would be £35 upwards on 8 weekly
My reasoning is that they will be having half the cleans per year and still getting a much cheaper job .

[Den68]

I changed from 4 and 8 to 6 weekly a few years ago   I didn’t tell anyone 😳if anyone queried it I apologised for not informing them 😀

[Smudger]

I didn't ask you what your £25 4 weekly was - read the post £25 8 weekly - so if YOU had £25 8 weekly what would your 4 weekly be ?

I'm also on the coast - but its very different from you on your side on the country - hotels here don't want window cleaners more than 3 times a year - and never through the winter

However let not get off the subject or start digging ourselves up large prices - its about options to merge all customers onto the same frequency

Darran

[Stoots]

I changed from 4 and 8 to 6 weekly a few years ago   I didn’t tell anyone 😳if anyone queried it I apologised for not informing them 😀

Ha ive thought of this, how did it go ?

4s would be easy to change to 6 as ive been a couple of weeks behind schedule quite a lot and very rare anyone has said anything....its just the 8s that would soon pick up on it.

[Splash & dash]

I didn't ask you what your £25 4 weekly was - read the post £25 8 weekly - so if YOU had £25 8 weekly what would your 4 weekly be ?

I'm also on the coast - but its very different from you on your side on the country - hotels here don't want window cleaners more than 3 times a year - and never through the winter

However let not get off the subject or start digging ourselves up large prices - its about options to merge all customers onto the same frequency

Darran

Keep your hair on I was just explaining how and why we do things a different way , 4 weekly you don’t need so many customers 8 weekly you need double the number , so due to time scale we charge considerably more , as for offering customers a variety of options that’s fine but  you need to make it work for your rounds , in the op situation probably doing everything 6 weekly would be the answer.

[tlwcs]

2 years ago I went 6 weekly, as part of a restructuring to work 3 days a week. 
You lose a little on the 4 weekly’s but gain on the 8 weeklies!, assuming you charge more for them.
On paper my turn over was slightly higher. I sold about 12 calls.
I just sent a standard text saying all future cleaning schedules were moving to 6 weekly or 8 cleans a Year.
A couple of switched on 8 weekly’s asked for a reduction in price as they had originally agreed to 6 cleans a year, I knocked a couple of quid off.
It worked well for me.

[Den68]

I changed from 4 and 8 to 6 weekly a few years ago   I didn’t tell anyone 😳if anyone queried it I apologised for not informing them 😀

Ha ive thought of this, how did it go ?

4s would be easy to change to 6 as ive been a couple of weeks behind schedule quite a lot and very rare anyone has said anything....its just the 8s that would soon pick up on it.

85% were 4 weekly only a handful of both 4 and 8 weekly mentioned it just said my apologies you should have been informed did loss two 4 weekly neighbours but only £15 each  they  wanted 4 weekly.

[jo5hm4n]

Well I've noticed that giving the option of 4 or 8 when quoting results in 80% plus choosing 8 weekly.

4 and 8 becomes a headache when behind schedule because if I get a week behind on 4s I have to let the 8s get 2 weeks behind so they sync up. So 8s end up being 10

Wonder if I could get away with changing the 8s to 7 

There's not really a way to do it is there and keep all the customers   

Yes the reason is because customers will always choose the option that is best for them, not best for you.  8 Weekly is always significantly more cost effective on a yearly cost basis.

I've actually stopped offering 8 Weekly now unless somebody specifically asks for it, or rejects a 4 weekly quote.  This has resulted in all new customers being around 80-90% 4 weekly compared to like 40% when we always gave out the 8 weekly quotes up front.

Tbh i'm still not 100% sure what to do myself.  I might just go 100% 8 weekly or 6 weekly.  Cant decide 

[DJW]

I have all my domestic customers on the same frequency. I aim for six weeks but rarely make it on time. I have one customer who wants two weekly. I just fit her in when I can.
I don’t think any of my customers are on time these days.
Nobody seems to mind.

[Perfect Windows]

Set up your round geographically in a sensible route*.  If necessary, spend a couple of days with a map and plan a route.

Then effectively you drive round the route every 4 weeks, over the 4 weeks.  If there's a street with a mix of customers, you just do the ones that are due. Every other time, you're missing your 8-weekly customers. If you take a week off, everybody is done a week late. Each day starts where you broke off yesterday. Within that general rule you also know who wants a 7.45 clean and who has asked you only to be there in the afternoon, but the principle still holds.

It's simple, effective and minimises your mileage. I do 3,000 miles a year nowadays.

Vin

* I assume CleanerPlanner will allow you to do this. If not, dump it and go to Aworka. Don't let software restrictions drive how you run your business.

[Stoots]

Set up your round geographically in a sensible route*.  If necessary, spend a couple of days with a map and plan a route.

Then effectively you drive round the route every 4 weeks, over the 4 weeks.  If there's a street with a mix of customers, you just do the ones that are due. Every other time, you're missing your 8-weekly customers. If you take a week off, everybody is done a week late. Each day starts where you broke off yesterday. Within that general rule you also know who wants a 7.45 clean and who has asked you only to be there in the afternoon, but the principle still holds.

It's simple, effective and minimises your mileage. I do 3,000 miles a year nowadays.

Vin

* I assume CleanerPlanner will allow you to do this. If not, dump it and go to Aworka. Don't let software restrictions drive how you run your business.

Cheers Vin

Thats pretty much what i do now.

Split into 14 villages do all on a 4 week rota, start at village 1 work through to village 14 then round again doing whats due.

Its not a horrific system and is the best ive found but i still feel its not as compact and  efficent as it could be as im driving past 8 weekly jobs that are not due.  Also im having to reorganize the schedule constantly for example in are 1,  25 jobs are due then  next month is 36 jobs. I then have to re order each day manually as to what mix of 4 and 8 weekly is due on any given day as and when they pop up. If i had 1 frequency my round would literally start at job 1 and finish at job 500 it would never change order and i could literally clean each day off by heart almost.

But the system you describe is about the best that can be achieved with 4 and 8 weeklys.

[KS Cleaning]

As an example, if I have an area where I have say 20 customers on 4 weekly and  10 customers on 8 weekly, I split the 10 8 weekly customers into the two different schedules,  so I am doing 25 houses per 4 weekly visit to that area.

[Perfect Windows]

Cheers Vin

Thats pretty much what i do now.

Split into 14 villages do all on a 4 week rota, start at village 1 work through to village 14 then round again doing whats due.

Its not a horrific system and is the best ive found but i still feel its not as compact and  efficent as it could be as im driving past 8 weekly jobs that are not due.  Also im having to reorganize the schedule constantly for example in are 1,  25 jobs are due then  next month is 36 jobs. I then have to re order each day manually as to what mix of 4 and 8 weekly is due on any given day as and when they pop up. If i had 1 frequency my round would literally start at job 1 and finish at job 500 it would never change order and i could literally clean each day off by heart almost.

But the system you describe is about the best that can be achieved with 4 and 8 weeklys.

I don't do it quite the way you do. The same thing happens to me but I just go merrily round the route. If I have a day and a half in area A rather than the usual day, I just do it in a day and a half, then go on to B. I never break work down to make full days (unless it's maybe one or two jobs extra to complete an area, but even then I hesitate - I work for money and prefer to spend time at home: I don't want to cut that time down). In your example, if it's all in geographical order, Village A would be closest to village B so the drive in the middle of the day between them shouldn't be too inconvenient. In my opinion it's a small price to pay for a simple system that keeps me content.  When planning Aworka shows the jobs in round order in a different colour if they are due or overdue; I just drag them into each day in that order until the day's full.

I don't care about driving past 12-weekly jobs as I'll generally be in their street anyway next time.  Bear in mind also that our 12-weekly price is 6-weekly price plus 50%. So I actually LOVE 12-weekly jobs. I'd like them all to be 12-weekly.

Vin