[Tristan R Clean]

Evening All

Just wondered if any of you chaps have managed to get commercial jobs back after initially losing out to big companies?

T

[Tristan R Clean]

Guess no one then

[The Jester of Wibbly]

I couldn't care less to be honest.  If I loose out to a cheaper price, with probably a less personal service, I think to myself, they are not the right client for me anyway.

[deeege]

I used to clean an office for a management company. £180 every month. The management company copied me into an email by mistake, and included the price they were charging the office £320 per month. They were making £140 a month just by subbing the job to me. Fair enough.

The management company started to employ their own window cleaners and asked me to stop cleaning the office. Two old cleaners turned up that apparently stank of fAgs and stale ale. The office contacted me direct and asked me if I’d work for them directly. New price of £300 per month.  This was 3 years ago and I still clean said office to this day. 

[Tristan R Clean]

The reason I ask is I have just lost a nice weekly early morning job to a  firm of window cleaners who are going to do all of the chains of pub/restaurants around the North of England.
I am a sole trader and been providing a loyal service for 5 years.
Disappointing to say the least.

T

[NBwcs]

Im afraid that's just part and parcel of commercial window cleaning, if your looking for loyalty, then its got to be residential. Id take residential over business cleans anyday, particularly as post credit crunch, new commercial work just doesn'tpay what it used to. I honestly dont know how some of these big firms make any money, we have firms travelling in from well over an hour plus  away with only  one or two cleans to do, staff overheads etc.. I dont get paid for driving, all my work is within a 3 mile radius. and nearly all households. wouldn't want it any other way.

[deeege]

Which chain of restaurants is this?

As said above, you won’t get much loyalty from large commercial jobs, especially those that are part of multi site shops or restaurants. The new guys will have come in and said we will clean all of your stores, at £x price per store, and you’ll have just one invoice to pay. It’s a tempting proposition for the accounts department, save money AND save time paying the invoices.  Unfortunately most of the time the level of service drops considerably.

If you want to chase commercial work, which I do, I find stand alone offices, (usually on business parks) are the absolute cream jobs.

[simon w]

The reason I ask is I have just lost a nice weekly early morning job to a  firm of window cleaners who are going to do all of the chains of pub/restaurants around the North of England.
I am a sole trader and been providing a loyal service for 5 years.
Disappointing to say the least.

T

Keep your foot in the door with the client and don't burn any bridges. Not all other businesses will meet the clients expectations and you could easily see this work coming back to you in the future, with your conditions of course.

[cgh window cleaning]

It may come back around but I wouldn’t expect it to happen quick most medium to large companies will have the client locked in a contract for 12 months minimum.

Undercutting especially in retail and leisure window cleaning is and has always been happening.Some customers are becoming more aware if you want quality and service you have to pay for it but some couldn’t care less, clean windows are way down on their list of priorities.

[AuRavelling79]

A set of windows is a set of windows. Don't get hung up on commercial or residential. Some commercials will be loyal for years then new broom and bye bye. Residential can be great then typically the wife dies and the bloke doesn't care or shops around.

I have lost commercials because they source out invoicing and I don't want to hoop jump and have to chase late payments.

I have two commercials that I have had over 25 years. One has the same buyer. The other has been through at least four buyers/managers.

Each one is different.

Those I have lost due to price or centralising I wouldn't want back.

[Spruce]

The reason I ask is I have just lost a nice weekly early morning job to a  firm of window cleaners who are going to do all of the chains of pub/restaurants around the North of England.
I am a sole trader and been providing a loyal service for 5 years.
Disappointing to say the least.

T

I found the only way to deal with commercial is to view them as the icing on the cake. Our 'cake' is our residential work.

Good customer's can turn bad, which applies to commercial as well as residential. We have found very little loyalty with commercial. We have been messed around with payment and cleaning schedules, even though we bend over backwards for them.

If I lost the few commercials we are doing at present, I'm fine with that.

[Tam1872]

The reason I ask is I have just lost a nice weekly early morning job to a  firm of window cleaners who are going to do all of the chains of pub/restaurants around the North of England.
I am a sole trader and been providing a loyal service for 5 years.
Disappointing to say the least.

T

Why disappointed?.  It makes more sense for them to only have 1 window cleaner take care of everything instead of 2.  If your job is added in with the rest of them I'd imagine itl work out cheaper for them too.

Nothing wrong with a buisness exploring where money can be saved while getting the same job done.

It's not as if window cleaning is top on the priority list for companies, ive never seen a bad review left at a restaurant because the new window cleaner doesn't do as good a job as the last window cleaner.

[Tristan R Clean]

Appreciate  the reply’s everyone.

Some positivity.
Although I do think Tam could be one of the companies who is the one taking these contracts away from the sole traders.
I may be wrong.
I do see both sides of the argument though.

T

[Tam1872]

Appreciate  the reply’s everyone.

Some positivity.
Although I do think Tam could be one of the companies who is the one taking these contracts away from the sole traders.
I may be wrong.
I do see both sides of the argument though.

T

I'm definitely not one of them, I can totally understand why it benefits them though.  Without sounding harsh, they will make decisions that benefit there buisness, not yours.

And tbh, it's how we all should make decisions when it comes to work.