[Trevor Knight]

Guy's

Do any of you have domestic customers on DD payment?

If yes, can I ask if you find it works and how you set it up regarding date you clean to date you collect payment?

Many thanks,

Trev

[paul mather]

i have dom customers who pay through a bank transfer the tuesday after the clean. Different i suppose to a DD though. Can't see how that would work, dose of bad weather, holiday could mean you get 2 or 3 weeks behind & then you owe them money for cleans you've not done

[carl stanton]

i have thought of this but would agree with paul M if get behind then the botheration of cash back!
but i have a couple bank transfer but a bit iffy of letting to many know my details! 
but i thought of saying to customers give me 12 cheques and after each clean i will cash one you get me??   

[DASERVICES]

  I have one customer who does this , i just gave her my bank details and she
  set it up. We agreed a monthly price where I would clean her windows 11
  times a year. It works a treat as she was a pain to get in.

  It works that well I am seriuosly considering rolling it out to my other customers.

  Best thing to do Trevor is contact your bank.

  Doug

[Trevor Knight]

Hi Doug,

Thanks for that, what I wanted to know was how you set the time frequency for collecting payment. I understand you have to set up a date and just wondered how long you set the date from when you have cleaned the house?

Many thanks,

Trev

[DASERVICES]

  Hi Trev,

 How I worked it out I checked my previous history from past years and
 saw that each year I cleaned her house 11 times a year. As well as her
 house she has a cons which is cleaned every other 3rd clean.

 She then set up the direct debit for payment at the end of the month for
 equal amounts  eg: £10/ mnth. All I do is pop the card through the door
 when I have cleaned them. I did say to her if I did not acheive the 11 cleans
  in a year then I would refend her the money owed, she told me not to
  bother.

  To be quite honest this is an idea I am looking into for all as I sure the majority
  would prefer this.

  Doug

  Doug

[Trevor Knight]

I have to say it is definately something I need to look at.

It costs me over £450 per month to pay for collecting.

I have a very large client bank and am always owed in the region of £3,000 every month.

I already have 2 days every week when one of the girls calls everyone to get cheques out in the post.

Oh well, back to the drawing board 

Trev

[Fast 1 *]

i know a couple of people that have a bar code system,the bar code is on the windows and is scanned when the job is complete,thus creating automatic payment

[Mike George]

She then set up the direct debit for payment at the end of the month for equal amounts  eg: £10/ mnth.

That sounds like a standing order.

A direct debit doesn't have a predefined amount or date. The customer has to authorise their bank to let you take money from their account, without specifying how much or when. I can't see anybody agreeing to that for window cleaning.

A standing order is easy to set up. You just give the customer a form to fill in and give to their bank, to pay a set amount to your account on set dates. The customer is in complete control of the payments and can stop them at any time.

[pjulk]

As fast one has said that there is a company that works in our area's that has a barcode system that when they just scan the barcode in the window when finished they hotsync the handheld with there pc then they take payment by direct debit.
But they won't let anyone know how they had it set up.

Direct debit would be better for window cleaning as its a lot more flexible than standing order which works great unless you end up running late as the standing order will pay out on a set day.

Also with direct debit its easier putting customers prices up.
With standing order you have to get the customers to do a new form and cancel there old standing order.

Paul

[windows_chepstow]

Trev,

I have around 30 customers who pay me by Standing Order - NOT - Direct Debit.

There is a difference, with Standing Orders, the customer orders a set amount to be paid to you each month; you have no capability of increasing this at will.

With a Direct Debit, you have to fit a certain criteria to be able to legally set up Direct Debits, and you have the 'power' to increase the payments and deduct money from their bank accounts when you like.

Standing Orders are safe from the customers point of view (always a good point to push, when selling it to them).

I clean mostly on a calandar monthly basis and receive one payment per calandar month. 

It works like this:  When I set the standing order payment up, I set it so I receive payment at the begining of the month.

I then clean their property sometime during that calandar month.  I always leave a 'Your window cleaner has been' chit and advise my standing order customers to mark my visit on their calandar.  There should be one 'mark' per month.

There's a standing order form (compliments of Wavie Davie) in the documents to upload section; just numptyise it to suit your own requirements.

I also showed it to the girls in my bank; to get their opinion of it; and they were more than happy with it and told me it would work no problems.

Once set up, it may seem difficult to then do a price increase; it's not; I'm just about to do another form for this purpose; I'll e-mail you it when I've finished it.

Regards,

Tosh.

[Sir Squeaky]

Too much bother to arrange for my liking.

Also you're tied into doing it, probably by a certain date.
Sod that.

Some people must like complex lives.... :

[windows_chepstow]

Further Information:

I'm at 'bursting point' with work and just cannot physically get round my customers within the 'calandar monthly' timescale, despite culling around 30 accounts so far (okay, Trev, I'm in Division Four here).

So last Monday, I posted a letter to each of my Standing Order customers basically saying I may have problems with regards to my regularity and if I go over the timescale, I would refund the payment in cash when I next turned up to clean.

Or they could cancell the Standing Order and revert to a 'cash/cheque paying customer'.

So far I've not had any phonecalls about it.

As long as your administration is good; it won't cause you any problems in instances like this.  I keep a seperate list of these customers and check them off each month via internet banking.

---------------------------------

Selling it to customers:

Before I started with standing orders, I increased my prices to a level I thought was fair (I was underpriced due to my inexperience).

I then advertised it on my 'Your window cleaner has been' chits which is A5 sized, and includes 'payment methods' as well as my terms and conditions.

I also suggested to customers when I called to collect that paying by standing order might be less hassle for them; no disruptions during dinner and stuff.

I also promised no price increases for standing order paying customers for two years (I'd just increased my prices anyway).

[windows_chepstow]

Too much bother to arrange for my liking.

Also you're tied into doing it, probably by a certain date.
Sod that.

Some people must like complex lives.... :

Horses for courses, Squeaks!

It's not that complex really, not if you've got a few brain cells.

However, I agree, there's a lot to be said for keeping it simple.

But I do like my standing order customers.  Some of them I wouldn't recognise in the street if I saw them; it's been that long since I've seen them.

They pay me - directly into my bank - I clean their house; no hassles; really simple.  If they pay me twice (this hasn't happened yet) and I only clean them once; I'll pop the money in an envelope through their letter box.

But I've a part-time window cleaner starting with me on Monday, so hopefully this scenario won't happen and I'll manage to stay on top of it all.

[dai]

But I've a part-time window cleaner starting with me on Monday, so hopefully this scenario won't happen and I'll manage to stay on top of it all.
Tosh, what method are you using to pay him? My mrs can't work at the moment and I am getting behind. There is a local part timer willing to give me the odd day.
When I employed a guy years ago I gave him 35%. Dai

[Paul Coleman]

There are two things that put me off automated payments.

1)  It forces me to be there when I am supposed to be there.  I don't mind this within reason but I prefer to have the flexibility of being a few days late or even a little bit early.  I like self-employment because I can work harder or have a day or two off extra sometimes as I choose.  I am not self-employed to be a slave to my business or my customers.

2)  My bank doesn't show me any reference numbers so I don't know who has paid.

I would be happy to give a customer my banking details so that they can set up a bill payment facility.  This means that after I leave a bill, they can initiate the payment each time (usually online or sometimes by telephone banking).  The trouble is with the lack of reference numbers.  I need to either hassle my bank to see if they can provide more details of a payer or change my bank to one who already does so.

[dougster]

I think this standing order for payment is a superb idea.I also have been trying to think best of how to go about it as a lot of customers forget to post cheques regualry.  So im up for giving it a go and wipeeee a lot less asale for chasing customers for money sounds good to me any day

[supernova77]

When I've cleaned a house and no one is home I leave the attached slip with a self addressed envelope for them.

Most customers send me a cheque within 7 days, some pay direct into my bank account by bank transfer quoting their address as a reference and a couple pay online with their debit or credit card.

I've been window cleaning 8 months now and I haven't been out collecting once!

Andy

[Trevor Knight]

Hi Guy's

Thanks for all your replies.

I am thinking this.

I am going to go to my customers and offer this facility to pay by Standing Order. The payment will be taken on the 28th of each month regardless of when I clean them during the month. This way they will have had their windows cleaned and I just have 1 day a month to check the payments have been received.

I will call the bank as well to see if I can set up DD facilities as this would be easier, I think?

Commercial is so much easier, Clean, Invoice, Cheque, Banked, Forgotten

Many thanks to you all.

Trev

[Trevor Knight]

When I've cleaned a house and no one is home I leave the attached slip with a self addressed envelope for them.

Most customers send me a cheque within 7 days, some pay direct into my bank account by bank transfer quoting their address as a reference and a couple pay online with their debit or credit card.

I've been window cleaning 8 months now and I haven't been out collecting once!

Andy

Hi Andy,

Just looked at your payment facilities online.

Can I ask how expensive the NOCHEX is to use?

Many thanks,

Trev