[vt]

Hello all. Just picked up a new round that's mainly terraced houses. Two windows and fanlight at front, two maybe three windows at the back. Price is about £2.00 to £2.70 per house. I think this is cheap and the lad I took over from has obviously never done the frames unless asked to, I'm also told that he was never that regular. Would you carry on just cleaning the glass at this price or try and start the frames and put the price up? I find myself doing the frames out of habit but I'm basically robbing myself and running out of clean cloths very early in the day!

[petski2]

Crikey Vt,£2 to £2.70.
Thats what we charge on top just for wiping the frames.
If you dont put the prices up you will struggle to make a living. :
At the moment you will need to clean 10 per hour to make £25 per hour.
Hope you didnt pay much for it.

[LSB]

Those prices must increase ! try it a few at a time , and maybe youre right to offer to do there frames on a regular basis. Try and get new ones in these roads aswell at what you consider the right price , then it will start to even out price wise ! good luck

[windolene]

Hi,

£2.00 PER WINDOW down in surrey for this type of house.

WINDOLENE.

[reah]

HEY
I would ask for a refund

[eddie d]

dont know where your from but that is to cheap for anywhere.

[s.hughes]

Where you from coze thats real cheap

[Grafters Cleaning Services]

wot??
£2-00 per house?

is it the 1st april already?

i wouldn't even open the van door for that amount let alone getting the gear out

this has to be a windup?

[vt]

No wind up, was supposed to be £2.20 but the old girl insisted it's always been £2.00. Northwest manchester. Have I been done. I know the price hasn't gone up for about 4 years!

[Moderator David@stives]

vt

If it is a case of them all stacked up like dominoes you will make good money even at them prices.

Dont lose heart yet , report back next week when you have done a few days and you will be able to assess what you can make an hour, after a month or so you will be faster.

You have to go on the charm offensive with your customers , just play the poverty card and you will do OK, you will find most customers will be sympathetic to your cause if you are noy making any money.

Something like this "Sorry love but i can not carry on at these prices, no wonder the last guy sold up , he must of seen me coming a mile off"

It worked for me , i very rarely get refused a price increase,

Dave

[brett walker]

when i started cleaning windows 15 years ago, i was charging 1.50 a terised house. The last time i did some terised houses was about 2 years ago and was charging 5.00, so prices have gone up a bit since then, so if i was you i wouldn't charge anything less then a fiver.
Plus the more you do at 2.20 the harder you got to work and also the more collecting you have to do.

Regards

Brett.

[groundhog]

Quadruple those prices!! I charge more than that for an average sized bay window!!!

[windows_chepstow]

VT,

In South-East Wales the going rate for a small terraced house is 5 to 7 pounds.  (Three windows front and rear with a door front and rear).

Do you know what your local competitors charge?

I clean many terraced houses, and since I've priced them correctly; they're a good part of my round.

[C Senor]

I'm like Tosh, i've got just over 50 town houses (blocks of 4) in one road. They're a good little earner if you get the prices right.

I've only just got the road after i bought it off another w/c for £200, i've cleaned them twice and then put the prices up - they range from between £6 - £10 now and i can do roughly 3 to 4 in an hour but 4 to 5 if i really push it, which i don't very often  - lol

I've picked up a few new ones in the last couple of months but i priced those at £8 from the start, no complaints yet.

[EasyClean]

Explain to all your new customers that you have taken over from the previous window cleaner and that the prices are very underpriced. Ask them if they would like to continue having their windows cleaned on a 'regular' (emphasise the regular) basis BUT at a realistic price to include the frames and sills as well (empasising again that the previous window cleaner had to MISS these because of the VERY LOW prices). If they are not really prepared to meet you at a sensible price then offer a 'Glass Only' price which you can fly through which will raise your price (because of the lack of time required to clean). Also push your customers for REFERALS so that you get sensible prices on new work.

[matt]

do them ONCE

then explain you cannot do them fo that money, put them up a little, then in 6 months put them up again

you will get to a point where you will earn what you want

[williamx]

Don't mess about with the prices just tell your customers that the other cleaner charge to little and that's the reason he never came often, explain that you are a PROFESSIONAL window cleaner who charges the correct rate which is at least £7.00.

[DaveWilkinson]

The way I see it is if you doubled the cost to the customer and lost 50% of them, you would still be earning the same money for half the work, chances are they would come back to you later once they relised you do a good job and are regular.

[stephen]

i have got about 50-60 houses at 2.50-3.00 each all old back to backs all with two upstairs and two downstairs windows all next door to each other in 5 difrent streets.one days work every two weeks. them 2.50s soon add up

[windows_chepstow]

them 2.50s soon add up

But at 5.00 pounds each, they'd add up to double what you've got now.

2.50 just about buys you a pint of lager; those prices need to go up to AT LEAST to five pounds each.

I'd draft a well-worded letter of explanation, telling the customer why you're doubling the price and that unless you hear otherwise, you'll be cleaning their house at the new price as normal.  Give them a week-or-two-notice.

If you stay at 2.50 each, I'll give you three-months before you drop the lot, and then some other window cleaner will come along and pick them all up at a better price.

If writing letters isn't your forte; post your draft on this forum; and I'm sure we'll help improve upon it.

Also, do a search on this site for 'price increases'; it's been done to death, and I'm sure you'll formulate the best method for getting those houses up to a more realistic level of pricing.