[pjulk]

I have 5 customers in one road i recently started doing and already two of them are mucking about.
One owes me £16 she came out here's a £5 postal order i will pay the rest next time.
Im not having none of that and another owes me 2 lots and iv'e only cleaned them 3 times.
The other 3 are good paying but its not worth going there for just 3 customers as its a bit out of the way.

So what would you say the best way of letting them know i won't be back.
Its only the 3 good payers im going to let know the other 2 can sod off.

I was thinking about a letter saying due to a couple of bad payers in your road im not going to carry on cleaning you road as it does not pay the bills turning up for the 3 good payers as you are a bit out of the way.

Or is there a better way

I would canvass the rest of the road but there is only 2 more houses and they look a bit iffy

Paul

[steveaqua]

I know its a bit off but i just wouldn't go back and thats it, done it recently to about 5 houses thats just hassle to do and hassle getting the money on time.

I suppose if you feel bad about the good payers just give them a ring and explain

[spotless2000]

I would send a letter to the three good customers explaining that is no longer financially viable for you to clean their properties and explain why.  It keeps your reputation professional.  You never know who they are going to talk to in the future.

[supernova77]

I would go and clean the good customers windows once more, and then explain the situation to them face to face.

Andy

[edd]

i really hate pain in the ass customers it always spoils it for everyone else
2 ways either put the price up a couple quid or dont go back easy really ive just dropped
100 customers plus more . trouble is wfp has changed everything the worst customers
ie leaded glass and small panes are now done in quarter of the time and some of our best customers are now the worst .
  You can try this it worked for me  £25 house monthly put up to £40 bi monthly so i get
£15 extra and she saves a tenner buy not paying £25 month great if this worked for everyone .Point is i didn't care if she cancelled because i was going to drop them anyway.
 

[scrimit2]

you wont be able to please everyone, it down to what lengths you go to trying to please everyone,

i recently gave up 100 customers, I knocked on every door, spoke to everyone who was in, and left a letter for everyone that wasnt, i found them a replacement window cleaner and once again knocked on all the doors to introduce him, but the new guy didnt stick at it, but still some of those ex customers ignore me in the street, point is i tried my best to do right by everyone, but i would have been aswell not to have bothered.

[chris@c.m.s]

I've been dumping a few recently due to the start up syndrome of undercharging and taking on rubbish jobs, I'll proberly be replacing a lot more in the coming months so I made up a leaflet for it, just saying
(CMS window cleaning will no longer be cleaning in your street, this is due to to your area already being well served by other window cleaners and a slow take up of our services. please except my appologies.
Chris.)
Even if doesnt suit your reasons they get the message and its better than just not turning up then bumping into them.       

[seanmcshane]

I hope you never said "please EXCEPT my apologies."
Except means "not included...!!!

"accept" is what you meant...I think!

[windows_chepstow]

I've got a major customer cull on the cards; about thirty to fourty properties that are too spread out, underpriced; without hope of getting them priced properly; or have WFP access issues.

I plan to do it by letter, because I think it's quicker and easier than doing it face to face.

I'll give them numbers of other window cleaners who I know work in the area.

[chris@c.m.s]

I hope you never said "please EXCEPT my apologies."
Except means "not included...!!!

"accept" is what you meant...I think!

No I didnt    Didnt like them much anyway 

[shammy davis jnr]

i did it five years ago with 250 houses dumped the lot and now five years on the good payers are coming back which i dont mind becase they know if there is any crap next time i take no s,,t
but this works two ways it makes you feel more valued you can charge more and they know from past experience that you are sound in what you do thats why they want to pay more for you and i get on like a house on fire with them now
plus you can see the bad payers houses getting more like the adams familys bath tub every time your round one came out last month and i said before you open your mouth the answer is no
but nobody does here i said i do again  so why cant you fit me in i reply becase my book is fool off loyal and good paying customers
you can always try yellow pages
end off
but it feels great  so it does you feel like shouting  who is hidding behind the sofa now scum bag
lol

[gaza]

TOSH : Give the squeekys telephone no ;

  gaza

[Paul Coleman]

Put simply, the word "no" is one of the most powerful words there is and one of the hardest to say at times.  I have discovered that knowing when (and how) to say no has been more beneficial to my business than any other single thing.  If someone wants me to work on access restricted by their padlocks, I say no (very large jobs at premium rates excepted).  If someone wants me to phone them beforehand - again, it's no (although I do still have two customers I do this for since year dot).  I sometimes ask a new potential customer on the phone if there is access and they say yes - then a few minutes later my heart sinks when that sentence creeps in "if I know when you're coming.................." (I swear that one day I will make a rude joke when someone says it).
Bad payters don't even get notified that I'm dumping them.  If they mess me around (I let it go once), I dump them even if it means losing the money.  I would rather lose one payment than have a pain-in-the-rear customer for years to come.  In fact, it is often cheaper to lose the customer.

As Paul Griffin says, the hard bit is when others in the area are OK but it's not viable to go there any longer because of the bad customers.  I think I would pay another visit, clean the good customers' windows, and explain why I was moving on.  I would also supply them with contact details of other W/Cs.

A lesson I have learned the hard way is to keep my distance with customers.  If it gets too friendly and they mess me about, it's harder to dump them.

[pjulk]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I will go there next week and clean the good one's one last time and explain the situation to them.
And give them some numbers of other window cleaners.

Paul

[Londoner]

When you get any new customer there is always a high risk that they will turn out to be difficult. Thats why the they haven't got a window cleaner when everyone else around them has one already. The last window cleaner dumped them and now its your turn to suffer

We should allways allow for this possibility and recognise that a percentage of new customers will fall by the wayside quite quickly.

I would not dump the whole street just because of a couple of dodgy ones.
Re canvass the road and the roads around to see of you can build up a better cluster of customers to replace the two you want to dump. Think of it as part of a continuous process of improvement rather than a problem.

Not all customers make the grade

[LSB]

I am intending to put all my prices up next year ( well over-due ) all awkward / inconvenient customers will be put up a little more than the others to see if this weeds some of them out , or to see how inconvenient they are to me at the higher price !

[simon knight]

With the exception of bad payers I don't tend to dump customers. I prefer to continually improve the quality of my round...weeding out the ones I'm not keen on doing eg: too out the way, not regular, wrongly priced etc. But these don't get weeded out until they can be replaced with something better. And they're still not dumped as such: They just don't get a phone call and as and when they call me I don't go out of my way to oblige....if they happen to fit in with my round on the day they want 'em done then fine! If not it's "sorry I'm not in the area that day...give me a call in a couple of weeks and I'll see what I can do." They then have 3 choices:

1) Call me back
2) Find another w/c
3) Do it themselves

Anything other than 1 and they've effectively dumped themselves.