[C.F.P]

In light of the "getting tips" post and seeing how many of you must be providing an excellent service. I thought we could explore this a little more. This is also related to getting more customers and keeping the ones we have.

It is a fact that the average business loses 20% of their customers per year. Most of us are unaware and forgot all about them. Imagine losing 20% a year for 5 years. Not only do we need more customers, but we need 20% more just to make up for what we lost. I have a study as to the reasons for the loss: (study done by Harvard Business Review, US News and World Report and the American Society of Quality control)

14% complaints/issues not taken care of
9% left to competitors
9% moved/died
68% no real reason!

All people have needs, on different levels, but we all have them. These needs are based on emotions. There are 7 that control what people do and purchase:

Greed
Fear
Love/lust
Ego/pride
Anger/resentment
Envy/jealousy
Sloth/laziness

Everybody makes every decision based on these emotions. People are far more averse to pain than attracted to pleasure. They will move mountains to avoid pain.

When I advertise I write in such a manner:

Tired Of Looking Through Dirty Windows?

Do you want to waste the day trying to clean them?

Stop- You don't have to!

Would you like a fast, easy and affordable solution?
Discover an amazing service that takes care of your windows.

Get a totally free quote today!

All work 100% guaranteed!

Something like that. Now as to keeping the 68% from leaving for no other reason other than feeling forgotten. This will also help eliminate some of the 9% from going to your competitors.

Contact- how much do you contact them? I am not talking about ringing them on the tele every other day. Just a simple contact every 2 months. Get out your customer list right now and start looking over your customers. Look at the ones you have not have had contact with for more than 2 months.

Put them all on a sheet of paper. As an aside, also look at the ones you may not have dealt with for a year or two. A contact now might bring them back.

Start to pen a short letter thanking them for their patronage and how you look forward to working with them again. We cannot be mushy enough. If you feel like really, really being thankful, do it! Hand write them! DO NOT ASK THEM FOR BUSINESS OR INCLUDE A COUPON! You can do that in your next mailing.

Write a different note to the "lost" customers. Asking them if there is any reason they are not using your service anymore, and is there anything you can do for them. Include a discount if you wish.

This is why I do not like cold, features based advertising, or advertising that puts the focus on our company rather than on the customers needs.

I hope this is useful for some of you

Thanks for spending the day reading it 

Paul

[Jeff Brimble]

Excellent thanks for spending your day writing it.

Personally experience tells me that taking back a lost customer hardly ever works. The trust part of the relationship has soured and things are not the same. I rarely take them back, but will give it some thought as I agree with your 20% churn figure.
Most customers are out working, I may only see some of them once a year. So maybe a brief "news" letter and thank you would be good.

[dai]

CFP, In truth mate, most of us don't worry about it. As long as new work comes in at the same rate that we lose customers. It can actually be good for your business.
This is particularly true for guys that have been at it a long time, with long standing customers.
As each new job is priced at a higher rate than the one you lost.
 I would argue with your 20% figure though. My own round continues to grow at a faster rate than customer loss. I was a bit worried at the number of cancellations, after the recent spell of storms and rain. Even these losses were only at about 4%,
and have already been replaced with better paid ones.
I worry about customers on the same level that they worry about me.
Some customers I would be very sorry to lose, others I would not bat an eyelid over.
Dai

[Grafters Cleaning Services]

i'm with dai on this one, it's fair to say that in this biz you will lose customers from time to time it goes with the job, but 20% no way perhaps 1 a month.

like dai says this can be a good way of improving prices and quality of the jobs (after all it's your business so you take control)

if you like it can be a good way of culling your round.

the only thing that i would find upsetting would be if i were to lose work from bad workmanship as i do take a pride in my work regardless of a £10 house or £150 rest home.

if i were to lose a £10 house for example i know that i could cover that lose within 10-15 mins canvassing should i feel the need to do so.

in a nutshell, losing a job or 2 is not a big deal

there's plenty more dirty windows out there

[C.F.P]

I'm sorry too mates, but those figures are not mine. It was a study by the Harvard Business Review, US news and World report, The American Society of Quality Control.

Most of us do not even realize what we lose, but I assure you the numbers are an accurate average. They are also yearly numbers, not monthly, not during rainstorms. The whole year.

Agree or not, it is the average. If you think they are wrong write and debate them.

And I like to lose as few as possible, to say "screw em, I'll make it up" is not where I am personally in my business. This post is just to increase awareness. If you are losing 0 customers or don't care, good for you! I am not questioning your numbers. Average means that some lose more and some lose less.

Some care, like me. I really love my customers. And maybe I might not have the many, many customers that some of you must have to say these things, I care about that 68% of that 20% that I can keep with little effort.

I think I need them more than they need me...maybe I am alone in that theory.

I will not debate this. It is something I believe in dearly and if I can figure out a way to keep another 5%, I'll do it. That is just me. If you don't want or need to do that, I have no problem with that. If you think the numbers are a crock, call the above mentioned authors.

thank you

[C.F.P]

Excellent thanks for spending your day writing it.

Personally experience tells me that taking back a lost customer hardly ever works. The trust part of the relationship has soured and things are not the same. I rarely take them back.

Hi Jeff and thank you for your reply.

Depends on how the customer is lost, doesn't it? There is a thing that is inherent in human beings. It is called buyers remorse.

We tend to second guess some purchases based on how we feel after the deal is complete. If they just received a great window cleaning, but sensed even a slight attitude or no gratitude for getting their business... I know how I feel. I will not call them back, that simple.

Some say there is so much glass out there, I'll do just fine losing these. Truth be told, not true. Look at all this glass that is out there. If it is so easy to get, get it. But if we are located in a very competitive area (like myself with 200+ window cleaning companies), how much is waiting for us? Now subtract all of the homes and businesses that do their own glass or do not do it at all. How much is now left?

Now we have to fight over what is left with everyone else. I find myself a pretty good marketer and salesman and I fight with the mediocre tooth and nail. That low-pricing  bunch that are out there. Not only am I competing with the really good, quality companies, but the low pricers.

I guess I do not see all the glass as open for me to claim.

[LSB]

i have a very busy round of mainly domestic customers , almost all of them on a four weekly basis , i dont get to do them all myself anymore , but they all have my tel no ( some guys round here dont give out there nos. ) i like to think i offer them a good reliable / regular service at a competitive price and i have to say that i dont lose anything like 20% of my customers , i even tame/train most of the awkward ones !!   

[C.F.P]

Maybe us yanks are more erratic than across the pond 

Like I said, some of you may be doing well at this. I know you all are not....or there must be a lot of huge window cleaning companies over there.

[Tosh]

We recently found that we had far more work than we could handle; and were falling weeks behind with some of our domestics; so we dropped/gave away 52 accounts (mostly small terraces or semis) which worked out as 18% of my work.

We found that having these properties actually slowed us up, since we 'slowed down' or finished early, on approaching them; trying to put the invetible off; so getting rid of them has speeded us up in more ways than one.

Apart from that, I rarely lose a customer; one a month tops and it seems like it's more a case of the customer moving or dying; than just sacking me.  From day 1, I've always dropped 'dodgy customers', so I guess we've just ended up with a good/loyal customer base.

Anyway, my cull has worked out really well so far, since I don't do any awkward stuff anymore, or anything that involving ladder work (apart from about five accounts and the odd flat roof).  It just makes work more pleasant, when you don't have 'groaner' properties to do.

I don't know what it's like round where you live, but there still seems to be many, many customers looking for good window cleaners around here.

So in a nutshell, yes I do care about customer care, but it's not a major factor in how we operate.  We're smart, polite and do what 'it says on the can'; little more.

[simon knight]

If ever there was an industry where customers come and customers go this window cleaning malarky takes some beating and I refuse to beat myself up trying to figure out the whys and wherefores. If somebody doesn't require my services any more so what?...it's not too difficult to find a replacement.

[C.F.P]

Interesting view

thanks

[Tosh]

It is a fact that the average business loses 20% of their customers per year...

Paul

Paul,

I suspect you do your accounts yearly (I know Texas Girl does) and she charges far more than what we could per window, but does a lot more work too; since she got bug screens and stuff to contend with.

But for our average small domestic client, they really don't have a lot of choice when it comes to having a window cleaner.

We make our money by being quick, say 15 to 20 minutes per semi-detached house and then moving onto the one next door; and so on.

Not many established window cleaners here are willing to pull up, unload their kit, clean one house then pack up and move off.  Not for small stuff anyway.

So window cleaners here can have a bit of a Monopoly on an area.

Some customers haven't got an alternative window cleaner to ask.

I once had a phone call from a nurse who worked in accident and emergency (a thankless job with danger involved) and she was incensed because her current window cleaner had put up his prices again and wanted to find a cheaper one.

I didn't do the area, and didn't want the job anyway; especially after she said, 'Come on, it doesn't take much brains to work out how much money you guys are on.  Why are you charging so much?  And there's me in accident and emergency, etc...'.  (Obviously, we're all low-life window cleaners and she should be paid more money).

She's probably still stuck with her window cleaner who she resents paying; or has dirty windows!

[Paul Coleman]

It is a fact that the average business loses 20% of their customers per year...

Paul

Paul,

I suspect you do your accounts yearly (I know Texas Girl does) and she charges far more than what we could per window, but does a lot more work too; since she got bug screens and stuff to contend with.

But for our average small domestic client, they really don't have a lot of choice when it comes to having a window cleaner.

We make our money by being quick, say 15 to 20 minutes per semi-detached house and then moving onto the one next door; and so on.

Not many established window cleaners here are willing to pull up, unload their kit, clean one house then pack up and move off.  Not for small stuff anyway.

So window cleaners here can have a bit of a Monopoly on an area.

Some customers haven't got an alternative window cleaner to ask.

I once had a phone call from a nurse who worked in accident and emergency (a thankless job with danger involved) and she was incensed because her current window cleaner had put up his prices again and wanted to find a cheaper one.

I didn't do the area, and didn't want the job anyway; especially after she said, 'Come on, it doesn't take much brains to work out how much money you guys are on.  Why are you charging so much?  And there's me in accident and emergency, etc...'.  (Obviously, we're all low-life window cleaners and she should be paid more money).

She's probably still stuck with her window cleaner who she resents paying; or has dirty windows!

Well if she worked in a hospital A & E department, potentially the anwer was right there in front of her.  You missed a chance there to put her in her place  Tosh    .  Should have told her it was danger money.

[Count Phil]

I try to be friendly as much as I can. Even if I'm in a mood or feeling down I force a smile and have a quick chat. Does the trick and never really lose many, like others say, it's when they die or move.
I'm actually planning a cull of the rubbish, but I know these are the ones who will cause a fuss and make it hard to drop them.

[C.F.P]

Great Reply Tosh!!

thanks for giving me some insight on your business.

Average home here takes 1.5- 2 hours inside and out (one person) and that is moving quick.

[simon knight]

Yes but everything is BIG in America. This is the land of 2 up 2 down semis (with outside privvies)

[C.F.P]

Most homes pay $200 US  (I don't know the conversion, sorry)

[Jeff Brimble]

CFP. Our homes are probably monthly or two monthly(6/12 times year external)  and we dont let them get dirty, we also build up more of a relationship because we see/appear more. I think maybe most of your clients are 6 monthly/annual ?

[Tosh]

Our homes are probably monthly or two monthly(6/12 times year external)  and we dont let them get dirty, we also build up more of a relationship because we see/appear more.

Jeff,

Thanks; I forgot this bit!  Good point.

[simon knight]

Most homes pay $200 US  (I don't know the conversion, sorry)

£102....houses must be of Southfork size!