[*thomas james]

aaa

[KarlJones]

you could feed a bit of semi BS.

"I have recently updated my water filtering system and I am happy to tell you that coupled with advances in my WFP system I can now do your windows for a lower rate.  The new rate will be XX.XX saving you a total of XX.XX a month.

I hope that you remember that I pass on my savings to customers and when you can recommend me to others.

Thanks for your on going custom
Thomas"

Or something along those lines.
 

[ronnie paton]

I was in a simalar position but i over priced due to lack of experience in quting bigger jobs.

Anyway i lost the job to someone who undercut by bout 20%, so i learnt my lesson i should of changed the price!!

I would explain its quicker with new system so your reducing the price, better than losing it1

[dai]

dropping your prices? Just think on this.
I was told by a guy from BT, that if the problem I was having was due to my own equipment, I would have to pay £99.99 an hour for him to fix it.
If BT can charge a hundred quid an hour for their labour, I sure as hell won't be dropping any prices.
The over priced jobs compensate for the ones where you should be chaging more.
Dropping prices because you switch to WFP, is making a rod for your own back.
The main reason for making the switch is to earn more money, even the once humble chimney sweep is now charging £30 a pot. And yes he uses a machine that sucks up all the soot.
The odds on someone knocking, and offering to do the job cheaper than you are pretty remote. Charging less for WFP is a dangerous road to go down. Dai

[supernova77]

Is this a domestic or commercial job?

To be honest I would never lower my prices... If they are happy to pay your price for now then your quids in... If you loose the job sometime in the future to a lower price there are plenty more customers out there.

Business is business!

Andy

[NWH]

I tell them the only reason i`m quicker is because of the system,i tell them that doing it off ladders it would take me twice as long most people realise this.

[LWC]

in saying this, i still would not lower my prices, how much does it cost to run a ladder and a bucket...next to nothing once youve purchased them. wfp...well the costs are endless. i never stop spending on it, i bought a whole system that was already setup with the van, now i have spent that again, i stil have the van but a completly different setup

if they say, someone else has quoted, just see what the quote is and match it perhaps?

[NWH]

I don`t get into conversations or barterring about price with customers,my price is the price i want for doing the job.I find that wcs that will give in to a price that they were quoted from a potential customer are the ones that need the work,i used to do jobs that i took over from my dad that he did for over 35yrs and had to bite my lip about the price,no more.I think we have all had jobs that we are glad to see the back of,why take on more work that in time will become the same.

[SherwoodCleaningSe]

If you drop your price you might make them go looking for another quote as they will realize you were obviously over priced to begin with.  And what if for some reason you have to work off of a ladder again?

Simon.

[paul mather]

I would never drop my price, it's like admitting you've been ripping them off. Just take the rough with the smooth &  make sure you keep them really happy & do an A1 job so they don't go looking for a different WCer.

I have one job since changing over to WFP takes me just over 1 hour & is priced at £72, but then I go to another that may only pay £20, so it's swings & roundabouts.

[jeff1]

If your really unhappy with the price you have charged, then tell the customer, if he can get you a couple more customers in the same area, you can offer him a discount on his price,  But tell them to keep it to them selfs, makes them feel a little special.
This is what I did the custy got me £70 worth of custy's in 3 houses, I gave him £5 discount,..... he was over the moon with his discount and I made more money.

Always look for a way to make your efforts work for you and not against you, and in away that you both come out on top.

[JM123]

Never ever drop your prices!!

they will tell everybody in the whole wide world and you could end up dropping prices everywhere. 


no no no don't do it, if anyone asks you to do it tell them no way, I can't believe we're even discussing this

mods lock it, lock it, pppllllleeeaaaassssseeeee!!

[Paul Coleman]

Never ever drop your prices!!

they will tell everybody in the whole wide world and you could end up dropping prices everywhere. 


no no no don't do it, if anyone asks you to do it tell them no way, I can't believe we're even discussing this

mods lock it, lock it, pppllllleeeaaaassssseeeee!!

Better still, delete the thread 
I can't believe I'm reading this.
The only time a price decrease might make sense is in an economy that was experiencing sustained money deflation.  However, that would mean that the economy was so up the creek that we would have far bigger problems than window cleaning prices.

[Highrise]

I have gone on to a couple of jobs and done the job in half the time using wfp and the customer has said that was quicker...I agree with them and tell them yeah but it's the same job.... Don't drop price cos you use wfp. Look why we use this equiptment cos of H&S... this is going to be a problem for a long time to come I can see.... W/C should stick together up and down the country and agree that WE should all charge by the time it would take using tred methods, Look at how much this system cost..... I've just invested £21k in to my bussines, You think I'm gonna drop my price cos I can do the job quicker, You must be joking.....

[KarlJones]

It does make sense when you think it through to carry on until you get some sort of complaint.  They are obviously happy with the money and the job your doing.

Losing jobs does happen, losing jobs to over pricing does happen.  I suppose you have to take some of it on the chin when it happens.  Just watch out for the "clean me" flyers though as my understanding is those guys quote without even seeing the job, which would be bad for you.

[groundhog]

I have said before that prices are going to start falling and in my opinion it is because of people on forums like this boasting of high earnings, which in turn has ecouraged more and more people into this business, people who would not have ever considered window cleaning before are now starting up and employing teams of Polish workers who are prepared to work for peanuts, and yes of course these businesses are going to undercut us!! BIGTIME

[KarlJones]

Now you have really confused me because you have just posted..

I price per window, I get a piece of paper and divide it into colums, in the first colum I write prices from £1, £1.50, £2, £2.50, £3 ect higher if they have exceptionally large or awkward windows, I then walk around the property and count up the windows putting a mark in the next colum for each window depending on size. A small to medium window I price at £1, if its double that size I charge £2 ect, I then add up the prices from each colum to get a figure which I round up to the nearest £5. I hope that makes sense, as it works well for me.

?!?

[groundhog]

I am not boasting of high earnings or even giving an hourly rate, I am merely showing someone how I go about pricing up a job!! Theres a big difference you know!!

[KarlJones]

The thing is, with thought,  I agree with you 100%.  Posting earnings will encourage folks who want to earn those figures to come into the business.  I do not really like it either as I think this is just like any other business and supply and demand rules the roost.

Posting prices will also, obviously, encourage some others to come into the job.  However your right, there is a big difference, because that person will have a very good idea of what he needs to charge "if" they want to make a good on going business.

The whole "polish" worker thing is a bit of a curve ball as there are plenty of british workers out there to be used for the same purpose.
There is already some on this forum that seem to be openly bragging about the fact they quote without viewing via a leaflet and then sending an employee round to clean them.  Well common sense tells us that the quotes can not be big if they are getting massive responses, and the wages can't be massive either or it just would not be worth employing them.

Thankfully, it seems customers do not really like this approach to business, and thankfully the staff employed tend to abuse it too and try to get their own hourly rate up by doing shody work (either that or they just don't give two hoots).  Today I had two customers say they are going to change to me within the week due to a couple of employees of this type of operation doing shody work and another one tell me they held off going to them due to the fact that they like to know who the window cleaner is before deciding.

But if enough window cleaning businesses do get jobs on price and make money just from the amount of window cleaners they have out there, then eventually it will start to kick the sole trader in the teeth. 

[ronnie paton]

i see you all say just keep the price!!

well friday i lost a £5000 job a year due to it being over priced and i knew i should of dropped the price cause it was over priced but didnt.

and know iv lost it so think would you rather take the risk and continue to do it that price and maybe lose it 4 ever or lower the price and continue to do it?