[texas girl]

How many of us encounter picky customers?   In our line of work we all have several categories of residential customers.

Easy:  They may leave while you are working; trust your quality, and are very pleasant.  This is my favorite kind.

Average: Usual type; Concerned about details, have a few special requests and questions.  This is my second favorite. Also very pleasant.

Challenging: May have difficult requirements but still OK. It gets on my nerves when they follow you around and ask a lot of questions and comment on what you are doing. This type is still OK; once they see you have high standards they relax somewhat; still tolerable but a little bit unpleasant.

Difficult:  These customers will test your expertise. These clients will have requests that were not discussed during the bidding yet they expect no additional charges. Close to being very unpleasant, but still able to remain OK with what they want.  : You will walk away from this job feeling really good about yourself that  you accomplished what the client wanted.

Impossible: Even though nothing is impossible, this type of client I would prefer not to service again.  :  Yesterday was a case like this. That is what prompted me to post this topic. I have been in business 24 years and only 2 people that I have serviced fit this category.

This customer wanted us to go around the whole aluminum frame of the window with a toothbrush  to remove all cobwebs, bugs, every spect of dirt. My crew was there for 8 hours and the tiniest speck of anything was pointed out and was removed or if it was a stain or scratch, explained. I do not know if I want her business again but we did please her. I am glad I charged her $10 per window and she had 32. $320. 

I love this business and I have a lot of pride in being able to handle almost any kind of window cleaning task, but sometimes I run into someone like this that I do not want to service again.

It is because word of mouth is your best friend or your worst enemy that we do what we do sometimes. Once you are there you have little choice but to finish and do what the customer wants no matter what. 

How about some of your Picky customer stories? I would love to hear about it!

Take care;

Texas Girl

[rosskesava]

Hi Texas

We had an elderly customer who was fussy and it was just about tolerable. It was a reasonable price but having to listen to the complaints and then redoing some windows was annoying and time consuming. On top of that she would go on and on like a tape loop about us not treading on her plants because last time etc etc. And to this time shut the gate even though it would swing open because the catch was broken which was something else she accused us of doing.

One day though she accused me of 'staring' through her windows to see if there was anything worth stealing and that was it. I am normally very diplomatic and polite but that day, I told her what I thought of her attitude and accusations.

Before that though, we were always puzzled as to why, even if the glass was relivately clean, the corners of every downstairs paines at the bottom was dirty both at the fronts and back of the house.

Then on a day her house was due we were driving up past her house (we were doing 3 other houses in the same road first) when my partner shouts at me to pull over.

We could see this customer going around all the downstairs windows and was obviously smearing all the corners with something from a jar.

We didn't say a word to her as then we knew............... but she didn't know we knew but I did tell her about it and my thoughts after she accused me of planning theft.

God, were we glad to loose her custom and we should have actually abandoned her ages before.

On your grading I'd place this customer as 'difficult' except that when we walked away having done an immaculate job, we were often pis*ed off with her moaning.

[karlosdaze]

They either start hoovering, or leave for the day.

[texas girl]

Karlose,

Yes, you said it all.    I have had a couple of male customers who asked me if they could watch me as I worked, and of course I said "OK".  I was a bit uncomfortable but I guess no harm done.

 Gee, would the fact that I was wearing shorts and a snug t-shirt have anything to do with that? I am serious about my work. I actually love to clean windows 

Now I have an office job a lot, but I try to do at least one house per week. I can't complain that I manage my business now.


Take care

[karlosdaze]

Gee, would the fact that I was wearing shorts and a snug t-shirt have anything to do with that? I am serious about my work. I actually love to clean windows 

I'm usually the same, I've never been followed round the house though. As long as the drinks keep rolling in I don't mind
Don't mess with Texas

[rosskesava]

I live in the gay capitol of the uk. According to the radio it is becoming the gay capital of the world.

I'm glad my bum is not worth looking at when during the summer I wear shorts.

It's also, during the summer, full of young ladies.

You just can't help but look can you?

Texas Girl - men can't help it.