[Tim82]

 After viewing Johnny_h's "messed about again" thread, it made me think... Do you usually keep customers who need ringing /texting the night before?  I don't bother ringing anyone anymore but I can motivate myself to send a text the night before! Seems to be successful.

[Steve CM]

i just use text's although there are a couple i ring. ones a £20 house that takes 10 minutes, and ones a £15 house that takes about 7 minutes. neither of them have a mobile phone but both of them i can motivate myself to ring for! 

[seandyer2003]

i have one that i text as they are both out and the gate needs opening, usually i climb as cant be bothered but as its only the one custy i do it as its a good job, and saves me climbing one less gate!!

[Tim82]

OOps  I only just changed it to a poll. Could you fellas vote too please? 

Actually, to tell a lie... I have ONE customer who I ring and she's an old lady who I charge £25 so it's worth it. The others I text.

[simon knight]

I always ring or text customers the night before to say i'm coming(takes around 10 minutes).  Not so much out of courtesy but because it saves a journey if for some reason they can't have them done that day.

[matt]

i have a few who i need to ask to open gates

i just pop in a little note ( printed ) the day before

[Paul Coleman]

After viewing Johnny_h's "messed about again" thread, it made me think... Do you usually keep customers who need ringing /texting the night before?  I don't bother ringing anyone anymore but I can motivate myself to send a text the night before! Seems to be successful.

I do ring about 5 of them from the entire round.  I only bother with it if the job is well worth doing though.  Also, I'm OK with ringing for access over the first couple of cleans if they need to get hold of a spare gate key for me.  Sometimes people take a little while to get around to it.
If it's a run of the mill job and they insist on prior notification, I won't take the job on.
I was doing a bit of domestic subcontract work each month for another company.  Three quarters of them needed pre-arranging.  It was a real headache trying to schedule it.  If I left a voicemail message, I wouldn't know if it had been received or not.  Sometimes they would be on holiday.  Other times they would just forget.  It meant I was often left short on the day so would do a bit of my own work on the way back home to top up the day.  Some customers didn't even have voicemail and others refused to leave the gate unlocked and insisted on being there at the time of cleaning so they actually wanted the time as well as the day.  Absolute nightmare to sort out.  I don't have that headache now but I have the different headache of needing to replace that work.

[Oakley Windows]

None of the above, if theres an access problem then they give me a key.


I wouldnt want to spend my evening phoning customers. The might want that, but it wouldnt happen.

Matt

[LSB]

i have never phoned or texted any customer !
if there is an access problem that i cant solve , then i will clean just the front , and only charge for the front .
every customer has my telephone number and some do phone me to make arrangements ,
i am allways on time or very close , subject to staff and weather , so its not hard for them to know when 4 weeks has come round again .

[steven ainger]

i ring and txt a few of my customers, like others have said it only takes a couple of minutes,

[AuRavelling79]

Generally no but I have two out of two hundred. If they say no for no good reason they're dropped. And I add a few quid to their price to cover for my bother.

[windowwashers]

i just use text's although there are a couple i ring. ones a £20 house that takes 10 minutes, and ones a £15 house that takes about 7 minutes. neither of them have a mobile phone but both of them i can motivate myself to ring for! 

You can send a text to a landline 

[Steve CM]

i just use text's although there are a couple i ring. ones a £20 house that takes 10 minutes, and ones a £15 house that takes about 7 minutes. neither of them have a mobile phone but both of them i can motivate myself to ring for! 

You can send a text to a landline 

not all you can't! 

[suds window service]

i ring or txt about 40% of my customers ,they think its very professional

[Tim82]

Yeah, I send texts to the odd customers landline, one (old lady) customer said she really likes it!!(must be a doctor who fan)

I know phoning only takes a minute but it's the looking forward (not) to making a load of phone calls when you get home when some of them might not be in or bother listening to their voicemails.

Texting is so much easier. You can even just send one group message to a few different customers too which makes it alot quicker...

[L.J.Thorpe]

i have 3 that i ring
and i did have 2 that i text but one of em got dumped this week
by text

[LWC]

there was a chap on here, Magic someone, maybe steve? i cant remember, has a brilliant wasy of doing it, hes signed up wih some message service online, hes got different groups and he goes online, clicks the group and it sends them all a text like

"Hi its the window cleaner here, will be cleaning your windows tommorow, please make sure all gates are open. Many Thanks Steve Magic window cleaning"

really good i thought. but personally, when they say "can you ring me?" i role my lip up an im like "errr well"

i really dont like it too much hassle imo

[Oakley Windows]

when they say "can you ring me?" i role my lip up an im like "errr well"

Just say no.

My philosophy is I do what I want with my time, it may involve work, it may not; if I have to be making phone calls then its no longer my choice.

[firstglass]

A few years back, i started to agree to ringing a few customers but then it started to snowball and as a result i'd be at least half an hour every night arranging the following days work. Over the course of a month, that's a helluva lot of unneccesary hassle.

Now my approach is, 'you want me?, well this is my terms'.

Your customers shouldn't dictate to you how you run your own business.

[Tim82]

when they say "can you ring me?" i role my lip up an im like "errr well"

Just say no.

My philosophy is I do what I want with my time, it may involve work, it may not; if I have to be making phone calls then its no longer my choice.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

A few years back, i started to agree to ringing a few customers but then it started to snowball and as a result i'd be at least half an hour every night arranging the following days work. Over the course of a month, that's a helluva lot of unneccesary hassle.

Now my approach is, 'you want me?, well this is my terms'.

Your customers shouldn't dictate to you how you run your own business.

I agree, thats the beauty of being self employed and a window cleaner, the freeness. I wouldnt do anything more than text these days. (apart from a couple of special cases where i have to ring)