[Clive McDonald]

Fixed polls aside, where obvious stand out innovations, get trounced by gimmicks that are £6 job magnets, i think the hardest thing about trying to build a round is keeping your existing customers happy.As the round grows this gets harder and and harder.
What do you find annoying?

[stephen s]

posts that don't make any sense 

[peter holley]

late payments that get worse over months and then  cancelation. before u get a chance to drop them...oh.. and people on here that talk a load of nonsense...eg they post and brag and letslip their takings on a good day...and then you realise their not really as good as they seem to be ...and then u look at their posts and u wonder why their always posting in the day when most people are  at work :
mmmmm... there are quite a fiew on this forum :

ha ha

[GWCS]

late payments that get worse over months and then  cancelation. before u get a chance to drop them...oh.. and people on here that talk a load of nonsense...eg they post and brag and letslip their takings on a good day...and then you realise their not really as good as they seem to be ...and then u look at their posts and u wonder why their always posting in the day when most people are  at work :
mmmmm... there are quite a fiew on this forum :

ha ha

late payments.. yeah i agree.

Will be insisting all payments due before next clean, otherwise no clean - if no clean within 2 months then dropped.

Got better paying jobs to be doing than potential freebies.

[seandyer2003]

late payments that get worse over months and then  cancelation. before u get a chance to drop them...oh.. and people on here that talk a load of nonsense...eg they post and brag and letslip their takings on a good day...and then you realise their not really as good as they seem to be ...and then u look at their posts and u wonder why their always posting in the day when most people are  at work :
mmmmm... there are quite a fiew on this forum :

ha ha

late payments.. yeah i agree.

Will be insisting all payments due before next clean, otherwise no clean - if no clean within 2 months then dropped.

Got better paying jobs to be doing than potential freebies.

Good luck

[Oakley Windows]

Customer who had a load of building work going on recently, so they rang me to ask if I could miss the next visit (favour #1); and they'd call me when it was done so I could go round sort the windows out and od some extra work as the neighbours windows would be minging (I do already do the neighbours windows anyway).

So a few weeks later the guy phones and says the work'll be done the middle of the week, so I says well the others in the road are due about then, I'll sort his out at the same time and do any extra work needed, such as the other neighbour whose windows would be minging because the building dust created.

Did the work, all sorted. A week later I got a call from custy. How much will it be he asks? I said well youve got a few new windows (2 small ones on the side a set of extra patio doors and a big double kitchen window); no need to worry about the extra time taken on all the windows (favour #2) but as it was already £16.00 lets make it £20.00. He huffed and puffed and then asked if I'd done them as the windows round the back had muck on them. I asked if the builders had done some more work since Id cleaned and he reckoned they had. So it seemed that was the explanation although he had asked me to go back middle of the week. Sure he didnt believe me.

Then he asks how much would the neighbours work be and I said it would be nothing, no problem, I could live with the few minutes extra, no harm done (favour #3)


Came home the following day theres an envelope on the doormat from him with the £20 in and a note cancelling. Reckon in his words they had someone to do the windows who was 'considerably cheaper' and with the same system. Didnt take him long did it to look through Yellow Pages after the favours I did him.

[Oakley Windows]

late payments that get worse over months and then  cancelation. before u get a chance to drop them...oh.. and people on here that talk a load of nonsense...eg they post and brag and letslip their takings on a good day...and then you realise their not really as good as they seem to be ...and then u look at their posts and u wonder why their always posting in the day when most people are  at work :
mmmmm... there are quite a fiew on this forum :

ha ha

Not having a poke mate, but I post on here when I pop in for a cuppa and I know quite a few do from their blackberries etc.

[seandyer2003]

My phone allows me too post

[jouk45]

i have had many inovative ideas that i have posted over the years, sometimes no one says much, then a year or so later everyone is talking of the same idea posted by another person, now that is annoying especialy if you have come up with the idea first,and you get no credit for it, but thats the way it is on the forums, as for the poll they cant be rigged, unless you have all the members emails, could be rigged that way

[Oakley Windows]

I voted for Clive and his reels out of sympathy cos he looks like Susan Boyle 

[peter holley]

late payments that get worse over months and then  cancelation. before u get a chance to drop them...oh.. and people on here that talk a load of nonsense...eg they post and brag and letslip their takings on a good day...and then you realise their not really as good as they seem to be ...and then u look at their posts and u wonder why their always posting in the day when most people are  at work :
mmmmm... there are quite a fiew on this forum :

ha ha

Not having a poke mate, but I post on here when I pop in for a cuppa and I know quite a few do from their blackberries etc.

prhaps thats why their takings are down ... lol....lol....lol....lol...lol...lol.

[johns window kleen]

Haven't you noticed the wage boasting posts are now a rarity these days!

Jouk I thought your flyers were very original and a great idea.

 As regards building a round. I have enough work, but just need to tweak it a bit to give me a better profit ratio for the hours spent working.

[leapstallbuildings]

Haven't you noticed the wage boasting posts are now a rarity these days!

Jouk I thought your flyers were very original and a great idea.

 As regards building a round. I have enough work, but just need to tweak it a bit to give me a better profit ratio for the hours spent working.

Not surprising re the earnings posts.  Don't want to attract the wrong sort into the business do we?    (that was humour in case no-one noticed).

Something that bugged me recently was a job I've been doing for a few years now.  It's a bit underpriced really.  They wanted to cut the frequency.  I dislike doing this for jobs of that size - especially as I'm not charging enough to start with.  Anyway, I went along with it whilst debating with myself whether to continue the job or not.  I went to clean recently and was asked if I had time to do the conservatory roof too.  "No" was my slightly off reply.  I was also doing the conservatory roof too cheaply because initially, it was meant to be done every other clean.  I seem to have got stuck with the same low price now that it's done barely once a year.
I'm hoping that there will be a cancellation note with the cheque as that will getr me off the hook.
I went along with chopping the frequency (against my better judgement) to help save them some money and then I was asked to clean the conservatory roof.  I know it's business and not personal but it does feel a bit like someone is taking the pee.

[Clive McDonald]

good replies and they make me feel better because i recognise many of the situations. Favours and then cancelations is especially annoying.I had a £10 every 8 wks that had to be done 8.30 on a wed morning while she took dog for a walk and before she went to work.I cleared her gutter blockage for £10.

Cancelled "credit crunch decision". I notice some bird muck i have been tracking on one of her windows has gone, so i presume she has someone else.

[AuRavelling79]

Had a "recommend" and when I went the lady told me how the previous w/c "only took ten minutes" and charged £25! I said I'd charge the same but that no way would the job take ten minutes. (About 40 mins if they're in actually - and 30 when their not!- modern detached plus a medium conservatory with victorian roof.)

Anyhoo - the old boy is home one afternoon and asks if I can brush over the con roof while I'm there - as he is fed up with leaning out the bedroom window with a hosepipe!

So ... as it has been kept clean I suggest a tenner (this is a roof that if done annually I'd charge £50 for) extra so making the job £35 per monthly visit.

"That much?" he says - "Do it every third time."

I must have lost my marbles but have agreed as the job will take an hour when I do it - including the original windows. But I reckon they are going to be trouble. The prob. is that they have been recommended as friends of one of my best custies - but it is irritating.

[ftp]

Annoying things? Self appointed business gurus on here, price braggers even if genuine or not - i don't think it's wise to plaster how much you've made in five minutes over an open forum.
Things I enjoy are honest people with a sense of humour willing to share their less incredible moments and mistakes.
I've been on here for nearly three years I think and several members are still around and posting regularly so it can't be all bad. 

[cozy]

Not really got much to moan about this game. I get peed off when regular custies see we've have been and done the job, then "forget" to go to the bank before we come to collect a few days later.

Dog poo is bad enough, but when a custy then lets kids play in a garden full of the stuff is really bad. Stuff like wheely bins and lawnmowers left infront of garden gates is another thing

Pretty much what everyone else gets hacked off with really.

[pingu]

I suppose I lose interest which I think is really down to boredom...I just get bored doing the same thing...day in, day out.

Dave.

[Oakley Windows]

Annoying: complacent window cleaners.

What window cleaners being complacent when theyre out on their round annoy you?

Why do you let complacent window cleaners get to you?

[Clive McDonald]

I don’t have to keep the customers happy slumpbuster! (No wonder you need another window cleaner) I Just have to keep there windows clean.

Slumpbuster your idea with the drills & reels could be innovative, but you have some way to go before it will be considered new, assuming you will sell them.

As for being annoyed, the cost of some window cleaning equipment.

From now on when i'm in a bad mood or a bit grouchy i'm going to do what everyone else does and kick the forum cat.Right Ewan you're in for it.

Keeping the customers  happy is a big problem. When i had thirty customers it was finding two days a month to do them.I wasn't that keen and being new found it hard work. Later when i had a hundred ditto.

But around this point unless you look after them you lose them almost as fast as you can get them.Most of the newish biz's on here (under three years) will have high attrition or churn rates because we have picked up a lot of other window cleaners rejects, assorted nutters, and general time wasters.You will lose a lot of these even if your round is only a fantasy one (know what i mean?).

It's even more annoying to lose what you know is an okay customer though because of something you've done, and when you start getting into the 500's and a lot of the jobs are large ones, this plate balancing act gets harder.Don't worry though  this is probably years away for you.

As regards the reels i have no intention of selling them, i just find them a great help in my work and a little more Obsequiousness from the forum cat would be well recieved.