[Craig 72]

Cleaned a road of about 25 houses yesterday and for the half or so who weren't in I dropped a card though the door saying I would be round to collect tonight.
First three doors I knocked on:
Door no1:A bloke says his wife deals with it and she's not there.Wouldn't fork out himself.We're talking about a fiver ffs.
Door no2:A lady says,"Oh yes,I saw your card but I totally forgot and haven't got any money on me."
Door no3:A bloke answers the door to which I say,"Hi there,I cleaned your windows yesterday".The moron just replied,"And?".I had to stop myself from laughing.'And' I thought I'd just pop round for a quick chat you mug.

There must be better ways to spend a Friday night surely.Tosspots the lot of em.Right,I'm getting drunk now...

[LWC]

OOOOOOOO when the blokes say "and?" that boils my blood.

[clean]

I have always dumped the crap custys, that works for me  

[Craig 72]

I certainly will be dumping prats like this when my round gets bigger but can't afford to at the mo.Some people though are just so bloody rude and thoughtless.I'm still new to this lark but finding out that it's not quite as stress free as I imagined before I started.

[LWC]

Get those envelopes and train them up to send them to you, or sort out bank transfer payments.

[Craig 72]

Yeah I think I'll start considering that.

[cozy]

I know EXACTLY what you mean Craig, it was the same for me when I first started. It does get better though honest. I'm a bit weird I suppose as I enjoy collecting and doorknocking. My best one when collecting was:

Knock on door,
kid answers, yes?
me, window cleaner
kid, "Dad do we need a window cleaner?"
Dad "NO"
me, no your windows have been cleaned
kid "Dad, windows are already cleaned
Dad, "How much?"
X euros
(Sounds of dad searching and swearing and breaking into kids piggy bank)
Kid comes back to the door with a hand full of small change.

Next time round they canceled, (Hubby was going to clean them from now on blah blah)

But otherwise I enjoy the banter with 99% of my custies.

[stfc]

There must be better ways to spend a Friday night surely.Tosspots the lot of em.Right,I'm getting drunk now...

make them send cheques works for me never collect again and have not for 5 years

[mci services]

i know how you feel, i think we all get nights like that but sometimes it goes well, i went out tonight and collected all bar 4 no answers. it took me 3 hours though

so i am getting drunk now as well

[Craig 72]

As it happens most of my customers are as nice as pie.There's just a few who seem to be a pain in the arse but that's life I suppose.I was peed off earlier but I'm mellowing now I've got some booze inside me. .That bloke who said 'And?' though....Grrrrrrrrrr.

[Mike55]

SAEs I take it for those that leave envelopes?

Do you find that you are getting the cheques sent in the post or are you effectively having to collect in the end anyway?

I think going down the envelope route has got defo merit.  Particularly when factoring the cost of your time spent collecting it's a no brainer.

[tom2009]

Get those envelopes and train them up to send them to you, or sort out bank transfer payments.

do you pay for the stamp or hope they'll coff up?

[Steve_Richardson]

I ordered a ruck load of address tickers from Vistaprint (cost £3 ish for about a million!), stick them on smal white envelopes and leave them with my note. All my customers pay this way now and 90% within a week 1/2 at most. Every blue moon someone will forget but 99% pay this way with no problem.

Educate nicely and they will understand, takes a few months but they soon get the hang of it (let's face it, posting a cheque is pretty hard so give them poor custies some time.....).
No collecting for me since I restarted window cleaning the 2nd time, love it 

[Window Washers]

Get those envelopes and train them up to send them to you, or sort out bank transfer payments.

forget the envelopes, and train them to send the payments or charge them for not.... SIMPLES 

[Niall McAllister]

Craig,
it's time to start your wish list. everyone you want to loose goes on the list, then as you can, you dump?
it makes me feel better looking at the list from time to rime

[Mike55]

I ordered a ruck load of address tickers from Vistaprint (cost £3 ish for about a million!), stick them on smal white envelopes and leave them with my note. All my customers pay this way now and 90% within a week 1/2 at most. Every blue moon someone will forget but 99% pay this way with no problem.

Educate nicely and they will understand, takes a few months but they soon get the hang of it (let's face it, posting a cheque is pretty hard so give them poor custies some time.....).
No collecting for me since I restarted window cleaning the 2nd time, love it

Steve - do you add stamps to said envelopes or do custies sort this themselves?

[Craig 72]

I do a bit of rubbish clearance work on the side and I cleared an industrial unit that used to be a printers recently.Got my hands of boxes and boxes of envelopes so it'll give me a chance to utilise them.A lot of them are big though so it might be amusing to put A4 sized envelopes through peoples doors for cheques.

[Gleaming windows]

Thats alright mate, tell em theyd have been binned otherwise, its called recycling

[geefree]

get your money then dump them,

dont collect ever again,

print a " your windows have been cleaned today, please forward a cheque making it payable to.................using the addresed envelope provided..... or if you wish to use internet banking  please use the following details.

Account number......................
Sort code................................

Could you please pay this within 3 DAYS.

Thank You."



It WILL WORK!
you just have to train them up.

I swear, i have NO bad debt.

every single customer pays within one week

And i find the more i put them details out. there are more and more people using internet banking each month... as opposed to sending cheques.

The cheques coming through my letter box are becoming less less, and more people are paying online...


When you first send these details out, a few customers may say, i dont use internet, i dont use cheques,.....

Tell them if you dont catch them in, when you clean... we need to make other arrangements... but tell them you DONT COLLECT.

They will then arrange to leave it somewhere for you.

And after a while, you will get fed up of the odd one not playing the game..... and you will dump them... and replace with a new customer, who you will train up from the onset.

Hope this helps.

Gary.

p.s. dont stamp the envelope, just print some address labels and stick them on an envelope..

1000 self seal envelopes £11..ebay.

[Neil]

I can’t understand why anyone would want to go out collecting, it makes no sense, After a day’s work why would I want to go around all my jobs again therefore increasing my working hours and decreasing my hourly pay.

If you enjoy knocking on doors that much, use the time to knock on new ones to gain work.

You are running a business! Unless you work for someone else and get paid hourly, it’s essential that EVERYTHING you do relating to that business is productive.

Apart from being better for you, SAE's and online payments are better from the customers point of view, no way would I like some clown interrupting my evening at home asking for cash. I would get rid of him on that basis alone.

How many other professions come round your house these days with their grubby paws out asking you to empty your kids piggy bank or give them your wife’s shopping money.
In my opinion collecting is degrading, outdated and unprofessional.