[wizard]

i HAVE DESIDED TO POST THIS SEPERATLY SO MORE MIGHT READ 
 There is a very good reason why we have these rude people that do tread most service people. That is because they just were never taught to be polite to people. They use rudeness and intimidation to get there way. In short they are just rubbish. The true problem How do we deal with it.
In the business world they call it practise and procedures. This is what you learn a business school and does not come naturally to most of us and that includes me swell.
What you need to do is make up a list in writing of a what you will tolerate and what not and thing of how you will respond to its Which is a practice or response to that action and always react with you well though response. This is better and more effected planned in hind sight when we are very smart. Its advisable to discuss this on a forum or with a mentor, some one out side your business with no emotional tie to your business.
Procedures:  is your response to that situation. What you will do to prevent or stop that type of business repine fro customers or people you deal with and that is ever one to come is contact with is business.
E.G. Custys says leave the windows till next month. You then say I am sorry but I cannot accept door step cancellations as on the back of your invoice and on the quote slip when we agree to do your window. All cancellation will have to be cancelled at least 7 day in advance or the clean will have to be paid for by the customer at the door step cancellation and you show them on the invoice. Decent people even if they are having bad hair day will satin up and pay, the other are just yobs and don’t know better. Drop these crappy custys at once. Window cleaner ! custys nil.
Practice are always what must happen ,when and who pays . This takes ball , but the more you do it the easer it get. The best way to win this fear of crap is to make out that you have not made these procedures or rules. It make the custys think you are on there side . E G traffic with a ticket you cannot hate him it’s the law.
 As time goes by you will find that all your problems have a very small range and once you find solution to there actions, business will be a joy. I am sorry its so long but I do want to help improve the lot for us all .

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

Turn it right round back to them, always reply with a question, this will embaress them usually.

That was quick-

  What do you mean?

It didn't take you very long-

  Have you been timing me?

No, just seems your not here 5 minutes-

  How long does it usually take me?

It will usually end here, they are taken aback as THEY are not prepared to be questioned & struggle to answer leading to them dropping the issue pretty quickly.
Try it, it's very effective.


It will usually only get this far but you get the Idea

[wizard]

You are absolutely right. In negotiations question get the other party to open there hand, ,so you can see all there cards. But addresses the human need to be heard by you. I am listening to you. and trying to understand your needs. In the mean time you are sizing them up for the kill.

[gary mallett]

yep

[michael papworth]

You are absolutely right. In negotiations question get the other party to open there hand, ,so you can see all there cards. But addresses the human need to be heard by you. I am listening to you. and trying to understand your needs. In the mean time you are sizing them up for the kill.

What's wrong with going for win-win?

The truth of it is, you can't "win" in an argument. If you win the argument, you've lost the relationship.

If you argue, there are two possible outcomes. You win or you lose. The same is true for the other guy. See the diagram below. The ideal is to avoid arguing and go for agreement on both sides. That means ...

1 - I win and you win. We both get what we want. This is NOT a negotiation in which we both agree to get less than we want, but a situation in which we both work together to get the best outcome for each other.

If we can't get to win-win, then I will accept ...

2 - I win, you lose. I will not force you to lose. The only way you can lose is by doing it deliberately. I can live with that.

There is one result that I simply will not allow to happen, and that is ...

X - You win and I lose. I cannot tolerate this outcome.

If you insist on going for this, it will have to be ...

3 - We both lose. Neither of us gets what we want. It's no deal. But we can do it agreeably.

And absolutely central to this is the need to be agreeable. If the other guy refuses to be agreeable, then the discussion will not even take place.

That is, I am happy to go for lose-lose. I am doing it agreeably. You are the double loser. You have not gained the victory you wanted and you have lost the relationship.


I have maintained my dignity, and so I have also won a small personal victory!!!!

It's just a different way of thinking about things non-aggressively.

And simply walking away from a rude customer with ne'er a word and your dignity intact is win-win. They get what they seem to want. And when you maintain your dignity, you can never be criticised for being angry or rude. So you win by losing a bad customer and having space for a good one to replace him/her and by maintaining your good name.

[leapstallbuildings]

You are absolutely right. In negotiations question get the other party to open there hand, ,so you can see all there cards. But addresses the human need to be heard by you. I am listening to you. and trying to understand your needs. In the mean time you are sizing them up for the kill.

What's wrong with going for win-win?

The truth of it is, you can't "win" in an argument. If you win the argument, you've lost the relationship.

If you argue, there are two possible outcomes. You win or you lose. The same is true for the other guy. See the diagram below. The ideal is to avoid arguing and go for agreement on both sides. That means ...

1 - I win and you win. We both get what we want. This is NOT a negotiation in which we both agree to get less than we want, but a situation in which we both work together to get the best outcome for each other.

If we can't get to win-win, then I will accept ...

2 - I win, you lose. I will not force you to lose. The only way you can lose is by doing it deliberately. I can live with that.

There is one result that I simply will not allow to happen, and that is ...

X - You win and I lose. I cannot tolerate this outcome.

If you insist on going for this, it will have to be ...

3 - We both lose. Neither of us gets what we want. It's no deal. But we can do it agreeably.

And absolutely central to this is the need to be agreeable. If the other guy refuses to be agreeable, then the discussion will not even take place.

That is, I am happy to go for lose-lose. I am doing it agreeably. You are the double loser. You have not gained the victory you wanted and you have lost the relationship.


I have maintained my dignity, and so I have also won a small personal victory!!!!

It's just a different way of thinking about things non-aggressively.

And simply walking away from a rude customer with ne'er a word and your dignity intact is win-win. They get what they seem to want. And when you maintain your dignity, you can never be criticised for being angry or rude. So you win by losing a bad customer and having space for a good one to replace him/her and by maintaining your good name.

I once read a book called "I'm right, you're wrong"  Was an interesting read.
I can think of a classic example of this situation that happened with me and a customer some years back.  The customer complained about my standard of work and cancelled over the phone.  She refused to pay.  It seemed odd to me because I had been cleaning for her for quite a while and I was pretty sure I had done nothing different to normal (it was trad cleaning back then).  She wouldn't allow me to inspect the work or to try to putr it right - which seemed unreasonable to me.  I was happy to accept that I had lost a customer.  I could even tolerate not getting paid.  But my offer to put it right was not conditional on keeping her custom or on getting paid.  So I phoned her back to discuss it further stating that if she wasn't allowing me to check/put right any bad work, then it was reasonable for her to pay me.  In the end, I suggested that although she didn't want to pay me, perhaps she would consider donating the price of the clean to a charity.  That way she doesn't feel that I've won.  She agreed to this and sent me the receipt.  I regard that as "win-win".  I was happy to lose the customer because it was pretty clear that things would never again be alright between us.  I wasn't so bothered about not getting paid (it was a small job).  I could feel good because a charity benefitted.  She could feel good because a charity benefitted.  She could feel good because I hadn't gained financially from a job that she regarded as substandard.

[ccmids]

Turn it right round back to them, always reply with a question, this will embaress them usually.

That was quick-

  What do you mean?

It didn't take you very long-

  Have you been timing me?

No, just seems your not here 5 minutes-

  How long does it usually take me?

It will usually end here, they are taken aback as THEY are not prepared to be questioned & struggle to answer leading to them dropping the issue pretty quickly.
Try it, it's very effective.


It will usually only get this far but you get the Idea

its a nice day today ,  "is it"?,

do you want a cup of tea ,   "do you"?

[wizard]

Wally the customer never looses they get the job down what we are talking about is getting to a quicker solution to the problem of comunication.You have been reading to much Steven Covey`s 7 habits Mate I also enjoy his work.Thanks Mate.

[paul saunders]

You are absolutely right. In negotiations question get the other party to open there hand, ,so you can see all there cards. But addresses the human need to be heard by you. I am listening to you. and trying to understand your needs. In the mean time you are sizing them up for the kill.

What's wrong with going for win-win?

The truth of it is, you can't "win" in an argument. If you win the argument, you've lost the relationship.

If you argue, there are two possible outcomes. You win or you lose. The same is true for the other guy. See the diagram below. The ideal is to avoid arguing and go for agreement on both sides. That means ...

1 - I win and you win. We both get what we want. This is NOT a negotiation in which we both agree to get less than we want, but a situation in which we both work together to get the best outcome for each other.

If we can't get to win-win, then I will accept ...

2 - I win, you lose. I will not force you to lose. The only way you can lose is by doing it deliberately. I can live with that.

There is one result that I simply will not allow to happen, and that is ...

X - You win and I lose. I cannot tolerate this outcome.

If you insist on going for this, it will have to be ...

3 - We both lose. Neither of us gets what we want. It's no deal. But we can do it agreeably.

And absolutely central to this is the need to be agreeable. If the other guy refuses to be agreeable, then the discussion will not even take place.

That is, I am happy to go for lose-lose. I am doing it agreeably. You are the double loser. You have not gained the victory you wanted and you have lost the relationship.


I have maintained my dignity, and so I have also won a small personal victory!!!!

It's just a different way of thinking about things non-aggressively.

And simply walking away from a rude customer with ne'er a word and your dignity intact is win-win. They get what they seem to want. And when you maintain your dignity, you can never be criticised for being angry or rude. So you win by losing a bad customer and having space for a good one to replace him/her and by maintaining your good name.

Yeah ............... what you said!!

[Spruce]

Hi
Got sent this a few years ago, and although it's nothing related to window cleaning the principle must still apply.

"The Law of the Garbage Truck

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space  right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost caused an accident and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, full of disappointment and rage. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't pick up their garbage and spread it to other people in your life, whether at work, at home, or to people that you don't even know on the streets.
Always remember that good people do not let garbage trucks take over their
day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so.....
'Love the people who treat you right and forgive the ones who don't.'
"Always be YOURSELF because the people who matter won't MIND, and the ones who do mind don't matter."