photo by Tyler Stoller
Have your regular residential customers been sleeping on window cleaning sessions for the slow season? Has your line been silent because the North Pole’s phones (and the department stores’) have been “jingling” off the hook?
Well, window cleaner, do we have a solution for you that will “deck your halls” with “boughs” of money: adding Christmas light hanging as an add-on service to your customers.
Hanging Christmas lights on people’s homes during the winter season is an amazing way to book yourself up when the season is slow. You’ve got the ladder, the grind-mindset, and the roomy schedule. Why not illuminate your calendar (and your profit margins) by hanging Christmas lights for your customers? In this week’s Window Cleaner University article, we’ll provide some tips on creating a profitable Christmas Light add-on business for your pre-existing window cleaning company.
What You Can Include to Fill Your “Santa’s Bag”
Your Christmas lighting and decoration services can include a range of offerings, such as different kinds of lights, extra services like gutter cleaning, a warranty on the lights themselves, removal services, and more. You can offer different packages from economically friendly to luxurious to have a wide span of clientele. The way you set up your installation packages is ultimately up to you, but we’ve got some tips that can get you started to make a brainstorm from a snowstorm!
Light Types
There are so many different kinds of lights that can make your customer’s home look brilliant in front of the December night sky. Offering a range of lower-priced string lights, mid-priced bulb lights, and higher-priced energy-friendly LED lights allows customers to pick what best fits their budget. Then, you can get yourself a carbon fiber, multi-section XERO Holiday Light Pole that includes an acme and a European angle adapter, or, if you just need the attachment, the Docazoo Docapole Big-Reach Pole Hook Attachment to help you reach hooks that are up high.
Gutter Cleaning
If your customers didn’t have a chance to get their gutters cleaned after the leaves fell, a nice thing to offer alongside stringing up their pretty lights is to clear the gutters out. This can provide the usual protection against weather, leaks, and excess debris in and around their home, all while protecting the lights themselves from possible damage from twigs, branches, and other natural waste. This is great to offer upfront so you don’t get caught in a “while you’re up there” moment.
Make sure your hands are nice and toasty, though, by treating yourself to a pair of waterproof gloves such as the Unger Neoprene Gloves. The neoprene exterior and foam insulation layer keeps your skin warm, dry, and protected from the chilling wind when working out in low temperatures. These gloves can even improve your grip while working.
To make your gutter cleaning services fly by even faster, give yourself the gift of the superior XERO Gutter Vac Pack, which features XERO’s carbon fiber gutter pole and IPC Eagle’s Gutter Vacuum. This pair is a match made in gutter cleaning heaven. The 30-foot pole is modular, has an end piece constructed at the perfect angle to cover the entire surface area of the gutters, and the vacuum has a 17-gallon tank that tips over for easy dumping. If you aren’t ready for that big of an investment, check out the Gutter Sense Gutter Cleaning Tool. Hook it up to a traditional extension pole, such as the XERO Carbon Fiber Trad Pole 2.0, to get rid of debris in gutters. Providing clean gutters will make stringing up the lights easier and will improve the appearance of your customer’s home when it is all said and done.
Removal Services
Getting up on a ladder is not the easiest or safest thing for people to do. Since you put the lights up in the first place, removing them can be a snap and something you can include in your array of services. Taking them down is fast as you don’t need to be meticulous about it. Once they’re off the roof, put them in storage bins either provided by your customer or supplied by you for an extra little profit. Providing the option to keep their lights in a bin at home is great because you aren’t responsible for storage and it incentivizes the customer to call you back for next year since you’re familiar with the process.
Customizable Display
For your customers that are Christmas fanatics, your standard offering of lights around windows and the roof may not be enough. That’s why offering customizable displays that are above average is crucial. Some folks really like to spruce up their houses for the holidays and will pay top dollar for the extraordinary. You can gain high-paying clients from those who want their entire home covered in lights to those who want carefully crafted designs that take a keen eye to create. Customizable displays that err on the side of luxury can increase your price point and make your services even more upscale.
Having a Payment Process that Best Suits Your Business
There are lots of steps when it comes to hanging those sparkly holiday lights for your window cleaning customers. You first have to make sure you have the lights purchased, have storage bins to keep them safe after they’re removed and have a warranty in place in case of damage. These up-front costs can be calculated and paid for even before you and your employees get to hanging up the lights, and here’s how.
Some cleaners suggest taking multiple payments for these kinds of jobs. You can start by asking for 20% of the total cost upfront at booking (which should be around the total sum of your materials). Then, right before you and your employees head out to string up the lights, you can take the 60% payment that covers the manual labor. The final payment of 20% can be collected when the lights are removed and ensures income is still making its way into your account. However, those percentages can be easily adjusted to fit your business model.
If you’d rather take equal payments, set up a monthly plan that makes the most sense for you and your customer. If you have your customer’s credit card on file and form a contract where they agree to finance the service, you can charge them automatically until the balance is collected. This way, your customer feels at ease and happy that they can afford to have this service for the holidays. Of course, there are always some customers who will have cash on hand and may prefer to pay you in full so consider offering a discount to incentivize them. ‘Tis the season of giving, after all!
Being flexible when it comes to taking payments will always make you a smarter, well-prepared business person.
Still Have Questions?
Don’t sweat it! If there is anything you’re unsure about, want to learn more about, or need advice on, do not hesitate to reach out to us. Window Cleaning Resource is here for you 24/7, with the help of our super-friendly window cleaning experts.
Having owned their own window cleaning business, too, they have tons of information on window cleaning products, business tips, and more, even if you want to talk shop.
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