Yea, this particular job for today is a difficult clean. I feel I price it right for the work involved, albeit a tad high, but it is a full on 6+ hour job with snack break. I won’t really miss it if it ends here.
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How do you get a $100 cancellation deposit?
So I get this e-mail today from Fridays cancellation…
"Hi Garry,
I’m so sorry I missed you, I’m not sure what happened as I was home. Must have been in another world. We’ll be home for the rest of the week, so just let me know your next availability. Thanks so much and apologies again!
Best regards,"
Weird, because I knocked on the door, rang the door bell, the dog barked, left a phone message, and left an e-mail - then dropped door hangers in the neighborhood for the next hour. Yet no response until today.
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Could you please tell me how you word the cancellation policy?
Do customers ever refuse to the point of refusing service? (I guess that would be a major red flag)
If so, what percentage?
Timely that this subject pops up…
I just showed up to a job this morning. Last time I serviced them, no one was home, and I got the garage code to enter the property. She scheduled her fall cleaning two weeks ago. Never said if she would be home or not, never mentioned anything else.
I show up this morning, and no one answers the door. Here sister who lives next door, isn’t home either. Garage code doesn’t work. So I emailed her (didn’t have her phone number) and told her the situation, told her if she emailed me back very soon, we could get the job done. Otherwise I would reschedule her. Still haven’t heard from her.
This (cancellation) hardly ever happens, but when it does, it shoots that time slot in the ass. I don’t have a cancellation policy that I enforce, which will be changing in the future. Starting next year I am going to be using Markate, and it has the ability to have signed (by the client) quotes and invoices. I’ll be adding the cancellation policy in there somewhere and they are going to sign off on it, and the other terms I plan on adding. They will get a notice (email or text) 24-48 hours before the job, about my arrival. And likely get the text reminder set for an hour before I arrive.
This generally isn’t a big issue for many of us, but for me today, that was a 500 dollar loss. When I add power washing next Spring, I may not have any availability to HAVE another slot to put them in. I’m not really holding this one too much against my client, because the reality is, she probably changed the code and forgot to tell me. People forget stuff. But I’d like to streamline things better, and I feel this new software will assist me there. Had I asked her about the code, or had something in an e-mail, I may not have had this issue.
“We take a $100 credit card deposit to confirm your date. The deposit is refundable up to 48 hours before the appointment.”
Maybe 2 or 3 people a year reuse it, and it is a major red flag.
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When someone asks me to reschedule because of rain, I tell them I never pay attention to the weather 
and that we can come back if the rain effects the window cleaning.
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If it was just rain I would probably have the same policy. When it rains here it s usually thunder atoems with cloud to ground lightening so its not just rain. The issue is the lightening. Years ago Im came pretty close to getting hit so Im real careful with it now…
I’ve had 3 cancelations recently…
Not sure what the big deal is with all the cancelations lately but at least they give a few days notice.
I guess it’s not busy season yet 
maybe they see the coast to coast storm coming this week
in ancient of days, all that was out there was a 3 day forecast in the newspaper and a 5 day, which was even more inaccurate back then, on local tv news
It definitely happens more at this time of year. When the spring comes and they want to cancel, they usually change their minds when I tell them that the next availability is in August
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Hey @Narcos
I’m wondering what your pre-appointment communication process is?
Let me explain.
For me, I call or text the customer a few days before as a reminder and they confirm the day/time still works. Then on the day of their appointment, when I’m about 20-30 minutes from their place, I text or call to let them know.
Real World Example:
I texted a customer yesterday for an appointment on Wednesday. She let me know the original appointment arrival window works, but has to leave early for something. That info is good, as I can adjust when I plan to arrive.
Curious what your process and sharing mine if helps. Cancellations are a bummer.
It was mainly cancelations from a few homeowners that were selling their home and one that had a photo shoot and one guy claimed he didn’t get my estimate via email so he canceled the day off and we rescheduled to a different date.
My pre appointment process is non existent lol, I just schedule them in and show up but I might start calling 24 hrs before the date to confirm.
I think I’ll probably just schedule them in and let them know I’ll reach out 24 hrs before the date to confirm.
I don’t really have much of an issue with people canceling on the day of service but if it starts being a problem I’ll probably collect a deposit.
Edit: I’ll probably tell them I’ll reach out via text 24 hours before the date to confirm and make sure the number they called from is a cell and not some landline.
Use Jobber, I have automated texts and emails set at 7 days out and a final reminder at 24 hours out
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This is a great strategy. I will have to see if my crm can do something similar.
Definitely consider doing some pre-appointment process. I think it creates a better customer experience.
Also how are things going now that you left the office job and made the leap to full time business?
Going good!
I quit at a good time around September when I had decent work lined up and slowly de-stressed from the office job throughout the winter. The office jobs stress piled up cause we always had an unhealthy amount of customer complaints and the owner was an absentee owner so I was always left dealing with the bs in the office, not to mention we had 2 old salesmen who didn’t understand technology.
The job had pros and cons but was more stress and low $ than was worth.
I was able to make 4x the income in my business than at my job but I was part time in the job (by choice and revenue not profit).
Right now I’m dealing with getting all the insurance needed for commercial jobs cause I’m tired of losing out on work.
How bout you?
Really stoked to read that things have gone well for you and that leaving the office job has paid off.
Going good here too.
Year one had peaks and valleys as I was trying to learn both how to run a business and the technical skills to clean windows.
Year two is better, though get leads remains a struggle. Also trying to improve the customer experience, job pricing and online presence of my company.
As always, your success is a great encouragement. Keep it up!
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