Do you think i responded well?

i got this text yesterday after booking a job that morning for $495 (5000 sq foot house)

here is my reply (this was a customer of the business we bought 18 months ago)

I’m sorry but no, our price is calculated consistently for every home based on the scope of the work. I was unable to find an entry in the records sam gave us for 2014, 2015, or 2016 so i have no way to know what Sam charged last time, but base on the pane count and his published prices he should have charged no less than $332

We do not price match Sam’s old prices because when we purchased Sam’s business in 2016 his prices were already several years behind the market. Additionally our current rates are comparable among the best window cleaners in the area, but I believe we offer the best service.

When you hire Two Guys Window Cleaning you will get the actual owners doing the work, two drug free family men, we will do an excellent job, we will be courteous to you and to your property, and as you may see if you view our reviews online, all of our customers have been happy with us so far.

I hope you give us a chance to work for you."

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Very professional. You did a great job with your response. Let us know if you clean their windows.

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As always, if you get a lot of responses like that then certainly re-evaluate your pricing, but if this is rare or just not an often issue that you run into, then how you handled is appropriate. As a courtesy to being a customer from the previous owner you could offer 10% off? $50 bucks won’t hurt like $245 would.

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we don’t get this very often except from the customers of the business we bought. he was under priced and so many of his customers don’t get what window cleaning is actually worth. tons of his customers have said after we were done “you did a better job than sam did” and that’s reflected in our prices.

i don’t want to give away 10% for 3 reasons

the job is WORTH $495

if i drop it $50 now they still won’t be happy with $495 next time

we have to pay him 20% of any job from his customer so giving them 10% off means we get to keep 72% of the value of the job.

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will do, thanks

The house has 53 first floor panes and 30 2nd story panes

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More information means all the more that your response was the correct one. Already giving up 20% leaves no room for adjustments.

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Another tack that works is reply again and say “After giving it some more thought I understand and like you I try and get the most for my money as well. We would be happy to clean ( whatever amount of windows you would do for $250) any 25 windows you pick for $250.”

That way you keep the customer they pay what they want and you get what you want. Likely they just say do it all for your price.

But your answer was spot on.

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I think your response was great. Professional and enough info without getting too wordy or going on too long.

I get exactly why you feel no need to discount. Though it seems to me that Sam sure got the better end of the deal. He should be receiving 20% of HIS prices, not yours. He’s actually getting a bigger cut then he should be getting.

I had a bid 2 or 3 years ago on a house with 100 windows. Big house in the country. I quoted at 1000 for all windows and screens. They balked and replied they normally paid 350.00. My reply was in line with what you said. If some fool wants to spend all day cleaning windows for peanuts, good for them.

99% of the time, you get what you pay for, in life. I’m not cheap because I offer a premium service, and deliver on it. They can expect to know WHO is going to be in their home, and expect the quality of service I provide.

Good on you for standing your ground.

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this was her reply to my text.

we’ve used this one a few times, it helps.

more often we’re in the situation that they told me they have 20 windows on the phone so i give them a range of like $190-240 and then we show up and they have 30 windows. i used to say “it turns out there are more windows than we spoke about on the phone so the price will be $xxx” now i say “it turns out there are more windows than we spoke about on the phone, were there windows you wanted us to skip?” sometimes they’ll say “yes, skip the garage and x part of the house” but mostly they say, “oh, no, sorry, do all of them” i think it softens the blow of a higher price better.

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i like the arrangement because he gets 0% of jobs we don’t get. we’ve got some pretty good contacts from his business, we’ve just had to do a lot of trimming as well.

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Great post

This is very valuable to talk about, it is far too common where people undervalue the services they perform.

Largest part of running any solo or employee based business is pricing.

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Very well done.

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i think for the most part when you stick to your price people respect that, they may not hire you but they respect it.

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I would of charged about $528 for that many panes. I agree with you. Dropping the price is not the way to go. We know our worth. I made the mistake of lowering a bid because the lady had it done for around $350 instead of my quote $440. She said that she was unable to get a hold of her window cleaner. So as I have heard this so many times now knowing that window cleaner is out of business most likely for good reason. “Cheap”. I only wish I said well he’s not around for a reason to the lady and stuck with my prices.

@leavingnc

Ben great response, very professional and effective.

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Yep, when I ask what happened with the last guy and they say he is out of business, I quickly say “I don’t want to follow that path.”

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