I learned a long time ago not to give away the clean up cost to get them as a regular customer. Too often you get customers who just want a one time cleaning and they try to imply they will consider a regular schedule to get a good up front price.
I give a one time price that includes first time clean up charge and then I offer a contract that distributes the first time clean up charge over the blogs of the contract. This makes the first time clean pretty close to the regular price as well as each consecutive cleaning. If they don’t want to sign a contract then they don’t have any intention of doing anything regular anyways and they need to pay full price for the initial ckeaning.
I always put an early but out clause in my contracts so customers can break the contract early if they want to. They just have to pay the remainder of the first time clean up charge a long with a 30 day notice.
As for cleaning the glass you have to clean it just as good as residential. The glass needs to be clear and sparkle like a mother. But now your getting paid for it so no need to scrimp. Steel wool is the best. If the job needs more scrubbing on subsequent cleanings I use a hogs hair brush which does an excellent job of removing heavier dirt that hasn’t sat on the glass too long.
That’s my approach and it has worked well for me.
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I completely agree here. I can understand the other side too, but I’m in a place I don’t need to worry about getting everyone that call, on my list. I’m more concerned with profits, and jobs being profitable.
I also agree here. I’ve noticed that commercial is JUST as demanding as resi. Storefronts in town, not so much from the conditions of the windows I have seen. That’s where sloppier work seems to be more acceptable.
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One problem, though, is that I don’t think I can charge the amount necessary to clean to the same standard as resi. I’d get outbid every time. Unless it’s a quarterly or semi-annual job, wfp isn’t gonna be enough, but a lift is too expensive/inpractical in many cases. But you’re not gonna remove silicone, for example, with wfp. So either it stays or you need to be nose to glass, which they’d need to be willing to pay for.
We use wfp daily on 1 or 2 cleaning per year. Even on some new jobs that havnt been cleaned for a few years.
Maybe your standards are too high to be profitable. It’s great to do a good job but there can be excessive time wasted possibly
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There is a line to draw in your business on what a clean window is and how long it should take to get there with being profitable.
Often a good window cleaner spends more time than necessary just because their need for perfection is higher than many customer’s.
Find your balance that achieves 100% customer satisfaction and a high profit rate.
This is another side of your business that need to be fine tuned.
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I struggle with this. I want a perfect window. I confess, I seldom get that as we SEE everything and the clients look through.
The principle of diminishing returns should be practiced effectively. The guy that trained me told me that;
" getting 100% on a window gets you $20-30 an hour. Getting 95-98% gets your $50-70 and hour and 92-94% gets you $80-100; you choose."
His $0.02 and all the others combined still add up to $0.02, it you, the owner/WC that must choose what you’re willing to do and the client accepts to get the full $1.
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@WindowGuysLV good thoughts.
I find myself reminding the new guys that swe need to learn the right way with no complaints but we also need to make money.
Need to be conscientious about how much time is being spent per window. Finding efficient methods helps
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I use the scotch 3m non scratch pads as well, steel wool not a fan.
The first point was not about keeping the job as a regular customer but about getting full price for a first time clean. Customers often try to get you to drop your initial first time clean up price by promising to go on a regular basis but they don’t intend to do so. They just want you to drop your initial price and then they only do a one time clean.
Because you never know if customers are being honest about going regular, and giving a lower up front price can help to land the job, offering a contract to such customers, where you spread the clean up cost over a year allows you to still get full price for the first time clean as well as offer a lower up front price to the customer. It is about profitability and keeping prices high while still being competitive on price.
This approach makes you very competitive because you not only get dull price, which allows you to take the time to do a great initial clean without sacrific8ng your profit, but it also keeps your initial price lower.
It also helps to weed out those customers who aren’t serious about going regular. It safe guards you from giving work away.
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I would discuss this with the customer. Put the decision on them. Do a thorough examination of the condition of the job during the bidding process and then go over with the customer the details of the job. This allows the cust9mer to see with the price is higher and give them the option of not worrying about the silicone or other details for a more general cleaning at a lessor price.
I think the issue is communicating the value of your price so when the customer compared it to other bids they can see where the difference in price is.
Just my thoughts.
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