Residential - Rain Dates?

What system does everyone have for effectively rescheduling residential clients due to rain/weather?

We do 10-15 residential cleans per day; Monday-Friday. When we’re booked for 8 weeks out it upsets some people that ask to reschedule due to rain… and they have to wait 8 weeks for another available date.

I know we shouldn’t be booked out 8 weeks, that’s our first problem. But assuming we can’t fix that issue for now how do we go about solving this problem?

I’m a small operation but if you are booked out 8 weeks and have that much work everyday, it sounds like you have room to expand. I would get another crew out there to cover more in a day. But again I am just a 2 man company and don’t have anywhere near your work load so I could be completely wrong. That’s awesome you have such a thriving business.

Thank you Chaz. That’s definitely a good idea and trust me we could use several more crews. But it doesn’t solve the problem I think. Even if we had 50 crews, rain happens, customers reschedule. And you definitely don’t want to tell employees to sit at home because everyone rescheduled.

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option we use is a partial clean. If the client is booked on Tues. and they want to rescheduledue to weather on Thurs. We offer them a Exertior of the important pieces of glass on Thurs or Fri at our convience. Then when we have the the time in the schedule to clean the whole house tack on the extra amount.

“I am so sorry Ms. X, our schedule is packed full or the next two weeks. I can’t get you back on the books until then. Is that ok? What I may have time for is just a partial clean on Friday. Caught the important windows. That could get you by until we can get you back on the schedule on (date). Is that a better option?”

What about utilizing Saturdays?

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You know, David, this brings up the deeper problem, that of a jam packed schedule. I run into the same thing with m-f storefront booked every week, all year.

How often is weather an issue?
If it is once a week minimum, it may be advantageous to actually schedule a day or half a day empty (ex: Fridays) because you know weather will be an issue.

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Just had this, Monday did the interior of a huge home as it was raining. Went back today and finished the exterior as nothing else was booked for today (Solo operator with a temp guy for huge jobs). Otherwise the exterior would have been rescheduled for next week. Does suck to have staff with nothing to do because of rain. Interiors get done, then weather permitting exteriors. What else can you do?

Saturdays not an option. We really try to make sure everyone gets 2 days off. Especially because the office is not open on Saturdays so there’s no support for the crew if they run into an issue.

I guess it’s not an issue ALL the time but when it does happen it really is annoying. I like the idea of having one day; say Friday; only booked to half capacity. That way if there are a few reschedules we can fit them into Friday.

I really don’t like the idea of doing half a job then going back. Seems very inefficient.

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@Garry. I do the same thing. I can see how it would be really hard to leave a day open each week when you have crews.

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Saturdays totally change jobs with overtime pay.

Tough to only get a weekend crew and quality.

I’m booked easily 8 weeks and dont mind.

Easy to say add another crew, reliability and quality are tough to maintain the more crews you have. Especially with seasonal work and trying to keep employees year after year.

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Ya Don’t like that either Waste of time. I wouldn’t leave Friday half day either.
Seems like you jace no problem filling your schedule , so if I where you I would try An give them the next available date if they can’t wait them that’s just the way it is.
I would also reconsider finding guys that could work the occasional Saturdays. Therr is always someone lookin to make more money.
For me if I were you it would be mandatory for my guys to work occasionally Saturdays. Just to fill in the rain days. Do they get paid if it rains, An jobs cancel ?

Week is mostly filled up, pouring down rain for an in/out job, the next week is full up too. How to juggle when Mother Nature has you by the short hairs? Cut the return visit in half or more by doing the outside when the rain stops. :slight_smile:

I say do a Saturday. Even if that means YOU have to go and do it. If the customers dont have a problem waiting, then dont but if it is someone you want to keep happy, I would. Roofers do it. Home during the week because of rain, they pick up the slack on the weekend. Still 2 days off but also, paying overtime sometimes, is worth it and a lot of guys won’t mind picking up a few extra hours.

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I tend to agree with you on this. It’s not the most unreasonable thing if you miss a day during the week.

Personally, I don’t book 100% of my schedule. If you are going to chase every last possible dollar, be prepared for some backlash when something unexpected arises. It’s like the airlines booking each flight at 100% capacity and then struggling when the first thing goes wrong. Build the cushion into your pricing and scheduling during times of the year when weather is more likely to be a problem.

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I worked for 12 years for a large commercial window cleaning company, peek times there was up to 40 employees/sub contractors, but come June/July (winter) the crews were either rotated or given 3-4 weeks off if weather wasn’t good.

As a window cleaner there are just some jobs that can’t be done when its raining, as much as it sucks its why you go hard while the weather is good for those times its not.

With regards to residential, unless its bucketing down, I normally try to push on and get the outsides done when there are breaks in the weather. This will probably require a change of clothes if you are getting muddy on the outsides.

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Love that I live in Seattle and have zero rain days on the calendar.

Sprinkle is easy to convince people to continue one.

Our best defense against rain calculations was a backlog/floater list of non-rain impacted services.

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I don’t reschedule because of rain. No lightning where I live so no reason to do any additional schedule juggling.

I’ve agonized over this for years and unfortunately have never implemented anything consistently to make everyone happy. I think leaving open days or half-days a day or two per month would be the best for me. I’m a very small operation and my one full-time employee (son) has NO qualms about missing a day or full day sometimes :slight_smile:

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Other than make up days on the weekends, I would NOT know what a good solution is. Spring and fall tend to busy to the point of controlled chaos.

I know for me, being a small operation, it’s sometimes hard to get all my clients serviced when the weather won’t cooperate. Most people don’t want to be put off for a month, if it rains on appointment day. Heck, even new clients seem pretty impatient when the schedule is full.

If I were running crews, they would just have to work weekends and have rain days off, unpaid. I know that might suck, but like any other trade, we are at the mercy of the weather. You gotta do what you gotta do.

It’s a tough call for you David… I have no idea what to suggest.

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When all you do is residential and have crews there is no win for sure.

I’d say bite the bullet and do insides where possible at least keeps them working and keep some work happening and tried to get the exteriors in the next couple days. Other than that the customers just gonna be upset waiting 2 months.

We have the benefit on rain days we can go to an inside commercial job and then switch their date out for that resi. One reason why I like the mix commercial residential and store front.

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