We have a Cleaning company that provides services like Janitorial, floor cleaning, and carpet cleaning residential and commercial, and we only do window cleaning for our commercial clients on ground level only, I fell off a ladder once and got lucky and landed in some bushes and nothin happened besides scrapes and scratches.
Lately while cleaning carpets the customers ask more and more often for window cleaning and at first I was like nahh but it’s gettin to a point to where I can book those jobs it’s about 20 a month plus we have a good size customer base to where all we need to do is push it while in the home doing something else.
I have been looking at some WFP in WCR and decided we are going to pull the trigger and do it next year in the mean time we are going to practice with friends and family till we get to a point to where I am comftrable workin with he WFP.
Is there toi much of a difference between the ladder & sqweege and WFP?
Most janitorial companies have many staff, do you have someone who is proficient in window cleaning or you just planning on doing it yourself?
If I were in your particular situation I would probably consider subbing the work out to someone who specializes as 90% of professional window cleaners will not want to touch the janitorial side so you would not have to worry about them stealing your work like another thread.
In my region I compete with janitorial companies daily on window cleaning and I have well over 10k invested in specialized equipment for window cleaning/pressure washing.
When they are using the squeegee they got from the hardware store (with the original rubber they bought it with 12 months ago) and using windex after they squeegee and buff it out coz they have left the glass in a worst state than when they started. Yet “Claim” to offer “Professional” window cleaning.
All I can say if the above statement in anyway reflects your method, I would strongly advise you to sub the work out or your overall repuatation may suffer. if not there are over 100 threads on gear you need or should have starting up.
In my region my advantage over the janitorial compaies who are chasing residential window cleaning is, they will not guarntee what I will. That is I guarntee the windows will be streak, spot and smear free or they will be recleaned free of charge.
A WFP will not eliminate the need to get on a ladder, completely. Especially in residential.
To be honest, I don’t like the idea of " Jack of all trades, master of none", because it’s hard to be really good at one thing, when you are doing everything. I don’t go to a car mechanic and ask for plumbing work to be done, nor do I call the HVAC guy to pour a concrete driveway.
I’m not knocking you because you are trying to capture dollars. I just think if you are investing in a WFP, you should be a pro window person, or the investment is a waste, because you won’t get the results you think you will. What happens when those second story windows don’t turn out good with a WFP, and you need to nose to glass them to get them right? Do you just say pass, or do you ladder up and make it right with the customer?
I also own a multi service cleaning company and I will echo the above statements. Since It is more difficult to train window cleaning than the other tasks you mentioned your business will be more efficient with just one or two dedicated window cleaners.
Even if you have a WFP you will still need to do ladder work. You will also find that a lot of good cleaning employees should not be doing ladder work. Proficient window cleaning employees will also need to be paid more than the other employees.
I mitigate all of the above challenges by doing all of the WC jobs solo. Plus, I need to maximize the opportunities for WC to sustain and improve my skill.
Thanks for the Input, I do the window cleaning, and they look really good but Mostly on commercial work that we have contract with, we’ve sub it out to other cleaners but it seems that in this area many cleaners are all skecthy or look like they are on drugs or something, and the more established cleaners are too busy to worry about doing a small residential home, we have several customers like golf courses, and other customers where where is a ton of windows on ground level, I may need to build a customer base to hire an experienced window cleaner.
Well yeah, I understand that but these services are all connected to “cleaning” and the customers ask, I also know how to say NO to what I have no clue what to do and before I add a service we do a lot of training before even charging a dollar our reputation is on the line, so I’ve turned down so much work this year and it does get annoying but at the same time I’ve seen some guys charging really low prices like dirt cheap that make me don’t want to touch he residential side of it.
We cleaned the carpets of a home the other day 2500 sq ft newer home I saw the invoice 2 story house around 40 windows, in/out 98 dollars, so that kind of turn me off.
I know I have the picture of the invoice, the home is on a hill unleveled ground and inside it has high ceiling on the living room so you needand extension on or a ladder, so for and I’ve seen several clients that have been charge that kind of prices, I may just stick with what I have for now. But I will definetly buy a WFP for what I have.
Maybe the homeowner wasn’t price shopping for the lowest bidder. Perhaps they chose the only window cleaner they could find.
If the homeowners are comfortable with your services they would probably be receptive to your WC prices. Most homeowners want to minimize the amount of strangers working in their homes.
You are right on that, we have a good relationship with our customers and when we clean carpets we are all over there home, places where not even dfamily members have access, and have been told that they would like to have someone they trust to do most of their cleaning in their home, and commercial customers as well, it’s easier for them to have us do the window cleaning than start the process of getting bids and getting to know a new vendor.
What did the windows look like after the clean? Could your service have done better for a proper price? (at least $400, more with dirty tracks and screens and unsafe ladder placements).
I don’t have a window cleaning add-on for you but I had a van Mount carpet cleaning machine for 20 years, and the best thing I ever did was get rid of it and stop cleaning carpets! That’s the advice I can give you
