Window Cleaners Take Heed

Yikes, I am a day behind on my post... damn I hate that.

Anyhow today's topic will be focused on the residential window cleaners of the world.

This is going to be a super sized edition today as I want to cover two areas of cash flow. One being continuity and the other being lost opportunities.

First we will start with creating forced continuity. Forced continuity is someone signing up for service on a predetermined schedule (i.e. get their windows cleaned every x months). I find WAY too many businesses overlook this for whatever reason.

You should begin implementing some things immediately:

• Create something you can leave at EVERY job. You want to make a sales page that discusses the service options (i.e. in and out cleaning or exterior only). I would leave a place on the page to hand write a price for each service for their home. Of course the price needs to be right, full price will fail. There needs to be a perceived good deal here-

Only $79 for all exterior windows cleaned inside and out

• Choice on scheduling- every 2, 3, 4, 6, etc.. months. I would offer deeper discounts for more frequency-

Take $10 off if you sign up for bi-monthly cleanings!

• Be sure to remind them why your service is so great for them. Also tell them about how great it will be to have care free clean windows all year long.

For those of you thinking this is not worth it, you should re-think that. I average $300 more per customer I have signed up per year. That is $300 I would not have. That is work in the winter or "off" months. That could mean thousands it total gross revenue per year and spending nothing on advertising it.

Do you know what else you get? A monster force field around your customer! They are not going anywhere, ever. (unless you screw it up). To say this is a HUGE missed opportunity for you is an understatement. If you have multiple services try this on any of them or all of them.

Lost Opportunity #1

In this time of economic peril, we need to make sure we are covering all of our bases. When you advertise your window cleaning do you ever advertise a budget friendly version? Do you have a super sized version? Why not? One size fits all?... not likely.

Most companies have just straight up window cleaning. No grand version, no simple version. You may be saying to yourself that "we are not going to cut the superior quality or extras like screen cleaning or sill cleaning". No? what if there is people wanting to give you money for just that. Keep in mind they read your "budget" package and they are all for it. They know that it does not come with the bells and whistles and want to sign up now because of that.

What if you don't have this choice, do you think they will just pay more? What if $200 is too much but $150 schedules the job? It will take less time because you have less to do, so throwing money out the window because of some weird sense of pride is not smart.

Now the opposite is also true. You need some high end choices too. I mean you use the great soap that leaves lasting shine, you power scrub tracks/sills, you hand clean screens, you clean their bathroom mirrors, whatever. I call this my All Inclusive Package. You know when they call on this they are expecting to pay more and expecting amazing results. You give it and they give you a fat check. Everyone is happy, but more importantly you just earned more money with zero extra advertising and got a customer you may not have otherwise got.

Did I mention you also separate yourself from your competitors?

Lost Opportunity #2

If you happen to advertise a special price like- Up to 20 windows cleaned inside and out only $175

Do you have an out only price? I make a killing doing this because it is far easier to get those that will not pay $175 to pay $79-$99. I can't tell you how many people say "I do my own windows, I just don't want to do the outs". You may allow your weird pride to barf up a "but their interior windows will still look like crap"... so? They know why and they will just get to work on cleaning their own inside windows (likely to have you do it next time). YOU do not reflect a bad impression.

The lost money we could be talking about is 10s of thousands of dollars per year. It cost NOTHING more to advertise these things. Your customer list will explode in size in one year. Referrals will be everywhere (if you do good work and are not a schmuck)

Now go get some!


Paul

p.s. I still operate my window cleaning company in Minneapolis