I don’t mean to be pessimistic, I can’t wait to hear all the skeptics and critics I know its inevitable when I have what seems like a great idea.
With the worlds largest resource what can we do as a collective whole the sum of all the parts isnt greater than the whole or whatever. Look at all the training they put together on HGTV and DIY manipulating home buyers and DIYers what to expect when investing in homes and projects. Look at shows like ‘flip or flop’ and house hunters or property brothers and all the renovationi shows. They prepare buyers to estimate one thing and then all the problems come and the added expenses and that after they fork out the money everything seems to be fine and dandy. So enough of my debunking propoganda, why don’t we use this propoganda for our benefit. They always have contractors estimate demo costs and granite and flooring and roofing and landscaping and the viewers are trained to accept the costs associated with no questions if they expect to obtain the desired results. They always show a nasty house under renovation and demo and its always filthy even shows like restaurant impossible, they even sometimes show professional cleaning crews come in to clean up cockroach problems or deep cleaning kitchens, I guess the bug guys get the credit for the roaches.
HERE IS MY POINT, no exposure for window cleaning yet the windows are always clean. ALWAYS! Why doesn’t the largest resource on earth for window cleaners brainstorm a way to get some exposure and pricing floating around on TV that way next time we offer a quote to homeowner or contractor they’ve been propaganda’d into accepting it and understanding they can’t forget about the window cleaner when estimating costs.
ah, my first skeptic. Well neither do the other ones on the shows for which I speak but they do get exposure; nice try though I will not let you dismiss my idea that easily.
Cleaning windows is a boring and uninteresting chore. Unless you’re hanging off a building in beautiful Hawaii. Demoing a wall, building an addition, renovating a restaurant, seeing Snookie and the Kardashians make fools of themselves, makes for more interesting tv, than seeing a window go from dirty to amazing. We all know the importance of clean windows, and what it can do for a home on the market to sell, but people could care less. Clean windows don’t make good tv, boobies do.
Having said that, it would be nice if those shows did spend 5 seconds educating the viewer on the importance of hiring a pro to clean the glass.
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Well that five seconds that you speak of is my point thats what I posted this for it could be 5 seconds or it could be one minute, if you watch the shows they usually say something like this, " we found out that our swimming pool has to be demo d properly so were going to have to spend $5000 dollars now instead of just filling it in with rock and dirt. And then they’ll show a couple scenes of a few guys unloading a bobcat and then hammering the concrete and then they’ll do a little red thing of $5,000 dollars and poof the viewer is educated that you must properly handle things and they also know how much it costs.
So they could show a brand new house with all the stickers on the windows and be like we had to spend $1,200 dollars on cleaning the glass and show a few of the windows before during and after cleaning for like 10 seconds then flash the $1,200 dollars and poof the viewer is educated, then for some added drama they could try educating BRIEFLY (and this is just an afterthought) well now we have to replace these two windows because of fabrication debris. and booom slowly but surely all the diyers and investers and contractors in the world harmoniously accept window cleaning as an important part of the process including but not limited to paying them what they should. I mean I could talk about this with the chris and alex if they take its seriously but seriously they should. But I think if this makes sense they can just take my idea and see if they can run with it a little.
BTW that was a nice episode of dirty jobs; thats a start but not every window cleaner is rappelling down the tallest building in hawaii, that was very limited exposure and it didn’t even touch on the pricing, if you watch the shows im talking about they are intended to educate the viewers and brainwash them so to speak into accepting certain things about diy and home improvement. (controversial i know) but we can use that to our advantage like the others do. I mean who would pay 2000000000000000 for a 1 bedroom apartment in new york well if you watch the shows you know your going to have no choice because that cute couple on tv already had to. And who spends $3,000 to remove asbestos from the hvac i mean i thought it would be more like $1,200 well that cute couple on tv did so i guess i better just do it, and who spends $500 on cleaning windows well that cute couple on tv did and it must have been something that the owners didn’t want to do themselves because they hired a pro so thats what im going to do. capeche
Coke spends millions on a split second flash of their product in movies and they do this because its effective.
“thats a great idea jaran but there are just cheap people out there that dont care about this kinda stuff i mean theyre just going to jew you down on your price no matter what”
great point jaran, well tbh the show i watched last night was actually manipulating this exact type of person, the actor they have on flip or flop is told by the producers to act cheap and haggle with everyone but in the end he still ends up paying more than he wanted he always concedes to the prices of the contractors and in the end he wins he pays more but gets the desired results. perfect brainwashing and who cares its good brainwashing it helps out people trying to make a decent living like ourselves now we just need our piece of the pie, get us some exposure!
I was referring to The Drop pilot episode they did with a company in Hawaii, not the Dirty Jobs episode. They talked about pricing and the dangers. It was bad ass. That is interesting. Not us ground monkeys cleaning bird **** off a window on some random house.
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Well even if there WAS someone willing to front production costs and look for distro, there would be the problem of interest.
The show would either have to :
A: Go with the flow of every other reality show and make whoever starred on it look like a rabid buffoon, hence making the industry look bad.
I call it Snookification. People watched that show simply because it was a isht-show.
Ive been to Seaside a million times. Its boring.
or
B: Follow around a real window cleaner, and show them acting how they always do. Fun for about 15 minutes, then an absolute snoooozefest/
[MENTION=6381]Lee Burbidge[/MENTION] has the right idea, his stuff is entertaining yet not focused entirely on one person or aspect of the industry. People would watch that.
I watched a Bar Rescue or something a while back,
and [B]all[/B] they did to the exterior of the ‘ocean front’ restaurant was open the blinds and clean the windows.
It was visibly the ONLY difference.
I think they used the phrase “open up the place to make it more inviting.”
Regarding the idea of having the shows give the sticker shock, to get customers used to the high price…
In an ideal world, I’m all for it.
But people don’t decipher things half as well as you give them credit for.
"[I]Wow. I didn’t realize it would cost $1000 just to have my windows cleaned.[/I]"
What’s wrong with doing a job that other people think is boring? If everyone thinks a job is exciting, a bunch of people will rush into that occupation increasing competition and lowering profit margin.
Most customer just want the windows cleaned - they usually don’t care about all your window cleaning knowledge. It’s just the way it is.
I think there is a certain freedom with doing a job that isn’t “important.” Less stress if you have an “off” day and don’t do your job 100%. You also don’t feel bad if something comes up and you have to reschedule.
I think there might be quite a lot more stress on doing a “perfect job” if you were a heart surgeon. A little mistake could radically change someone’s life. If I miss a tiny spot on a window, I can rest assured that the world is going to be okay.
Window cleaning is the least “necessary” project done on a home. It is the thing you do when everything else looks great. It is the cherry on top of the sundae after you’ve eaten a great meal. Nothing wrong with that. It helps to see things from other people’s perspective, though. The whole world doesn’t revolve around us.
Jaran, I get what your saying. It would be great to see a sped up 5 second clip & quick price of our services on the vanilla ice project or other shows like it. Great brainstorming. What breed you choking, I’m dry on ideas like this
