Before we start any job we have our clients sign off on the service. The service is black and white no room for interpretation. What is included in a standard cleaning and what the prices are for additional add on services are all on this sheet. Yesterday, a crew was out at someone’s house and they explained the service and had the homeowner sign off on the service. The homeowner opted to have the windows cleaned under the standard service. Our standard service does not include having all the windows scraped. At the end of the job the homeowner said he would not pay for the service because of the windows having small specks of paint on a few panes. The guys went back and did the scraping to make the owner happy at no charge. Guy paid and they left. He left a 5 min message at our office claiming how unprofessional the guys were that were at his house and how they wanted to charge him additional for something that should have been included in the service. As far as I’m concerned they handled it pretty well and they should have charged home for the additional half hour spent going over every window with him.
How do you handle these types of clients? How do you respond to a message like this?
Sounded like you handled it quite well. You gave over & above the standard service for no charge. I’d repeat what was included in the standard charge & emphasize you gave him more than his moneys worth at no extra. There will always be those kind of clients, you now know, not to go there again if you choose.
The real issue is that some customers think that getting windows “professionally cleaned” means that the glass will look like it just came out of the box…it can be that…as long as they are ready to pay for it… but until that is clear some folks just don’t know any better…
I make things clear in my talk with new customers…most have no problem with it.
First, i want to say i think your guys handled it pretty well and sounded like they wanted to keep the customer happy and you have to love that.
One issue with that scenario is that once the homeowner brought up the concern that the windows were not cleaned to their liking, the crew went back and scraped off the paint. Basically, when the crew went back and scraped the windows they confirmed the homeowners idea that they missed something.
Personally, from the moment a crew sees paint they should stop work immediately and inform the homeowner and remind them that there is a extra charge for that (even after the agreement and verbal reminder was given to the customer). This way the customer feels control of the work being done but not so much control that it causes more ‘free’ work.
This is the way we handle these situations and works well but sometimes some customers can be challenging no matter what.
Why continue to offer this less than satisfactory level of service? Regardless of what they first agreed upon you can bet your @ss(in their opinion) they are talking about how poorly your crew cleaned their windows. Seems like your setting yourself up for the headaches.
I cannot tell you how often first time clients have complained to me about other window cleaners who nickel and dime them to a point where it has been so much easier to find another window cleaner. If your gonna give an estimate, give one so that if you land the job you will leave the client impressed and satisfied. Just seems so damn easy.
[SIZE=1][FONT=times new roman]“What would be the price to have the dirt and dust removed from my glass?
How much extra to have the paint/stain removed from the glass?
How much more would it cost to have the hard water stains removed from that same glass?”[/FONT][/SIZE]
Just sounds fu(ked up when they hired you to just clean their damn glass really.
Sounds like a win win for you. Either you get into a job and its bad and you have charged for it or they are mildly dirty and you score a larger paycheck. Not a bad way to give estimates.
I guess i have felt that not bidding worse case scenario on every home gives the customer more control of what their spending money and therefore instills trust. Also, it allows me the chance to be slightly more competitive in price.
Competition is something the quality of my work does not have to be concerned with. This may sound arrogant but when you have work scheduled 2-3 months out, seems like a no brainer
I totally agree with this statement,“If your gonna give an estimate, give one so that if you land the job you will leave the client impressed and satisfied. Just seems so damn easy.”
in my area the most difficult are the Indians /anybody from the sub continent or in a 1000 mile radius. im okay as long as they dont start to haggle,ive found a great way to stop that game of theirs is to then double my price and not back down .
I get your gist and what happen to your guys has also happen to me and really there’s not much you can do about a customer who feels poorly served even when they aren’t, even if they may complain about water on on the floor or something, that really didn’t happen.
Now for me though if every window had over spray I would tell them and explain the extra charge, so I’m like you you on how I’ll charge as you said…“Our standard service does not include having all the windows scraped.” With that said I’ll have to say when it comes to a few / couple / not many windows with a bit of paint rather a few spots, I’ll take them off , since it’s pretty quick to knock off a few specks of paint on a few windows as you said…“At the end of the job the homeowner said he would not pay for the service because of the windows having small specks of paint on a few panes”.
To me knocking off a few specks of paint is good service and one really isn’t costing themselves time or money, rather one is being a high end cleaner !
Still the person may say to change your water after every plate being cleaned so then your dealing with a difficult senerio, not much you can do about it…
Once I had a lady who followed me through every room in HER HOUSE, telling me not to drip , to wipe the edges even though I was doing these thing but she not seeing me do them ! Well in my mine I’m getting frustrated with the pickieness, but visually and verbally I say Ok and don’t show frustration…That is being partly a professional in someones home, even though they are being openly not letting you do your job.
Well it got to a point where I went into her bedroom with super white carpet and needed to step out the window to do some windows off the roof that I couldn’t get to with a ladder. I always carry a drop cloth 4x4 and put my bucket on it right next to the window so when I stepped in I could clean off my feet if dirty !
Well she said I needed a larger drop cloth…At this point I was totally filled with her pickyness and kindly and humbly said that this will be fine. She left the room. I began thinking that if she wanted me to have a bigger drop cloth then why not do that for her since she felt giving me her work at HER HOME !
So I went out to get my biggest drop cloth a 10x10 and laid it out in the bedroom for her . She came back in and saw I did as she asked and smiled, she didn’t continue to follow my for the rest of the job and never again told me anything about doing my job for a few years/10 cleanings and she would tell me and her friends I was the best window cleaner in the world …This was 17 years ago that I clean her home for the last time in Laguna Beach Ca.
Today I could go to Mrs. Harwells house with a slurry truck and slurry all her windows and then tell her I’m finished cleaning your windows Mrs.Harwell and she would say what a beautiful job Dave, because she knew I would always provide good service for her !
Once you set a standard with a picky customer they sometimes turn out to be the best customers ! JMO…
Dangerous Dave / 32 years ADVANCED WINDOW CLEANING SERVICE
P.s. Working quickly to scrap a few spots with a small single edge razor that I carry on the top of my ear makes thing go qiuck instead of pulling out my 6" blade and removing the lid to knock off a speck or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5…
We are very clear at the time of scheduling what the service includes and what it doesn’t. We solidify that with a sign off sheet at the beginning of the job. It doesn’t mean that the service is going to be less than satisfactory. It means that we offer a 20 window special and this is what it includes. We do not do in person estimates, we schedule on the first call.
Also, when things need to be scraped the homeowner is made aware immediately. We do not take it upon ourselves to do it because we do not want to be blamed for scratches that could have been pre-existing. It is more of a liability concern than trying to just do a bare bones service. [/FONT][/COLOR]
Even an in person estimate will not automatically assure that scraping will be included. I wouldn’t be able to see paint splatter on 3rd floor windows. This is why we communicate at the time of scheduling what is included and what isn’t. Every client is made aware that scraping of paint is usually a one time thing depending on if they have another sloppy painter come back in between services.
Let’s say I did see the paint splatter on an in person estimate and I worked it into the price. Some other company could come in, not see it and give them a better price and not scrape it. So who wins? What is my time and gas worth? We do over a hundred jobs a month. Over the phone estimates and confirming the info when we get there is best for our business model and communicating what our service entails both at the time of scheduling and at the time of job. Whether they choose to listen or hear what we’re saying can be a different story.
I think the crew handled it well. They did some extra work at no cost to make the client happy.
I agree Dave, a couple specks of paint aren’t a big deal to me. However, when I personally did some small paint removal for someone they called me the next day and said I scratched their windows. It was the painter who has just left that actually scratched them with sandpaper around the edges but because she saw us taking off a few specks she thought we should be liable for the damage. Ever since that happened, scrapers stay in the truck unless signed off on by the homeowner. No exceptions.
Also, notice “LiveClear” has different levels of service, standard, silver, gold etc. It may be easy to say, “just scrape the specks off,” but if they are cheapo’s in the first place & knew the specks were there - why didn’t they upgrade the service?
That’s why I don’t do the grading thing. Never say never, but I’m just giving out premium service for the time being.
Thats why we scrape everything… I think the glass surface itself is one particular area thats easy to get perfect. Its easy to make it perfectly clear… The frames, sills, screens is the hard part because everyones “level” of clean is different.
I agree with you. Unfortunately I live in the 12 over 12 with storms mecca. I would have to charge $30 per window if we were going to do that. I think the simple (if needed on a per window basis) upsell on our standard window cleaning sheet has worked extremely well for those that can read and understand it.
We are all about full disclosure and what is included in our service. We have even changed our standard sill service to a vacuum service. Whatever our vacuum will pick up is how clean we get your sill.
