We are in business to work for ourselves, not to let others try and dictate our prices and tell us how to do our job.
I have only had this happen to me twice, once I just walked away after being told my bid was way too high and he could get his maids to do the CCU for $8/hour instead of my price.
The second time it happened on a house wash, first time customer and general a-hole… Would have been a $350 job, I told him $900. He didn’t take the price and im glad he didn’t take it.
Mike Radzik
Pro Window Cleaning
Central Massachusetts
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As far as financial risk, Payment up front, before I unload the truck. Cheap, or wanting something for nothing, I don’t do. If they have a history of bad reviews, After we are finished and before we leave the property, I ask specific questions about our work and if/what they are unhappy about. All the customers I get by referral such as Angie’s List, I ask them to give us a good review and why they wouldn’t. That gives me an honest response to any bad review they might post.
Difficult customers can be handled if you are upfront about all the details and stand your ground when pushed.
If you don’t have enough work to turn down one or two jobs then by all means. And personally I’ve never had to “Fire” a client. But I’m not worried if I ever had an issue. I would not waste my time and move on. I doubt the OP would have made a thread if it wasn’t something he was really concerned about.
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If thats true you must be the lowest price guy in town, the guy thats always busy and equally always broke.
For me, the purpose of being in business is so I have control over my finances, my happiness and my future. My business is set up so I work less and earn more
No need to try and insult me. I just can’t imagine turning a job away because I don’t view the customer as “my kind of people”. I can’t imagine scheduling jobs over that. I’m surprised some of you are trying to insult. I’ve followed the board for a while and never noticed that to be the norm here. Perhaps the customer said something that was unacceptable, but until the OP tells us what happened, to not take the job because he smelled funny (or whatever) is silly to me.
Thanks for jumping in the thread and sharing your thoughts!
I have a Satisfaction Guarantee paraphrased, “if your not happy you don’t pay a penny.” Because of how this person was describing the work that was completed by the previous window cleaner, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to make them “happy”, and therefore I wouldn’t be paid a penny. that’s it in a nutshell.
Humm, maybe change your guarantee to be something along the lines “We’ll bend over backwards to try and make you happy. If you’re not happy, we’ll try fix it.” because there are some ocd types out there that will freak out if all the little tchotchkes are not placed back in the order they were originally in.
We “fired” a holiday lighting client this year past fall. She had paid us to store the lights. I took them to her door, politely communicated that for a variety of reasons we would not be working for her this year.
She complained constantly
She expected unrealistic service (for free)
She expected the prime date for the early discount.
She was shocked, I just kept telling her “we can not serve you going forward”. I gave her plenty of time to find other companies to install, even gave her 3 names.
She got her lights up, we replaced her no problem. The guys carried me around like Rudy for a week.
Had a customer that we couldn’t touch her walls we couldn’t drop a drip of clean water on the floor(I learned to disclaim that we use water and we immediately dry mop up any drips for all future clients when we meet), we couldn’t put the ladder on the ground, we couldn’t touch the walls, we couldn’t touch the walls. We couldn’t touch the walls.
I decided to say I think its best that we don’t clean the inside windows and charge for the exteriors since we just started inside we won’t charge for the work we’ve done so far inside only the outside. She said yes thats a good idea. I said next time you call a company out make sure they fully understand your expectations because we can’t meet them and this might help you avoid this in the future. Her expectations we’re unrealistic, I could elaborate there is much more to the story but I don’t want to write a book.
Over the winter cleaned a roof and a bunch of other stuff he pays me and the guy was my best buddy ever.
We agreed I was coming back on Monday to finish up about an hours worth of loose ends the job was on a Friday. over the weekend he loses his mind puts me on trespass notice and come to find out he video taped me all day and audio recorded our conversations. Needless to say he’s no longer a client.
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This isn’t a “not my kinda people” thing,… I think nearly everyone here has come across a complete nutjob or two in their time where the risk of their crazy outweighs the financial compensation regardless of the price you pay. The stress and hassle that comes from accepting these jobs alone is too much - but if they’re the type to leave bad reviews and go on a rampage on your social media etc it could actually cost your business customers!
When you’re dealing with customers all day every day you develop a gut instinct - - trust your gut! Be polite about it, but know when to turn down a job.
My most difficult customers have been some of my best sources of referrals. I have 1 customer that I know will follow me everywhere, question everything I do looking over my shoulder, and then argue about the price. It is a real PIA going to this person’s house and I dread it, except that she sends me about $7000.00 a year in business.
I will fire a client if I have to, and I rarely say no to new business, unless they give me that “trouble vibe” when I meet them
