I lost a strip center account several months back. I called and asked if they were dissatisfied. they said no. They just found someone who could do it cheaper… I thanked them and if they needed me in the future let me know. I stopped in the strip center today to grab a bite and saw their new window cleaner. Yes a homeless guy. He had 1 squgee and old news paper and a spray bottle. I saw his bike and homemade triler to pull his crap with, parked on the side with his dog tied to it with a rope. . He also smelled homeless when I walked by (that great BO chicken soup combo). I told him I owned a shop across the street and what did he charge. On the nail salon he was working on. there were 15 .5 2x2 window up top 14 2.5x5 windows 15 2.5x2 on the bottom and a door. He did inside and out for $15. I asked for a card. LOL. he said he didnt have one but he could come over after he was done and give me a bid. I pulled out my cell and asked for a phone number to call him he said he didnt have one. I sure he had insurance though. LOL. I wanted to do a slip and fall right there.
hang in there, i bet the shops customers love walking into the shops with that highly trained very professional wcer to greet them…i have a feeling youll get the business back…how good of a job could he possibly be doing? Maybe they feel bad for him? Good luck
He probably does a decent job, but theres no way to compete on price. This is why I stay very far away from commercial/storefront work. I have some, but I try to keep it at a minimum. I feel there is no loyalty, too much competition, and the pay quite frankly is not worthwhile. Stick to where the money and true loyalty is…
Shame on you – it sounds as though you lied to him and tried to appear superior and belittle him.
So you lost an account on the basis of price. It shows the value the account placed upon you. Move on and concern yourself with how you conduct your business (and your life), not how others do.
This stuff happens all the time to me. My son is moving in and wants to mow the lawn, my daughter cleaned up the leaves…
One I remember well is a snow customer when I went to renew I’m at $90/month, nov-march31. She told me a local boy made her an offer for $50, I can’t match it of course, but then she goes on and tells it’s $50 for the whole winter ($10 a month). She told me the kids plan was to get 100 snow customers at $50 each and make $5000. I told her that’s impossible, at the time I needed 4 guys and 2 trucks with snow blowers to do 47 customers when it’s 20cm or more of snow. She told me his dad was going to drive him around and she liked his spunk or whatever. I told her I can only take so many customers and I always end up turning them away, I need to know now… I lost her. She was a previous customer for 3-4 years and I lost her over this crap.
Harsh but good advice. The work could come back, hopefully it will for you, but if you are charging a fair price and doing a good job, then any customer who sacks you for a cheap job is not worth having. You need loyal customers who tell prospective window cleaners to go away because there is already a good window cleaner in that area.
Like Shawn, I do very little commercial work these days. Back in the early 90’s I was mainly commercial, with large contracts with the local council and post office/sorting offices, the largest car retailer in the area…lost them, apart from the smaller shop work and one car company, all on the basis of price. The local post men would complain to me if they saw me in the street that the windows were not cleaned any more, so some company was getting paid for nothing. But, fact of the matter is, when you are dealing with large organisations often those making the decision never even visit the building they have affected. Thats life, hard luck I told myself and did exactly what Larry said. Moved on and found customers that valued my service. They are all residential, and they pay me more money, give me more respect and have made me a lot happier than any commercial account.
Price might be cheap but we don’t know the job is. I agree and disagree with you, we don’t need customers that price shop and have no loyalty as long as the job we do is good and the price fair. At the same time I know people who do nothing but store fronts and the odd house exactly like described in the first post. Right down to the bike pulling some kind of home made trailer. they are older brothers of a friend of mine. He had 5 older brothers that cleaned windows and he actually taught me a LONG time ago and got me my first job. But we used to go and do store fronts, make $30 sometimes $60 each buy some drugs, get his brothers to buy us beer. Teenagers LOL. But we did probably a better job on average then the big companys, I know this because I’ve worked for those companys now. The cleaners always seem to skip the same windows, inside tops in the entrace etc. A couple of that guys older brothers still do their own storefronts for cash to this day. they work for beer money I guess but they do a good job. Sometimes they hire a driver and put ladders on the car they have so much work, they’ll cash the checks at those money mart places. Nobody is going to let them in their house that’s one of the reasons I’m almost exclusive residential, even for lawn care.
Fair point Mike. You obviously know people who do a good cheap job.( Though I would say most cut price window cleaners do not.) I guess then we are definitely talking about the value a customer puts on you…plus what you put on yourself. Anyway, I can only speak from my experience, that being that residential is better work to have.
YOu have a good reason to feel the way you do ! But think of it this way … When you first started …Were you cutting prices from other window cleaners that were charging more ? We have all done it and it and the coin flips back on us ! BUSINESS IS BUSINESS whether good or bad. I have to give the guy credit in one sense … He is trying to feed him self or family / dog or who ever … Is he going about it the right way ? No, but look at it like this … He is not sitting on a corner with his dog holding a sign asking for money !
It’s what keeps the world revolving and drastic times calls for drastic measures !
Bottom line is … YOU HAVE TO DO , WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO !!! So you lose some … Big deal ! Go out and get better quality customers than the strip center customers ! Those guys will throw you under the bus to save a 1.00
This country is in shambles and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
It really sickens me to see or hear people talk like they are above everyone ! I know a guy here in Az that was homeless and picked through garbage cans to eat and fill his stomach with food. This guy was very ASTUTE that fell on hard times and then picked himself back up and is now a multi millionare and he is one of my customers ! He told me he even took a squeegee from a gas station and the bucket full of water and cleaned car windows down the road !
So i take a little offense to the post … The people that think they are so RITCHEOUS and smarter than anyone. Heck they probably think they could hang the stars better in the sky !
Man up and ride the bull,Becasue this won’t be your only rodeo where you get kicked off !
I am curious…what does the guy do now that made him a millionaire?
No, I didn’t lowball.
I charged more than any local cleaners and beat them on quality and professionalism.
I have the luxury of lowering prices now to get more work to keep my guys busy.
It is evident to me that the real issue lies in the [I][U]customer’s[/U][/I] decision and all the implications that go along with it: Cost savings/overall image(who is seen at my business?)/risk that comes with uninsured service persons/quality. Simply put, the customer decides and lives with the consequences, good or bad. We just need to present ourselves in a way that will attract clients whose values are served by us. For those ‘Bucket Bobs’, they are being proactive which is better than being a bum, but still the time has to come when they adhere to federal, state, and local laws on taxes and what-have-you. I can’t say I have compassion for those who don’t want to obey the laws that us heavy taxpayers are expected to obey.
To answer your question … He has a private jet chartering business franchise. If you saw him you wouldn’t even know he was worth millions.
A very low key guy and one of the nicest guys anyone could meet. He is a great mentor.
One of my best friends was homeless at a point. He now owns a multimillion dollar business as well, and hangs out with celebrities.
Speak for yourself. I NEVER did it. Matter of fact the stores I went into that said they were satisfied with their current window cleaner, I encouraged to stay with the company their using because good ones are hard to find.
Awesome Justin. Its great to hear that someone actually gets it. Nice reply.
Steve
I don’t cut prices to beat competition. Those who do, drive down prices and hurt us all
For how ever that was to be taken … I do not do store fronts anymore, It has been over 15 years since i last did those … They dont pay worth a crap here in AZ, Why make less than $ 50.00 in a strip center when you can make $ 200.00 + on a house in a shorter amount of time ? For those that make good money on strip centers ,Thats awesome. All i did was stated a fact about how someone talked about losing a account to a homeless guy !
My statement wasn’t directed or meant to attack you. If you took it that way, my appologies. I was just trying to demonstrate that in any business including window cleaning, alot of people think undercutting or charging rediculous low prices is the way they need to build a customer base in the beginning. It’s wrong in everyway and I could give a couple dozen reasons. They might as well keep working for someone else at an hourly wage. Moneywise it comes out about the same. Maybe more working for someone else when you factor in the endless hours spent on scheduling and other paperwork.
I always looked at it this way. An underbid job in the beginning may help pay my bills, but years later I’m going to kick myself in the butt everytime I have to repeat this job. I can’t imagine having an entire customer base of them.
I really did not know how to take it whether it was a attack or not … But it is all good. I do agree with the underbidding thing to pay bills ! But the way the post started out was a homeless guy cleaning windows that took some or all of his customers from the strip mall center. I then explained that i have a customer that was pretty much homeless and he is now a multi millionaire. But i totally agree with undercutting. If you put out very low prices and the word does get around then you set a precedence.
We all have our magic number that we think is right … I am not the cheapest nor am i the highest but i am above the middle on my prices.I work 11 months out of the year 6 days a week and take a month off and go to hawaii since i have a time share there and then head to N.C to see my family then i am back to the grind.
I never was a good employee by any means … So being in business for myself has many rewards as you and everyone else here doing window cleaning or anything else…
I think a lot of people that try to get into the window cleaning business do not think really how tuff it can be. They think just by going out and getting some tools and a bucket they are going to make hand over fist money right away … Thats not the case ,As all of you have seen it takes time,dedication,patience,persistance,sincerity,honesty to make it in this business. But i think living here in Az, we probably have the best weather all year long considering we do have a few months that are just horrid ( MONSOON SEASON ) There was probably 500 window cleaners here before the economy took a crap and now there are probably 5,000 ! LOL
Anyways … Sorry it got off the subject a bit but i have no ill feelings towards you or anyone on here. I think this site is a awesome site and the people here are very helpful. Sometimes there are people here that need to vent and that is all good. Constructive criticisim ( may have miss spelled that LOL ) is all good. I have been cleaning windows for 18 years and i still learn new things.
