For those of you unfamiliar with the term “skinning”, it means to skip windows.
For years I worked for a large company doing route. I don’t care how much we may deny it, sometimes we don’t feel like cleaning clean glass.
For those of you with regular route and hired help, talk to your people about what can’t be skipped. They will skip windows whether you tell them or not, get over it.
I watched a guy the other day skip windows in a restaurant. He worked for a franchise and I feel that in their denial they did not give him proper coaching… as he skipped what should not be skipped.
Inside the door and the transom window. What the hell? NEVER SKIP ENTREES!
For you ding-dongs doing mall work… POLE THE WINDOWS EVERY NOW AND THEN! Your half moon swoops are driving me crazy. Don’t you see those?
While your at it, squat down to see if there are fingerprints or boogers before you arbitrarily stroll in to get paid. The ole “I washed the outs this morning” :rolleyes:
When inside windows turn white- not good. Do you know how long it takes for interior mall windows not in the sun to build up that bad? STOP IT!
I do not condone skipping, but it will happen. Hey, if the place is weekly and the guy is smart the phone never rings. If he is one of the schmucks mentioned above you will end up with managers checking the work every time.
That can get ugly and time consuming. Don’t lose the customer’s trust or you will be half if not totally out of that job.
I was sitting in my van , one morning, waiting for my help to arrive, I watched a guy doing a drop on a 12 storey building, ( probably washed once a year)He was dropping between 2 sets of windows and doing both sides, easy 1/1 double hung windows. He skipped every window where the blinds were closed, If the blind was half closed he skipped that half. All told , he skipped roughly half the glass and in my estimation , saved himself about 10 minutes on a 25 minute drop:eek:
I’m not going to lie to you, I skin windows every now and then. But I’m not stupid about it. The window has to be so clean I’d mess it up by doing it. I never get busted by the customer because if I can’t tell, neither can he or she. As for the guy doing high rise, I hope he gets busted and has to re-rig to do all of his drops over. What he did was stupid. All the building manager has to do is look up and he’ll see all of that dirty glass. He would have been better off skinning the whole wall instead of having clean glass next to dirty glass, thats a dead giveaway.
I have some accounts where I do this. The customer knows full well what I am doing, or not doing… Most the time it’s a weekly account. Cleaning every window every time would put it out of their price range. I agree with CFP though, the doors and any window around a door is a must.
I sell these kind of accounts with the understanding that I am being contracted to keep their windows looking very presentable, not to clean every window if they don’t require it. I always provide them with an estimate to clean every window as well though, so they can see the value. I’ve never had any problems with this.
I have skipped windows now and then when they are very clean, or there is a poster in the way. But to get into a habit of skinning windows means you are pricing the commercial work too low.
I’d rather price at a good rate, and clean nearly all the glass. Skimming windows can cause you to lose a job, when there is no prior agreement that it will be done.
Sorry fellas, dont agree with this practice at all. Getting paid for work that I didnt do is hard on my conscience. I just cant bring myself to do that.
It really is not about agree or disagree, it just is. If you have employees and they are doing regular route, they are skipping.
The point of this post is to satisfy the customers needs before our own. Being that most route work is underpriced inflates our need to find shortcuts.
I will say this, skipping windows can become addicting and eventually dirty windows don’t look so bad when we want to be done for the day.
The only thing worse than a customer complaint is 20 customers complaining
[B]“I sell these kind of accounts with the understanding that I am being contracted to keep their windows looking very presentable, not to clean every window if they don’t require it. I always provide them with an estimate to clean every window as well though, so they can see the value. I’ve never had any problems with this.”[/B]
That is an entirely different scenario Micah. If you sell them on the fact that you will be doing it on an as needed basis. Basically saying that your stop is $25.00 minimum and you will do any windows that were not presentable. If you are on the same page as the customer- I dont see a thing wrong with that. Its actually a brillant idea if they go for it.
What im talking about is sneaking around doing half the job you were contracted to do and not doing it. Sure, it might be as clean as the when you cleaned it last Friday, but is it ethical to skip it? With the way the economy is and record job loses, (not to mention businesses cutting back on window cleaning services) why in the world would you want to risk it?
Have to agree w/ya!
unless theres something that prevents me from doing a window, sign or poster in a car dealers window,/blinds that will not open…i’m gonna do it…I’m guess I’m too honest sometimes(not a bad thing)…i woulndt want someone to do it to me…so…and if we ever accidentally forget a residential window:o( which doesnt happen often)…the customer notices…trust me
