Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen.
Over the last few years or so i lost 4 quite large window cleaning contracts to Cleaning company’s that said they would incorporate the window cleaning into their overall janitorial cleaning service.
The funny thing is 3 out of those 4 called me back in about 6 - 9 months, and they were all totally fine when i told them the price had gone up.
i just thought of it cause today i got one of those call backs.
This has happened to me as well. In a nice way I let the customer know that window cleaning is not as easy as it looks and that a typical janitorial staff might have trouble with the windows.
This happens quite often when a company offers too many services.
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I used to be a salesman for a janitorial cleaning company. They could never get the windows right. [/FONT][/COLOR]
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You could see if the janitorial company wants to sub out the work to you. I have family that owns a janitorial business and they sub out all window work to me and I sub out janitorial services to them. It does offer an advantage in bidding against other window cleaners, as long as the company subing out doesn’t want to skim too much off your services.
You might want to let some of those companies know, that they might want to check with the BSC companies insurance. Many BSC companies do not carry it for window cleaning. Some think they have it on their policy but, cleaning outside windows is looked at totally different from an insurance stand point. Cleaning inside your feet stay on the ground 99% of the time, unless you need a step ladder. And well, outside is different. Getting to those 3rd, 4th, 5th floor windows takes a little bit more then a step ladder. Tell the company to call the insurance company, not the BSC company. If the BSC company thinks they are covered of course they will respond with “Yes we are covered.” But calling the insurance carrier will let them know 100% yes or no. Almost make sure you tell the building manager to inform the insurance company how tall the building is. He/she should not just ask for the coverage, he/she must explain the whole thing to get 100% correct information.
That is why I got out of window cleaning and went strickly janitorial about 25 years ago. I belonged to the BSCA back then and my insurance rates were going through the roof because I did window cleaning. I sold off all my window cleaning accounts. Now I’m 100% windows.
