I’ve had a number of dissatisfied customers lately who thought we were going to do something that is not part of our SOP. Things like removing storm frames to clean windows that are painted shut and cleaning the brick on house washes. How do you guys handle this? Sometimes I even remember telling the customer info over the phone that they later claim to have never heard. Its just not feasible to give every customer an exhaustive description of all that we do. If the customer makes assumptions and doesn’t ask questions about areas of concern, they still hold us to blame. Any advice?
As your business grows, so will your policy and procedures. We try to spell it out on our estimate forms along with a disclaimer detailing services provided. It’s a process.
Well put, George. I’ve been tossing around leaving with, perhaps even sending ahead by email an information piece outlining what we do and don’t do with our standard service; and also what possible issues may arise and where the liability will rest.
Has anyone else done such a thing?
I’ve realized the need, for instance, to specify that gutter [I]cleaning[/I] and power washing do not include gutter whitening.
On my estimate forms it describes what we do but we only do ‘simple’ (no storms) houses. If its complicated I’ll pass it another window cleaner or I’ll do it myself and walk the customer through the process.
We also only do window cleaning
While my description to our customers is comprehensive, it is by no means exhaustive. I had one customer recently complain because we only sent one tech to do the job and it took him 4 hours and she was planning to have all her windows cleaned in 2. Our SOP is about 20 pages long, and it’s pretty concise. Are you guys saying you dump something like that in every customer’s lap? I think if a company sent me such a list of dos and don’ts, I’d probably shy away.
Why was she planning for 2?
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Rob we struggled a lot with this in our first 5- 6 years.
I came to realize that everyones expectation or interpretation of the word “clean” can vary greatly. Especially with non glass surfaces, frames, sills screens. Glass is a different story though because you can clearly see if the surface is left transparent and spot / streak free.
SO we mention several times while booking the appointement that we specialize in cleaning the [B]glass surfaces [/B]we gurantee those will be left perfect. BUT the other surfaces where interpration or expectations can vary wildly we only mention that we will just be wiping those down or dusting them off.
hope that helps… I know how frustrating it can be.
Perfectly said.
Since we don’t do estimates over the phone, We touch every surface (glass, track, frame, shutter and screen) on a window to “show” the customer what we will do.
Like Chris said, people selectively hear and interpret what they want.
There is a difference between washing a window and cleaning a window. Cleaning a window means you do whatever is necessary to clear it, be it scraping paint or removing stains. We try to make sure there is no confusion.
Our Service Pack description show a window washing option and a window cleaning option. Again, we try to make sure there is no confusion.
