If you are going to advertise you have trained professionals, you might want to actually make it look like you weren’t trained at the circus.
https://youtu.be/qXPR1zqWAR4
3 Likes
Lol those are the fish guys in Casper!! 
1 Like
Going to be a long day.
…and she is the owner! You’d think after a year she’d at least have her technique figured out. The few people I’ve trained took a week tops to be fairly proficient.
2 Likes
Looked like my new help on her first day, But she is pissed that she couldn’t see improvement on her first day… Week 3 she’s helped get our times cut in half across the board. I’m way impressed.
I worked at fish and had a pane like that done in 20 seconds, only because I was previously trained, the correct way, at a much better company. I ended up training the owner and all 3 employees, without them actually asking me to, of course lol. The owner could barely get a screen in a track, the second in command thought adding a shitload of soap to the water “cleaned the windows better”. God damn idiots man. It has since closed and all the employees left before it did. Sad business model/training program, to say the least.
We’ve had many fly by nights who focused on store fronts, they’d be in business for a year or two and then headed down the road. I’m sure the FISH marketing materials looked very appealing but she was really just forced to pick up right where all the others left off; taking on contracts for 1/2 the market value and spending 3x the amount of time to get the job done. When you have the high overhead of a brand-new van payment, office space rent, payroll taxes, and about 4 months where you aren’t going to get much work period, things will get tough.
1 Like
You would figure Fish would train there people who buy into there franchise.
It would only help them ! What happens when they fold the company do they still have to pay the franchise fees ?
They keep working like that , An its a one season an done. Unless they work 24/7 
No one here, or anywhere, was born with a squeegee in their hand. As we all know some people learn how to clean windows quicker than others. Same goes with FISH franchise owners.
I haven’t cleaned a window in almost 4 years. It’s not my job to clean windows. But I could do it if I had to.
I would like us all to remember that how we treat others and react to others (or talk about them) is a reflection of ourselves. 
11 Likes
This particular situation I would have to draw an educated guess that either this person isn’t in the field often or this person has the mind set of “its just window cleaning, how hard can it be” and instead of paying any attention to the practical side of the business solely focus on the business side of it, if you are not in the field this may not be important however you would still require training systems for the employees. I worked for a guy for 12 years who didn’t know how to clean a window, it isn’t a requirement to run a window cleaning company providing you have people who do.
The windows in this video would definitely have errors all over them which could make them appear dirtier than before they were cleaned. The other worker seems to have more of a clue but you can see that There does not appear to have any training system in place or it could be that the owner was just filling in for the day or believe that the way they do it is sufficient. I have worked with a few guys over the years who never really understood that their job is to make the window clean, they instead were more focused on going through the motions, wet up squeegee off, job done.
1 Like
I can’t speak to their individual WC experience but at least they are trying. Doe sit look bad? In our eyes it’s terrible but again-they are out there trying. I’ve never worked for Fish but am sure that there are those that have enjoyed it and even some locations that rock while other stink.
I worked as a manager for WalMart and not every store was on the same playing ground. My current store is poorly stocked all the time. The culprit is theft and the point of sale system can’t account fro that until inventory is complete.
I share that because the real culprit may not be lack of desire but as others have said training. They did not do enough of it or lack of desire. Either way whomever lives in that area may have a fast food building to bid soon or not-not everyone cares for perfect windows especially in the large mega stores that require cleaning without inspecting.
HAVE A GREAT DAY!
1 Like
It is what it is, another person that presents themselves as a professional window cleaner on their website ect. And they have no clue what they are doing. Not only are they doing work that an actually window cleaner could be doing instead but they are providing a customer with a horrible service, making professional window cleaners look bad.
Ive ran into companies that would rather have their employees clean the windows because some joke said that they could do it and made it look horrible, so now they wont even consider hiring a professional window cleaner.
Its bs, dont say youre something youre not, and charging people to do a shitty job is wrong, no matter how you look at it. Seems like they need to practice on their own house or relatives houses untill they can at least know wtf theyre doing before they screw people over.
1 Like
having been in a franchise before, I would think the franchises would be more thorough in regards to operations and training, especially since there is no “certified and licensed” type of labor pool to draw from, like say plumbers and electricians can draw from those who have been schooled etc
people joke about its just wet and wipe (squeegee) but that’s the minor part, the lions share is the endless problem solving minor and major that is constantly going on - whether its job approach and strategy, surface evaluation, access workarounds, prep work, tool choice, tool technique or mistake pick up
3 Likes
This is a forum where i can express my opinion of a person\business freely, whether it be bad or good. I could care less about how it reflects on me. Good day, sir.
2 Likes
@DiskoSmash my comment was not directed specifically at you. Just a general observation about life.
@Rockward excellent points. But I would again remind you that we’re all people. I do not think that anyone is intentionally doing something to screw someone over. I’m sure you’ve hired someone who was terrible at window cleaning and had to redo their work and then apologize to a customer. Now imagine 300 franchise owners and all their employees. Because of the large scale of FISH you are inevitably going to uncover good and bad.
@Bruce also excellent points. The training in FISH is actually very good. I base that on my own experience and compare to what I’ve seen and read over the past few years from independent window cleaners. The problem is just like with everything else is that some people take the training seriously and some don’t. Again I will point to my comment about the large scale of FISH. Imagine having 300 employees… now imagine they are each actually an independent business owner.
There were 3 FISH franchise owners in my area before I came into the area. They all closed within a year or two of opening for various reasons. Does that mean they were bad people, or horrible window cleaners, or bad business owners? Not really. Maybe it just wasn’t the right fit for them or it wasn’t the right time in the market or some other reason. But people are still having their windows cleaned.
In that same time frame there were also probably dozens or even hundreds of window cleaners who opened and closed their business. Were they bad people? Did they set out to ruin the reputation of window cleaning? Probably not. But I am sure some of them did a good job and some did a terrible job. And again… people are still having their windows cleaned.
2 Likes
@dgalkin whats up bro? Good conversation, and you have some good points as well. I understand and agree with alot of what you’ve stated. Although i am not in the same service area as this company, i can maybe count on one hand the amount of professional window cleaners in my state that i know of and thats including my grandfather who is retired. The few that hold themselves to a professional standard, take pride in what they do. So when some random person buys into a franchise with obviously no experience at all and starts selling themselves as a professional window cleaner, i get a little worked up and i feel thats rightfully so, since i am proud to be a window cleaner, and its a family business.
When I hire someone i make sure that they are never out on their own untill i know for a fact that they know how to clean a window, and dont make themselves look like a fool. I guess thats why FISH has a bad name among independent professional window cleaners because theyll just throw anyone out there, which is obvious from this video. Im not saying this is what you do at all bro, but the FISH franchise has obviously failed in this instance and also failed the customers who pay FISH for this horrible service. Its wrong and i guess im gonna be the only one to point it out for what it truly is.
Everyone is so concerned about others feelings and it only enables them to keep on doing what their doing, its only when people get called out for screwing up do they realize what their doing wrong. If i were there when this video was shot, i would walk up and let them know that they are clueless and should practice more before they charge a customer to do a horrible job, and if they take my constructive criticism well, then i might give them some quick tips on how to do it better. Ive done this before, and you can tell right away who is serious about window cleaning and not.
Thank you for this previous comment
It is true in so many ways and it is easy to lose sight of this.
2 Likes
There are a lot of new guys searching for ways to start a window cleaning business and use the proper techniques on this forum. This video (which my employee took) is just one of many examples, how not to clean a window. Fortunately people on this forum can actually learn by others mistakes, they don’t have time to go around and shadow window cleaners to see how to operate a business or clean a window. The guy who taught me too clean windows was very good at what he did, just not good at running a business and eventually closed up shop. Although I wasn’t at this location when the video was taken; yes I could go give them some pointers, but it still isn’t my job to go teach my local competition how to clean a window, just like it isn’t Elon Musk’s job to show his competition how to build electric cars. Most of us didn’t get into business for ourselves to make sure the competition succeeds, and at a minimum, we probably knew what the hell we were doing before we got into it. If we hire someone to do service work we expect them to be professionals and not claim they are by advertising it on their website.
3 Likes
I have no animosity towards the Fish franchise in our area. They do good work and the owner seems like a nice guy. After reading Emyth Revisited, I think it would be awesome to someday expand my company into a large franchise. I actually feel bad for the folks in this video, I’m sure they’re aware of their skillset.
1 Like
I Said they were idiots and have a bad business model, not that they were bad people. Read it again?
Totally agree @ DiskoSmash. In a way my video is kind of like John Langley, the producer of COPS. He goes out and films other people’s (idiots) misfortunes (bad behavior models) with law enforcement. Does it reflect on his character for turning it into television drama? Nope.
1 Like
