Commercial or industrial, I’ll usually write every 4 or 8 weeks - they don’t get a lot of foot traffic so windows aren’t that important. These are great to have because they’re not going to nitpick you over every window.
Restaurant then I write every week or two. Lot of traffic, lot of fingerprints, so they’re really concerned about appearance and windows are critical.
Storefront, every 2 or 4 weeks. Moderate traffic, windows are important but not critical.
Projects like big buildings, they’ll usually tell you what they’re interested. Probably quarterly.
But I always write the same things (handwritten):
[I]Front windows (be specific about what you’re going to clean) - inside and out $$ - wipe sills - remove cobwebs - every 2 or 4 weeks.
Option: outside only $.[/I]
I like giving the outside only option as long as it’s still within my minimum. Some customers would want in/out one time then out only next time. It might help with the close ratio.
Do you have estimate sheets or are you using something like Proposal?
I’m sort of old school in that I use 2 part carbonless copies. I posted my estimate sheet in the members area for people to download. Top part goes to the customer, yellow part comes with me so I have something to reference when I call them back. Get yourself a 31 day accordion file and put the estimate 2 or 3 days down from the day you give it. Then call them back and follow up. Most of your work will come via call backs.
I should probably use something like Proposal, but when it comes to route work, it’s all about numbers. Go in, give an estimate, get out (or start cleaning if they want it done right now). So I sort of think Proposal is a little overkill for stuff like route. However, if I’m bidding a chain of 17 stores, yeah, Proposal is definitely the way to go.
Route work is all about repeat business and I’m on it like clock work. The sweet spot I think is every 2 weeks. Most storefronts and a lot of restaurants will do this. 4 weeks is also good. 6 weeks is okay, but it’ll float around inside your route. I’d almost rather have an 8 week instead of 6.
Weekly can be a grind. Be careful how many weeklys you take because they can be difficult to manage.
Oh, here’s a tip: sell them on 4 weeks instead of monthly. You’ll get 13 cleanings instead of 12. I tell them that every 4 weeks is more consistent in that you have short months or long months so monthly is sort of inconsistent. Whereas every 4 weeks is consistent and you’ll get a better value that way. Also, the 4 weeks lines up your routes. Your 2, 4, and 8 week jobs will line up whereas monthly needs to float around so you have to line it up with the route it’s in.
