This may not be popular with the members on this forum, but I have found some major success in introducing a quarterly Window Cleaning program for my residential customers. I’ll outline how I price and market this below, but I suggest just trying to sell it on your next residential bid and see how it goes.
The way it works: After our initial service we come back every 3 months and do the exterior of the home so that the customer always has clean windows and doesn’t have o worry about the hassle of rescheduling. If they aren’t home typically we can remove the screens from the outside and once we’re done we just send the invoice.
How I Price and Sell it:
My prices are per Window and I have 3 packages
basic: exterior only- $7 per Window
Premium: exterior and interior- $11 per Window
And Royal Treatment: exterior, interior, track cleaning, and screen cleaning- $15 per Window
For Quarterly Window Cleaning program- $5 per Window
As I walk my customers through the pricing I reccomend for the initial clean to be the Royal Treatment to get their windows to our standards. I tell them if they should choose to have their windows cleaned a la carte then the pricing is higher, but if they do what most of our customers do and join out quarterly Window Cleaning program then they will protect their investment, and never have to worry about having clean windows again. Once they see the savings and how really inexpensive it is they usually do it.
Why I do it:
I hate storefronts and this is more profit than storefronts and less visits.
I get to go to the same neighborhoods a lot which ends up leading to new work in those neighborhoods.
It puts my business in a better position for banking opportunities because of the recurring profit.
It has been very successful for me and I think everyone ought to give it a shot and just see if it works for you.
Below is an example of how the estimate would look.
Love it bro. This year has been a trial for me. I have my pricing per window down now. I also am focusin on residential(except for my 2 restaurants) as I am going to continue to work full time for another year or so.
Over the course if winter, I’ll be upgrading tools, website(slightly) and 3 tier payment option as well.
Thank you. This is a great post and very detailed. I will absolutely try this.
You have a full time day job? Im in the same boat and have a few storefronts I do but my day job gets in the way of alot of potential storefront scheduling. Im thinking residential may be a better way till I can work less at my day job.
You will love life when you jump ship and go full time! I jumped ship and went full time last February without any real guarantee I would survive but with hard work and persistence it’s inevitable. Wealthy people have a lot of windows and don’t want to clean them theirselves! Lol good luck man.
I do. Monday to Friday 8-5. I was so busy with residential that I didn’t go out for route work. I clean 2 restaurants weekly but it’s hard. I have to start one at 4:30am and the other the next day at 5:30. They know I work full time so they have allowed some leniency but it has to be before they open.
I would suggest residential unless you can snag a couple things to help with recurring money at a reasonable time. I’m sure store front isn’t as picky as restaurant work.
My mind may change by spring time again. I have lots to offer if I do go full time with glass work as well. I’m not afraid of getting work. It’ll be there.
At the same time, I want to do it right and wait until I am completely prepared. I will also have a few extra grand to back me up.
Thanks for this. Really helps me as a new guy. I’m wanting to do both commercial and residential. Definitely going to prefer big accounts like hospitals and schools over store fronts though.
Question: is your basic “$7 a window” price per pane or per window? (E.G. most residential windows are 2panes upper and lower). What happens if you run into French panes? Etc.
Thanks!
@royalpane830
Weve been following this same quarterly format for 7yrs. It’s been great! We are a Cali based business so we can get away with year round service. I don’t think this would work on the east coast.
Anyways, what state are you in? I am curious about how you are charging tax. In California, it isn’t legal to charge tax unless you are selling a tangible product.
For me, quarterly is more often complete inside and outside maintenance.
I have offered 20% discount as incentive to buy the Quarterly Maintenance Plan for inside and out only. Anything else and there is no discount. I have since changed that to $25.00 off for the quarterly package and seem to have the same success rate so far.
Do a little math and you’ll see that 20% can add up to a lot. I can still offer that for jobs that I want and the customer may be on the fence. But 4 times a year at discount isn’t that bad, but when you get busy and run out of days in the week, you get less inclined to shave a bunch of dollars off a job. $25 is painless.
unless you can snag a couple things to help with recurring money at a reasonable time. I’m sure store front isn’t as picky as restaurant work.
hope you have a great year!
