Selling weekly vrs bi-weekly vrs monthly service

When canvassing for store fronts or restaurants and small commercial, do you push hard to get them on a weekly schedule than perhaps settle for bi-weekly or monthly if that’s the only way to land the gig or do you walk away from low price monthly?

The reason I ask is because in my short time canvassing for commercial I’ve never even mentioned the monthly service as an alternative. If anything it’s been the customer who’s requested it. I’ve always felt like it’s hardly worth it to go to a client once a month especially if it’s for 10-12 bucks.

I’m starting to think differently as of late. I’ve recalled several times when I’ve had the customer close to signing on but then back down because the cost and frequency didn’t fit into their budget. I probably could have saved a few sales if I was more flexible. I probably could have increased the price too because of the infrequent visits.

What type of service frequency do you folks push for and how do you feel about the low priced monthly client?

We always angle for twice a month. For us it fits the way we schedule best.

We shoot for every 2 weeks on commercial gigs. As for the small jobs just work on getting several in the same area and then it’s no big deal.

If you do the math and do it like Tony does every 2 weeks. You can actually squeak a extra month of service in per year. If you compare it to the way we do it twice a month. We do it this way purposely to have some buffer time in between months. Its good for rain days, pick up routes, anything extra really.

I try to use the power of suggestion, and my professional opinion to get once a week window cleaning. No doubt, It’s sweetest to get X amount of money *52. Many will accept once week, many also request every other week. A few want once a month. I do give once a month window cleaning. I would like to charge like 5 or 10% more. But I haven’t uniformly imposed that. I do accept those jobs. It gives me more jobs in an area, and helps me eventually become a dominant window cleaner. I would rather take it, than a competing window cleaner get it.

I’m finding it hard to get the weekly done. This is mostly from clients that aren’t used to getting their windows done period. Even some that I have set for bi-weekly have commented on my return visit that the windows aren’t dirty enough and could I wait an extra week. Gets frustrating sometimes.

I’m just wondering if the winter time will yield better results in canvassing because of snow, slush and salt.

Yeah I wish everyone wanted weekly, but I do consider every other week to still be fair. I don’t like to be pushed back to once a month. The only time that cleaning is reasonable is when they are in an industrial area . Or they are extremely protected from the elements. In frequency I view the customer as king. However most reasonable customers will understand that the price is higher when it’s less frequent. I need to get my act together in that respect and charge the less frequent more money. After all more effort is required.

Customers are strange when it comes to elements. In that case you need to educate your customers. Many customers think the windows need to be cleaned more frequently in summer and less frequently in winter. They don’t understand that windows are dirtiest in winter. Some also think that who cares if the windows are dirtiest in winter, you just can’t keep up with it. Winter is good for us when it gets very cold. Then you can get jobs that other window cleaners have stopped doing because it’s too cold for them.

Awesome tip… we acquire the highest # of accounts per month in the winter. Many a old timer here go into hibernation come January. There we are in February / March picking them up.

i get clients that tell me once i arrive that the windows are still pretty clean, my answer is “thats why im here, so they never get dirty, this way your biz always looks its best” my mall clients are bad for trying to push the window cleaning to the next week…

Yeah mall clients can be like that. I’ve had very few mall clients until recently, and now (that I have more) I find that I have to charge them about 50% higher than my typical outside storefront work, because I have to spent have my time wiping the floor of any drips. People are very sensitive if you leave the smallest amount of water on the floor, understandably so, but it’s irritating even if you leave like three drips of water, they get mad at you like their’s a flood on the ground.

Mike

Mikep>> yeah, i hear ya, i charge pretty good price in the mall, and so far have only 4 jobs in this little mall…each pay close to or above 100 dollars a month. As far as the water mess…yes and you have to be careful nobody slips in it while you are working…i always position my bucket so that people have to detour further from the windows while im there, lots of seniors do their walking in the mall in the hour before the stores open.

My neighbor how is the manager of one of the stores i do, came up to me yesterday in the yard while i was shoveling, and asked for 12 biz cards. See one of the mall guys that does about 12 stores in the mall on the side from his normal work is looking for me to take over the jobs…i said sure take the cards, id love that! This would be great for winter particularly, even in the summer, i get a very early start in the mall before the stores open, and some are later in the evening so i still get my day free to do other jobs elsewhere.If this works out then i would have 98% of the stores with windows in that mall.

So, are you the alias DOMINATOR from the other forum. LOL :stuck_out_tongue:

Your mall jobs sound pretty sweet.

You bring up a good point. Perhaps we should talk to other residential window cleaners and see if they want to unload their commercial jobs. Many cleaners, I’m sure, when they get too big find at least some of their commercial jobs a pane in the neck if they have to be there every week or two.

mikep>> this guy isn’t even a regular window cleaner, he works maintenance in the mall and years ago some of the store managers and owners asked him to clean their windows, i guess over time he got to be pretty good, an his pricing is pretty good too, and apparently he is moving out of town soon so, i hope i an pick up those jobs, if nothing happens after he leaves I’ll go around again and introduce myself.

If im looking for weekly accounts what types of businesses should I target? Im thinking fast food chains.

Fast food chain restaurants and stand alone restaurants are the easiest to convert into weekly accounts.

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ya agree with Steve ^^^. Keep in mind though they usually have a time gap where you jace to get therr at a certain time

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