This past Thursday around 8:30AM I was cleaning my new wkly. comm. account when I noticed someone trying to be inconspicuous watching me work. Now, as I always do, I’m watching my working environment so that I do not harm anyone or brake anything and in my peripheral vision I noticed that “conspicuous” person watching me. Naturally, after I was finished I approached him and said, “Excuse me but your face looks familiar, my name is Stuart Hemby, have you ever worked in Connecticut?” and he hesitantly replied, “yes.” I inquired what his name was and he declined to share which I thought was wierd. So naturally, I asked again…lol! After his second decline, I said, "why will you not share your name…that’s not polite, rude etc.,(can’t remember what I exactly said but, I wasn’t rude). His response was “yeah, but I did speak to you.” At that moment it hit me…Duh! he was a fellow WC (a rude one at that).
Now, Here’s some background history. About 3 wks ago, my cus. said I have to give him a price break at another location…which I believe is currently fair… He also informed me that another WC’er approached him saying, he does great work, he can beat their current price and that he can do better job and the customer replied, “no thank you!” When the cus. shared the incident with me he also questioned how the other WC could say that he could offer a better job prior to seeing me work.
Was this WC being shady or not?
In closing, thank goodness I provide a service and not just window cleaning!
PS Thanks to all of you who post on the Worlds Greatest Window Cleaning Resource Forum!
I have a buddy in my area who had a similar experience. Personally If I see another cleaner I will introduce myself and BS a bit. But there are some oddballs in the industry, just like any other, I wouldn’t give that guy a second thought.
Do you think he is new at WCing and is trying to learn by watching you? Although, trying to undercut you and steal your accounts is pretty rude! I’m sure if you keep up the good work and keep the clients happy you won’t have anything to worry about.
A few years ago when I just started a carpet cleaning company, I would get quite a few “suspicious” calls. The “customer” would ask me a whole bunch of really detailed questions about my methods and pricing and then get really evasive about when they wanted their carpets cleaned. I completely suspected that those calls were reconnaissance missions from other carpet cleaners - but I didn’t know for sure. I think that this is pretty common. I have talked to other entrepreneurs who have had this same thing happen when they just started a business. The sensible thing for a person to do if they want more info is to contact someone nearby in a noncompeting region and ask them for help. I had this one lady from the midwest call me up and ask all kinds of questions about my methods. She was straight up and told me that she was planning on starting a carpet cleaning company. I gladly told her as much as I could over the phone.
i used to own an mobile lube that catered to high end rvs in palm springs ca.always got calls with people fishing for info.when dealing with coaches that started at 500,000 on the low end.servicing the coach was only part of it.the biggest part of the job was having just enough smoooz that the cust likes you.i never worried about loosing jobs or what the other guys were doing the ones that were cool i used to send them jobs that i didnt fool with.i feel its better to network and be honest with other folks in the biz i feel its better for everyone.
