The worst customer I've ever had!

Residential
21

99% of the time, my customers are excited that I am coming to their home to brighten it up. Its that 1% that think that you owe them outstanding service that cant be achieved from not a single human walking this earth.

I dont have a slot open in my schedule for these type of clients. Most are waiting to “Pounce” on your insurance carrier for some bogus claim or cause you sleepless nights and endless aggravation. There is just no pleasing these folks unless you just kiss a$$ the whole time you are on their property doing work. Not my style. I dont believe that the customer is always right. When someone decides to treat me like I am inferior or tells me how to do my job like im some hack, I get rid of them and put another customer in their place. Thats the benifits of being your own boss. Just because you are doing work for them, doesnt mean they can treat you like a slave. Fill us in on the awning cleaning when you are done Tory. I want to know the outcome.

P.S. Watch the stucco! :wink:

22

WOW. Big red flag.

Thats a big 10-4. Get out while you still have your skin!

23

For me…my happiness in the moment is more important than any job. If I’m not happy doing the job then the lady will have to get someone else. My work is done better when i’m enjoying what i’m doing. My philosophy nowadays is: I do a good job…I’m my own critic…if i don’t like what i have done i do it over. If the customer doesn’t like what I have done…see ya. They can find someone they do like. Life is too short to fart around with someone who has been burned by someone else. That’s her problem not mine. If she is hanging around me and complaining…I will ask her if she will ever be happy with what i’m doing…I’m very direct. I own this job…the job doesn’t own me…

john

24

I had a customer like this once. I finished the job, got paid, left. She called again a few months later and I didn’t want to do it. I told her if she wants it done at the price I did it for last time that she couldn’t be there. If she was going to be there and follow me like she did last time then there was a new price which was significantly higher. She wasn’t interested and has not called me back. Life’s too short to worry about one job. She can bad mouth me all she wants. Anybody that knows her would take anything she says with a grain of salt

25

I had a customer like this once. I finished the job, got paid, left. She called again a few months later and I didn’t want to do it. I told her if she wants it done at the price I did it for last time that she couldn’t be there. If she was going to be there and follow me like she did last time then there was a new price which was significantly higher. She wasn’t interested and has not called me back. Life’s too short to worry about one job. She can bad mouth me all she wants. Anybody that knows her would take anything she says with a grain of salt

Those 2 post are facts.

26

Oh yeah! He was telling us if we were smart we would use a step ladder 4 feet away from a window with a booth in the way and neon lights to pull back. They’re the dirtiest windows on Main St. now!

27

I always tell my customers “If you don’t love it you don’t have to pay me for it”. I’ve always been paid and usually tipped. I did have one lady that called me a couple of weeks after I did her windows and told me that I had splashed some dirty water on her living room drapes. I told her that I was sorry and then I told her she could carry them to my dry cleaners and I would pick up the tab. When I went to square up, it turned out she had taken every drape in the house and the bill was close to half what I had charged for doing her windows. I couldn’t believe it. I had to call her and let her know that every drape in the house except for the living room had been taken down prior to the cleaning. I paid for the ones that I may have inadvertantly splashed.$40 and left a remaining bill of $185. She called me again this year. I was extra careful of her drapes. Neither of us ever mentioned the previous episode.(but you know that she knew that I knew that she knew I knew) She tipped me $100. and scheduled for every six months.
Bad customer turned good?
Good customer having a bad moment?
Guilt ridden because she got caught trying to pull a sneaky?

Just to let you folks know…I am trying to get Obama to appoint me as window cleaning Czar. If this happens, ACORN has assured me that we all get castles and become tax exempt. Instead of window cleaners we will be call Glass Portal Clarificationists. Wish me luck.(or send me some money)

[I][B]THEGLASSMACHINE[/B]
“because glass looks it’s best when you can’t see it”[/I]

28

That last line there says it all. I’ve been cleaning windows for about 20 years now. When I get a customer like that, I run like hell.

I have told customers that look over my shoulder the whole job to leave me alone and go watch TV. I stop picky customers who inspect every piece of glass from every angle for the slightest spot that I am going to raise their price by 50% right there on the spot for the extra time they are costing me.

I had a lady last month who was just like yours Tory. Complained about every contractor she had used so far and none of them could do the job right. (red flag) To make a long story short I could tell she was already going to be unhappy no matter what kind of job we did. As my guy was removing the screens on the second floor she questioned our professionalism because he stood the screen up against a wall and didn’t lay it flat on the floor. When I see the job is going south and I’m fighting a losing battle I do just what is required on the work order and NOT A THING MORE. I want to get out of there as soon as possible. I collect my money. And move on.

Customers like that used to bother me but now it’s like water off a ducks back. I have too many customers who are thrilled with our service. And in a city like San Diego there are way too many more out there who we will turn into raving fans ranther than worry about the very rare customer who you can’t please no matter what. Trying to please the can’t be pleased is another definition of insanity IMO.

29

alright ill share :slight_smile:

i put huge emphasis on customer service and being polite, courteous and going the extra mile for my customers like any business owner or professional should handle themselves… however i have had my moments and struggles especially when someone is so over the top and there is nothing you can do to make them happy… here is one of my experiences… i hope you enjoy it

i did an estimate about 5 years ago, easy job 1/1’s… the estimate was for $385. the customer called and booked the job. we started the job did the inside and were wiping the sills as we went… when we were halfway done with the inside the woman started saying how we werent cleaning the sills. so i stopped and said can you show me which one. she showed me the corners where i cant get my fingers into… only a toothbrush would have fit… maybe… when i showed her how we couldnt get the corners completely perfect she started screaming at me… i told her i would do everything i could to make the sills look the way she wanted them to. once i calmed her down i left the room and i heard her say to her mother who was there "i dont plan on paying them anyway, who actually pays someone to wash windows… i didnt sign anything, its my word against theirs haha"
i literally thought my head was going to explode… but i kept my cool… sorta haha i went around and wet down every window in the house (about 60 of them) destroying the work we had just done and then told my guy working with me “take the bucket out, put it in the truck and get in it, im right behind you” and we left.
the woman called a couple hours later complaining our crew had left and made a mess on every window… i called her back and told her “our crew was never there, its your word against ours” :slight_smile:

i have a couple other stories but thats my favorite.
my suggestion, when you get a vibe from someone that they are going to be a pain in the neck double the price… i call it a g.f.y. charge… i have done this to a woman who calls every spring mailing… the first estimate was for $400… 2nd estimate was $600… 3rd estimate was for $1200 and this past spring was for $2400… if she calls this coming spring it will be $10,000 :slight_smile:

30

Nick,
That was an awesome story! We call what you did reposessing a window LOL!
If you are in this business long enough, you can sure get to READ people really quickly by their remarks. G.F.Y. charge… Thats hilarious!!!

31

Check this story out:
I know a guy who is not on the forum but a well known window cleaner, and he does high rise work. He did about 1/4 of this building and when it was time to pay, they told him they were not happy with the work and was not going to pay him, and whats more- he is now obligated to finish the job or they were going after his bond!
So, that night, he went with his lead man to the top of the building went over the side of the building with a paintball gun and you can guess the rest. He said this was many years ago…crazy. He said that work was about 2 or 3 weeks worth too!

32

glad you liked the story… it always make me laugh when i think about it. thankfully customers like those are VERY few and far between.
i will allow and encourage any of you in this forum to use the G.F.Y. charge if you find someone deserving of it :slight_smile:

33

Kudos to all of you suggested that a difficulty customer isn’t necessarily bad thing.

I recently visited a customer who fit this to a T. She had had us clean windows for her a year ago, and she was incredibly difficult. I wasn’t there, but, it was a very memorable job. It went so poorly that we actually ended up firing one of our employees. We sent them back to fix the problems but she refused even have that particular employee back in her home.

So, a year later, I was amazed when she re-booked. I went myself to try to figure out just what was up with this lady.

Sure enough, she greeted me at the door with complaints. Complaining about the guy we sent last year. Complaining about all of the various workers from other companies that she has had to her home.

She followed me from window to window. Complaining. Pointing out streaks and marks. Worrying about drop cloths. Worrying about water on the wood frames. She barely stopped talking for a moment.

If I hadn’t gone there with the right mindset, I would have been toast. I would have been frustrated. And she would have been frustrated too.

You know what made all the difference? It’s so simple. I [I]listened[/I]. I let her vent. I tried to commiserate. I asked her questions that lead her away from the immediate situation. I asked about her work and her family. And somewhere along the way, she switched. She really opened up. She showed me a picture of her happy family before her husband died 20 years ago. She’s had a difficult life and she just needed someone to [I]hear[/I] her. It would have been easy to think that she needed me to try to fix every little thing. But really she just needed someone to listen.

By the end of the interaction, she was offering me vegetables from her garden. I left with multiple bags of beautiful fresh vegetables. She gave us stuff that she was going to just throw away – 2 perfectly good stereos and some nice speakers. It was a little ridiculous the amount of stuff she gave us. I waked away with a HAUL!

You can bet she’ll be calling us back and telling her friends.

And thank heavens she alerted us to that poorly performing employee. He could have been flying under the radar for a long time if she hadn’t been so vocal!

What I though was one of our worst customers has turned into one of our best!

This isn’t to say that you can make everybody happy. Some bad customers need to be let go. But for me, I get excited when we get complaints. It’s an opportunity to convert customers into die-hard loyalists, and a challenge and an opportunity to figure out how we can be doing better. Difficult customers? Bring 'em on!

34

Nice post man!

35

wow, all by hand? youre a far better man than I.

36

hey, man. youre only human, and a customer of that sort likely already tarnished your rep to someone. I guess sometimes professionalism has to take a back seat, thats why we work for ourselves! lol

37

As you get older, you’ll learn that the added effort (if required) to remain professional is invaluable.

38

Recently i was asked to quote a big Sliderobes(mirror wardrobes) franchise. im nearly totally residential but i fancied the challenge of this big high glass store front.
id been tipped off about this monthly IN&OUT job by a really nice woman who works there as the bookkeeper .Apparently the previous guy had a heart attack .so i go along to quote .
i hadnt bargained on dealing with the tough cookie boss woman . She eyed me up as soon as i entered her showroom,greeted me swiftly but with none of the friendly banter that im used to .she then barks an order and a guy who was sitting tapping away on a laptop jumps up and starts measuring the dimensions of the glass with a laser measuring gizmo !!but because its daylight he cant get it to focus properly so he offers to come back at night to do it for her !!!
After casting our eyes over the glass she casually mentioned that after doing the windows its expected of me to then clean all of the showroom wardrobe mirrored doors,included in the price .wants these done with squeegee not just a cloth wipe- im sure this would be stupid but she insists .says that the sales staff use a spray cleaner to remove kids fingerprints but it needs a squeege method to get rid of the layers of spray cleaner /im looking close at the mirrors,some are overlaid with what looks like gold gilt lace effect and they all look immaculate and i start to imagine the nightmare this job might become. In one of the mirrors i see a worried face-mine . In addition the job would be every 2 months ,not monthly .

Something about her scares me, im sure id be run ragged if i do this job ,i imagine the stores suffering in the recession too , so i decided not to get involved and stick with the residential.Who needs grief! -not me

39

That would be Good For You, right? :wink:

40

Excellent post. One of the best I’ve read on this or any other forum.

You never know what’s behind people’s attitudes. Good job on turning this customer around!