I hear ya Mike, and I understand your point.
When you say the money back guarantee don’t mean a thing, this example here shows that it does. The first step is to remove the risk to a potential new client. Then wow them with the work etc…when they sign off on the work done, or if you walk the job with the customer, you can pretty much tell if they are not happy.
Doing a great job so you can make them a regular is part of it, not something different.
As far as the property management thing go’s, maybe we are talking about 2 different things here.
San Diego may be huge, but its a small world Mike. There are over 200 window cleaners in this city too…and I do know the majority of them-and am on good terms with all but 2. They may compete with each other, but why wouldn’t they recommend a good service provider if they are on friendly terms?
Anyhow…didn’t mean any disrespect by what I said to you Mike. Just disagreeing is all.
That’s exactly what I was talking about in the previous post i made. Too many eggs in one basket, it actually reminds me Paul Mcquillans bio. He had one giant contract with a cleaning company. Lost it. Then struggle to stay afloat. It’s the same thing on a much larger scale.
I’ve been fired by the leader of a group of referals and lost them as I mentioned in the previous post and I’ve actually fired a group of referrals. I had 5 Italian familys, all related somehow. Ritzy ritzy houses. But it snows, they start phoning, they have to be first. Not all of them were complainers but they came as a group of referrals I knew that. But I don’t bend over backwards for anyone unless I care too. For them, I would tell them if the driveways take 5 mins each I’ll be there soon. If they take 30 mins each, I’ll cya tonight. It’s too bad there’s 30 centimetres of snow on their drive ways I’m still going to do every one in order.
I’m telling you there is a down side to referrals at least for me. First, they might not be in my area. 2nd, if you lose one you might lose several and not just before of an issue, it could be as simple as one of them getting a competitors ad with cheaper price. It’ could be as simple as I can’t fit you in next week, you have to wait two weeks. I run my business not them.
I would rather all my customers be strangers to each other not that I would turn down free business if it’s in my area, just my preference. I know how to get customers, it’s as simple as flyers. Keeping them is as simple as doing good work for decent price.
I’m not mad at anyone, not even a little bit. I think my points were muddled because I can’t express it very well but that’s ok too, it’s forum after all.
My only point I wanted to make was directed at the thread starter after having read that he paid $300 and now he doesn’t have to worry about a customer bad mouthing him I was just saying that it’s not that big a deal (imo) Then I gave examples of large companys that had horrendous “Bad Mouthing” happen to them, and rightfully so but it blew over in no time… business as usual. Somehow that got turned around to mean that I hate my customers and do crap work, LOL. Or maybe not, I don’t know, it’s a long thread and my fingers are tired.
I’ve never been asked for a refund. But my “If you don’t love it then you don’t have to pay for it” line means that the customer will be satisfied before I leave. It does not imply that my window cleaning, as fantastic as it is, has some magical, anti-dirt, bug free, splash and spatter resisting quality to it. If I go back to touch up a few that got messed up after I left, I get paid for it. Not the other way around. Smiles all around. Happy customers are all I have.
[B]The Glass Machine[/B]
[I]“because glass looks it’s best when you can’t see it”[/I]
When I worked as a foreman for a large window cleaning company we had clients sign a declaration of satisfaction before we invoiced them. Personally I would have offered a partial refund as a sign of good faith and suggested that she have her windows cleaned more often. I would have offered a reduced cost for this seeing as its going to be a regular maintenance job
I didn’t read the whole thread, so bear with me … or not
If I were to refund any of my customers after a week or a month I’d be working for nothing or even worse, having to get a second job to pay for gas. I understand where you’re going with all this and I think you did the right thing, but I have tons of customers facing a lake with those crappy “water features” spraying water all over the place, customers with their backyards so close to the golf course they’ve many broken windows, and the wind brings debris, dust and everything else over their windows. They know I did my job and the only cure to have clean windows forever is to move to another place and have us there more often.
i don’t offer any kind of guarantee and I know how it works, but we’re really upfront, honest and professional about what we do and offer ( not that you don’t) but if I ever had ONE customer taking advantage (read abusing) my guarantee and I had no way to avoid that and return the money I’d be SO upset that it would make me see the next customers in a different way, like they’d be waiting for something to make me work for free. Too risky for me, not with the kind of people I work with, but the “emotional” toll would be too much.
Hope you lock this customer for life and brings you lots of referrals !
The main issue was that after one week, this “magic dust” was present on the glass. This is when I rewashed a couple windows, trying to determine if it was a soap issue leaving a residue. A month later when she called again, I checked the original windows and the rewashed ones, and they were all soiled in teh same manner. I decided at that point - it was a losing battle, and rather then attempting to rewash her windows every other week, I decided to refund her money. I feel it was absolutely the correct thing to do, I just didn’t enjoy it.
Like I said, of the hundreds of satisfied customers, I have only had a few rare issues…and this was my first refund, and hopefully my last.
Are you a one man show more or less? I think usually small companys where the owner works do a much better job then the large commerial orientated companys do when they do residential. Large companys seem to have lots and lots of incompetant rookies and incompetant pros for that matter. They don’t care about the houses or the customers. I wonder what a Money Back Guarantee would do to a large organization?
I think Chris said they have 50 cleaners, I wonder if they offer money back?
I work alone most of the time. I hire “as needed” from a pool that I have previously trained. Generally for grunt work, hauling water, rope, counter-weights, booms, scaffolding or ladders. Sometimes I hire one to wet in front of me on a “mass-glasss” job. Although I have trained a few to work a squeegee, none have been fast and proficient enough that I feel comfortable with sending them out to do the jobs and stick my name to it. I even considered starting a sister company of trained hands to see how it worked. Point is… Like the esteemed Dormatex is saying… an owner/operated business knows what quality of work that they are putting out. And to what ends they will go to keep their customers satisfied.
[B]The Glass Machine[/B]
[I]“because glass looks it’s best when you can’t see it”[/I]
