Okay so I have lived in the same house that I built for about six years now. We live in an average neighborhood - home prices around 190k - 250k, mostly two stories, split entries, working class folks. And in the time that I have been here, I have never had one flier, postcard, door hanger, or otherwise advertising window cleaning. What gives? I can only imagine other wc’s are targeting the high end homes, we have a few high end areas - million dollar homes and such. I would think that those areas are horded with marketing of all types, all the while the “middle” group gets hardly anything. So I guess I am wondering, as far as residential, what ROI do you see from the different demographics, neighborhoods? Because even though I am in an average neighborhood, all of my neighbors are still trying to “keep up with the jones” so to speak. Plus there is a lot more middle ground to cover rather than high end. Thanks
well, I live in the UK so it is probably a little different. Also living in a working/middle class area. I think here, people advertise in all neighbourhoods…fliers will appear for pretty much anything everywhere.
As for window cleaning, I have worked on residential in pretty much all areas, and the most loyal customers have been either very local, my estate, or more working class.
I find that very wealthy people tend to look for a bargain even though they do not need to, they always want something for nothing!
I think the working class and lower end of the middle class is where I have pretty much all of my customers and it seems to be working out fine. Here you find people who dont mind paying a fair price for a good job, they are very friendly and they hardly ever sack you for someone else.
Hope this answers the query…
My feelings exactly. For example, we do get fliers for other services such as driveway sealcoating. When my one neighbor decided to have his done, three or four others joined in to get a discounted rate. Plus there is so much more “middle ground” to cover, versus the high end. I have seen first hand what too much money does to people - they are not loyal whatsoever. I can only imagine that the high end areas get so plastered that they don’t know who to believe.
Most window cleaners target “high end” work mainly because they assume that people in moderate costing homes will not have the deposable income to afford window cleaning services. In my many years of service I have done itty bitty homes and mansions and have found that you just never know so don’t turn down an opportunity to solicit them all. Sometimes if you advertising is catchy it may just get passed on to a family member that has a larger home. (I’ve had that happen)
Factually though, I do target “high end” clients myself. Not though just because they may have disposable income but rather because their homes are large enough to make one days work out of. I’d much rather spend my whole day at a home rather than make 3-5 stops. I do service agreements and all of those that I have in place are from larger homes.
Good Luck! 
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Factually though, I do target “high end” clients myself. Not though just because they may have disposable income but rather because their homes are large enough to make one days work out of. I’d much rather spend my whole day at a home rather than make 3-5 stops. I do service agreements and all of those that I have in place are from larger homes. [/QUOTE]
I can understand your logic in doing so. But do you find that the competition is much greater on the high end? Or is it competitive everywhere you look? Because I can just imagine if I were to hire a window cleaner (theoretically) all of my neighbors would be poking their nose around, and wanting to get in on the action. I am not like the others in my neighborhood, they ACT like they have disposable income, plus most are stay at home moms who all network everyday with one another.
I just don’t like to leave anything on the table - if you know what I mean. I suppose take the work wherever you can, and work up the ladder as you go. Alright - pun intended…
Well, you should take the work wherever it is, and there is logic in what Dwight says. Though if you work an area, you could easily have 5 or 6 houses in a row…
As to competion, it is probably at its highest in the better off areas. I know when I started, back when dinosaurs were still around!, there was a council estate (relatively poor area) close by that no other window cleaner would touch. After a very short time I had about four days of work there that was done on a repeat monthly basis…
That brings me to another point. In the US, does the work get done regularly? Here, people have their windows cleaned once a month usually…so once your customer base is set up you are away.
My experience has been that there is indeed much more competition for the larger home’s work. That is where putting together an attractive package to sell your services comes in. I try to make my services as attractive as possible. Information and a lay out of exactly the way we do things accompanies all my estimates.
