I had a resi costumer the other day, she was vary particular about her window sills. Now, all I do is wipe them out with a sponge and that seems to satisfy 99% of my clients.
My customer was happy to see the difference in how the windows looked but thought I would do a better job cleaning out the sills. I’ll admit there was a little amount of dirt packed in the corners that I could not get out with my sponge.
What can I use to pick out the dirt in the nooks and crannies of the window sills?
I’ve had customers say the same thing. I remind them that I explained my procedure (ie brush sill, wipe up water left after I squeegee the window) at the bid. If they want more I explain I can “detail” the sills but that is an extra charge. They usually stop there.
I had a customer today that wanted the nooks and crannies of the window sills cleaned. It was one of the sills that were tracks/with a bunch of corners. I cleaned one windows and it was one of the best jobs I’ve done. There were a couple spots in the corners. She said it wasn’t good enough. I went and detail it again. You know what she said? I don’t like how you are cleaning it. When that happens you know you are going to start loosing money. So I told her…I’m sorry I can do a detail for $5 a window sill, but quite frankly I don’t think I can meet your expectations. She agreed and I left.
Sometimes you have to judge how picky that person is going to be because they are money pits. If they seem really picky at the estimation…jack the prices up so they won’t take you…or even be honest with them and say I don’t think I can meet your expectations. It all comes down to the bottom line $$$$. You don’t want to be making money under stress. That should be for them wall street folks.
Tracks & Sill detailing is something I clarify upfront in clear terms. My standard residential pricing includes hogs hair brush, soap & water cleaning of screens and a wet wiping of sills. If I had a dime for every homeowner that stepped up after the clear explanation and told me the tracks were not clean enough. I feel your pain…frustrating!
I think I get maybe three to four customers a year that are like that. I try an weed’em out when I give a quote because my reputation is on the line like everyone else in this forum. I don’t want to get a bad review just because someone has a compulsive control cleaning disorder. Unfortunatly that doesn’t always happen.
I’ve only had one customer complain about the tracks not being clean enough (in the corners) She was ****ED about it, it really traumatized me for a little while. Ever since then I’ve made 2 things a habit. 1) I’ve stepped up my efforts on cleaning tracks, and have gotten a lot of compliments for it. 2) When giving quotes I always tell my customers upfront that the glass is my main foucus, I do wipe down the tracks for free, and 99% of my customers are satisfied with how much cleaner the tracks are, but again my MAIN focus is the glass.
Good to see you on here, Tyler. That’s good advice. I had a similar situation this past summer. The house had TDLs and storms. The lady kept me for about an hour doing the estimate. I almost walked about five times but it just didn’t quite get to that point.
On the day of cleaning, I did the work just as described. She asks me if I removed the bottom strip of the storm pane and wiped the sill and I said no. She said she wanted it done, so I agreed. Figured it’d take me about 20 minutes. Then she walks over to one window and says, “Oh, this window’s STILL DIRTY!!!” I said, “Whatta ya mean?” She said that the little crease in the storm frame that surrounds the glass, wasn’t clean. I told her that I had wiped all of them before I cleaned the glass and I took one out to show her. I wiped it with my rag and it didn’t get any cleaner. So she goes into the kitchen and comes back with a dripping, white washcloth and proceeds to defile my clean storm pane. She turns the cloth over and says, “Look at all that dirt!” I said, “But look at the frame . . . it’s still dirty. It just doesn’t get any cleaner than that.” She said that I would just have to scrub harder than that and that she wanted me to do all of them again. At this point I said “I’m outta here” and walked out.
I still mailed her an invoice and recouped about 80% of it, along with a nasty letter. Oh well, you live and you learn. I’ll definitely trust my gut more in the future.
