For my niche I charge 50-100% more than other window cleaners but I don’t consider them competition.
I imagine your bicycle set up is for storefronts. Do you do residential too?
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No storefronts for me. Only mid-rise wfp for the last 8 years.
I contract out some storefront but rarely pick up a squeegee.
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No storefront…even cooler.
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How and why? Why are your customers willing to pay 50 - 100% more for your service. How do you go about that?
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@Garry what’s your thoughts on doing magnets vs yard signs for a business in the start up phase? I’m thinking of ordering yard signs, however this thread is making me reconsider if that money would be better spent on the magnets.
@its_kev_dawg whats the experience been with magnets for you? Has it been a good roi?
If you were to choose one over the other, car magnets would not only advertise your service while your vehicle is parked at the job site, but also where ever you drive, including grocery store, gas station, restaurant, bank drive through, etc., you get the idea - everywhere. Yard signs, some folks I found out, do not want yard signs in their yards. Go figure. But your vehicle with noticeable magnets, or if you choose wrap, serves the same purpose. People look; they want that service; they call. 
Yard signs are great. So is lettering on your vehicle. I wouldn’t call it an either/or situation. Try and make room in your budget for both if you can. But if you have to choose one for now, I agree with Garry on the lettering.
My personal preference is diecut vinyl lettering permanently adhered to the vehicle, with color-matched blank magnets if you really need to cover the lettering for some reason.
Magnets can screw up your paint job if you’re not diligent about removing and cleaning underneath regularly.
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Rome wasn’t built in a day
I do this in many ways.
The most basic is to just show up on time and honor the agreement. That already cuts out at least half my “competitors”.
Another simple way is to build scarcity into your business by always cutting off the bad clients to free up room for better quality clients. For example, in my storefront days, I’d invoice once a month and at the same time cancel services to at least one of the worst clients on the list. This would free up room in my schedule to accept or search for new contracts. I now increase my prices in such a way that it has the same effect. Yes, you will loose clients but because you lost them based on price and not quality of service there is a good chance they’ll never be able to replace you and you get them back at an even higher price.
Another way, is to offer a perfect quality service or as close to perfection as possible. I use only the highest quality wfp and filtration system, change out prefilters often, and check tds mutliple time a day. Most of my “competitors” rarely check their tds and work way too fast. One large company trains their wfp operators to never ever touch the brush to the top seal/frame, only to clean the glass and to do curtains of glass without leaving “drip time”. I check their work after and most glass has lines and nasty frames. Another crew of 3 wfp guys that bang out one job after another in quick succession just learned that they need to “check” their di tank’s tds on a regular basis and had never heard of an RO membrane. They think it’s useless. I could literally bike around behind these guys and pick up their clients 
“You get what you pay for”… So, in my perspective and experience I don’t charge much more than my “competitors”. They charge too little.
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I have recently accidentally discovered something about developing scarcity. This is the first year in a while I have been totally solo, usually with a part time helper 2-3 days a week (daughter or son-in-law) and last year without either of them I had a full timer most of the year. We serviced a lot of people. This year being solo people are having to wait 2 - 3 months which I don’t really like, however many of them are booking their next cleaning (usually 6 -12) months at the time because they realize the scarcity of my service.
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ahhh, the dentist close.
Ok, So that’s very cool, I appreciate the way you do business. What I want to know is about “the sell”.
To me, what you described is how you keep customers. How do you get new customers when they could get service for 1/2 of what you charge. Reputation? Chutzpah? Selling sizzle?
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And the funny thing is the customer is doing the closing…they are asking me “can w e schedule the next cleaning now?”, which is usually 6 or 12 months.
I would consider a wrap for the truck. It’ll cover up some of the ugly and make your company stand out more.
