Hi All,

I was talking to a window cleaner the other day down in south florida and he was talking about an add-on service that he provides to his customers that he is really profiting from, so I thought I’d pass this bit of news on to you.

The “Add-on” service that he’s referring to is Dryer Vent Cleaning.

He actually got into it by accident. One of his customers kept on asking him over and over again to clean their dryer vent, so finally Sean said ok and went about finding out how to do it and how much he should charge for the service.

Basically all it takes is a shopvac and a dryer vent cleaning kit which I’ll talk about in a minute.

As far as pricing, he invited a company that specializes in dryer vent cleaning over to his house to clean his own dryer vent and they charged him $125. It only took ‘em about a half hour, so Sean figured he could charge $75 per dryer vent cleaning and still be profitable. It doesn’t matter the size of the home, the vent placement, etc. etc. He just charges a flat $75 for each dryer vent cleaning.

On occasion a dryer vent cleaning may take him longer, but it all evens out because he’s also done quite a few that take him no more than 20 minutes.

So that’s how it all came about. Now Sean asks every single window cleaning customer of his whether he can clean their dryer vents. The demand is high.

$75 for a half hour effort could end up turning into a nice healthy income stream for you.

Here is a video where you can check out more:

It talks about how to clean dryer vents and it shows a dryer vent cleaning tool kit. It’s called a “LintEater Rotary Dryer Vent Cleaning Kit & 12′ Extension Kit”. This’ll provide you a total of 24′ for the longer tubing. It’s located at this webpage.

Dryer Vent cleaning is something that few window cleaners offer, so if you can provide another value added service to your customers, it’ll give you an additional advantage over your competition.

If you’ve been in the window cleaning business for awhile, I personally would send a “new service” letter to your existing customer base announcing the fact that your company now offers a dryer vent cleaning service. And regardless whether you’ve been in the window cleaning business for awhile or are brand new, make sure to ask all customers who you clean windows for daily whether they would like their dry vents cleaned.

If dollars are tight at the moment and you don’t want to outlay any money for a shopvac or buy the dryer vent cleaning kit that is needed, then I’d still send out the “new service” announcement letter to your existing customers and proceed to ask customers who you’ve just completed a window cleaning job for whether they would have an interest in getting their dryer vents cleaned.

When you have a guaranteed 6 dryer vent cleaning customers, then buy the 2 tools (shopvac/dryer vent cleaning kit) that you need. At least this way you’re assured of making your money back right away.

To prepare your customer letter or flyer for mailing/distribution, a
good video to watch would be this one:

It’s a news story on the dangers of what can happen if a dryer vent is clogged. So needless to say, if you include a link to this vid in any marketing materials or letter to your existing customer base, you’ll be getting calls. :o ) And you can include certain points mentioned in the video within your letter.

Dryer vent cleaning should be a service that you provide for your customers twice a year or at least once a year. So it has the advantages of being repeat similar to your window cleaning business which makes it the ideal add-on service.

A homeowner might even be more motivated to say “yes” when you follow up with a dryer vent cleaning phone call because of the dangerous situation a clogged dryer vent can cause. I haven’t seen too many dirty windows cause fires. :o )

As far as pricing and what to charge, I talked about $75 above, but obviously one price doesn’t fit all areas. One window cleaner mentioned $99.00 to me. Test it. If people are willing to pay it, then your pricing is perfect. There’s no “one size fits all” approach when it comes to pricing.

But one thing I wouldn’t do is complicate it for you or the homeowner by pricing it in “tiers” or “levels”. Just simplify it and charge one price. If one particular jobs takes a bit longer then another, no biggie. It all evens out in the end.

Take care and have a great day.

Regards,

Steve

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