What To Do in Cold Weather?

An email recently received:

Steve,

I had an idea that I wanted to run by you.  I am expecting that in the cold months of November through February here in Montana I won't have too many window cleaning jobs.  I was reading the manual that you sent me and you talk in there about other ways to make money when in a person's house.  This gave me an idea of sending out a mailing to all my existing customers in late October. 

The mailing would say something like "Ever wonder what a window cleaner does in the winter?"  Then, I would present some services that I do not believe are offered anywhere in town.  I would offer to remove all blinds and curtains and clean the blinds in my "shop" and take the curtains in to be dry cleaned.  Have you ever thought of doing this (probably not since in the warmer states windows can be cleaned pretty much year round). 

Of course, I would have to come up with a creative market strategy and also a price point.  Just wondered what your thoughts were.  We are up to 210 customers and I have 2 more estimates today.  Also, word of mouth is getting out and I have people calling now that "don't care about the price" because of the reputation the business is building!!!  Take care,

Tony

My Response:

Hi Tony:

I hope your weekend is going well.  Happy Labor day to you.  Congratulations once again on 210 customers.  Just excellent.  I remember when you first got started not too long ago.  You are growing at a good clip for sure.

There are so many ways to make money with your customers after you get in their home the first time to clean their windows and start building the relationship.  I was hanging christmas lights for customers. As a matter of fact, I ended up hanging lights and christmas decorations for the president's house of the university of florida.  Huge home and made over $2k on the deal.  Bottom line…there is a bunch of profit in your customers for numerous other services.

The key of course is time or lack of it.  But as you said, the cold is soon coming in your area which will probably slow you down a tad for residential glass.  So this'll free you up for other things. I think a mailing to your existing customers is exactly the thing to do.  I would make a bet with you that some of your customers are needing services done right now and they don't know who to call.

I like the headling of your mailing.  "Ever wonder what a window cleaner does in the winter?"  Excellent headline.  Different and an attention grabber. 

Blind cleaning is a natural.  Do you have any blind cleaners in your area? I know we had absolutely not one single blind cleaner in my area.  Not one.  If I had more people and more time, that is one industry in addition to window cleaning that I would have sunk my teeth into.  So that is a natural for you.  I wish I could help you with some specifics as far as blind cleaning pricing.  I really don't know where to begin on that although I know someone doing blinds getting $10 to $12 per blind in his area.

Be real careful though because some of the blinds these days are the really nice wooden ones.  I'm not sure what kind of wood they're made out of, but I know that with some of them, if you get them wet, it could ruin them.  So this may take some research. 

Have you ever thought of window repair?  There is a system available that can fix the windows instead of forcing the homeowner to replace.  I'm referring to the condensation you'll see in between double pane glass.  It's because of the seal(s) being broken.  This technique I'm referring to sucks the condensation out from between the panes and closes the seal making the window look brand new.  Someone was recently telling me that he bought the system and is making $90 to $100 for each window he fixes.  Cheaper then replacement so the homeowner gets a good deal and still good profits for you. 

As far as christmas light hanging, there is a guy I know down south who purchased a program from someone teaching him all he needs to know about this service, what to charge, how to work it, etc.  If you want, I find out this information out for you.  I personally just winged it and estimated the cost of hanging lights so it matched up with my window washing income of $45 per hour.  Sometimes you might make more. Occasionally you might make a little less.  But overall, it all works out in the end.   

Are you handy with handyman stuff?  Can you fix things?  It was unbelievable how many of the older, retired folks needed someone to do this, do that, etc.  I betcha i could have walked away from windows and just spent all day doing handyman stuff.  Of course the problem with that is that I'm really not very handy as far as a general knowledge of lots of "handy" type stuff.  :o)  But the service was most definitely there.   My customers needed help.  And I'm sure yours will too.  Even customers besides the retired customers.

Hopefully this'll give you a couple of ideas.  As soon as The Customer Factor gets these new upcoming uploads (sept 8), you'll be able to easily create all the personalized docs and labels at the same time.  So in one fell swoop you can print 210 letters and 210 labels in a snap.

Keep that reputation spreading. The service industry is an outstanding industry to build a solid reputation.  And once it starts growing, it'll keep on growing.  It got really exciting for me heading into year two and onward because the pressure was off somewhat on having to do traditional marketing because referral calls and "reputation" type calls came in.  And these types of calls are always nice because they don't cost anything to get.

Take care for now and I'll talk to you soon.  Please keep in touch.  Enjoy the holiday.

Regards,

Steve