Hey All,

I’ve had window cleaners ask me over the years where they can buy domain names from. Although I’ve always recommended godaddy for domain names, you can get domain names cheaper at DomainsDirectHQ.com, so if you’re in need of a domain name, this is the place to go. A domain name costs $8.99 at Domains Direct HQ whereas at godaddy they cost $10.69 for a .com name.

DomainsDirectHQ.com is set up similar to godaddy, so if you purchase a domain name from them, I’ll be able to still provide guidance on how to edit the dns information so that the domain name points to 5.88WebHosting.com if you’re having your website hosted at 5.88Webhosting.com.

Some folks are not aware of how domain names work, who actually owns them, etc., so I figured before ending this blog post, I’d take  a minute to explain.

When purchasing a domain name, it’s done through what’s called a “registrar”. There are thousands of registrars out there such as godaddy.com, 1and1.com, networksolutions.com, etc. etc. DomainsDirectHQ.com is a registrar also. But the important thing to understand is that regardless where you purchase your domain name from, they’re all controlled by one organization: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

So regardless whether you purchase your domain name from godaddy or from DomainsDirectHQ.com or whoever, it makes no difference. ICANN ultimately controls the domain name and you’re actually “renting” the domain name from them. Registrars are simply the middlemen.

So  you may be thinking what does one registrar offer over another if the domain names are the same and one organization controls them all. The two biggest reasons to go with one registrar over another are price and customer service.

So…

To Buy A Domain Name Cheap, go to DomainsDirectHQ.com

To Host Your Domain Name/Website, go to 5.88WebHosting.com

A closing note to make is that as a value added bonus for being a member of The Customer Factor software, we do provide free web hosting for your website, so there’s no need to sign up for hosting at 5.88WebHosting if you’re a software member.

Have a great day.

Regards,

Steve

Hello Steve!

Thomas
Fraserview Window Cleaning

Response:

Hi Tom,

Good morning and it’s good to hear from you.  Thank you very much for your comments.  I appreciate them for sure.

As far as this commercial customer, I would use a contract with him. He’s proven that he really can’t be dependable in terms of honoring a verbal commitment for a window cleaning every 2 months. So he can sign a yearly contract for an “every 2 month” cleaning at $142.50 or he can go with no contract with the assumption being that maybe the job will be every 2 months or maybe it won’t.  But with no contract, the price would be slightly higher.  The higher price can be what you initially priced the job at without taking into consideration the frequency period.

Getting him to agree to a contract (or the higher price with no contract) may be a challenge. It seems like he wants his cake and be able to eat it to. In other words, it appears he likes the flexibility of having you come by whenever he wants you to (or not as in the case of the boss’ son doing the windows) while taking advantage of the lower pricing which was intended to be for regular 2 month work.

I understand about not coming across too forceful. But I think it needs to be done. I mean what other option is there? I wouldn’t go back to the initial agreement of 142.50 for the “promise” of work every other month. He already broke that agreement. So you have to protect your interests.

I would say something like this: “Darin I’d be glad to clean your windows for you again. Just to let you know though, my company now asks our customers to sign contracts if they would look to take advantage of our lower pricing for regular window cleanings. This is a  win-win which provides you the absolute best price, but also guarantees that we’ll come be every 2 months to clean your windows. The other option is to go with no contract, but the pricing is slightly higher. This does provide you more flexibility though where you can use our services at your convenience whether it be every 2 months, every 3 months, etc.”

I think this comes across good. Not too forceful. If said correctly, it should work. Of course some customers are bent on securing a win-lose (a win for them and a lose for you) situation which is the wrong approach.  I’ll really never understand the mentality behind this thought process.  So w/o knowing darin, I don’t know which way he’ll go.

I hope this helps a little bit at least.  Take care for now and have a great day.  Talk to you soon.

Regards,

Steve

Note to all readers: I wrote a newsletter not too long ago about commercial window cleaning. If you’re interesting in reading it, it’s located here.

Hey All,

This has zero to do with window cleaning. I figured it was time to get on our dancing shoes and do some disco. A window cleaner (thanks joe) sent me a video of himself dancing and I thought that is pretty cool. So I visited the site and had some fun. Click the image below to watch the vid:

I wish I had that much get up and go for real.  Merry Christmas.

Sincerely,

Steve

Hey Steve,

Nathan

My Response:

Hi Nathan,

Good morning. How are you doing today?

Raising prices is always a risky proposition, but it does need to be done if you’ve done a customer a few times and you feel that you’re not making the profits you need to make from that customer.

The only thing I would caution you on is to watch the calculation you do. You mentioned that you divide the amount you make by your time in order to determine your hourly pay. This is ok if you’ve been in the biz for awhile (which means your overall job speed is good) and it’s ok if you’ve done the customer job at least twice.

If you make this calculation too early in your business (in the first 6 months), the calculation will probably be incorrect because as the months go on, you’ll become more adept at the entire window cleaning process from unloading your equipment to packing everything up along with all the tasks needing to be done in between.
Read the rest of this entry

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. ) 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. )

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