I was recently contacted by someone in the baltimore, maryland area who owns a window treatment dealtership. He’s interested in partnering up with someone in the area to clean their customer’s windows. Please let me know if you’re interested by contacting me. I’ll then forward over your information to him. Thanks much. Have a super day.

Steve

I saw this video a few months ago and really liked it. Regardless what you think about "Jobs", Apple, or whatever, this video might be just the thing to get you going today in your window cleaning business. It’s hard to stay "up" all the time, so check it out. 

 An email recently received:

Hi Steve,
 
I just had a quick question. I thought I had seen a letter somewhere for a prospect who has not scheduled yet…..a follow-up letter. Can’t seem to find it anywhere now. Can you point me in the right direction. Thanks!
 
Nicole

My Response:

Hi Nicole:

Good morning.

I actually didn’t have a specific letter designed for prospect follow up.  I always called ‘em up.  If it was a prospect and I gave them an estimate, I would call 3 to 4 days later.  

With that said though, some window cleaners do prefer to send follow up letters, so here’s one you can use:

Dear Mrs Jones:

Steve Wright
Clearview Window Washing Service

This letter is primarily meant to be sent to prospects immediately after you give them the estimate.  This’ll urge them to call references and also let them know that you’ll be contacting them "shortly".  In other words, you’re preparing them for the follow up call you’re going to make.

Another letter window cleaners send is the one below where you’ve done the estimate presentation and you’re now sending a letter a few days later asking for their business. I would still suggest though calling them because it allows you to close the sale much more effectively.  It’s too easy for someone to disregard a piece of mail.  Anyway, here’s the letter:

Dear Mrs Jones:

Steve Wright
Clearview Window Washing Service

Again, just to emphasize, either letter above should really have a phone call or two or three associated with it for better results.  

As a side note, since you’re a member of The Customer Factor, you can easily send personalized letters to prospects and customers with a couple of clicks. And again, each and every letter is personalized. We use tokens to do this. You can see the training video when you’re logged in for more info. But it’s easy and will save you a bunch of time. So I’d take the above letters and paste them into The Customer Factor so you’ll have them in case you need them. If you have any questions on this, call me at 256-546-2446 or email me. 

Hope this helps.  Take care for now.

Regards,

Steve

Hey Guys and Girls,

Ah, nothing like starting off 2008 with a little controversy. ) 

I’ve been wanting to write about "firing your customers" for a long time. No…not ALL customers. Just certain customers in certain situations. Sometimes it’s simply necessary. I’ll give you the link to the newsletter in a minute.

But first just a quick apology for the intermittent posting to this blog. I try and post every few days, but I’m in the middle of working on a powerful window cleaning directory (you’ll be notified about it soon), a social network site for window cleaners, and of course continuous upgrades to The Customer Factor. So something has to give. But I’ll get back into regular blog posting mode as soon as some time frees up.

Ok…let’s get it rolling. Here is the link to "Firing Your Customers". Of course you can always click the link at the right under "Recent Newsletters" too. Enjoy and happy 2008 to you. It’ll be a good year for window cleaners!

Steve
 

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I would be posting my newsletter today to this blog, but there’s been a slight change in plans. I wasn’t able to complete it as scheduled, so it should be ready to roll in the morning (sunday). In the meantime, here’s an email I received a little bit ago with a few questions.

Hey Steve,

This is Nathan.  I’ve talked to you a couple of times.  I have done window cleaning in the past but not had any of the information on marketing, etc and always cleaned windows as side jobs in addition to my regular job.  My customers were always very satisfied but I never launched my business. 

Anyway I purchased your info awhile back and have finally gotten around to having my advertising info personalized.  Should have done it a long time ago.  That being said, I’m really looking forward to launching my business the way you suggest and hopefully having that as my sole income.  I have a couple of questions though. 
 
First, I live in <location deleted> and it gets quite cold and snowy this time of year.  Should I start marketing now or wait until spring?  Is there the potential of getting jobs in this kind of weather? 

Also, if this isn’t the time of year to get things going, are there any other similar lines of work that you would suggest at this time of year where I can employ the same techniques of advertising and then focus on windows in a few months?  I know it’s good to stick to one thing as you suggest, I just don’t know what to be doing in the cold months.  I have no problem bundling up and going out to clean, but I don’t know if that is to foreign of an idea to potential customers.  

Also, once I get customers this spring and summer, are there ways of talking them in to winter cleaning as well?
 Next, I’ve noticed plenty of roofs made out of material like metal or even what appears to be breakable material that has to be walked on in order to get to the windows on the second story.  If those windows aren’t removable, what is the proper procedure for cleaning those windows?
 
Ok thanks for all your great ideas and motivation in your newsletters.  I’m looking forward to making this work.  Anyway, I appreciate any suggestions you may have.

Thanks, Nathan

My Response:

Hi Nathan:

How are you doing?  It’s good to hear from you.  Sure I remember speaking with you in the past. I’m glad to hear that you’re ready to kick the business up a notch.  Better late then never, right?  ) 

As far as your questions.

Whether you get market now in your weather or not really depends on the type of marketing you want to do.  If it’s postcards, then definitely wait.  They’re most effective when people can actually call you right then and there.  People will hold on to them and call you later also, but since a postcard campaign requires a little investment to crank it up, for the best bang for your buck, i’d wait ’til the weather gets nicer.

Now if you were to go with flyers, since the cost is so low, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to attempt a couple of flyer distribution campaigns now.  You may not get the 1% average like you would normally, but you’ll still generate phone calls.  I wouldn’t distribute flyers yourself though.  Go to craigslist.org and stick a help wanted ad in your area for a couple of flyer delivery people.  A wise investment that’ll give you a good return.

The big thing with winter is how severe it is.  I mean if there is snow flying around, then probably not many residential customers will want their windows cleaned.  But if it’s just cold and clear, then you’ll have more customer interest.  Of course you’ll never have quite the interest obviously in the winter as you will in the spring/summer.  So that’s why I recommend focusing on implementing a low cost marketing investment like flyers and making follow up calls (this is no cost) to current customers and see if they would be interested in a repeat cleaning now.

As far as other services….how about gutter cleaning?  You can send out a letter to your customers saying that you now offer gutter cleaning services.  That would be one service I would focus on more than any others.  I mean there’s always pressure cleaning and blind cleaning as great add-on services, but there is an investment to provide these services.  There is no investment in gutter cleaning.  Just labor.

As far as the roofs you’re talking about, the absolutely only way to clean the outside of these windows is with a pole.  I’m not a big fan of poles, but sometimes we have to use ‘em.  This would be one of those times.  It’s better to do that then risk breaking any roof tiles.

Take care for now and happy new year nathan.  Talk soon.

Regards,

Steve