When you give a quotation and your potential customer says wow your way too expensive or they say my last guy charged X amount. What are your typical responses and how do you keep cool under situations where they are really having a dig at you and your company
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We always try to explain what we offer at our prices vs “the last guy” . If that doesn’t work we stay firm to our pricing and tell the customer we are always interested in working with them in the future.
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Yeah. Sometimes folks forget not all window cleaners clean to the same standard. I stick to my prices too because i know i really work hard to make sure the job is as good as it can be unlike most Windies in my area. I’m still working on being tactful with people, I’m very direct and don’t beat around the bush, hence why trad-girl deals with customers complaints lol she’s nicer haha
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Why are you calling a new window cleaner if you were pleased with your last guys price/work?
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Right!?!
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They say normally “i don’t know where he’s gone” lol i wonder why haha
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My favorite is when they tell us how much the other guy charged and then later in the conversation fund out that their old window cleaner went out of business. I hear it all the time!
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I always ask what’s your budget when you considered window cleaning? Then I explain our process of cleaning a window.
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We have our price rules. When a customer doesn’t want to pay our price we go ahead. There is no reason to negotiate the prices for a long time.
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I love when a customer tells me they are working within a budget. What my ears hear is they are currently giving money to everyone else but me. Then I ask myself, what can our company do to make there company better.
I have used this a few times and had it work. A customer tells me Window Cleaning prices are expensive. I respond “I’m with you. Window cleaning is expensive, so are broken windows. Windows break down if they are not cared for and I would hate for you to pay for new windows only for them to get dirty and break again. Also you would still end up paying me to clean them anyway. Now which of your windows are we cleaning first? The outside or inside?”
Show that you care, offer value, a great attitude and excellent service. Some people go with low price because they don’t have the correct information or no information. They go based on what they know or previous experiences.
If they have a few moments and they say the guy down the street is cheaper, I respond with “Excellent sir! I would only expect that you shop on price, if you are good with your current cleaner, I will be happy to provide information and information is always free. In the next few minutes Im going to get you multiple figures on your storefront. Also we can provide information on special offers for your home. I can get you the MSDS labels of the soaps we use and if you wish you can take a look at our equipment and even hold it as well. We will then let you be on your way. Is this fair to you? If it isn’t and we cannot help you today I will go one step further. I will pay for your lunch.”
Treat all of your customers like kings and you will be rewarded as such.
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YES! Window Joe
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We had a quote this week for a large 3 level house with all double hung windows with french panes on the top. They had 35 windows and about that many screens. She called from a promotion offering free screen cleaning so she was saving about 100$ in screen cleaning but when I told her the price was $445.00, she stopped smiling and then said she would think about it and call us. I don’t know what she was expecting with a huge house and tons of french panes. I’m not even sure if I should call her back because I know she will want me to lower our price but she is already getting free screen cleaning. What would you guys do?
I did a job about 3 weeks ago for a bloke who dose house cleans for builder’s before there handed over to the owner. Did the job all day for 220$ and he never paid he said his wife transferred the money into me account it will be there in a couple Of days. 3 weeks later still no money. It was a con from the start they were brand new windows but they were scratched to death. He already had a window cleaner before me do the job of taken of all the cement and paint but he just wanted me to clean them and scrape them. In some places. Any way I never did see any money for the job
I wouldn’t worry it. Anybody that worries about the price isn’t really the right kind of customer you want. You can do a follow up call just in case. She may turn into cheerleader after all.
I have clients that is happy to pay me that much and clients that loses their chit over it. I am at that point where it’s irrelevant to me.
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With homeowners, ALWAYS have a contract ready. If do not fill out a contract, there is no official agreement between both parties and later they can back out of any obligation. It should not be a big deal to agree in writing especially if they are serious about the proposition. If they refuse to fill out a contract, they do not get service. You save time and headaches. I have learned this the hard way, believe me.
You can always get money but you can never get time back.
If a client is worried about price, the dominant buying motive was not uncovered. What needs to be asked is “Why made you decide to get window cleaning service?” “Why not last year? Or the year before?” “Why now?” “Why me?” From there you can prepare a counter to close the deal. However the perceived value needs to be higher than the price to sell. Hard to sell something at any price if there is equal value to price, lesser value or no value. It is entirely possible they do not think the service will work, or they are not getting enough value. You can increase your value without lowering price. Actually, you can increase your value by increasing price. Lowering price can actually lower value. Value can be made up for in attitude and being sold on your service also staying committed to the customer. Follow up I would do if there was not a general agreement, also ask who she knows that would benefit from the service even if the customer did not agree to service. I have received loads of customers this way commercially. Residential its worked twice so far.
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Never ever go in with just one option. Have multiple available. I have about 5 packages for my services. If you have packages available, ask her “Would you consider moving up a package if it meant that you would get everything you absolutely wanted?” Then offer something like gutter cleaning, power washing, maybe mow her lawn but obviously upsell those. Say you offered gutter cleaning for $200.00 more so your upgraded package is $645.00. She may look at you like you are nuts or that the offer is good. Either way, it makes the previous offer look at least reasonable.
If the issue is she just wants it done but does not seem to care about value as much, as weird as this sounds…sometimes people want less value. You could also say “Would you consider moving down a package, if it meant you saved $200.00?” If she asks what this implies, tell her “This would be for the very basic service, you would only have exterior windows cleaned. Screens would only be removed to clean the windows but not cleaned. They would be put back in after. Your windows will look better than they did but it won’t be everything you want. But you will save $200.00, so your total for service would be $245.00. Now did we want to stay with the current package where you get this great deal with the screens cleaned and the inside of the windows as well, or did you want to just do the outside windows and save $200.00?” Try something along those lines, it doesnt have to be the amount I said. But it will shift her perspective and also it will confirm if she is on the correct product or not.
I had a customer say what would seem almost angry to me “NO! This is the package I want.” Most people would say the customer was being rude. To me, the customer wasn’t being rude, the customer was just 100% sure about what they wanted. But if you have someone like this individual who is obviously not seeing the value or just not happy for some reason, she may be on the wrong product.
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