Window Cleaning Resource Blog

Dress Down when selling Store Front Window Cleaning

Chris Lambrinides — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:43:17 +0000

In my window cleaning business we all basically dress like a bunch of kids, things are very casual. The only one who ever dresses really nice is our store front salesman, because hes not hidden away in the office like the rest of us. He wears a nice collared shirt, pressed pants and shiny shoes each day. Store front sales have been a bit slow lately, lots of new competition hitting the area.

I saw the sales man coming in the other day and he was carrying a pair of skate shoes, jeans, and a hoodie. I asked him what was up and he said he had a new theory about store front owners immediately getting turned off when they see a salesperson come in. So he met up with one of the window cleaners that had a light day and sold neighboring stores while the other guy was cleaning.

His pitch was as simple as “Hey we are cleaning the windows next door, can I intrest you in signing up and getting your windows cleaned today?”

I was shocked to see him come back with a big handfull of newly signed accounts that day. So we are going to be continuing with this technique for a bit, I will keep you posted on how it goes. Try something new today, you might be surprised with the results!

Direct Mail Works for Window Cleaners

Chris Lambrinides — Sun, 19 May 2013 14:21:04 +0000

PWRA Convention Speaker Line Up

Chris Lambrinides — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:47:05 +0000

Check out the amazing line up of speakers at this years PWRA Pressure Washing Association Convention – For more info and speaker bios check out : Pressure Washers Convention

The first ever PWRA Convention

Chris Lambrinides — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:41:11 +0000

The Pressure Washing Resource Association is very happy to announce its first ever convention! Check out the details here: Pressure Washing Convention

Reach-iT pole break down and XT rental program

Chris Lambrinides — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:52:03 +0000

Alex shows us how to break down and add to the Reach-iT Pro and mini WFP. He also talks about the new XT rental program.

Check out the entire line of Reach-iT Waterfed poles here.

Pure Water Maintenance Webinar Replay

Chris Lambrinides — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:48:41 +0000

Staff Pay Directly Correlated with WFP Use

Chris Lambrinides — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:02:11 +0000

Last year around this time we broke down and fully outfitted every single one of our window cleaning trucks with water fed poles and IPC pure water units. This was originally a move to increase safety and to get our insurance bill lowered.

We pay our window cleaners on percentage scale so there pay can fluctuate quite a bit. Recently I decided to get a weekly report from our operations manager on the amount of gallons run through each machine over the course of a week. I started comparing the gallons used to the supervisors salary that week. I found a 100% direct correlation between staff pay and gallons used. There was a $13 per hour variance in pay between the guy who used the most gallons and the guy who used the least gallons. I could also easily pick out who got paid the most and who got paid the least just by looking at the gallons used report. Interesting stuff.

Water Fed Poles Work! What are you waiting for?

Customer complaints 82% down

Chris Lambrinides — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:51:42 +0000

I talked a lot over the past winter on the WCR forum about some major changes we made at All County Window Cleaning for the 2013 season.

We changed the following:

Staff pay plan
Crew orginazation, we only work in teams of 2 now
The addition of a full time operations manager
Permanent teams
Permanent work schedule and only one Saturday a month
Stricter enforcement of WFP use
Scheduling procedure
Pricing structure

So far things have been going great. We have been able to give our staff a better sense of consistency in hours worked and schedule. Our frontline staff is getting paid more, employee satisfaction is up. Customer complaints are down 82% and referrals are higher than ever. These were some pretty drastic changes for us, it was a scary move. But it turned out to be great for our company.

Oh and the most important part.. This whole thing was spurred by a ex employee that had been fired and came in 3 months later to tell me everything that sucked about my company.

Inside Ettore Video Tour

Chris Lambrinides — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:51:35 +0000

A follow up to the Ettore photos posted earlier this week. Just a couple quick clips filmed inside the Ettore factory.

Window Cleaning Connect

Chris Lambrinides — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:34:40 +0000

Have you created your free account at Window Cleaning Connect.com yet?

A listing is totally free and WCRA members get a premium listing free. Build your page, add photos and videos, then use the free tools to gather reviews and ratings from your customers.