How Long Can You Keep A Storefront Window Cleaning Account?
February 21, 2022
Storefront window cleaner for life?
Keep your customers happy!
Many window cleaners I know either personally or ‘know’ online say that storefront window cleaning is not worth pursuing as a part of one’s business. They feel, perhaps from personal experience or simply from hearsay, that lowballers will always win out and this endeavor is a ‘race to the bottom’. It may be the case for some contractors and more so where competiton is fierce. I have found that when you service areas that have some competition, but are not heavily saturated with window washers that you can retain customers for a very long time. I’ll elaborate.
Be reasonable, flexible, and reliable
Storefront owners generally pay me to be their window cleaner as a way to make their customers’ first impression a good one. Some owners love to look at their clean windows, but I would say most really want the windows cleaned so they don’t have to spend time doing it themselves. For my part, I find that being reliable, and I mean RELIABLE, is extremely high on a business owner’s priority list. One storefront owner in East Stroudsburg turned down a competitor of mine, because he said his current wndow cleaning service (Dan Wagner Window Cleaning), was like clockwork! The point is, don’t leave your jobs to chance. Get them onto a regular schedule and stick to it yourself, like clockwork. There are times when as a window cleaner you need to be reasonable and flexible. While light rain or snow should rarely if ever affect the quality of your work, heavier precipitation and/or wind may force you to curtail the cleaning for the sake of consideration to the one paying. It has been a relatively rare need for me to do so, thankfully. At times, I have found that I need to alter the order of my daily itinerary a bit to get into restaurants early or at certain times of the day so as not to be a nuisance to a large amount of patrons.
34 Years?
Yes, I have one storefront customer in the Stroudsburg area who has been using my services since 1988, ever since he opened. I’ve likely cleaned his windows between 850 and 900 times! Why? Because I have kept my pricing affordable for him, and have been reliable and professional enough to hold my own against other window washing companies who might like to snag the account.
So, in closing, despite what some window cleaners have experienced or believe, it is possible to keep storefront window cleaning accounts for a long time. And I truly appreciate all those who have trusted me to be their window cleaner indefinitely!