I am still a FNG but good golly my customers love to bug the crap out of me when I am washing their house. I am doing well on a street with some retired people and they all just want to talk! I do have it in my agreement that people and pets need to remain inside during the wash to protect them bla bla bla.
I am getting better at just turning away and spraying again but they keep popping up like magicians and it’s stressing me out. I had an issue with my remote downstream injector and was trying to concentrate and troubleshoot it and this dude would not stop telling me about his life and was asking what the issue was.
I wear a boonie hat so over-the-ear headphones are not an option since I thought about that. The air-pod type headphones are not obvious enough that I can’t hear them.
How do you respectfully get people to leave you alone?
Oh man I encounter this every day as a window cleaner. I try to realize that some day I will be in that position, old and lonely but there definitely comes a point when you just need to get stuff done.
I would politely tell them the chemicals we use can burn them and they need to stay inside until done. Southerners are a bit touchy about directness, they’d rather be all syrupy and sugarcoated rather than be told in one sentence to let us do our work.
I just make it super awkward. I move in really close, flutter my eyelashes and say “Oh you like to get wet and slippery huh?” and right then is when I blast 'em with the shooter tip right in the kisser. 70% of the time it works every time.
No, I’m just kidding. I rarely ever have a customer want to come out and chit chat. I probably only meet about 50% of my customers anyhow. The other half are either out of state, working from home and too busy to chat or they’re landlords and I’m washing their rentals. But if someone wants to talk just tell them you’re on a tight schedule that day and you don’t mean to be rude but you have to work quickly in order to be home in time for dinner.
You guys are anti-social. I can work and talk at the same time. I like getting them involved. I’ll put them to work in a heart beat too. I explain everything I’m doing while I’m working etc. They appreciate learning. My best tips come from some who follow me around and watch and I get a lot of referrals because they learn that I know what I’m doing.
I’d say about 25% of me jobs I get are neighbors of a house in washing coming and talking to me about it. I like socializing with people, explaining what I’m going and how I do it. Word of mouth is how I get all my business, it’s the cheapest advertising there is.
I’m glad I made that comment this morning. Just got done cleaning a house and while doing it the neighbor came out and asked me what I charge. I’m doing his house this week.
I realize it can slow you down but I see those opportunities as a positive way to grow the business. When I’m polite and sociable they are more likely to leave Google AND Facebook reviews, tell others about the service, and even leave a tip. Monday was a $55.00 tip. I also know it’s bigger than me. Our time is short so if I can have a small positive impact on someone or brighten their day Im all in.
If you get a tip, you didn’t charge enough to begin with. I am polite, but I routinely tell people I won’t wash their house if they leave a review or tell others about me.
That’s because you are way too busy with apartments to deal with residential! $$$
I love talking to my customers. People hire people, especially older folk and I don’t mind spending 5 minutes chatting here and there to build that connection. I’m busier than I have been prior right now and I owe it to my good work ethic when cleaning and my people skills to network and plant the seed that I’m a young man working hard wanting to do a good job. They spread that news like wildfire because there just aren’t a lot of people my age (23) that want to do that.
I don’t completely agree with this, my prices are quiet high for my area but I found that people still tip and want me to keep it for myself and not put it towards the business “lunch on me” as they tell me. Again, talking and people skills builds the connection and they want to help me grow because of it.
But to each their own. William is super successful so i understand his position and how he does things.
I personally love when people watch me. This way they see that I do work hard to get their home cleaned. The more they see the less they talk.And ask question back at them like “does that look better? Or do you any spots I missed?” This adds a personal touch and people like to have input on what is going on around them. Not only that they see that I do something extra for them. And you can always do a little something on any job that you do.
I don’t mind talking to people. Most of my customers are my advertisements. in my neck of the woods word of mouth is what gets the work. That, and I wash for peanuts compared to you big timers.
Okay, last thought on this. I have no issue with someone asking a question or two and know it’s a great way to build a relationship and interest.
I was not clear with calling out that my frustration were the people who simply can not stop talking and following me around. I had 3 days in a row where every time I turned around this person was there, scared the daylights out of me in some cases and they felt compelled to tell me a story (in great detail) about something or another. We all have these people in our life where you kind of avoid them because they do not stop talking. Like, ever.
I have had some great interactions with customers and neighbors over the past 3 weeks and met some awesome people. I agree with everything you guys said.
With house washing, there is a simple fix for that. I simply tell people that even though the cleaner isn’t strong enough to hurt plants or animals, it can ruin your clothes, so you don’t want to be around where I’m spraying. I’ll let you know when I’m all done, thanks!
This one customer in particular would respond…“ruin my clothes? Let me tell you about the time when I spilled orange juice on my sport coat - whoa buddy this is a great story” LOL but I get your point.
