Small cleaning companies are masters of talking the talk, but missing the walk when it comes to ethical practices. Many cleaning companies, and I think of the window cleaning industry, are pounded with the pressure of intense competition due to the low start-up cost. With this competition comes the pressure of lowering prices. Unfortunately, the most common way to make up for low prices is with unethical business behavior. Unethical business behavior is a "grey-area," but we can all agree that a business owner should not make a promise to deliver a certain level of quality and not deliver it.
With this being said, the best way to counter this problem is with a simple practice of not promising more than you can deliver. Try to make it a habit of under-promising and over-delivering. This is good business ethic. Customers will always be delighted when they find out that your window washing service included a cleaning of the frames of the screens and not just the screen-mesh. Try to out-do yourself with each service.
This is a simple philosophy, but it is very difficult to master on a day-to-day basis. Our attitude and greed is often in the way, and it tells us that we need to take short-cuts. I encourage you to fight the urge to take short-cuts on the job because your residential window cleaning customers will be able to tell. They live and dwell where you are working, so even if you collect your check and move on, they will notice given enough time.
The only way to ensure that you will keep a high percentage of your customers is to offer a competitive price, and an unmatched service. Put your heart into your work and it will show!
Article written by Kris Cook, owner of KC Power Clean (Professional Window Cleaning and Power Washing in Orange County, California http://www.kcpowerclean.com). He is also the moderator of a window cleaning blog found at http://www.kcpowerclean.com/blog.html
