Tip #5
How to Stay Organized


We often meet professional window cleaners who are overwhelmed by their business. You may be one of them: running around all over town to give free quotes, with only a handful of these converting to paid work

If you've put into action all that we've discussed in this series, you should already be reducing your travel time for quotes and improving your conversion rate and per-trip revenue.

In this section, we'll discuss how to keep your window cleaning business organized and provide a final recap to what we covered in this series.

Quote Management

There's one crucial aspect that often trips people up and that's how to organize all those quotes and prospective customers. For instance, could you easily answer the following questions?

  • Which recent quote requests have I not processed yet?
  • Which quotes that I gave within the last week are still pending (ie not accepted/declined by the customer)?
  • What's the name of the customer whose windows I cleaned last month, who lives on (insert street name)?
  • Phone number (xxx) xxx-xxxx called and left a message asking me to call back but did not leave their name. Is this a customer I've dealt with in the past? If so, can I refresh my memory on previous services I've offered/prices before I call them?
  • What did I quote for (insert name)'s property last year?

It's important to be able to quickly answer such questions. If you have to sift through old emails, texts or paper notes, you will lose a lot of time and eventually it will drive you crazy.

We recommend you use a software program to manage customers and quotes. At the very least, keep a spreadsheet with all the relevant info. But it is better to use a professional tool designed specifically for this purpose. Such a tool should give you instant access to both customer and quote data in a searchable format and also allow you to filter by date ranges, so that you can always find exactly what you are looking for.

Reminders

People get busy. They forget. You may have sent the perfect quote to a customer, but they were distracted and forgot to look at it. Or they looked at it but have not approved it yet as something else came up. Your email may now be buried in their inbox and they've forgotten about you.

If you have a quote management system, as recommended above, you can easily find the pending quotes and send a reminder email. Quite often, it's not that the customer was not interested in your services, but just that they forgot and you will usually receive a positive response to your reminders. So check your pending list each day and send those reminders. Of course, if your tool of choice handles automatic reminders, it will certainly make that task easier.

Keep in mind that customers are not the only ones who get distracted and forget to look at quotes. Ideally, you process quotes shortly after they arrive. But it's not always possible, so remember to look at your to-do list daily. Again, it helps if your quote management tool can be configured to send you reminders as well.

Recap

We covered a lot of ground in this series. Here's a recap:

  • Traveling to customer sites is costly (including both money and time). Avoid the travel by doing your quotes remotely whenever possible
  • Not all remote quoting methods are created equal. Photo-based approaches are the most effective way to create an accurate quote
  • To build trust in your quote and therefore increasing the likelihood of getting the job:
    • Respond to quotes quickly
    • Attach relevant documents such as insurance, certifications, etc
    • Include before-and-after photos of prior work
    • Include testimonials
  • Offer (and ideally quote for) additional services (such as pressure washing or soft washing) when quoting for window cleaning. This will help to increase your revenue for each trip.
  • Get better organized by:
    • Using a spreadsheet or, ideally, a professional online tool to manage your quotes and customers
    • Sending automatic reminders to customers and yourself

Well, that just about wraps up this series. We hope you found it useful and are starting to implement some of the tips.

You can, of course, implement everything that we've discussed on your own. But that's certainly not the easiest way. We developed the Snappy Bids tool for busy professionals, just like you. Snappy Bids will save you loads of time each month by simplifying and automating all these tasks. Try it FREE here. And you'll also get 20% off your first 6 months of service following your free trial.

We value your feedback. Please let us know what you thought of this series and how it has helped you and your business. We'd also be keen to hear from you if you have ideas for other areas that you'd like us to cover, or problems you'd like us to address in the future.

Cheers to your success

Phil & Julie

Snappy Bids founders