Window Cleaning Marketing

3 Ways To Grow Your Business Without Finding New Customers by Keith Goodrum:
Whenever I hear window cleaners talk about ways to grow their business it’s usually focused on finding new customers. Unfortunately that is the least profitable way to grow a business.
Increase prices - Talk about raising prices can strike fear in the biggest baddest window cleaner on the block. The fear is that the customer will flip out, and not ever hire them again. So, a window cleaner will put off increasing prices… allowing inflation to eat away at their profits. The truth is you need to raise prices at least enough to maintain your standard of living. I feared raising prices, and was shocked by my customers reaction. One told me it was about time. My income went up, and nobody complained. Increase frequency - In most cases a residential window cleaning customer will get their windows cleaned once a year. And I found that by keeping in contact with them year round I could get more to move up to 2 times a year. The benefits include; increased efficiency, less dirt on windows and higher dollars per hour. You need less customers to for the same amount of income, less marketing costs and less paperwork. You increase your profits.
Increase transaction size - There are many ways to increase transaction size at each house. Two of the best ways are screen cleaning & sill cleaning. You have to remove the screen to get to the window most of the time. So why not clean them while they are down, and make some extra money. This is a win-win situation. You are happy because you are making extra money, and the is happy because your are providing added value.

Lance Winslow: Do you own a window cleaning and weekly washing service? Are your crews operating at a maximum? Do you have spaces in your schedule on certain days? Would you like to add crews and do more business? There are significant customers who currently are not using your services; do you want them to start using your window cleaning services? There is a way you know? How so you ask?
A robust yet inexpensive marketing and advertising program might do the trick. Let me explain; you see, direct mail and direct-mail marketing coupon packages for window washing and window cleaning services makes sense to attract new customers and build up your scheduled routes. It is recommended that you send out direct-mail marketing to zip codes within a 15-mile radius of the area you wish to service.
It is smart to concentrate on zip codes that have high net worth individuals and businesses. These direct-mail marketing packages should be sent out three to four times per year. It is unwise to send them out every month as you will be over saturating the area and perhaps even cause concern with current customers who are paying full-price?

Steve Wright: Marketing to the Extreme - For those of you know who know me, you know that I'm a huge fan of using a multitude of marketing angles to attract prospects to our window washing businesses. I guess it stems from never putting all of our eggs into one basket, so my belief is that it's important to spread yourself out. And the most successful window washers I know are people who do the same. This means incorporating flyers, postcards, business organizations, networking, targeting service businesses, yellow pages, and more into the marketing mix on a regular basis.
I know there are folks out there who own window washing businesses who only want to do a house or two a week, or maybe they love their full time job so much, that they don't want to leave it yet and do window washing full time, so this article focuses mostly on window washers who want to grow, grow, grow! Due to the "time factor", I realize it can be difficult to juggle so many different marketing avenues but the results truly are phenominal.
I spoke to a window washer the other day who gets 2 to 4 phone calls PER DAY from interested prospects due to the many different marketing techniques he employs, so the pay-off is certainly well worth the initial effort of hustle and bustle.
Here's the recommended marketing attack: Flyers, Postcards, Service businesses, Business organization, Yellow pages - read the detail here.

Dave the window cleaner: I feel canvassing is probably the worst part of the job, but it is absolutely neccessary in accquiring new customers. There are other methods however. Other Methods of Getting Customers: -
Leaflets: These can work but you will need to drop a very large number of them and with leaflets you don't get a feel for the area.
Advertising: I wouldn't recommend this until you're established because it costs money to advertise. With advertising you may get calls off customers whose houses are very awkward to clean and have been missed out by other window cleaners for a reason. Also if you advertise in your local paper you will be getting calls from all over the place, you really need your round to be compact, if you're spending half your time driving from customer to customer then you're wasting your time.
Turn Your Car Into a Billboard: A cheap way of advertising that may help you get a couple of new customers but I wouldn't count on it to get you a lot.
Recommendation: Once you get a few customers you may find they recommend you to their friends and family who live close by, especially if you do a good job like me. This is a great way of getting customers.
Being Spotted: While cleaning a customers windows you may find other people come up to you and ask if you will do there's as well. This obviously is another great and easy way of getting customers. It's sometimes a good idea to occassionally work on a weekend to help this process occur because people who are out in the week at work may never see you. You will find you get spotted more on the weekends, but personally I hate working on them so I try to avoid doing that where possible.
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You may want to check out the Window Cleaning Resources Forum, where a dedicated page is usually updated most days on the subject of marketing. Don't forget thet Kevin, the window cleaning business coach is always on hand with his web-site & free book giveaway. I'll leave you with a video - where you may learn that the small changes make the greatest difference...