This Window Cleaners Strategy

Tyler Engle, owner of Wichita Window Cleaning, recently added high-rise clients. “It’s recommended you have training, but I did rock climbing for years,” he said.

Window cleaner’s business strategy takes a broad view (Wichita, Kansas); Ask Tyler Engle what the latest video he has posted has to do with his small business, and he’ll tell you: Nothing. Nevertheless, Engle said engaging people on social media has been key to growing Wichita Window Cleaning, which washes windows for residential and business clients. “It’s an odd strategy,” he said. “I put out stuff that’s funny or entertaining. Somebody will say, ‘Hey, this guy’s funny, I see he’s got a window cleaning business, and I need my windows cleaned.’”

Engle, 24, started washing windows in high school for his father, Rusty, who owns Pro Cleaning Glass. Their businesses are separate entities, although they often work together or cover for one another on jobs.

Engle earned a computer engineering degree from Wichita State University and worked at data storage company NetApp for almost three years but said it “wasn’t really captivating for me. I like being the boss.”

He is now the boss, along with being the chief window washer, accountant and marketer. He has two part-time employees and hopes to add a full-time employee this summer. Engle said he thinks he has the largest window cleaning operation in Wichita. “For example, we have McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Wendy’s,” he said. “Pretty much any fast-food restaurant you go through, we clean it.”

Recently, he added high-rise clients such as the Hyatt Regency Wichita, although he admits he doesn’t have any “formal training” to hang from a harness more than a hundred feet in the air. “It’s recommended you have training, but I did rock climbing for years,” he said. “It was terrifying at first, but I’m getting a little more used to it.”

Posting video of that work garnered him some additional clients, but other videos Engle posts have nothing to with windows. Most recently, he and a friend used a drone to film scenes of the Arkansas River and Keeper of the Plains. It has garnered some 162,000 views on Facebook.

Engle doesn’t discount the importance of old-fashioned legwork, saying he spent a lot of time making personal contact with the people who “pull the trigger” on decisions like who’s going to clean a business’ windows.

Engle doubts he will wash windows forever – he’s thinking about launching a digital media marketing company – but says the lessons he has learned should work in any field. “I had always thought that growing a business just kind of happened, word-of-mouth-wise,” he said. “When I started really taking it seriously, you discover the correlation between how much effort you put in and the result. “I’m still dealing with that. I’m only 24.”

• Business growth attributed to social media engagement
• Owner thinks his window cleaning service if biggest in Wichita
• Old-fashioned leg work is important, too, he says

Window Cleaning Branding & Coaching With Jason Vance

Is BRANDING the right strategy for your small business? by Jason Vance (pictured): What is Branding? Branding is one of those business buzz words that gets a lot of attention. In my opinion it is, in some cases, a very dangerous word for small businesses. I remember when I was first starting my window cleaning business. It was my goal to take over the world. No seriously, I paid little attention to my ROI (return on investment) for my advertising campaigns.  I wasn’t doing a good job of testing and measuring my advertising campaigns. I was more focused on creating a BRAND and making sure everyone in the tri-county area knew who we were.

Only now looking back at the approach do I realize how dangerous this strategy was. Just throwing money at any type of advertising offer that came my way. I guess this is downside of being a marketing major in school. I was under the impression that more is always better.

I refer to this strategy as dangerous because of the obvious lack of responsibility that comes with this approach. OK, so what does it take to approach the subject of Branding in a responsible manner? What does it take to use the power of branding in your business without the risk of wasting money your hard-earned money?

Below are first of 2 Tips to Harness the power of branding for your small business.

1. Plan the Work, Work the Plan.

Have a marketing strategy/plan that you document and follow. An example of this would be to add BRAND related items into your annual budget. In January create a new logo. February have professional pictures taken of you, your jobs, and your team. March use the pictures, the new logo, and create a new website.

2. Testing and measuring all your advertising investments.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. You would be surprised at how many business owners I run into that have no idea of where their customers come from. They really aren’t sure where their leads are coming from. They then wonder where they should invest their marketing dollars. Of course you don’t know where to spend your marketing budget, it’s impossible to know if you aren’t measuring it.  Business is a game.  How do you know if you are winning or loosing if you are not keeping score?

You also may notice that I described advertising as an investment. Advertising is just an opportunity for you to buy customers. Step 1 is to have a marketing strategy/plan. Step 2 is to keep track of your advertising and ask customers how they heard of your company. Step 3 is to calculate the acquisition costs of each customer by dividing the total advertising dollars spent by the number of customers you acquired for each advertising campaign. Test, measure and tweak your advertising to continually improve this number.

I hope you got a few good points out of Part 1. Part 2 we will discuss more tips to harness the power of branding for your small business.

The 9 Most Important Things You Should Know About ServiceCOACH Business Coach … Jason Vance:

• Jason has been an entrepreneur and investor all his life. It all started with lemonade stands, vegetable stands, and baseball cards.
• He’s been in the service industry since he was 16. Prior to Service Coach Jason founded, and still operates, a commercial window cleaning company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• Jason attended UW La Crosse where he received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a major in Marketing.
• Jason played acoustic rhythm guitar in a college band while attending UW La Crosse.
• After college he became involved in triathlons and today is still an active cross country skier, runner, and cyclist.
• Jason’s favorite movie charactor of all time is Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi from Episode I, II, & III of  the Star Wars series.
• Jason grew up in Oconomowoc and is a native of Wisconsin. He currently lives with his wife, Kelly, in the Milwaukee, WI area.
• Jason’s passion lies in helping small businesses succeed, grow, achieve their goals, and build the community and economy.
• Jason strongly believes in the benefits of business coaching.  He has a great time helping business owners learn to make a lot more money, get highly organized, and in the process, become successful entrepreneurs.  Providing unbiased advice,  Jason will be your Training Coordinator, Marketing Manager, Sales Director, Partner, and Confidant…helping you to build the business you deserve.

 Check out Jasons blog here.

--------------------------------- 

Three Incredibly Useful Reasons to Hire a Coach.

How many do you recognize? ... (Better viewing here).

Ten Important Customer Service Tips for Small Businesses

10 Important Customer Service Tips for Small Businesses: If you are a small business owner, it is important to make an effort to not only please your customers, but to treat them very well. Just like corporations, customer service is an important part of a business. By making your customers feel valued, they will continue to use your services.

Consider these customer service tips to improve upon your small business customer service skills.
Establish a rapport. Every customer wants to know that you value them. You need to consider the relationship that you have with your clients. By maintaining a good relationship, your client will feel like you truly care about them, and will want to continue doing business with you. This is probably the most important small business advice.

Make personal phone calls. Whenever possible, make personal phone calls to your customers. If your customer hears your voice, they will feel like your company really cares. In a world where email and other quick forms of communication are popular, you can make your small business stand out by making personal phone calls in addition to your usual communication methods.

Distribute a newsletter. By creating a newsletter, you can keep your customers informed about your company and its happenings. Clients love when businesses stay in touch and update them on news and industry happenings.

Acknowledge holidays and birthdays. If you really want to set yourself apart from the crowd, make sure to acknowledge birthdays, holidays and other special events. Customers want to know that they have not been forgotten. This is a great way to make the day of your customers. This will help keep your customer coming back and will continue to bring you a profit.

Break your own rules occasionally. You will learn that there is not always one way to do something. By breaking your rules occasionally, you may learn that you have kept a customer that may have otherwise left. It is important to make decisions based on each issue that is presented to you. This will enable you to keep your customers happy.

Let your employees make customer service decisions. Teach your employees how to respect to your clients. Trust in your employees and their customer service decisions. By doing this, your employees will continue to recognize the value of keeping customers happy.

Offer gift certificates. If your customer is happy with your company and its services, chances are they will be likely to recommend your small business to friends and family. By offering gift certificates, you are making it easy to share your company and a way for other people to learn about your business and its many offerings.

Give back to your community. It is important to show support for you community. Small businesses are often supported by their surrounding communities. By showing that you care, and by giving back to your community, you will show customers that you care about things other than just your business.

Create a network. Branch out to other small businesses. Learn and share information from other businesses in your industry. There is always more to learn about your field, and by creating a network with other businesses, you will not only learn more, but your business will continue to grow.

These small business tips will help you continue to improve customer service. In a world where small business owners are constantly competing with corporations and big businesses, this customer service help will make you stand out from the crowd. Customers appreciate working with small businesses that care.

More business tips for entrepreneurs at http://www.method-marketing.com