Clever Ad' For Boston Customers

Nantucket based window cleaning, pressure washing and gutter maintenance company. When Jonathan Miles began cleaning windows on Nantucket in 1992, partners Robert Leite and Robert Sorbello decided to join him. The 3 owners have a combined 45+ years of window cleaning experience. 

Clever and Unique Window Washing Ad Causes Boston Customers to Take Notice: Sometimes, entrepreneurs impress with their ingenious ways to attract business. This is the case with a Nantucket window washing company placed an advertisement under the door of a new business in Winchester. Let me just say that there’s no window washing service in Tennessee that would reach out to customers in quite this way. As my friend Tim put it:

“Boston: where even the window cleaners are ultra-literate geniuses.”

Check out this clever ad — with a photo of the window washing crew above — from Nantucket’s Jonathan Miles Window Cleaners.

When Customers Get Angry

What to Do When Customers Get Mean on Social Media: There's a growing army of unhappy, sometimes bitter and angry customers who take to social media to vent their frustrations about a brand's products or services. Sometimes they can get so mean that their feedback is more an attack than a request for customer service. No matter the size of your company, angry customer tirades can damage your reputation online. In my experience, you can encounter at least two types of unsatisfied customers communicating with you over social media:

• A person who was genuinely hoping for a good experience with your product or service, had a bad experience and simply wants to vent and seek acknowledgment or a solution. 
• Someone who actively uses social media to dissuade people from doing business with your company, and probably doesn't care about your reply to his or her claims. This person hopes you do reply so he or she can drag you into a public fight.

Either way, dealing with these types of angry customers should be an opportunity to show the world how your company cares about customer service and that you stand behind your brand. With the right strategy, you can turn foes into fans and win new customers at the same time. Here are five tips for responding to angry customers over social media:

1. Respond quickly. The longer someone waits for a reply the more steamed that person can become. Let the individual know publicly that you have heard his or her frustration or problem and that you're on it.

2. Never show anger or engage in negative banter. Don't stoop to an angry commentor's level, as it can quickly escalate. Taking the high road and not replying with negativity sets you up for the win in the eyes of anyone who's following along.

3. Be personal. The employees who manage your social media should sign their tweets or posts with their names or at least their initials to make the engagement more personable and real. Also be sure to address the customer by his or her name.

4. Work toward a resolution. Let the customer know that you're going to do everything within your power to make the situation right. Don't simply attempt to calm someone down and walk away.

5. Talk offline when necessary. Use direct messages on Twitter or email if the discussion is detailed. At least the initial response should be public, though, to let everyone know that you're on the issue and that you care.

When you do come to a resolution, be sure to post about it. If you don't share the results, no one will know how you resolved the situation. This is your opportunity to show that you deliver top-notch customer service over social media.

If the negative comments persist, the person is most likely pushing you in hopes of seeing you falter publicly. All you can do is be polite, offer assistance and let the person -- as well as everyone else watching -- know that you're doing everything you can. Try offering a free gift as a token of appreciation. Whatever you do, don't engage in a public argument.

To help you cope with difficult shoppers this holiday season, consider these five tips from customer-service experts:

1. Remember: The customer is always right.

 The old "customer is always right" philosophy may still be the best approach for dealing with obnoxious shoppers. Customer service experts have long said that a happy customer tells one or two friends, while an unhappy customer tells several--or in the age of social media, hundreds of his closest strangers. And these statistics can be magnified by the emotions related to holiday shopping.

"Businesses spend so much of their money acquiring customers, yet can lose them over one complaint," says Ken Varga, a marketing strategist in Spring Lake, N.J. After all, he adds, 99 percent of customers will obey the rules, so it's about appeasing that difficult 1 percent. So when someone returns a product beyond the 30-day money back window, for example, you're probably better off giving a refund with a smile. Otherwise, "they can hurt you badly," Varga says, especially by badmouthing you on Facebook and Twitter.

2. Train employees to cope with problem customers.

 Donna Fluss advises her small-business clients to hold staff meetings between the end of October and Thanksgiving to do scenario training and discuss best practices for dealing with nightmare customers. "Give [employees] as many options as possible, especially in a season when people are short on time and short on money," says the founder of DMG Consulting in West Orange, N.J.

Staff members should be trained to be sensitive and make a reasonable effort to solve a customer's problem, Fluss says. "If a customer is over their credit limit, see if you can get them a one-time credit increase. Or if you know you can't get them a gift item in time for Christmas, suggest where else they may be able to find it, even if it's through a competitor."

3. Hire enough holiday help to minimize customer frustration.

 Staffing up adequately during the holidays can prevent a lot of aggravation for both customers and employees. If someone is already upset and then has to wait a long time on line or on hold, this will only add fuel to the fire.

Overworked employees also may mishandle customers. If there aren't enough employees to deal with the increased holiday demand, Varga says, "the individual handling the disgruntled customer will try to rush, and as a result, the outcome won't be good."

4. Don't promise what you can't deliver.

 You may want to appease an angry customer by promising to get a package delivered by Christmas Eve, but resist the temptation if the chances are slim. The last thing you want to do with a disgruntled shopper is make empty promises, says Esteban Kolsky, founder of thinkJar, a Kansas City, Kansas-based firm that focuses on customer service strategies.

"If you say you're going to try to do it and you don't do it, their problem becomes your problem," he says. "They don't use common sense, and then they expect the store or company to perform miracles. You always try to please your customer, but don't give them a reason to heap blame on you."

5. As a last resort, be willing to lose the customer and the sale.

 If you offer your best plan for resolving a problem and the customer is still being difficult, it's okay to part company and refund the purchase price.

Your generosity of spirit should have limits, says Varga, whose rule is: Only one chance to break the rules per customer. "Times are going to get very tough and people will begin to make demands that are unrealistic just to see what they can get away with," he says.

Do Window Cleaners Appeal To Mums?

Women control $13 trillion in consumer spending. But most of the assumptions you make about them in your marketing are way off.

Marketing to Moms: You’re Doing It All Wrong (By Jeff Haden) - Want to grow your business? Try marketing differently to women. “Women make the majority of purchase decisions for almost every product category in the marketplace, and that includes automotive, electronics, and insurance,” says Kat Gordon, founder and Creative Director of Maternal Instinct, a marketing agency focused on helping brands connect with the mom market. “In fact, only three online purchase categories are driven more by men than women: music, auctions, and computer hardware. “Even so,  research tells us 71 percent of women feel brands only consider them for beauty and cleaning products. If your company sells something other than ‘mops and makeup,’ you’ve got a tremendous opportunity to catapult your brand to new places.” How big is that opportunity? According to Gordon, women currently control $13 trillion of the world’s $18.4 trillion in consumer spending. And with more women working and an ever-narrowing wage gap, women’s influence over shopping decisions should continue to increase. Here’s Gordon’s advice on how any business can better reach, appeal, and retain female customers: How to reach women:

• Skate where the puck is. Women are already online in droves, especially on Facebook. Find a community where your customer hangs out and sponsor or enable it. Don’t build a new community and expect her to change her habits. She’s too busy to bother.
• Make it mobile. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile, make that your first priority. Moms in particular conduct a lot of business from their phones, and no wonder—research shows they spend 17 days a year in the car with their kids.
• Video, video, and more video. Women are heavy video users; the average woman watches over 90 minutes of YouTube videos each month. Over 80 percent of moms look for online videos to see a product in action. If your product does something, find a way to show, don’t tell.
• How to appeal to women: Don’t “enter talking.” Earn the right to a conversation with a female consumer by making your opening line one of recognition, not sales. Gordon calls this a “bridge thought.” Think about what you would say to greet a friend, not to woo a prospect.
• Do a humor check. Humor can be a remarkably effective way to connect with women, but only if it’s the right humor. What’s funny to men is often mystifying, or worse, insulting, to women. Before you run a new marketing campaign run it past as many women as you can.
• Show diversity. Only 4 percent of households fit the June Cleaver blueprint: working father, stay-at-home mom, and kids under 18. Revisit the text and images on your website and expand how you depict women—and especially the assumptions you make about her life.
• Run female-created work. When you hire an ad agency, chances are your campaigns will originate from a male sensibility since only 3 percent of creative directors are women. You’re paying the bill, so you call the shots. Demand female representation on your account.
• Give back. When price and quality are equal, 82 percent of women report they are more likely to buy from companies that support a charitable cause they care about. Women also report they will try a product or switch brands if they feel doing so will help others. Find a cause you believe in that aligns with your brand, then highlight your donation, especially at touch points where you ask for a sale.
• How to retain female customers: Thank her.  Few companies take the time to express genuine appreciation for a sale or referral. Be the exception. A sincere “thank you” is like catnip to women.
• Offer outstanding service. List your phone number on every page of your website and never subject women to phone tree hell. Answer your phones and respond to emails and tweets. She will not just stay a customer—she will tell everyone she knows.
• Practice story-selling. The more you put a human face on your organization, the more invested a female consumer will be in your success. Practice “story-selling” in your consumer communications, sharing rich details about your employees, community, and any lore around the creation of your products.
• Ask for feedback. The most valuable insight about your product or service is yours for the asking. So ask. She’ll tell you.

UK Window Cleaner Abused The Trust Of Customers

Giving window cleaners everywhere a bad name.

Man watched where householders kept their cash while doing his round: The customers of window cleaner Stephen Garner probably thought he would keep an eye out for burglars as he did his round. But little did they know he was checking where his clients kept their cash so he could come back and clean out more than their double glazing.

The dad has now been sent to prison for three years and four months after stealing from three of his customers and forcing his way into 88-year-old Mary Surrey’s home before fleeing when she looked up from her bed to see him standing in the doorway. Charlie Gabb, prosecuting at Southampton Crown Court, said the 36-year-old used “the guise and cover of his window cleaning business”. “It was clearly the means by which he came upon these houses and did what he did,” he added.

Garner, of Northam Road, Southampton, had been cleaning the windows of Ysobel Purkis home in Hordle, near Lymington, for more than two years and it was his fingerprints found on a money box from which £420 had gone missing on June 17 this year, the court heard. “She trusted him,” Mr Gabb said. “She made the mistake of allowing him to see her going into a room to collect cash and emerging from that room and paying him. That told him there was cash in the house and that’s where she kept it.”

Another customer, teacher Suzannah Mclean, found the £60 she had left on her worktop at her Lymington home was missing after witnesses saw Garner visit on November 10, Mr Gabb said. “She trusted him too. He looked through the window and saw the money and walked into the kitchen before making a very hasty exit,” he said.

Mr Gabb told the court the crimes put Garner in breach of a community order of unpaid work imposed on January 5 for stealing from a handbag on the kitchen table of a window cleaning customer aged in her 80s last year. Garner admitted breaching the community order and the three new burglary charges.

David Lyons, defending, said his client wanted to make a “sincere, unconditional and abject apology” to Mrs Surrey, who was in court. Mr Lyons cited Garner’s “chequered late youth” and his fall into depression as well as a “toxic” mix of irregular use of anti-depressants and drinking as factors in the crimes. “He’s thrown his business away, his relationship and his liberty,” he said.

Judge Derwin Hope said Garner had 18 previous offences and had “abused the trust” of his customers. “It’s not just the money you stole but the manner in which you acted,” he said. Garner was given three years for each of the three burglaries but with those sentences to run at the same time. He received an extra four months for breaching the community order he was serving for theft from a house and two counts of making false representation last year.

Window Cleaning Rants & Posts

Yes, here is another example of superior customer service that turned me from “disgruntled customer” into a “happy camper” – but not into a “raving fan”!

A window cleaning company employee broke a handle off one of our windows (no, I won’t get on a ladder to clean the third story windows!). The window cleaning company told me they would pay for the replacement handle – but, seriously, they broke it so they should pay for it right? However, I had to order the handle, replace it and then send them the receipt to get reimbursed. This is not the example of superior customer service! Why should I be hassled to correct their mistake? To make me a “raving fan,” – which should always be the objective when correcting a mistake - the window cleaning company should have ordered the handle and then stopped by and put it on the window at no charge to me. That would have made me want to continue to do business with them. Merely doing what they were obligated to do - pay for the replacement part - has cost them a customer and referrals – Whenever I receive superior customer service I recommend the company to the other 24 residents of our home owners association. They will not be getting a recommendation.

The example of superior customer occurred when I ordered the replacement handle from Pella Windows. Rather than go to the Pella warehouse, I asked that the replacement handle be mailed to me. When it arrived it was the wrong handle. I would now have to travel to the Pella Warehouse (a 60 minute round trip) with the broken handle to get the right replacement part. I was not a happy camper! A day later, I got a call from a Pella Service Representative who asked if I had received the part and was satisfied with it. When I told her I was definitely not satisfied, she immediately got the information about the broken handle and said it would be delivered to me the next day by Fed Ex at no charge.

This made me a happy camper and changed me from “irritated customer” to “happy camper”. What would it take to make me a “raving fan”? Perhaps a reimbursement of the cost of the handle to show they were sorry about the original mistake and the hassle (minimal I agree) it caused me.

Or am I just too hard to please? Maybe like some of your best customers?

The Bottom Line: When you have a chance to transform a “disgruntled customer” into a “raving fan” don’t stop half way at the “happy camper” stage! You may never have another opportunity to impress this customer with how much you value their business.

And you never know who has the ability to increase your business through referrals – so give every customer superior customer service (even though you may not give them the big customer discount).

The Question: How far will you go to rectify a mistake and create a “raving fan”?

What are we opening our doors to? He pushed the small package across the kitchen table. "Look what I've brought you, brother." The man looked at the object without touching it. "It is not very big. Are you sure it can do the job." "It senses movement up to one and half metres. Any movement within that range will set it off." "Obviously it is not set up now or...," he did not bother to finish the statement. "That is right but even so you must be very cautious. Listen carefully."

He went on to explain while making sure he had the attention of the one who would take possession of the device. "The contents may catch fire, the container may explode if heated, and may irritate eyes. Remember, do not puncture and not burn. Use it only in a well ventilated area and keep away from open flames such as a pilot light or any object that sparks, such as an electric motor. If you are going to store it keep it away from heat and do not get it in your eyes. Be sure to keep out of reach of children and pets."

Next was an explanation on assembling the device -"lift the front cover then lay the canister into position. Snap the canister in place. Now pull and discard the red tab to activate batteries. Now be sure to keep the unit pointed away from you and others during assembly. You see, it will automatically spray a burst 20 seconds after assembly to show it is working properly. And that, my brother, is how you refill the Glade Sense & Spray Motion activated freshness sensor."

Research by the Sierra Club of Canada shows that the inside of homes is often worse than the outside and we are willing bring in the offending chemicals. For instance, formaldehyde isn't limited to the high school lab. Formaldehyde is used in fertilizers, glues, plywood, particleboard and certain types of installation, as well as in some disinfectants, antibacterial soaps and even beauty products. So, what's to worry about? It has been classified as a probable human carcinogen by the EPA. Home exposure to it has been linked to respiratory allergies in children.

Companies tend to shy away from the down-side of the toxic chemicals while promoting the benefits of their products. Air fresheners give off naphthalene, a suspected carcinogen. Ammonia-based window cleaners cause respiratory irritation. Some cleaners contain the nerve-damaging butyl cello-solve which is absorbed into the skin.

We have to get into the routine of reading labels. While assessments start from the premise that some degree of exposure, even to the most hazardous chemicals, can be judged "acceptable", for many of the chemicals already known for some time to present serious hazards, scientists just don't know the full and long-term effects of these chemicals on our health or on our environment -even at low doses!

Tightrope: Getting the word out about your business - By Gladys Edmunds for USA TODAY (pictured).

Question: Hello, Gladys, I own a carpet (window) cleaning company and so far I seem to have a fairly decent customer base. I would like to get more customers. When I checked into advertising on local radio stations and in a few local newspapers, the prices are more than I can afford. How can I get more people to know about and use my service without spending money that I don't have? — Sam

Answer: There are many ways to get the word out about your business that won't cost you a lot of money. You will need to use the most valuable assets you have — time, effort and creative ability. Keeping them in good working order is one of the enjoyable aspects of entrepreneurship. The following are examples that you can try and I'm sure there are other entrepreneurs that may find a few ideas to try as well.

Never underestimate the power of referrals. There are a couple of ways to go about this. Call or write a letter to your customers and ask them to refer a friend. Or, you can ask each of your customers to recommend three of their friends. Then, write a letter to them introducing your services.

I know there are many companies that offer cash bonuses or rebates to people who refer customers. Personally, I don't like that arrangement. Several months ago I got a letter from the gym I frequent offering members a $50 referral fee if they could get a friend to sign up. I asked one of the owners how that campaign had fared. He said they didn't get any takers. I wonder what would have happened if he had offered the discount to the person signing up. I certainly would be happy to tell my friends that if they joined the gym during a certain time they would get the cash back. So try to avoid offering to pay your customers to send their friends to you. Generally when you have customers that appreciate your service they are usually happy to help you stay in business.

With the end of winter just around the corner, spring cleaning will be on most folk's to-do list. You could design attractive leaflets and drop them off at churches, supermarkets, car washes, laundromats, gyms — any place that has a good flow of traffic. Usually there are community bulletin boards that you can post your leaflets on; by all means take advantage of that.

You can also offer your service as a fundraiser for your favorite charity. For a designated period of time give the organization a percentage of each sale they send your way. Organizations that are involved in raising money to fight breast cancer have raised millions of dollars this way.

Have you considered co-op advertising? Sometimes local newspapers offer this option. If not, pull it together yourself. Invite several small businesses that compliment your service to join in with you on an advertising campaign. For example, you could contact a window cleaning company, drapery cleaning company, maid service and maybe even a chimney sweep to join in an ad campaign aimed at building business for that coming spring-cleaning season. Once you pull the other business owners together, sit down with an ad agent from the newspaper and work out something attractive and eye-catching.

Also talk with other business owners to learn what they done creatively to enhance their market share. Try out one or two things that fit well with your company. Marketing a business is all about testing, testing and re-testing to see what works. Never underestimate the power of even the simplest marketing idea. The very thing that you think to be ridiculous could be the thing that has the most impact. Sometimes the best marketing and promotion ideas can come from simple ideas.

Spidey Senses, Spidey Tenses: Spider-Man fever never seems to die. Just Google-news search "spider" and you'll see what I mean. Apparently there's a Spider-Man Broadway musical set to be produced (and Alan Cummings has bailed out - but we should have seen that coming). I live in New York City and I can honestly say that I may never go see a Broadway musical and I will not feel bad about it. Still, I recognize the iconic/ridiculous popularity that something must reach before it is turned into a Broadway musical (see: Toxic Avenger)(did I just invalidate my own point?).

But that's not all. Now it seems you can have Spider Man clean your windows for you. A full grown man or woman who is already performing a very dangerous job will now dress up in a costume fit for a child and perform that same job for the entertainment of the many onlookers who have previously stopped to watch window washers but have felt that it lacks zest (what? exactly.). The company featuring these costumed clean-saders (get it?!!) said that they want to add fun to whatever they do. Although if we think this through, the person who is doing the job (the window washer) is probably not enjoying dangling from a sky scraper and wearing a mask. (Am I crabby today, or does anyone else feel bad for the window washers?)

Lets talk some physics. I had wanted to continue up my post about rope with a discussion about strong materials. The wonderful lecture by James Kakalios at the APS March Meeting taught me that spider silk is one of the strongest naturally occurring materials in the world. In researching this post I'm just overwhelmed with all the awesome little things I'm finding about spiders and their amazing materials.

To illustrate the strengths of spider silk, Kakalios showed a scene from Spider Man 2, in which Spidey stops a speeding train using his webs. Assuming the speed and weight of the train, and how far it had to slow down, and taking a stab at the thickness and number of web strands, Kakalios shows Spidey would, in fact, be able to stop that speeding train, while even steel cables would not. Real spider silk in a quarter inch thick strand can support 6,000 pounds. (See his answer to that and other questions here.)

So why can't we buy spider silk rope in our local hardware store? Or make a clothing from it (which would be lighter and stretchier than Kevlar, although Kevlar is slightly stronger*)? Well, apparently reproducing spider silk is not so easy. This article from Live Science in 2004 calls reproducing spider silk on a larger scale "the holy grail of materials science." A bit of a journalistic overstatement I think, but obviously intended to convey great importance. Because really, the Holy Grail of anything is the Holy Grail. There's really no substitute for eternal life, is there? I am full of distractions today.

But really, this whole post is a distraction. There's some physics in here about spider silk and its strength and flexibility, but mostly it's just marveling at spider amazingness. There is seriously so much cool stuff to learn about spiders. Did you know their blood flouresces? (See pic to the right) Did you know the pain from a spider bite may be similar to the pain you experience when you eat hot food? Then there's the super strong nano-structures that exist in their fangs. If these things were the size of tanks they would rule the world. Luckily, it doesn't seem like those super structured claws or the super strong spider silk can transition to the macroscopic world very easily.

Scientists have even taken spiders to space. When building a web, spiders can sense their own weight, which provides a guideline for how thick the silk should be. NASA scientists immediately challenged the spiders by chanting, "Oh yeah? Betcha can't do that in zero gravity!" Living up to their end of the challenge, NASA scientists took common garden spiders (Araneus diadematus) spiders into space, where they were still able to build webs, and over time got better at building them in zero gravity. Their results showed that the web threads were finer in space than on the ground. So the weight sensing mechanism works pretty well.

As for manufactured reproductions of spider silk, there seem to be few if no updates on work that was done five or six years ago. Well, at least not breaking news stories about it. The subject of spiders and there silk, however, remains heavily researched by groups like the Oxford Silk Group, who were featured on some British TV shows to talk about this stuff.

All this spidey awesomeness - is this why people still have Spider-Man fever, years after the third and terrible movie came out? I enjoy a good comic book, but these real life spiders are the ones who have me tangled up in their web.

Monster wife is violent boozer: My marriage is in total meltdown. My wife is the main breadwinner. She has a good job and earns lots of money but she’s drinking more than ever. And when she drinks she takes all of her frustrations out on me. I get called every name under the sun. I’m told that I’m useless, lazy and a drag on her purse. She throws things at me, punches and kicks me. When I complain she spits that I’m nothing. She screams that she should never have married me. She accuses me of bleeding her dry and being half a man. But this arrangement was her idea.

She was the one who told me to give up my profitable window cleaning round to look after the house and support her. She made it all sound so sensible and plausible. She’d earn the serious cash and I’d provide the back-up, the meals, the maintenance and the homemaking. But now it’s all gone belly-up. To the outside world our life is perfect. We live in a beautiful house with all mod cons. Friends come round, admire our stuff and tell us that we’re lucky. But no-one really knows what goes on behind closed doors, do they? If I’m honest, then I’m probably what you might call a beaten husband. When we have sex it’s like I’m being punished for a crime I haven’t committed. I’m physically and verbally abused. And if I fail to perform, Heaven help me.

I’m literally kicked out of bed and into the loft room. I understand that she’s currently under a lot of pressure at work. Yes, she does earn a bomb – plus bonuses. She does travel, enjoy swish lunches and mix with the great and the good. But it’s all at a price. Her boss thinks nothing of ringing her at midnight and bawling her out down the phone. Her clients expect total dedication, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She copes with the stress – or rather, doesn’t – by drinking huge amounts of vodka and wine. Then she kicks me around like a dog. I have tried speaking to her when she’s sober but then she simply brushes everything aside and says that I don’t understand. But I do. Only too well.

JANE SAYS: My advice is for you to get out of that hellhole right now. Take your stuff and go to a safe place where you can sleep easier, breathe and think. At the moment you’re like a caged animal. You can’t move and you can’t reason because your wife has you trapped. She’s kicking you around and abusing you with no thought for your feelings, your safety or your happiness. This isn’t a marriage, this is a life sentence.

If she has problems with her boss, her clients and her drinking, then she needs to be encouraged to deal with each one in turn. But you cannot continue to take the brunt of her frustrations. This isn’t right and it isn’t fair. Find out which of your friends or relatives can help you in moving out and moving on.

Too much soap

This video shows what happens when you use too much soap in your mix. It can get quite frustrating. Its a pity really, he has the company uniform, wears the correct footwear & apparently polite to the customers. It just goes all horribly wrong at the end when he tries to close out.