Men in Kilts Aiming To Be More Than Just A Gimmick

Men in Kilts owner Sentwali Lewis (left) and his partner Darcy Longpre at work on a home in Scarborough.

Men in Kilts - Aiming to be more than just a gimmick: In a competitive business like window washing, skirt-wearing male technicians definitely attract attention. And Men In Kilts,which started in Vancouver more than 10 years ago, is banking on that curiosity to grow franchises across North America. A recent weekday morning found Toronto co-owner-operator Sentwali Lewis up on ladder buffing the windows of an east Scarborough home.

It was a typical sight, save the green tartan kilt he had on. “People are very surprised when we show up on site wearing our kilt, but that’s our name,” said Lewis. “You have to differentiate yourself from the competition. Everyone thinks the kilt is just a gimmick; yes, but once you experience our service, you’ll see what we have to offer; there’s a lot more going on than the kilt.” The rest of the uniform consists of black boots, black socks and a grey t-shirt that warns “No Peeking!” In winter, black running tights fend off the chill, said Lewis who actually traces great, great, great grandparents on both sides back to Scotland.

A little originality can boost brand awareness, but it won’t drive business long-term, said Queen’s University marketing professor Ceren Kolsarici. “Those little unique ideas definitely help establish the brand early on if a customer hasn’t heard of the brand name, but what keeps the company going is the satisfaction rating,” she said, drawing comparisons to movie trailers. “In the initial success of the movie, advertising is the big driver, but then word-of-mouth and ratings come into the picture. As long as the audience satisfaction is high, then the success will be strong on the upcoming weekend. This is the same idea.”

Kilts may be the calling card for Lewis, who launched the Toronto operation with Darcy Longpre in March, but customer service is their long game. “I say treat every homeowner like you’re going into your parent’s house or your grandparent’s house,” explained Lewis, 39. “Make sure that they see why they should choose us instead of one of our competitors.”

Founded in 2002 by B.C.-based Scotsman Nicholas Brand, Men In Kilts quickly gained traction, earning $1 million in revenue in 2009. That’s the year Tessa Wood, former VP of Operations at hyper successful start-up, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? took notice of their tartan embossed trucks tooling around Richmond, B.C. “They really stood out and would make me smile; and just seeing the emotion they would elicit from me, made me think ‘This is powerful,’ said Wood. “It stood out as such a cool brand. I reached out and said ‘Hey, do you guys want some help franchising?’ We partnered up and incorporated the franchising company.”

As CEO, she has heralded the establishment of nine franchises, system wide sales over 5 million, and the expansion of services to include, gutter, eavestrough and siding cleaning and pressure washing. Her goal is to have locations in every major city in Canada and the U.S. by 2017. “It’s a very fragmented industry,” said Wood. “I saw a lot of similarities between the market opportunities that JUNK had. Who you think of when you need to get windows cleaned? Well, no one. And we’re looking across North America and saying ‘This could be a really great brand and a service that people need.’”

The company will hire female technicians, but representatives say they rarely apply and none are currently are employed with the company, although the female Boston franchise owner is trained to clean windows. There seems to be no trouble finding men willing to clean in kilts, which are mandatory for the job, except on certain days in Alberta. “Because it’s really windy in Calgary which I didn’t realize,” explained Wood. “We had to put in sort of a safety caveat about not wearing the kilts if it’s windy to the point where the kilts are literally blowing up above their waists. But it’s only in that windy extreme weather; otherwise, it’s just a matter of layering.”

From left, Tyler Buchanan, Keenan Ndjiva, Ryan Light and Jonard Janolino of Men In Kilts are turning heads with their creative window-cleaning concept.

Men in Kilts more than clever gimmick - Window-cleaning company aims to expand to 50 markets: A window-cleaning service staffed by men in kilts that started in Metro Vancouver more than a decade ago is now focusing on expanding its unique brand throughout the U.S. From its start in 2002, Men In Kilts has expanded to Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto as well as Seattle, Boston, New Jersey and Philadelphia. CEO Tressa Wood said her goal is to be in every major market in North America by 2017. "There are about 50 on the list we're targeting," she said. "We might look at smaller markets, as well."

Wood has experience with expanding a start-up, having formerly been vice-president of operations at 1-800-GOTJUNK. Before travelling extensively throughout the U.S. for that company, Wood said she might have been a little intimidated about expanding south of the 49th parallel. "Once you've spent a lot of time in all the different regions of the States, it's not that scary," she said. "I see it as a big opportunity. We've really had no hiccups whatsoever delivering the same service."

Wood is aiming to expand the types of services offered by Men In Kilts in the next seven to 10 years. "Once you establish that footprint across North America and have a database of happy residential and commercial customers who are loving us for window cleaning and gutter cleaning and exterior cleaning, it makes sense for us to say: 'If you love us for that, we can also do your carpets and your lawn.' The brand is generic enough to do that."

In Men In Kilts' first year of operation, revenue totalled $20,000. This year, the company is expected to hit $6 million. Nicholas Brand, the Scottish-Canadian who founded the company, said the business is definitely about more than marketing. "Gimmicks have become a four-letter word in business," he said. "You need to stick out from the crowd in this day and age. If I started Nick's Window Cleaning, you wouldn't be calling today. If you can't follow up with quality, then you are nothing but a gimmick."

Men in Kilts has its North American call centre in south Surrey, where customers can phone to get estimates and book jobs six days a week. Customers are also contacted afterward to make sure they're satisfied with the quality and service. All technical training for the new franchisees is done by Brand. "I don't think there's a window cleaning company in North America that has the quality control and customer service that we do," he said.

Men in Kilts window washers wear kilts with a Wallace hunting tartan. They're made from a cotton-polyester blend rather than the traditional wool. They're the kind used by athletes in the Highland Games. Cleaning the windows of a typical bungalow in Oakridge would likely be done for the minimum charge of $140. However, the company's average invoice is $350 because its workers are often doing additional jobs such as cleaning gutters or pressure washing.

More news on Men in Kilts can be found here. 

Forbes Features Men In Kilts

Men In Kilts go from strength to strength, Tressa Wood center, Brent Hohlweg Left. Click to enlarge.

Will Kilt-Wearing Window Washers Be In Your City By 2017? - If you want men in kilts standing on ladders as they wash your windows, you may be able to rent them if you live in the right North American city. The company behind this innovation is Men In Kilts that describes itself as “a franchised window and exterior cleaning company whose cleaning technicians wear kilts while they work.”

As I learned from interviewing its founder Nicholas Brand on July 25,  Brand was born in Vancouver, BC and his father immigrated there at age 25 from Aberdeen, Scotland. Men In Kilts — they do not ‘go commando’ — is already in nine north American cities — with 66 more by 2017.

He decided to start a business in 2002 when he was 24. As Brand explained, “In high school, the teacher who inspired me most had a successful tourism business and one of my uncles had run a successful business and retired at 50. Six years after high school, I was working at a Vancouver Boston Pizza and decided with my wife’s support to start a business. I thought about three possible opportunities: landscaping, painting, and window washing.”

The lack of competition and the low entry barriers steered him to window washing. “Landscaping was too competitive and painting required too much technical skill. There were no window cleaners in the market, and I only had a few hundred dollars in my bank account,” explained Brand.

The company has a good story behind its name. Brand said, ”Right from the beginning, we decided to have our men wear kilts. My friends and I were at a bar and one of them thought that kilts would reflect my proud Scottish heritage. Kilts have been worn for hundreds of years; soldiers wore them into battle in World War II; and everyone knew the movie, Braveheart [a 1995 movie about William Wallace, a kilt-wearing Scottish rebel who leads an uprising against the cruel English ruler Edward the Longshanks].”

The business started gradually. Brand said, “My wife and I started walking around Vancouver handing out flyers and for the first few years we lived off her salary from her job at a paper company and ate macaroni and cheese. Each time I hired a new worker, she sewed him a new kilt.”

In 2008, Tressa Wood, former VP of Operations at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, was on maternity leave. She read an article in the local newspaper about Men In Kilts and its interest in franchising the service. As Wood explained in a July 25 interview, “I would see the guys from Men In Kilts around town with their truck wrapped in tartan and it would make me smile. I contacted Nicholas and talked about how I could help with franchising. I joined as CEO in 2009.”

Men In Kilts stumbled with its first franchise in east Vancouver — but the learning was valuable. According to Brand, “We wanted our new cleaning technicians to spend two to three weeks shadowing the experienced ones so they could learn how to clean windows as we had done before we started franchising. But in a new territory, there were no experienced people. So we had to improve our training.”

Men In Kilts is now in nine cities. “We are in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia and the Jersey Coast,” said Brand.

The cost of a Men In Kilts franchise is fairly low and the possibility of earning back the franchise depends on revenues and cash flow. As Wood explained, “The start-up fee for a franchise – given out by zip or postal code — varies between $45,000 and $150,000 depending on the number of households — $20,000 per 100,000 households — and the number of trucks. We also charge a [7%] royalty fee and a [6%] fee for handling inbound calls and scheduling. And the annual revenues of our franchises varied from $100,000 to $3.5 million.”

Wood looks for people who are comfortable wearing kilts when she looks for someone to lead a franchise. “We look for people who really want to take control of their futures; have a strong customer-service orientation; are outgoing enough to like the attention they’ll get when they wear a kilt; get the job done efficiently; solve problems on-the-fly with a MacGyver-like mindset; have the energy to take advantage of all the opportunities in the residential and commercial markets.”

When people call in to its central call center, Wood notes that most of the callers are female. “Overall, 60% of the calls are from women and 40% from men. Residential callers tend to be more skewed towards women and commercial callers are more often men,” she explained.

Men in kilts washing windows on ladders could lead to awkward moments but Brand has a handy response: “People ask me: ‘What happens on windy days?’ I tell them, ‘We let the wind answer that.’”

How to Balance a Gimmick With Serious Business. Tressa Wood pictured center.

How to Balance a Gimmick With Serious Business: By Tressa Wood (CEO, Men in Kilts) - Back in 2009 when I first told people I was joining Men In Kilts and we were planning to franchise, some people said, “Really, Tressa? Isn’t that just a gimmick?” Gimmick is defined as, “an innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project.” Another definition is, “a unique or quirky special feature that makes something ‘stand out’ from its contemporaries.” We definitely stand out and I would agree that we are unique, maybe even quirky. People stop, look, and smile when they see us. That is pretty powerful. But how do we ensure the perceived gimmick is more than just that? We put it aside, and built our business strategy and systems as if the gimmick did not exist. We quickly got to the point of, “Forget the kilts. How will we become the leader in this market, even if we were ABC Window Cleaning franchise?” Here are some ways to help your seemingly off the wall name or idea becomes more than a gimmick: 

FOLLOW UP WITH CUSTOMERS IMMEDIATELY 

We found that most of our competitors did not make it a priority to respond to customer inquiries within the day, let alone within minutes. We built a centralized customer service and sales center where our team answers customer calls from across North America in less than 60 seconds. Market research is an important first step as this type of strategy would have been difficult to implement after franchising had begun.  

BUILD AN “EXCEED EXPECTATIONS” CULTURE 

 It really is the little things that matter. Our teams are on the lookout for opportunities to provide a little more than expected, in any situation. The question is always: what can we do that’s even more unique than the kilts we’re wearing? For example, changing a hard-to-reach light bulb for a customer while we’re cleaning their interior windows, getting involved in the community and supporting a charity, or even stopping to help someone change a flat tire. We encourage everyone at Men In Kilts to go the extra mile and do more than people would expect from a window cleaning company.  

MEASURE FEEDBACK 

We’re not perfect and if we make a mistake or someone isn’t happy with our work, we want to know so we can make it right. We follow up with customers after every job, we use the NPS (Net Promoter Score) system to measure where we stand in terms of service, and we listen to our customers. We also guarantee our work. If businesses are not accountable to delivering what they say they will, customers will not stay loyal.  

AS THE CEO, STAY DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO CUSTOMERS 

The CEO needs a direct line to the customer. It is not something you can pass off. The NPS email goes out from my alternate email address, so customers can respond to me directly. I have a copy of every NPS response delivered to a folder in my inbox, which I review weekly. Considering happy customers are critical to our success, I make it a priority to stay connected.  

LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY … and keep your growth plans in mind. 

Every role in our company can be done from a home office. This mobility allows us to keep overhead down, attract great people and remain flexible and responsive as we grow and navigate our way through start up. We also ensure we are respectful of the Scottish culture, and we wear our Wallace tartan kilts with pride. We make every effort to manage the brand and never cross the line from being fun to being “sexy,” which can be a challenge. We once had a women call us to try and book our service during a wedding shower, which we respectfully declined. Don’t get me wrong, while it takes a lot more than just wearing a kilt to make customers happy, we leverage the kilt angle as much as possible. It makes marketing virtually a breeze and the PR is fantastic. So if you are thinking of ways to stand out and be different, make sure you do it with taste and purpose.