Professionalism in Window Cleaning

Copyright (c) 2013 Darren Fitzjohn

I am writing this article really because I feel very concerned about other window cleaners' attitudes especially those who do not see the potential of looking professional in their manner, by professional I mean, being a member of trade organisations like; The Federation of Window Cleaners (FWC) can give your own business more credibility, especially with your customers. The FWC for instance only allow window cleaners to become members if they hold full liability insurance and personal accident cover, they in turn offer advice and guidance on the many aspects of window cleaning in the real world and also offer courses on Health & Safety and other areas of interest. They even allow you to use their FWC logo on your business stationary, website, if you have one and even your vehicle and or vehicles.

There are also other ways with which, you can make yourself come across more professional to your customers, listed below;

1. Federation for Small Business (another good trade organisation). 2. Website. 3. Business Stationary. 4. Sign writing on vehicle (free advertising). 5. Professional attitude and appearance. 6. Liability insurance and accident cover.

I have been working in the window cleaning trade now for roughly around 18 months. Originally a friend of mine approached me and asked me if I was interested in having a go. At the time I was unemployed and finding it very difficult to get back into work and my initial thoughts were that it didn't seem my sort of thing, and the idea of being out cleaning windows on cold and wet days was of no interest to me whatsoever, and also looking at some of the people I saw doing this kind of work made me initially think that it wasn't the most professional of jobs as they would be walking around the streets where I lived in old shorts and t-shirts with ladders on their shoulders and a bucket of water in hand and using dirty rags; not a very professional approach at all.

Anyway, this brings me back to my point as to why I am writing this article in the first place, mainly in response to a problem that occurred only just recently, around 3 months ago on a Wednesday. I had gone out ready to do some of my work that I had booked in the previous evening on George (database software) for the day, when the weather took a turn for the worst. I decided this wasn't going to be very conducive to window cleaning, so I decided to go out and drum up some more business by delivering a few hundred of my newly printed business cards.

I chose an area where I did not have many customers and really just thought it would be more productive than going home and waiting out the rain, so carried on regardless of the outcome in the hope that I would at least get some kind of response which, I did.

Later that evening, I received a phone call on my mobile from a particularly angry and nasty sound-ing window cleaner, who went on to have a right go at me in a very threatening and unnerving manner ranting and raving that, "if he ever saw me anywhere near his 'patch' he would come over to me and rip my f*****g eyes out of their sockets". At the time I remember trying to calm him down and make him see reason, but he wasn't having any of it, and went on telling me basically that I had been delivering cards on his so called 'patch' (a very old fashioned way of thinking in my opinion) which, I thought was a bit cheeky and even remember thinking to myself that it was a free country and I had a right to deliver my cards anywhere I chose, and it certainly wasn't against any laws to do so.

As the evening progressed on, I couldn't stop thinking about the threats to me from this unknown window cleaner, so the next day I decided to contact the local police with regards to the matter in question, they took this matter very seriously indeed and to this day, the threats are still being in-vestigated.

With regards to professionalism, though I think that in all fairness, if you are a window cleaner and particularly worried about others delivering leaflets or business cards on your so called 'patch', ra-ther than be nasty and threatening you should remember that if you were doing a good job in the first place, even looked and acted in a professional manner, you wouldn't have anything to even be worried or concerned about.

This concludes my article, in the hope it might trigger some kind of response from other more professional window cleaners, who have happened across the same kind of problems. If anyone would like to contact me for a friendly chat about any similar issues they have come across, they would be more than welcome.

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