How to put your window cleaning prices up

Pick a month and stick to it

Put your prices up once a year, in the same month every year. A rise customers can see coming goes down better than one that turns up whenever the van needed new tyres, and you only have the conversation once.

Spring suits most rounds. The work picks up after the winter, and a new price at the start of the season feels like part of the season rather than a penalty. Whichever month you choose, give every customer notice before the visit the new price applies to. On a four-weekly round, that means telling people at least four weeks ahead.

Work out the new price from your own numbers

Start with what went up. Fuel, insurance, the van, water-fed pole kit, resin and filters, your phone and your software. Put last year's cost beside this year's for each one and you have your own rate of inflation, which is the one your business actually pays.

For a wider benchmark, the Office for National Statistics publishes the Consumer Prices Index every month. It is a fair number to mention to a customer, but it is not a ceiling. If your costs rose faster than prices in general, your price has to follow your costs.

Then look at what each part of the round earns you. A tight estate where you clean six houses in an hour is worth more than a customer you drive across town for, even at the same price, so the rise should land hardest on the jobs that pay least for the time they take. A price that has not moved in three years needs a bigger step than one you set last spring.

Round to amounts that are easy to pay, in steps of 50p or a pound. Cash customers do not keep 37p ready by the door.

Tell customers in writing, with notice

A note through the door or a message beats telling people on the doorstep. They read it when it suits them, and nobody has to react in front of you. Say what the new price is, when it starts, and one honest reason. Don't apologise for it, and don't over-explain.

A letter you can adapt:

Dear [customer's name],

From [month], your window clean will be £[new price], up from £[old price]. Fuel, insurance and equipment have all gone up over the past year, and this keeps the service at the standard you are used to.

Nothing else changes: same day, same person, same way of paying. If you have any questions, call or text me on [your number].

Thank you for your custom,
[your name], [business name]

And a shorter version for customers you usually text or WhatsApp:

Hi [name], just to let you know that from [date] your window clean will be £[new price] (it was £[old price]). Costs have gone up across the board this year. Any questions, just reply. Thanks, [your name]

When someone pushes back

Most customers will say nothing at all. A few will ask why, and one or two will object. Explain once, calmly, with the same reason you gave in writing. Don't knock money off on the doorstep: word travels along a street faster than you do.

If money really is the problem, offer a longer gap between cleans rather than a lower price. Going from every four weeks to every six or eight means they spend less over a year while your price holds, and you get time back for customers who pay properly. If they still want to stop, let them go politely. A round without its three cheapest customers is often a better round.

Keep a record of what everyone paid

Write down each customer's old price, the new one, and the date it changed. You will want it when someone insists they were never told, when an old invoice does not match a new one, and next year, when you work out the rise again. A column in a spreadsheet will do. A rise that only lives in your head will not.

Doing it in Hero

Hero's reports show what each area, road and customer earned over the year, which is most of the arithmetic above done for you. You can then put prices up across an area, or for the customers you pick, by a percentage or by a flat amount, in one action. Every customer keeps a history of their price, so the old figure is always there to point to. Tick the box to tell them, and each one gets a WhatsApp from your own number with the old and new price, in wording you can change first.