"You didn't come this month"
A customer replies to your payment reminder: you did not come this month, so she is not paying. You did come. You remember the house, because the dog barked at you through the window. But it rained two days later, the windows look no different to her, and she was at work all day.
You can argue, or you can let it go. Most window cleaners let it go, because the amount is small and the customer is otherwise fine. Over a year, those small amounts add up, and the ones who realise that nobody checks tend to do it again.
Window cleaning is invisible to an absent customer
Unlike most trades, a window clean leaves no obvious sign after a day or two, and most customers are out when it happens. The only record is your tick in a notebook or app, which the customer cannot see.
- Customers are not home when the clean happens.
- Rain and weather quickly hide the evidence.
- Your record is a tick with no time or location.
- Customers are not told the clean was done.
- Partial cleans (front only) are not explained, so they look like no clean.
Unpaid cleans and eroding trust
Each disputed clean is income lost, plus time spent arguing. It also sours the relationship: a customer who suspects you skipped her house starts watching, and may leave. And if you take on a second cleaner, you have no way to show a customer, or yourself, that their houses were done.
The reminder texts you may already send make it worse, not better. A payment reminder for a clean the customer did not notice reads like a bill for nothing, and the first reply is "you never came". The problem is not the reminder. It is that the customer heard about the clean for the first time when you asked for money.
A clean record the customer can see
We add a lightweight proof-of-clean step to your round records.
- When you mark a house done on your phone, the time and phone location are recorded automatically, with nothing extra to type.
- Optionally, you take a quick photo of the house, which is stored with the clean. You choose whether to do this for every house or only certain ones.
- The customer gets a short text: windows cleaned today, front and back or front only, with the reason if anything was missed.
- If a customer disputes a clean, you can send them the record: date, time and, where taken, the photo.
- Disputed cleans are logged, so you can see if the same customers dispute repeatedly.
- If you run more than one van, the records show which cleaner did which house.
| Question | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Did you come? | Your word | Time and location record |
| Was the back done? | Unclear | Recorded and texted |
| When exactly? | That week, you think | Exact time |
| Which cleaner? | Unknown | Recorded per clean |
Location is recorded only when you mark a clean done, and photos are of the property from where you work. What you store and share is your decision.
Disputes settled with a message
Most disputes stop before they start, because the customer got a text on the day. When one does arise, you reply with the record, politely, and most customers accept it. Repeat disputers become visible. And a second cleaner's work is as provable as your own.
Day to day, it adds nothing to your routine except the tap you already make when you finish a house.
The customer's side changes more. She gets a text on the day saying the windows were cleaned, front and back, so when the payment reminder follows it makes sense. If she was home and saw you, the text is a small courtesy. If she was at work, it is the only way she would ever have known.
For a business with more than one van, the same records answer a question owners often cannot: whether every house on every list was actually done, and by whom.
Do you have clean disputes?
- Customers have claimed you did not come.
- You write off disputed cleans rather than argue.
- Customers are not told when their windows were cleaned.
- Your records show a tick but no time.
- You have more than one cleaner and cannot show who did what.