Recurring service plans for window cleaners: how to sell and price them

A recurring service plan for window cleaning is a written agreement to clean a customer's windows on a repeating schedule for a set price. It is the simplest way to turn a one-off customer into predictable revenue: your calendar fills in advance, your crew gets steady routes, and the customer never has to remember to call. This guide covers how to design a plan, price it, pitch it, and run it without losing track of the visits.

Dollar figures in this guide are examples to show the arithmetic. Use your own costs and market rates.

Why plans beat one-off jobs

• Predictable revenue. You know next quarter's work before it arrives.
• Cheaper to serve. A repeat customer does not need to be found, quoted or convinced again.
• Faster visits. Windows kept on a schedule are usually quicker to clean than a first-time clean.
• Better routes. When several customers on one street are on a plan, you can batch visits.
• Less chasing. The schedule exists, so nobody has to remember to rebook.

Design the plan: keep it lean

A plan needs only three things: what it covers, how often, and what it costs. Resist the urge to build an elaborate menu. A lean plan is easier to sell at the door and easier for a customer to understand.

A workable plan has:

1. A name the customer understands, such as Quarterly Exterior or Twice-a-Year Clean.
2. A number of visits spread across the year.
3. A price, shown per visit or per billing period.
4. What is included, for example exterior glass, screens and tracks.
5. Simple terms, including how to pause or cancel.

Offer two or three options rather than one. People like choosing, and a choice between plans changes the question from "do I want this?" to "which one do I want?"

Choose the visit frequency

Frequency depends on climate, the property and the customer's budget. The common patterns are:

Let your own customers tell you which options sell.

Price the plan

Start from the price of a single job, then decide how a plan differs. The pricing guide covers how to build the per-visit price. For a plan, consider:

• A recurring discount. Because repeat visits are cheaper to serve, many owners give the recurring customer a lower per-visit price than the first clean.
• A first-visit price. A first clean on neglected glass takes longer. Either charge more for the first visit or set the plan price to absorb it, but decide deliberately.
• Billing rhythm. Per visit, monthly, quarterly or every six months. Match it to how the customer prefers to pay.

An example of the arithmetic, with made-up numbers: a one-off clean is $140. A quarterly plan with four visits is priced at $120 a visit, so $480 a year, billed at $120 a quarter. The customer saves $20 a visit, you save the cost of finding and quoting them again, and your calendar has four dates filled.

Check the math against commission, too. If a rep earns a percentage of the sale, decide whether they earn it once on the first visit, or on every visit. Either is fair; choose before you launch so there is no argument. See commissions and leaderboard.

Pitch the plan at the door

The best moment to offer a plan is when the customer has just said yes to the one-off clean. Bring it up in the same conversation:

"Most of my neighbors keep it on a schedule so the glass always looks good. I can put you on a plan with four visits a year for [price per visit]. Want to do that, or just the one clean?"

This works for three reasons. The customer has already agreed to the service. The plan is presented as what neighbors do. And it is framed as a choice between two yeses. For the wider door-to-door process, see door-to-door selling for window cleaners.

If a customer hesitates about the commitment, reduce it: fewer visits, a shorter term or month-to-month terms. A smaller plan that starts is better than a bigger plan that does not.

Make signing easy

The less paperwork, the more people sign. A plan page the customer can read on their phone, with the price, the visits and a place to sign, beats a paper form. In KrewDash, you or a rep send a link to a plan page. The customer reads the price and the visits and signs on the page. When they accept, KrewDash creates the confirmed visits and spreads them across the year, and the rep whose link the customer used is credited with the sale and every visit. See service plans.

Today the plan page is the agreement and the schedule. It does not take payment, so you collect payment the way you already do. Tap to pay for plans is on the request board if you want to vote for it.

Run the plan without dropping visits

Selling the plan is half the job. The other half is showing up on time, every time.

• Put every visit on the calendar the moment the plan is signed. Do not rely on memory.
• Spread visits sensibly. If a customer has two services, such as windows and gutters, do not pile both into the same month unless they asked; spread them so the cadence stays regular.
• Remind the customer. A text before the visit reduces no-shows and missed access.
• Handle reschedules cleanly. Move the visit on the calendar and keep the rest of the schedule intact.
• Ask for a review after a good visit. A plan customer is your best source of reviews; ask when it makes sense. See reviews.

Track plan health

Three numbers tell you whether your plan business is working:

If the share of plan customers is low, reps are not offering it or the offer is unclear. If cancellations are high, look at service quality and expectations, not at the price.

Common mistakes

• Too many options. Two or three plans are plenty.
• Underpricing the first visit. Absorbing a long first clean with no plan discount math loses money.
• No written terms. Even a short paragraph avoids arguments.
• Forgetting the schedule. A plan that lives in someone's head eventually fails.
• Only selling plans at the door. Offer them to one-off customers by text after a good job too.

Start simple

Write one plan with a clear name, a number of visits and a price. Offer it to the next ten customers you talk to. Track how many say yes and what they ask about. Then adjust. For the broader picture of running a crew, see how to scale a window cleaning business with a sales crew.