The more staff you have, the more you have to let go of the control. You cannot be on every job site to wipe each sill. You can’t watch every ladder placement. You can’t oversee every last detail. It is humanly impossible. You can, however, tell your staff what you expect. And, tell them again. And again. And again.

In fact, the more you tell them, the greater the chances that they might remember and follow thru. Sure, sometimes you feel lame repeating stuff, but you ARE the boss. We always covered 7 basic points with our crew. Yes, the SAME 7 points but, you know what? No one ever broke or scratched a window. No one ever fell off a ladder or got hurt. We never lost a customer. Seriously, never. Personally, I’d say that’s quite an accomplishment in 18 years.

1. High quality. Remind them that for you (and your customers) only the best will do. Period.

2. Don’t take short cuts. There is a reason why we do things a certain way – they work! Short cuts only lead to trouble.

3. Take your time. Rushing through a window cleaning job is NOT doing a good job.

4. Safety first. Keeping them aware that stupid mistakes lead to injuries is important. We had a house where a window cleaner from the previous company died on site. They all knew the story and, hopefully, were more careful in general because of it.

5. Exceed expectations. Sure, it’s a corny business phrase, but there is great joy in blowing a customer’s mind at just how good of a job you can do. They all knew that feeling.

6. General reminders. We always reminded everyone of the problem du jour, whether we were having a run on broken screen clips or equipment left on site.

7. Thank you. It may seem silly, but we told our staff each and every day how much we appreciated their hard work and what a great job they all did.

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