It’s About More Than Your Rate

I just read a fascinating Yelp review for someone I am considering hiring to clean our windows.

It was a multi-paragraph scathing review that mentioned the window washer was getting $150/hour for his services—four times.

The gist was that the window guy neglected to clean a promised skylight and never came back to finish it (not good).

But she also commented that the work was excellent. Which begs the question: would she have been happy if he’d cleaned the skylight as he’d promised?

Or would she have still been stuck on the $150 an hour concept?

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say yes, she still wouldn’t have been happy.

She equated the value of the work with how much time he put in.

A high-end window washer wasn’t going to please her, even though he appeared to finish the job in record time with beautiful results (for this purpose, we’ll ignore his not completing the job fully).

If we assume this window washer is high quality with no errors (which the other reviewers attest to), wouldn’t the fact that he’s faster be a plus?

That he disrupts your life even less than a slower, cheaper guy?

Here’s the thing: she’s the wrong client for him.

And any client who is fixated on your hourly rate vs. the results you deliver is not the right client for you either.