WindowBossPro Blog — Quotes & Estimates

Low-Rise Commercial Window Cleaning Bids: Offices, Clinics and Restaurants

Low-rise commercial work sits between storefronts and the high-rise jobs that need ropes and lifts. One- to three-story offices, medical clinics, dental practices, restaurants, banks and small professional buildings. It is work a residential window cleaning crew with ladders and a water-fed pole can do, and it brings steady recurring revenue. The bid is where it is won or lost.

Between Storefronts and High-Rises

In Raising Your Window Cleaning Prices Without Losing Good Customers we looked at prices for customers you already have. Commercial bids are about winning new ones, often in a competitive process where the decision-maker compares several written bids side by side.

Walk the Site

Commercial jobs should almost always be walked before bidding. Bring a notepad or your phone and record:

• Glass count by side and by story, including entry doors and vestibules.
• Stories: 1-story, 2-story or 3+ story, and how you will reach the top.
• Inside glass: lobby glass, partitions, interior doors, conference rooms.
• Specialty glass: skylights, atriums, glass canopies, signage.
• Hard water: from sprinklers along the parking lot.
• Access: parking, where to get water, roof access, security check-in.

Photograph each side. Commercial bids often get reviewed weeks later, and photos help you remember which building was which.

Hours and Security

Commercial work runs on the customer's schedule:

• Offices may want inside work before 8am or after 5pm.
• Clinics may restrict work near patient areas and windows during appointments.
• Restaurants usually want outside glass done before opening and never during the lunch rush.
• Banks may require check-in or escort.

Ask about hours and security on the site walk. Early-morning or after-hours work affects your routing and your crew, and may affect your price. Write the rules in the access notes on the job so every crew sees them on their phone: “Clinic: outside only before 7:30am, check in at front desk for inside.”

Frequency and Pricing

Commercial accounts usually want recurring service. In WindowBossPro, frequency is set by minimum days between visits:

• Restaurants: outside every two weeks (14 days) is common.
• Offices and clinics: outside monthly (30 days) or quarterly (90 days), inside less often.

Price commercial work per visit. Build the number from your service list using window counts, story add-ons and extras, then present it as a flat price per visit for each service. Many commercial customers want separate prices for outside and inside so they can choose. List them as separate recurring services with their own frequencies.

Writing the Bid

A commercial bid should be clear enough for someone who never met you to approve. Include:

• The property address and what is included, side by side and story by story if it matters.
• Each service with its frequency and price per visit.
• What is not included: “Interior office windows not included,” “No roof work.”
• Proposed hours and how you will handle access.
• How billing works.

Build it as an estimate in WindowBossPro and send it for online approval. When approved, it becomes scheduled services that come due on the Waiting List on their own.

Follow up on commercial bids the same way you follow up on residential ones, with a little more patience. Decisions often wait on a budget meeting or an owner who is out of town. A short check-in by text or email a week after sending, and again after the date they gave you for a decision, keeps your bid in front of them without pestering. If you lose, ask what decided it. Commercial buyers will often tell you whether it was price, frequency or something in the scope, and that answer makes your next bid better.

Proof of Service

Commercial customers often manage several vendors and answer to an owner or a head office. Before-and-after photos taken in the tech app, saved with each completed visit, give them something to show. When a manager asks whether the windows were done last Tuesday, the completed job with its photos answers the question.

Monthly Billing for Commercial Accounts

Many businesses would rather get one bill a month than an invoice after each visit. A client set to Monthly gets ONE statement each month covering every visit and every location, with each line labeled by address. For a company with several offices or a restaurant group, that is a real selling point. Multi-location accounts are covered in Bidding Window Cleaning for a Property Manager With Many Locations.

Keep It Low-Rise

Know your limits. If the building needs lifts, rope access or work at heights your crew is not equipped for, say so and pass. Bidding only work you can do safely and well is part of a professional bid.

Bid the Building, Price the Visit

Walk the site, respect the hours, price each service per visit, write a bid a stranger can approve and offer monthly billing. For more on quoting in WindowBossPro, see the window cleaning estimate software page.