Should You Tip Window Cleaners?

What is actually customary

Unlike food service, exterior cleaning has no tipping convention. Most customers do not tip and no reputable company builds it into what it pays people. If you do tip, anything from ten to twenty dollars per crew member on a residential job is generous and entirely at your discretion. On a recurring membership, most people tip once a year if at all.

Things worth more than a tip

A written review naming the crew is worth more to a small local company than cash, because it is what brings the next customer. A referral is worth more again. On a hot August afternoon, cold water offered to a crew working a south elevation lands better than most tips do.

What you should never have to do

You should not feel obliged to tip to get proper work. If the quality of a job depends on whether you tipped, that is a company problem rather than an etiquette question. Published pricing exists so you know the whole cost up front, and the price is the price.

If you would rather not

Say nothing and think nothing of it. Nobody on a professional crew is keeping score, and the overwhelming majority of jobs involve no tip at all. It is genuinely not part of the transaction in this trade.