Home: Message List - How do I increase my busines of Cleaning Houses?

Re: How do I increase my busines of Cleaning Houses?

marktingcoach — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:26:42 GMT

There are some great answers here, and I'll see if I can add a few.

First, determine who your customers are. Is it individuals, property management, contractors and the like, or all of them. My suggestion would be to pick the one -- two at the most -- that is most viable and profitable and concentrate on that market. You usually get better results from concentrated efforts.

Say for instance you decide its individuals with a particular income and lifestyle and you learn that a majority of those people drop off their kids at daycare. Then some of your efforts can be directed at marketing thru the local daycare operations. You may also learn that these people order a great deal of take-out because they are often rushed, then establish cross-promotions with the more popular take-out restaurants in your area. The same can be done for other places where those people frequent -- perhaps children's dance studios, etc.

When marketing, remember to sell the benefits you provide, and that�� goes for both the end user and those who you cross-promote with. For instance, the benefit to the end user may be to have time to do the more important and/or enjoyable things in life. Another benefit may be, that because the end user is so rushed, your service offers them the satisfaction of knowing that their home is clean and presentable. However, when approaching a company for a cross-promotion, the benefit to the company may be that their customers appreciate the connection and that they also get added exposure from your efforts.

Good luck!

Peter George, The Marketing Coach

Re: How do I increase my busines of Cleaning Houses?

Paredes — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:01:38 GMT

My sister has a cleaning business and she runs referral promotions, given her great results. One of the promotions she runs it during the holidays, she prints out $50 coupons and gives it to her clients. When a customer refers a client and this client is booked, she gives then a discount of $50 - sometimes $10 per cleaning for 5 times.

Re: How do I increase my busines of Cleaning Houses?

ShantiValley — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 03:26:47 GMT

Find the pricier hair and nail salons in your area, especially those that cater to professional women by offering evening and weekend appointments. Or, if you don't like their clientele, find other salons that cater to the type of people you want to clean for.

Make a presentable flyer or postcard and mail or drop them off at the salons. Look for other businesses that cater to the home & recreation interests of the clients you want, and leave your card or flyers there as well.

While you're at it, find a shop and established stylist you like, and start going to them. If you can't afford regular haircuts at their prices, choose a service you can do every few months--highlighting, etc. Become a regular client. Your stylist will get to know you, and if you are honest, reliable and conscientious, you will be on an excellent referral list in a few months. Lots of people start cleaning houses but drop out quickly, so don't expect referrals on the first visit.

If you need home-related services, ask for referrals from your stylist or barber. That way you will meet other business people working for the same community, and they are also likely to refer you if they trust you to do a good job for their customers.

Re: How do I increase my busines of Cleaning Houses?

BullsEye — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 03:22:45 GMT

Marzipan is absolutely right. Sooner or later every service business lives or dies by its reputation. And if you've got a good one, it's imperative that you learn to use it as one of your assets. You'll need to acquire the skill of asking for referrals, recommendations and pass-alongs, although this doesn't usually come naturally to most people. So expect to spend a little time and energy getting good at it. For more information, just do a search on the Internet for "referral system" and you'll find plenty of material.

I'd offer you a couple of links to check out, but I'm not sure of the rules about that on this forum. Instead, you can do a search on the names Robert Middleton and David Frey. Both of those gentlemen have affordable (and proven) material for service professionals. But don't just take my - or anybody's - word for it. Do your own checking and due diligence.

Cheers from sunny Japan,
Charles

Re: How do I increase my busines of Cleaning Houses?

Marzipan — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:36:28 GMT

What a great story BullsEye! I like your suggestion. Something else that works is "referrals" so if you get a job for one house/apartment - - soon, you may start getting business from the entire street. That's how we found our cleaner - is via neighbor referral. So, always do a great job, and word will start spreading about your services. Our cleaner does 5 houses on our street!

Re: How do I increase my busines of Cleaning Houses?

BullsEye — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:25:52 GMT

Hi Honest,

Little story - many, many years ago, when I was just out of school, I needed work fast, so I decided to do house painting. However, I didn't know anybody in this new city.

So first I had business cards made up. I'm not much of an artist, but I spent about three hours drawing a friendly little painter guy - drawing it over and over till I got what I wanted - and had that as the logo image on the cards.

Then I took 12 of the cards, pasted them on an 8.5 x 11 page and had an instant printer turn out 100 sheets. I asked him to cut the sheets into business card size and put them into pads of 50, which gave me a bunch of pads of lightweight business cards. I pasted each pad onto a 3 x 5 index card and hand lettered on the index card "Take One."

Next, I posted the cards on bulletin boards in food stores in my service area.

Within 4 weeks I was booked up with painting and wallpapering work six weeks out. People who buy your services ALL go to the grocery store.

One of the main reasons this worked, I think, was my tagline, which was
My Name
The Careful Painter

I focused on the one biggest worry of homeowners when they hire someone new, and made one strong, simple promise.

Hope this helps.

Cheers from sunny Japan,
Charles

Re: How do I increase my busines of Cleaning Houses?

score81 — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:56:28 GMT

Following are my suggestions:

Distribut flyers in the neighbourhood once a month.
Join Chamber of Commerce and introduce your business to all.
Join women association meeting and inform them your work.
Distribute Flyer in multiunit appartments.

Re: How do I increase my busines of Cleaning Houses?

BDS INC — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:12:08 GMT

Dan that is a great idea - as a property manager I hire a professional cleaning service to clean my homes. Even my long term tenants have a scheduled professional home cleanning quarterly that includes floors, windows, carpet, baths, and kitchen. You are so right to the property owner it is extremely important to keep rental properties in top shape, not only for the current renter but future renters as well.

Re: How do I increase my busines of Cleaning Houses?

DomainDiva — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:57:35 GMT

Lighthouse...that is a great idea.... also.....contact builders. They employ people to clean houses during construction as well.

Re: How do I increase my busines of Cleaning Houses?

Dwaz39 — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:33:36 GMT

You could try contacting different landlords and seeing if they would want a monthly cleaning service for their rental properties. This is essentially a win-win-win for everyone. You get your business, the tenant gets a monthly house/apartment cleaning, and the landlord gets the piece of mind that his investment will be kept clean throughout it occupancy. Plus, it will be great for word of mouth business and if the landlord buys more properties. One thing to be careful of is tenant privacy however. I don't know the laws all that well, but I would assume that you cannot go to the landlord and say "Joe is not taking very good care of the place, you should go yell at him." You would want to make sure about that.

The way to present this idea to a landlord is that they will get that piece of mind their property is being maintaned well. They can build your fee into the rent, but a tenant will still view it as more of a "free" service since it is built into the rent. Hopefully this helps some.

Dan