What is a residential cleaning service? It’s the act of making your home clean enough to put on display for friends and family, or to rent or sell. If you offer these services or if you want to find out how to start a cleaning business, there are several steps you can take to grow your residential cleaning business in no time at all. Here are 10 tips to help you get started today!
1) Figure Out What You Are Selling
You can’t just say you offer professional home cleaning and expect to bring in $1000 a month. Define what it is you are actually offering. In your case, I imagine that is something more along these lines: deep-cleaning residential houses (inside and out). If you want to narrow down even further, maybe specialize in one room or area of each house. Maybe you only clean bathrooms or only clean kitchens. The point here is to figure out what it is exactly that people are paying for when they hire someone like yourself for their house cleaning services. Once you have defined exactly what service you will be selling (and who will be buying), then we can move on to how much money per hour/week/month/year you should be making from those services.
2) Brand Yourself
Branding is not just for business. It’s also a way to make sure your clients or customers recognize you, know what they can expect when they hire you and refer others to you. Be unique in everything that you do so that people will be able to identify with your company more easily. Avoid competing on price; instead, try being better at customer service and providing higher-quality services. Don’t discount any form of marketing—even simple things like social media can play a major role in growing your business. Consider how many hours are invested into running a residential cleaning services business before deciding whether it’s worth it for you or not. Find out what your local competitors charge for their services and consider changing things up if needed.
3) Collect Testimonials
It is important to collect positive feedback from your previous customers. Asking for testimonials will help build confidence in potential customers about your service. You can also display their comments on your website or include them on a business card, which are both inexpensive ways to promote professional home cleaning services that may encourage future prospects. Testimonials should be genuine and specific because they showcase not only how well you clean but also how helpful you are as a company and what type of service you offer.
4) Check Your Prices
If you want to grow, you have to charge more. If you want to charge more, you’ll need to make sure that your customers perceive a high value for what you offer—and they won’t if they think they can get your service cheaper somewhere else.
5) Don’t Forget the Marketing
You can’t expect to grow your residential cleaning service without marketing and sales. Without these two elements in place, you’ll find yourself stuck at one or two residential cleaning services per week, which isn’t going to help you get ahead financially. A good rule of thumb is that you should spend 15-30% of your gross income on sales and marketing.
6) Prepare for Snow Days
Snow days are hard on a residential cleaning service. There’s nothing worse than having to return calls and reschedule appointments after a storm has buried your town in snow and ice. Being prepared for inclement weather can help you sustain business growth while keeping yourself safe. Make sure you stock up on supplies that might be tricky to get during bad weather, such as brushes, sponges, scrubbing bubbles and gloves.
7) Don’t Forget About Tradeshow Opportunities
If you’ve been doing your homework, you know that there are numerous opportunities to network and learn at home- and professional cleaning industry trade shows. At these conferences, you can meet other service professionals and customers from all over, exchange business cards and collect new leads. If you’re already in business for yourself, or if you’re thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, a tradeshow is one way to talk about your services with potential customers without having to convince them face-to-face.
8) Handle Customer Complaints In A Positive Way
When you’re in charge of a professional home cleaning services company, you need to know how to handle customer complaints. It’s also important to deliver a quality product and it goes without saying that everyone will have their own personal preferences as far as what they want cleaned and how often. When you offer various options for your customers, it gives them a choice so that no one feels dissatisfied about their experience using your service.
9) Establish Relationships with Important Businesses
When potential clients are considering hiring a cleaning service, they want to know their home will be taken care of by professionals. Build your business network by getting to know businesses in your community like housewares stores or furniture stores. Once they see you as a helpful and knowledgeable business owner, it’s likely they will recommend you to their clients in need of residential cleaning services.
10) Measure and Track Key Performance Indicators
An important step in growing any service business is to understand how you’re tracking and measuring key performance indicators. Make sure you have specific goals, metrics, and action items that enable you to track results. The result of your efforts will likely be a larger workload for you and your staff, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t see immediate growth. With time and effort, professional home cleaning services can become quite lucrative!
