Establishing a prosperous residential or commercial cleaning operation requires an endless number of long hours, hard work, dedication, and most importantly of all, happy customers. While It is important to find your place in the market and establish a good reputation, providing quality service and quality work is not enough to effectively expand your cleaning business.
Taking some time out to do research and perform daily marketing efforts can make it easier to build a strong customer base and provide you with ideas you might never have thought of. In the beginning, there are many ways to build a customer base, but it is essential to focus on continuous business development. The following is a list of seven ways to ensure long-term business growth and success.
1. Attend Regular Networking Events
Whether you are dealing with suppliers, customers, or even accountants, the core of any business is to have a strong network. Most of your working time is around people; even if you build a relationship with someone who may not be a customer, leaving a good impression can go a long way in getting a referral business.
Establishing a connection through the Internet helps your business develop, but sometimes finding the right place or situation can be a challenge. You can try the following:
- Trade fairs – Trade fairs are a great place to meet customers and other business owners. Think about renting a booth and displaying your products and services. You can even hold a free cleaning package contest to attract people’s attention; who knows, you might have fun too!
- Join a community association – Every community has many associations and joining a community is a great way to meet people. Many communities even have associations dedicated to businesses and business owners. Signing up to one of these business networking clubs will provide you and your business with a whole new range of lucrative possibilities for sourcing new business clients.
- Community activities – Community activities are huge business opportunities. Contributing or volunteering is an excellent way to build a reputation. At the same time you can be helping the community grow and get cheap advertising. A cleaner is needed for every activity, so if you have free time, wear a company T-shirt and get help!
2. Set Up a Business Referral Plan
Large companies have long known that referral programs are an excellent way to build a customer base. This applies to almost all businesses, whether it is software, cleaning, or beautifying the environment.
Try a free service or discount incentive if your client sends you new business. While it may appear expensive in the short term, it’s a great way to extend your client list long term.
3. Canvas In Your Community
This may not seem very interesting, but it is actually an excellent way to show your name, and if you have the right personality, it can be very effective in acquiring new business. Knocking on the door is a great way to establish face-to-face contact and leave a lasting impression. Use canvas at night to make sure people are at home, but if they don’t want to chat, or make sure there is a sign that they are not interested, make sure you respect their space.
If no one is at home, make sure you have a flyer or brochure to leave so that they will remember you when they need detergent and have your phone number ready. This is also a great opportunity to include discounts.
4. Partner with Other Companies
Establishing partnerships with other service providers is an excellent way to establish mutually beneficial business relationships and expand your cleaning business. For example, a window cleaning company can recommend you to their customers, and you can do the same for them. Other good options are carpet cleaning companies, landscaping, and babysitting services, to name a few.
In addition to recommendations, cooperating with other companies can increase the value of your services to customers. You can save them the time and headaches of finding and hiring someone to perform other services. And you can provide guarantees for your partner companies to reassure your customers. Just make sure you are confident in the quality of work provided by your partners.
5. Advertise on a Budget
Advertising can be expensive, but it produces many opportunities for your message to be published on a lower budget:
- Hang posters at local business and community centers
- Print the company’s T-shirt and send it to your employees and customers
- Be active online! These days, all prospective customers examine business services such as cleaning, online, so make sure you manage your online presence effectively
6. Leverage the Power of Word of Mouth
The cheapest way to advertise is to get others to advertise for you through word of mouth marketing. Although this may seem tool good to be true, the reality is that successful companies do this all time. The trick is to make people talk. The problem is, ‘commercial cleaning services’ and ‘the best maid in town’ aren’t exactly the kind of topics that are typically discussed over dinner or lunch, so how do you make people excited about your business?
First of all, maintain the highest quality service. It’s not enough for your customers to be satisfied with your team’s results, they must be amazed by them. After the work is over, make every effort to keep in touch with your customers to make sure they are completely satisfied. If you really want to take customer service to another level, consider wishing them a happy birthday on their special day, if you have access to their DOB details. Doing so will be completely unexpected and will be treated as a wonderful surprise. Such a gesture will certainly increase the likelihood that they will mention you to friends and family, helping you expand your cleaning business.
Just remember, word of mouth is as potent for condemnation as it is for praise. If your clients believe that you have been rude to them or that your cleaning services have been less than spectacular, then you can be certain that they will let their acquaintances know about it.
7. Ensure Clients Feel Safe
The nature of a cleaning business means that you and your team will usually work unsupervised in people’s homes, offices and other commercial spaces. This can make your customers nervous, so doing everything possible to make sure they feel safe is an excellent way to outperform your competitors. Be sure to conduct background checks on all team members and any potential employees, and make sure your customers know that you have done this. Another thing you can consider is to provide a written personal guarantee.
As a final word of wisdom when it comes to expanding your cleaning business, always follow up with new contacts. Make a quick call or send them an email. Don’t be afraid to follow up a few times, if you don’t receive a reply the first time. People are always busy, sometimes they don’t have time to respond, but one day they will be looking for the services you provide, and you want to make sure that you are there that day!