There are two things every cleaning company needs to do to find success and maintain success. A successful house cleaning company finds new clients and keeps those clients. Finding people who need their house cleaned is simple enough, but many cleaning companies have trouble retaining these clients long-term. Retaining clients ensures your cleaning company has long-term stability and provides your company with multiple recommendation avenues. A healthy pipeline of frequent customers is essential to running a successful cleaning company. Here are a few tips to help turn your new clients into long-term clients.
Set realistic expectations
Honesty goes a long way in creating long-term clients and one of the best ways to show honesty is to establish realistic cleaning expectations. Don’t overpromise on what you can do and have a frank discussion about how you will clean the client’s home at the price point you agreed on. The client should know how you clean and they should let you know what they expect from your house cleaners so everyone is on the same page. You can clearly establish client expectations by creating a checklist and terms of service. The terms of service should clearly state the cleaning your company will do and how they will do it.
Don’t confirm online bookings until you have had a chance to talk with the client over the phone and consult with them. During the consultation ask if they have ever used a home cleaning service and get info about their experience. The purpose of this question is to find their expectations. Be frank and let them know what is possible to clean based on the price point that they want and what you can deliver. Lastly, live up to the expectations you set. Simply following through on what you promised will go a long way to keep a client long-term.
Conduct multiple post-clean follow ups
Take the time to follow up with clients after important interactions to get feedback from the client on how your team did cleaning your house. Send the client a short survey and set the expectation that the survey is an important tool to improve the cleaning experience. Do a first clean follow-up phone call. If a client does not answer you need to call back but when they do answer it is an opportunity to learn what your team did well and what they didn’t do well. Listen to any constructive criticism from the client and fix the issue if the fix is within reason and safe for your house cleaners to conduct. Putting more effort into cleaning the floorboards is a reasonable request, but deep cleaning a high ceiling is not.
You should do at least three follow-up phone calls with the first call being right after the first clean, the second call should be after the first month and the third call should be conducted within six months to a year. Asking for feedback shows you care about the client’s needs and are willing to look for and fix issues.
Cleaner consistency
Consistency in cleaning is the most important thing. Everyone cleans a bit differently and clients become used to a certain standard. If a client sees their home being cleaned in a different way they will notice. Once a client lets you know they like a particular cleaner you should try to assign that cleaner to that client’s house on a regular basis. It is essential that your cleaning staff establish a good relationship with your clients and consistently provide them with a house cleaner that knows what their home needs. If your client trusts your cleaning team’s work they are more likely to stay with you long-term.
Don’t be too proud to negotiate
If a client wants to leave don’t be too proud to ask them why and negotiate what they would need to give your company another chance. You can negotiate a different price or offer to clean an extra room or provide an extra cleaning service along with the current price. You don’t want to lose otherwise good clients if you can take reasonable actions to keep them.
The best way for your cleaning company to find success is to keep the clients you get. Maintaining a pipeline of long-term clientele will provide you with the stability to grow your cleaning company. Keep clients long-term by setting realistic expectations, following up for feedback, and providing them with a consistent and high-end cleaning experience. Follow these steps and your cleaning company will increase its client retention in no time.
Chris Willatt is the founder of Alpine Maids. The company is one of the best house cleaning services in Denver Colorado and prides itself in hiring the most positive and professional staff to clean your home.
