If you are struggling with converting your cleaning leads into clients, your follow up process may be to blame. After working with many cleaning business owners, time and time again, we find that their follow up process and sales process leaves much to be desired. You can have the best cleaning leads possible, but if your follow up process isn’t effective you won’t convert many into paying clients. In this post you’ll learn how to follow up with cleaning leads to convert them into sales.
Set up a thank you page
A simple initial step to your followup process should be to forward your cleaning estimate form submissions to a thank you page. Not only will this help you track conversions more effectively, but it also gives you a chance to build trust and rapport with your cleaning leads.
A thank you page is a simple page that acknowledges your company received the estimate request. People appreciate knowing that their information has been received and your company is in the process of getting them their quote.
You could also include your company phone number on the thank you page and encourage people to call you for a faster quote if you do that over the phone. Often we find it’s easier for companies to close leads on the phone vs through email.
Another thing you may want to include on your thank you page is a personal video thanking the person for requesting a quote and letting them know someone from their team will be in contact with them shortly.
When you include a personal video you humanize your business. Most people like working with people, not just a faceless company. By including a video thank you, it can build trust and rapport with your business faster.
Do you only follow up once?
How many times do you follow up with cleaning leads? Is it more than once? While you don’t want to beg people to buy your cleaning services, you also need to be persistent with people if you want to convert more cleaning leads.
Often we find that when cleaning businesses generate a cleaning lead they only send them a single reply and little to no follow up is done after that. For example, we have seen companies that have ads running where prospects request a quote, and the company will respond with something like you can get a quote on our website and that is the last thing ever said to the person.
Obviously sending one message is better than nothing, but often we find being persistent and following up a few times can help increase your conversion rate. People get busy and forget they requested a quote or maybe request several quotes from various companies. How your company handles the follow up process can determine if you make the sale or not.
Use an email autoresponder for an immediate follow up process
Another useful tool we would recommend getting to improve your follow up process with cleaning leads is an email autoresponder. This is a marketing tool that when people submit an estimate form it will automatically add them to your list and send a follow up email.
We should really stress here that this initial email should not be your only form of follow up with cleaning leads. We see this a lot with cleaning companies that an automatic email response is the only form of follow up they have and they expect every sale to be a laydown sale.
Most people who are requesting quotes from your cleaning company are likely doing the same with other cleaning companies as well. Having an email autoresponder and an initial follow up email is just the beginning.
It can help you stand out from those companies that don’t have this, but it also shouldn’t be your only form of follow up.
Create an email series to follow up with cleaning leads on autopilot
Beyond a single email autoresponse, you should also set up a followup email series. The purpose of this email series is to help convert those cleaning leads who may not have been ready to buy the first time they requested a quote.
Most people who visit your cleaning company website for the first time will be in “research mode” or “comparison mode”. This means that they may just be interested in hiring a cleaning service but aren’t sure which company to work with yet.
For these cleaning leads your job is to educate them on the benefits of working with you vs your competition and to “sell” them on your services. A great way to do this without being pushy or salesy is to provide education and value through your email series.
By sending out emails that further educate your potential clients, you can build more credibility, trust, and authority with them. After receiving a few of these emails these potential clients may be ready to buy and likely if you have done a good job, they will choose to work with you vs the competition.
How to follow up and sell without being pushy
Now you may be wondering what kind of things you should follow up with that aren’t spammy. Well, you ideally want to follow the 80/20 rule. This means that 80% of your content should be focused on value and education, and only 20% should be selling.
Most cleaning companies make the mistake of sending email after email that is just offering a discount or promoting the latest sale at the company. Those can certainly help to create conversions, but if it is the only kind of content you send as a follow up most people will end up just deleting those emails.
It’s best to simply sprinkle those emails throughout a variety of educational emails. You can also simply include a P.S. line at the bottom of your emails that mentions a discount or special.
For example, if you made an email about floor care tips, you could use a P.S. line with something like, “P.S. Did you know we specialize in cleaning and polishing floors? Skip the hassle of doing the cleaning yourself and hire us to get the job done quickly. Click here to learn about our floor care specials.”
Since the email itself was helpful information whether the client hires you or not, they will appreciate that. It will build more trust and credibility in your company knowing what you are talking about, and then when the P.S. line sells your services, it won’t come off as pushy.
Follow up with different methods – call, text, Facebook message
Email marketing is a great first step to following up with cleaning leads, but there are other options you should implement as well. Ideally, you want to get your leads on the phone as the chances of closing the sale will go up significantly, however, that may not always be an option.
For example, one of the advertising strategies we use with clients is through Facebook messenger ads. With this strategy, people will message the company directly through Facebook and request quotes.
There is an automated component as well where Facebook will send out one message in reply to their request. We often suggest in addition to this strategy to also try and incorporate getting a lead’s email and phone number.
The more contact points you have for a cleaning lead the more chances you will have of actually reaching them when you follow up. Some methods of lead generation may be easier to acquire leads, but harder to follow up. In any form of lead generation success is a numbers game. Not every lead will buy from you, but the better you follow up the higher rate your conversion will be.
What information should you ask for from your cleaning leads?
At this point, you may be wondering what you should actually say to your cleaning leads when following up. The general format you want to follow is to treat this process like fishing.
Most people make the mistake of expecting every lead to be a laydown sale, but the reality is you need to entice people to hire your business. This is why the followup process is more like fishing because you need to attract people to your business instead of hunting them down.
Let’s use the example of following up with a cleaning lead that requested a quote through a Facebook messenger ad. For these people, you may or may not have a lot of information to go on. The first suggestion would be to only ask for the information that is completely necessary.
We often see people asking for first and last name, email address, phone number, home address, square footage, and the list goes on and on. Most people are leery about giving out too much personal information online, so you want to ask for only what is necessary and offer your contact info first.
You can apply this same idea to your cleaning estimate request forms. You’ll likely have to follow up on the phone or via email anyway with leads, so instead of asking 20 questions up front, ask for the bare minimum to provide a quote and get the rest when you get in contact with the cleaning leads.
What to say when following up with cleaning leads
You want the follow-up exchange to be reciprocal. So for example, you might say something like, “Hey (Name) thanks for requesting a cleaning quote. We just need answers to a couple of quick questions to give you an accurate quote. What is the approximate square footage of the home you are looking to have cleaned? How often are you looking to have your home cleaned? Are there any specialty cleaning services you are interested in, such as carpet cleaning, window cleaning, etc.? By the way if it’s easier you can email us at info@xyzcleaning.com or call us at 123-333-4444. We would be happy to call you or email you as well if you would like us to reach out to you instead.”
With this kind of approach, you are trying to get additional information you need and to facilitate the conversation. When you ask for too much information or for information that is very personal like phone number and home address in the first message it may scare off potential clients.
By asking minimal questions and offering your name and email before asking for theirs, it makes the prospect feel more comfortable and willing to give you their information.
If at all possible you want to be in control of the follow up process. By getting your lead’s information you are able to reach out to them instead of waiting and hoping they reach out to you.
How to follow up with cleaning leads after service
Another aspect of the follow up process many cleaning companies miss is following up with customers after they hire you. Often it is much easier to upsell an existing customer than to acquire a new one.
This strategy can also work well if you are using secondary services as your gateway sale for your cleaning business. For example, you might offer carpet cleaning services as the front offer to acquire clients. Then once they have bought your carpet cleaning services you might offer to upsell them on an ongoing cleaning package for recurring services at a one time discount.
You could also follow this strategy if you had clients who were buying a one-time cleaning service, and then you could upsell them on recurring services.
Also, it would be a good idea to ask for positive reviews after you provide services to your clients. While it might not directly bring in additional income, the more positive reviews you have the more social proof and credibility it builds for your business.
The more positive reviews you have the more likely people are to hire your cleaning company, so when you follow up with your cleaning leads that have purchased from you ask for reviews. This can help you turn one customer into many.
Follow up for referrals
The final part of your follow up process should include asking for referrals. Getting referrals from your existing clients is another great way to turn a few customers into many.
One barrier businesses have to get past is that most people need to feel like they know and trust a business before doing business with them. When you use referrals to grow your business that can be a strategy that has an implied know and trust factor built-in. This means that people will give your company the benefit of the doubt and if their friend refers your company it must be good.
It can be an easy way to increase your customer base and should be a part of your follow up strategy. You may also consider incentivizing this referral strategy by creating an incentive program.
There are a variety of ways you can implement this strategy. Ideally, you want to offer something of value that will get people to refer you to new customers but that also won’t hurt your profits too much.
It could be something simple like a free upsell on your services or a discount on their next service, or a free cleaning. Whatever it is make sure you only give away this service after your new customer has paid for services to make sure you don’t lose out on any money.
Conclusion
Overall generating cleaning leads is only one part of the success equation for your cleaning business. You need an effective sales process and follow up process in place as well to convert those leads.
Following up in a variety of ways and more than just once can help you convert more of the leads you generate. Also, don’t ask so many questions of your leads that it scares them off from doing business with you.
Ask for only enough information to begin the conversation and to provide an accurate quote. You can always ask for more information as the sales process gets further along.
You should also continue to follow up with existing clients and not just potential clients. When you do this you can upsell clients on new services, ask for reviews, and even acquire new clients through referrals.
Don’t neglect your follow up process as it can be a major reason your cleaning company succeeds at a high level.
P.S. If you are struggling to get quality leads for your cleaning business, Click Here to Learn How to Get More Clients for your business with these Top 10 Lead Sources For Cleaning Business Owners.