Have you ever wondered what makes a customer buy from one cleaning company over another? There are several reasons and they might not be what you think. Your cleaning business marketing strategy has more of an impact on getting leads and new customers than you might realize. In this post, you’ll learn what customers want from a cleaning company and how to market it effectively to them.
Showcase that you provide quality work
Most people do not want to hire a cleaning service that does low-quality work. They don’t want to work with a company that cuts corners or that does a poor job cleaning.
Certainly, you want to strive to provide quality work as a foundation for your cleaning services, but if potential customers don’t know that, you might struggle to generate leads and sales.
As a part of your marketing plan and reputation management strategy, be sure to focus on providing the best service possible to your clients. Doing so can help you gain a good reputation and can lead to positive word of mouth that can help expand your business.
In addition to providing great service, you want to highlight reviews and testimonials on your website to show you do in fact provide quality service. It’s one thing to say in your marketing that you offer high-quality service, but if your existing customers say it, potential customers are more likely to believe it.
Potential customers are more likely to believe social proof or a 3rd party source talking about the quality of your service over your word. Highlighting reviews and testimonials on your website, in your marketing, and in your advertisements, can help increase conversions and trust in your company.
Market the flexibility in your cleaning services
Potential cleaning clients also want flexibility. They want to pay for just the services they need, and they like being able to pay for those services with simple payment terms.
Certainly, this flexibility can only go so far, as you have a business to run, but consider making aspects of your service flexible where possible. The question then becomes, how do you market your flexibility to potential clients?
Well, one area that you could be flexible on is not requiring contracts with your customers. If you offer commercial cleaning consider an “Evergreen Agreement”, where the client continues to pay you every month as long as they are happy with your services. Your only requirement is that they give a 30 or 60 day cancellation notice.
You might offer residential cleaning customers flexibility in the services you offer. Instead of only offering standard packages, perhaps your company might offer a “Flex Package” where the client gets to choose the rooms and services they want.
Another area to offer flexibility for residential cleaning clients is during the busy holiday rush. You could offer priority scheduling to existing clients over new clients. This ensures your existing clients get their needs met first in case their cleaning day or time needs adjusting.
Let potential customers know about your flexible options by talking about them on your website and in your marketing. If your competition has ridged standards, cancelation fees, long-term contracts, or lacks a variety of services, this difference in your services could lead to new customers.
Position your company as trustworthy
Another important aspect of what customers are looking for has to do with your cleaning technicians and office personnel. Your employees act as the face of your company. How they interact or are perceived by potential customers can cost you clients or build enough trust that people hire your company.
One of the first things people want to know about a cleaning company is if they can trust them or not. When a potential customer decides to hire a cleaning service, they are trusting complete strangers and allowing them into their home or business. Most people are not going to hire a company they feel they can’t trust.
One way to build trust is by having high standards for hiring employees and performing extensive background checks on employees you hire. It’s one thing to have these high standards, but you need to make sure potential customers know about it as well. A great place to talk about your hiring process and background checks is in your about section on your website.
Another way to build trust is to showcase your happy employees on your website and in your marketing. If people can associate a happy face with your cleaning business, it can lead to them hiring you over the competition. Use real employee photos on your website to help build trust faster.
Make sure your employees are courteous and well-trained
Do you focus on making sure training your employees is a priority? Having courteous and well-trained staff can have several benefits that can improve both your company reputation and lead to more potential customers doing business with your company.
We mentioned it earlier, but since speaking with your office staff is likely the first impression potential customers get with your company. You want it to be a positive experience. If potential customers reach a rude staff member or someone who isn’t knowledgeable that can’t answer their questions, they will likely decide to do business with another company.
Also, if you don’t spend time training your cleaning technicians it can lead to poor quality work and eventually a poor reputation. Potential customers tend to avoid working with cleaning companies with a bad reputation.
As far as marketing is concerned, you should highlight that your employees go through a vigorous training program. Because of that, they provide the best quality service. You can cover this in your about section on your website as well.
Provide accurate and simple cleaning quotes
While the price isn’t the only factor customers are looking for when they choose a cleaning company, it is an important one. These days it is relatively easy for people to request quotes online from a variety of cleaning companies.
Cleaning prospects want to get a general idea of what your price is likely to be as fast as possible. That way they can see if your services are in their price range.
This means they don’t want to have to go through several steps or waste a lot of time to get a quote. Don’t ask too many questions on the online form and get back to them as soon as possible to set up the appointment.
When you provide commercial cleaning services, you’ll need to visit their location to do a walk-through before offering a price, so make the process as simple as possible.
Once a prospect has contacted you, you have their interest. From there you can focus on selling them on the benefits of hiring you vs the competition. Don’t let these qualified leads fall through the cracks.
Follow up quickly and highlight your core difference as well as additional benefits potential customers will receive by working with you. You can accomplish this with email marketing and in-person follow up.
When people can quickly trust your company, know the benefits of hiring you over the competition, and can get an accurate quote fast, they are more likely to convert into new cleaning clients.
Prioritize quick responses and good communication
Yet another factor that customers want from a cleaning company is good communication. It may be surprising but we often hear that a company earned a new client simply because they were the only company that answered the phone when they called.
Unfortunately, a lot of cleaning companies drop the ball when it comes to quick response times and good communication. You might have a smaller company and don’t yet have a customer service team.
Maybe you don’t yet have someone that can fully dedicate their time to the phones. Or maybe you are slow to respond to emails. Regardless, it is an area you should focus on and make an effort to get better.
Another aspect of this is having a timely response to concerns from customers. We have seen some companies offer things like a “Quick response guarantee” or promote they will return inquiries within 24 hours or less. This can help show potential customers that you value their time, and care about their needs, which can lead to higher conversions.
Use your marketing plan to show you offer what customers want
Now that you have a better idea of what customers want from a cleaning company, you need to show them you have what they are looking for. You can do this through your cleaning company website and marketing efforts.
Many cleaning companies miss this marketing strategy. Doing so can greatly hinder your company’s growth if you make the same mistake. It’s one thing to have a trustworthy company, great employees, and provide quality service, but if no one knows about it, it won’t bring in more customers.
There are several things people look for when they visit your cleaning business website. If certain aspects are missing in your messaging, they will choose to work with another company.
In order for people to pay attention to your marketing, they want to see that you are a company they can trust. They also want to know that you are an expert in the industry. Finally, they will look that you provide services that are a solution to their problems.
There are a variety of ways to show these aspects of your company throughout your marketing and website, and we will cover them in depth below.
Create content that proves you are an expert in the industry
Customers want to work with a cleaning company they consider as an expert in the industry. If people are paying the costs of hiring a cleaning service they want to get what they pay for.
A great way to get the payment you deserve is to establish your expertise and credibility with your marketing. There are several ways to do this on your cleaning company website.
Similar to reviews from customers you may also include case studies. These are more in-depth versions of testimonials. They start by covering the issue a client had and why they chose to work with you. From there cover how you solved the issue, and how the situation is much better now. Another form of social proof is to showcase industry awards and certifications your company has received.
You should also create industry pages, service pages, and blog content on your website. Doing so will further highlight that you are a competent company and resource for your potential clients.
Not only will this content marketing strategy build credibility for your business but it can also provide traffic from SEO.
Let customers know you provide solutions to their problems
Despite what you might think, most people don’t care about the features of your services as much as it seems. In reality, they mostly care about the benefits they receive from hiring you.
If your marketing is only focused on features you will likely struggle to get conversions. However, if you focus on highlighting benefits and what problems your services solve for potential customers you’ll generate more leads and cleaning clients.
There are several ways to feature benefits and not just features of your cleaning business in your marketing. You can do this by showcasing positive reviews in your marketing. In these reviews, try and highlight ones that tell a story, and that mention benefits not just features.
Blog posts, industry pages, and service pages are another place to provide value to potential customers. Write content that addresses common questions and problems that people have related to your cleaning services.
You could do this by highlighting the benefits of hiring your cleaning service to help save time and money. For example, instead of a client having to buy their own cleaning supplies or spending their time cleaning, you could do that for them.
For commercial cleaning, you could mention that instead of them having to spend time and money on hiring an in-house staff to clean, you can replace that need. This could be an unseen benefit that potential clients may not be aware of.
Focus on benefits not just features in your marketing and it could give them a reason to hire you.
Showcase you have a professional-looking cleaning company
Regardless if you have a house cleaning company or commercial cleaning company, potential customers want to work with a company that looks professional. There are several ways to show off professionalism in your marketing and branding.
Potential customers want the cleaning personnel to be professional looking. Having a dress code is one way to make sure your cleaning technicians and staff are presentable when engaging with potential customers.
Some companies don’t use a dress code and their cleaners some times show up in sloppy looking clothes. This poor appearance usually doesn’t go over well with your potential and existing customers.
As you will likely be using real employee photos in your marketing, using photos of cleaning technicians in street clothes vs uniforms doesn’t give a great first impression.
Potential and existing customers also want nice looking vehicles in their parking lot and visiting their home. Make an effort to use branded and clean vehicles to transport equipment to your cleaning client’s businesses or homes.
Having branded uniforms and vehicles can also help keep your cleaning company in front of mind with potential clients. If someone sees your branded vehicle or employee in uniform in public it can help them think of you first the next time they want to hire a cleaning business.
Advertise your cleaning business and show potential customers you have what they want
Your cleaning business website is a passive, but important way to market your cleaning business. It can show potential customers what they want from a cleaning company as well. In addition to this passive marketing strategy, you can add in an advertising strategy to market your cleaning business.
The messaging should be similar to what you are using on your website to maximize conversions. When you create your ads you should speak to your ideal customer’s potential issues. These can be things such as the lack of time to clean or being too busy to clean. It could be something such as releasing stress. Even talking about how people would rather be doing something else could work too.
Advertise how your service is a solution to problems, not just the features of your cleaning service. You can still highlight some of the features of your cleaning services, just don’t let that be all you mention.
You could mention how you provide quality service, pay attention to detail, and get the job done right the first time. When you list these features just make sure that you don’t forget to mention the benefits. The benefits of why having those features make a difference to the potential customer is what really matters.
Structure your advertising in a way that addresses an issue and highlights the features of your service. Then show how the benefits of those features are a solution to the issue.
Finally, use a call to action for potential clients to take the next step. This marketing strategy will show potential customers what they want from a cleaning business. Doing so will help them choose your company over the competition. Also, if you decide to market your business on Facebook, be careful of these common Facebook advertising mistakes.
Conclusion
It may seem overwhelming to try and figure out what customers want from a cleaning company. However, the reality is that with a few adjustments to your marketing you’ll be perceived as offering exactly what customers are looking for.
Start by providing and promoting your excellent service, and a well trained courteous staff. Provide accurate quotes and estimates for your services quickly. Also, be sure to maintain a good communication flow with potential and existing customers.
In addition to that build in trust factors to your website and marketing. Use things like real photos, reviews, case studies, and implement a professional dress code. Also include content like service pages, industry pages, and blog posts to showcase expertise to potential customers.
As you continue to market your cleaning business make sure that your messaging is benefits-focused and doesn’t highlight features alone. When you combine all of these factors together you get a recipe for success.
Doing so will give customers exactly what they want from a cleaning company. Implement these tips to help you generate more leads, sales, and to help keep your customers longer.
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.