Referrals. Want more? The name of the game is referral marketing if you want to get more house cleaning customers. Grow your cleaning company with these easy to apply tips from The House Cleaning Guru, Angela Brown. Marketing your cleaning business doesn’t have to cost a bunch of money when you use these social media marketing tactics.
Listen: How Do I Get More House Cleaning Referrals?
Watch: How Do I Get More House Cleaning Referrals?
Hi there, I’m Angela Brown, and This is Ask a House Cleaner.
This is the show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. If I don’t have the answer, I probably know somebody who does. I’ve been a professional house cleaner for 25 years, and I’m connected to the best and the brightest minds in the house cleaning industry. These are my peers and my colleagues, and together we can come up with an answer that will help you move your cleaning business to the next dimension.
Today’s Question: How Do I Get More House Cleaning Referrals?
So, today’s question comes from a woman who wants to know, “How do I get more housecleaning referrals?”
Answer: You Earn Referrals, Then You Plant Them
Now, referrals are going to be your best avenue of business. 
And here’s why; because you can do all kinds of advertising, do all kinds of marketing, and all that stuff costs money and time. But a referral from somebody that you clean for, that their friends know, like, and trust has nothing to do with your marketing power.
I can write an ad and tell you how amazing I am. Right? But if your next-door neighbor tells you how amazing I am, that’s going to carry a lot more weight of authority.
So, word of mouth advertising, also known as referrals or referral marketing, is your best avenue for getting more cleaning business in this industry.
What is a Referral?
Word of mouth advertising is when someone else recommends you or your service because they are satisfied customers. Should you ask for referrals or just hope people give them to you? This one is up to you. Some house cleaners or maids do ask for them, and some advertise they offer referral fees or discount a cleaning if sent a referral. It depends entirely on how you feel about the referral and recommendation process.
Your client will feel very differently, and show a greater enthusiasm about you and the cleaning service you provide, if they decide to recommend you all on their own, than they will if you ask or bribe them.
How to Earn Referrals
- If you are good at what you do – you will get referrals.
- When the client feels you offer a good product at a fair price – you will get referrals.
- If you show up on time, on the day you have scheduled – you will get referrals.
- If you are efficient cleaning house – you will get referrals.
- Treat the client’s property and animals with respect – you will get referrals.
- If something goes awry and you handle it professionally – you will get referrals.
- If you are confidential and don’t blab to the neighbors about your clients – you will get referrals.
We live in an era where everyone is seems has home security cameras. How you clean, how you treat their stuff, how you treat their animals is all caught on camera, and your client could be watching you remotely from their smart phone or tablet.
ASSUME you are always being watched when you clean.
Turn Compliments Into Referrals
It’s easy to ask for referrals. But I never like to go up and say “Hey, listen, I’m looking for more business, can you give me a referral?” That’s just tacky.
So, I like to make it organic. And it’s a game you can play with me.
Let’s say that a customer texts you and they say; “Oh my gosh, I’m so pleased. I came home today and my house looked amazing, you did a great job.”
Okay, she initiated that. That was her idea. So, you’ll want to send her a note back and to say: “Oh, I’m so flattered, you’ve just made my day. Would you mind if I shared this comment with my friends?” And she might text you back, and say “Sure, that’s fine.”
Post Your Compliments On Your Social Media Platforms
Now you can take that and put it on your website or share it with your friends, or post it on social media or whatever.
You can also, send her a note back and say “Oh my goodness, you just made my day, that was so nice of you. Would you mind taking this same comment and posting it on NextDoor.com?
Now, Nextdoor.com and MyNeighborhood.com are two websites that are neighborhood referral websites, here’s how they work.
Let’s say that you live in a neighborhood. You type in my zip code and your street address.
It links you to all of your neighbors that are in that same neighborhood. And there is a classified section where people can sell things. Like “I have this little chair that I’m not using, would any of my neighbors like to buy it?”
Take Advantage of These Free Apps
There’s also a recommendation and referral section.
Where you can say; “I’m looking for a painter to come and paint my house, does anybody know anybody good?” Or, ” I need my car repaired, does anybody know a body shop that you would recommend?” So, inside that referral network, there are a lot of people that are looking for house cleaners.
And so, when the lady, or the guy that you clean for, wants to recommend you, ask them to recommend you inside their neighborhood referral network. The referral is not coming from you. Okay? You’re not promoting yourself. Someone else is. They are promoting you to their neighbors that they know, like and trust.
These are the people that they go walking with on the weekends, or that they see out walking their dogs, or that they see mowing their yards Your cleaning client just validated you as a top notch business to their neighbors.
Ask Them to Include Your Phone Number In Referrals
Ask them to include your phone number or email address or whatever you guys agree on.
Nextdoor and MyNeighborhood (apps) Have a life. So, if somebody posts something about you, that goes in the archives. Now, if somebody just moves to the neighborhood today, and is looking for a house cleaner, they can search for the term “house cleaner.” And all the referrals pop up, of all the people who have recommended you over time.
So, here it is a year or two years later from an original post. And people are still calling me of previous recommendations.
I had one guy whose house I cleaned and he sold his home. He moved to Atlanta Georgia. The guy that moved into his house calls me on the telephone. And he says “I know that this guy that lived in this house recommended you on Nextdoor. And because you know this house, and you know all the nuances, and how big it is, how much would you charge to come clean my house?”
Archived Referrals Keep Working For You
He never even met the owner of the house other than at closing. And I wasn’t part of that initial conversation, but he respected that guy’s opinion because obviously, that guy had good taste in houses. And he recommended me as a house cleaner. Hooray for me!
So, what happens is if you can get other people to recommend you that is a boatload of marketing you don’t have to pay for. But take it, and maximize it. So, if somebody says something really nice about you on social media, share that.
“Oh, I’m so blessed somebody said something nice about me on Facebook.” Re-pin that, or repost, or share that compliment.
Grow Referrals From Social Proof
Because that gets a lot of other people thinking “Well, I am not really so happy with the girl I have cleaning my home. Maybe I should hire this guy. He’s getting great reviews from his friends.”
Now, there’s something called Rich Schema Markup. It’s not new, but it’s on the internet and you see it everywhere. There are websites like eBay and Amazon that use this Rich Schema Markup with the little five stars. And it’s a way to rate and review somebody whose product or service you really like.
If you scroll all the way to the bottom of this post, you will see a hyperlink that says Savvy Cleaner (Ask a House Cleaner – How Do I Get More Referrals?) and there will be 5 empty stars You can write a review right there. I bring this up to show you an example of Rich Schema Markup. You can use it for blog posts too. Pretty cool eh?
Every Rating and Review Counts
And so, if you are a customer and you’re listening to this show, my suggestion is to go out of your way. Go out of your way to leave the five-star ratings and reviews for the people that serve you.
Whether its’ a painter, or a carpet cleaner, or a guy that does your landscaping, or your house cleaning or whatever. Always ask them, “Is there a place I can leave a rating and review?”
Because if you like the service, you want them to get more business. Your review is like giving them a tip, it’s your Mulligan to them.
Even one or two five star reviews will boost that person in the search engines. So, you want to help the people who help you.
Create a Yelp Listing
So, if you are looking for referrals, and looking for a way to expose your business to happy customers, ask them. Say “Hey listen, I have a Yelp site, can you jump on my Yelp site and give me a rating and review?”
So, when that customer texts you and says “Oh my gosh, I got home and my house was so clean and it smelled so nice, it was beautiful, yadda, yadda, yadda” Okay, send them a note back “Thank you so much, I’m flattered. You made my day, here’s the link to my Yelp review, would you mind saying a word or two, so that I can boost my presence in the marketplace.”
If they really appreciate the job you did, they will be more than happy to do it.
And after a few of those, guess what? You pop up in the search engines and that brings you more business ultimately.
Work Smart Not Hard
Alright, that’s it for today, if you like this tip, please pass it along. Tweet it. Pin it. Post it. Share it. And until we meet again, leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.
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