Why Won’t My Cleaning Clients Recommend Me?

The Ask a House Cleaner Show and Podcast with Angela Brown

"Why won't my cleaning clients recommend me? On my neighborhood referral app there's someone looking for a house cleaner. All my clients have to do is recommend me and they would get a bird dog fee. I've got the ratings and reviews, the social proof, and the word of mouth marketing - and yet my clients won't recommend me. Should I offer a bigger referral fee?" Angela Brown goes into the recommendation process that every cleaner should use.

“Why won’t my cleaning clients recommend me? On my neighborhood referral app, there’s someone looking for a house cleaner. All my clients have to do is recommend me. But they don’t. Why?

I’ve got the ratings and reviews, the social proof, and the word of mouth marketing – and yet my clients won’t recommend me.

What should I do?”

Angela Brown helps you learn ways to get more recommendations from existing clients to help grow your cleaning business.

Listen: Why Won’t My Clients Recommend Me?

Watch: Why Won’t My Clients Recommend Me?

Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.

Why Won’t They Recommend Me?

All right, today’s issue is from a house cleaner who wants to know why she is not getting recommended. Why aren’t my clients offering my name on our local Facebook group or on local apps like Nextdoor? People are looking for house cleaners all the time.

Recommend Me, Please

That’s a great question and it makes you stop and do some soul searching about your own business. Now, there are a couple of things you can do from the beginning of your relationship with a client. Those small things will let them know it’s okay to recommend you.

When a customer calls for the first time looking for a house cleaner, ask them: “How did you hear about me?”

Then tell them why. Say something like, “I would like to thank the person that gave you my name as a recommendation or referral.” What you’re doing is you’re planting a seed that says, I’m a business that works off of referrals. If you like my service and you refer my service at a later date, I would like to thank you somehow.

Then the person is thinking in their mind, what does that mean? Does that mean she’s going to give a gift? Maybe she’s going to give a discount on the cleaning. What if she gives a referral fee?

But they know that you’re going to thank the person that sent them to you. That’s the first seed that you want to plant.

Discuss Recommendations during the Walk Through

When you do a walkthrough plant the seed to get referrals. Make sure that you tell the homeowner, “I work by referrals only. If you like my service, I would love for you to tell my neighbors about the service that I provide.”

There are a lot of people that just won’t say anything because they don’t know if they should. Let it be okay.

House Cleaning Worksheets Help Get Client Referrals

Then the next thing that you want to do is at every cleaning, use a worksheet. I insist on using a worksheet because it has all my contact information on it.

They’re only one week away or one cleaning away from my last information. Even if I move or my phone number and address change, they have my information in front of them every single week.

Now, there are a lot of people that don’t use house cleaning worksheets. They don’t have business cards and they have nothing to leave behind at every cleaning. So, somebody hired you three years ago. They love your service, but they don’t even remember your name. What is your name? They don’t remember the name of your company.

You Want Them to Be Able to Find You So they Can Recommend You

I get texts and message me on Facebook, and the Savvy Cleaner network every day. They’re like, “Angela, can you check out my logo?” I look at their logo and I’m like, that doesn’t say house cleaning. I look at their company name and I’m like, “Holy cow!” That would never show up in a search engine.”

If they’re looking for you in a search engine and they can’t remember your name, they’re not going to refer you.

Marketing 101

One of my rules of marketing is you have to have a name that’s easy to remember.

It should say the words house cleaning in it if that’s what you do.

So, when they search for you, it’s Megan with something house cleaning in Belmont, North Carolina… the search engine shows your listing. Of course, there’s Belmont, North Carolina, and it pulls up Megan’s House Cleaning. They’re like, “Oh yeah, that’s her.”

Even if they can’t remember you, you have to be easy to find. If you’re not and they can’t remember your name, then they won’t remember your phone number.

Nobody remembers phone numbers anymore. It’s all on speed dial. If they can’t find you on their phone you’re not going to get a referral.

You have to be easy to remember.

QR Codes Make a Big Difference in Getting Recommendations

Have a QR code on your worksheet. Your information is there with your name, your email, your phone number, and a QR code.

The QR code takes anybody that scans it right back to your website. There they can look at all your ratings and reviews.

Also, they can look at an online worksheet. It allows them to look at everything you provide, so they know if you’re the right cleaning company for them.

Make it Easy to Recommend You

Let’s suppose somebody in the neighborhood is looking for a house cleaner. You have given your client permission to post a picture of your worksheet in the neighborhood app. Then, there will be a bunch of people that are curious to see what your company provides.

Because there is a QR code that you can scan, people will hold up their phone to the screen and scan your bar code. Boom, everyone in the neighborhood just went to your website.

Your clients may love your service – but you have to make it easy for them to refer you.

Thank Your Customers for Referrals

The customers are not always at home when you are there to clean. But it’s important when you do see the customer, to say something like, “Thank you so much for your business. I appreciate your business and referrals.” You can say that every time.

On your worksheet, take a second and write a thank you note to your client.

Leave a Personal Note

It doesn’t have to be fancy. Fold the corner of your worksheet over and write a quick note: “Karen, thank you so much for your business. I appreciate you and your referrals.”

And do that on the back of your worksheet at every single cleaning. Your clients will arrive to find a personal note. “Oh wow, she still appreciates me giving her the business.”

This translates into more referrals. People want to help people who appreciate them.

The Little Things Make a Big Difference in Getting Recommendations

Do you see how that works? If your customers are not recommending you, it’s not that you’re doing anything wrong. It’s just that you need to make it okay for them to refer you.

Because the behavior you reward is the behavior that’s repeated.

If a customer gives you a referral, be generous and you can either give them a discount or you can give them a gift.

Give them a Gift That Helps Both of You

A great gift for referrals is a showerhead on a hose. It will cost you about $30. But that’s going to be about the same amount of a discount that you would give them on their next cleaning.

The difference is this, you give them a shower head on a hose for one of their showers. They start thinking, “wait a second, I have five bathrooms. What do I have to do to get five more shower heads?”

They will give you five more referrals.

The cool thing is this, the showerhead on a hose makes your job cleaning their shower a whole lot easier.

It also makes taking a shower easier. Instead of you standing in one spot so you can shampoo your hair, you can now shower your whole entire body. You can also hose the shower down and get all the hair and soap scum and all that stuff out. That helps to maintain the shower before you come back again.

Boom. Everyone wins.

Make it as Easy as Possible for them to Help Your Business

Encourage your customers to send you referrals. To show their love for you, your work and your growing business, customers will give you all kinds of referrals. Make it easy for them by having a QR code on your worksheet that you leave behind at every single cleaning.

All right, I hope this helps you a little bit. If it does, pass it onto a friend. And until we meet again, leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.

Resources

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Beyond Referrals: How to Use the Perpetual Revenue System to Convert Referrals into High-Value Clients – https://amzn.to/320KFo5

Get More Referrals Now! The Four Cornerstones That Turn Business Relationships Into Gold – https://amzn.to/320LJbz

The 11 Laws of Likability: Relationship Networking . . . Because People Do Business with People They Like – https://amzn.to/2Xj3Cno

Don’t Keep Me A Secret: Proven Tactics to Get Referrals and Introductions – https://amzn.to/2XfvhAw

Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth – https://amzn.to/2ZZMSyc