How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Angela Brown, Savvy Cleaner

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough?

How do you follow up after a walkthrough? After you’ve bid the job and talked to the client, how do you secure a cleaning contract with them? 

It’s safe to assume that when a homeowner invites you to their house, they already want you to clean their home. 

So, what do you do if you’re still waiting for a callback? Is there a way to know if the customer is still looking for a house cleaner and wants to hire you?

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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.

How Do You Follow Up With Customers After a Walkthrough?

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Man Holding Phone, What Happens NextHow do you follow up with customers after a walkthrough? How do you follow up with a customer after you’ve gone to a customer’s house, and you’ve given them your heart and soul?

You made friends with them and you bonded and they seemed to love you.  But then you go home and a couple of days passes, and then it turns into a week.

And then you’re like, “Well, should I send the contract back to them? Hope that they sign it. Should I ask if the price was too high? Or should I ask if I should give them a discount? Should I call them, should I text them? Should I email them? What happens next?”

You Skipped a Part of the Sales Process

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Woman Signing Man's ClipboardFirstly, if you ever find yourself in that situation, it’s because you skipped a part of the sales process, sales 101. Sales 101 says you want to assume the sale.

Assume the sale means that when a customer calls you and they say, “Will you come over to my house and give me a price,”. What they’re not saying is, “Will you come over and give me a price, because I have an afternoon free and I would love to rattle off for an hour with a stranger that I’ve never met before that cleans houses.”

Nobody does that. The only reason someone would invite you over and they are not in the market for house cleaning is because they themselves are a house cleaner and they want to know how you do a walkthrough.

And they want to know what kind of pricing you would give for a house about their size. That is the only reason why.

Find Out if They’re Also a House Cleaner

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, WalkthroughThat is also very easy to overcome because when you get to the house and you see clues, you ask them, “Are you also a house cleaner? How do you know this? How do you clean it yourself.” 

When you ask those kinds of questions you can find out if they are a house cleaner. If they don’t know how to do a walkthrough, and they don’t know about pricing, this is a perfect opportunity.

With some training, they might be a great employee for you, or they might be a great independent contractor for you. And so, we’ve recruited a lot of house cleaners that tried to trick us by having us come to a walkthrough at their house.

So, don’t let that slide. But if you find out while you’re there that they are themselves a house cleaner, “Hey, listen, any chance we can work together? Can we collaborate instead of competing?” So, it’s an awesome opportunity.

If a Customer Invites You for a Walkthrough, They Need Their House Cleaned

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Man and Woman TalkingThen, if a customer invites you over to their house, they need their house cleaned. That is the assumptive close. You’re a house cleaner. They called you. You can clean their house. So, the assumptive close suggests this.

How did they find you? Did you come by referral? Did they go on your website? Or did they find you on Facebook? Did they search your social media? What was it that made them decide you were the right person?

Because to get all the way to a customer’s house for a walkthrough is huge. Most people will call you up on the phone and say, “Hey, can you give me a quote?” Well, you can, but the object is to get to their house because you assume, they actually need their house cleaned. 

However, you can say “I can’t give you a price on the phone and then start cleaning. I still have to come to see the house.” So, you have to assume if this is true, what they are saying, this must be a walkthrough.

You Have to Assume Every Step of the Way

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Man Opening DoorSo, you have to assume every step of the way.  You assume the customer did their research. You assume they chose you out of a hundred other house cleaners because there’s something about you that made them pick up the phone. 

You can say “Right now, you asked for a price. Before I can give you a price, I have to ask a series of questions because I want to make sure you have the right price. Is that fair?” They go, “Yeah, that’s fair.” Then you ask a few questions, and the questions help determine whether they’re a good fit for you. Do you do the type of cleaning that they need?

And if you don’t, then you say right up front, “We don’t do that kind of cleaning. That would be somebody that would be in more of a, let’s say a forensic restoration type cleaning. And I have friends I could recommend in the industry. Would that be okay?”

Remove Yourself From the Situation if They’re Not a Good Fit

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Woman Waiting for Phone to RingIf they’re not a good fit, then you immediately remove yourself from the situation. You don’t waste any more time, and you get them the referral and you move on.

But if you do the type of cleaning that they need, and you say, “Hey, I’m going to be in your neighborhood this afternoon. I’d love to swing by. Could I give a quick walkthrough with you through your house? And then let’s find out what your priorities are, and I’ll see if I can save you some money. Would that be okay?” They go, “Yeah. Okay. Come on over.”

You Can’t Just Hope You Get the Job

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Man with Cleaning SuppliesThen, when you get to the customer’s house, lots of stuff has already had to happen before you get there. So, to be like, “Well, you know, I hope I get the job,” you’re not going to get the job. You are not going to get the job if you go in and hope.

You have to go in and sell your services. And so, you go in, and there’s a series of questions that you ask, as you take a tour of their home. And then, in the end, you pull out your checklist and you get an agreement. So how soon do you want to start? Because if that’s a question you ask on the telephone, and they say, “I don’t know, I’m just kind of looking around,” you don’t have a job.

It can be three months or six months or a year. It might be that they’re putting their budget together and they’re trying to get out of debt. And they want to know if one day they hire a house cleaner, how much will it cost?

Clarify Your Price on the Phone

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Woman Looking at PhoneYou want to clarify your price on the phone. On the telephone, before you go to their house, you can get that resolved. You can say, “Hey, listen, I can only guarantee the price I have today for the next two or three weeks. So, if it’s in the next two or three weeks, I can put you on my schedule right now. I have one opening right now, and I can guarantee your price. I’m going to be in your neighborhood this afternoon. Can I swing by, and let’s take a walkthrough of your house?”

If for any reason they say no, you still don’t have a job. But it saved 45 minutes of your time from getting in your uniform, driving over there, wasting time on a walkthrough and meeting a customer that’s never going to hire you.

If You Go to Their House

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Man and Woman Opening DoorBut here’s the good news. If you get to the customer’s house, and they’re willing to meet you and they’re willing to take time out of their day, and they’ve answered your questions and you’ve answered theirs, go for broke. Ask for the sale during the bidding. You have to ask for the sale.

So, I have this one opening. Can I book you in there so we can go ahead and get started on cleaning your house?  This is how much it’s going to cost for this first cleaning? And because this is a deep clean, it’s going to cost a little bit more.

I know it will be less after that, but after I clean your house, we can have another conversation and find out if we need to make adjustments. Otherwise, the maintenance clean I think is going to be about this price. Would that be okay?”

Yeah. Let’s go ahead and get started.” “Okay, great. I’m going to put you in this slot. I’ll have your initial right here that we’re both agreeing to the same terms. And when I come on this particular day, here’s how that works. Here’s what that looks like.”

Then You Have to Move Them Through the Money Part

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Woman Holding Business Card and PhoneAnd then go right into the next part of it, which is moving them through the money part of it. You don’t say, “Okay, thanks for the money,” and then you leave. You have to tell them what to expect next.

So when I come on this particular day, the house needs to be pretty much tidied up, because if I spend all the time picking up laundry and shoes and stuff, I won’t have time to do the cleaning that you’re hiring me to do. So, pick up and tidy up, so that I can get in. I can get the vacuum and moving it around and stuff, and then make sure that you leave the check for me.

Here’s the amount that we agreed to. And then when I get here, I’m going to just spend 60 seconds on your front mat here. And I’m going to put on my gloves, my shoe covers and all that stuff. Then I’m going to get right to work. So, while we’re chatting today, I won’t chat when I come on Thursday, because I’m going to let you do your work. I’m on the clock then. I’ll be doing my work. So, we’re in agreement on that?”

Text Them the Day Before the Job

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Man on PhoneAnd they go, “Yeah. Sounds great.” “Okay, great. Thank you so much for the business. I will see you on Thursday. Now, just heads up, I’m going to text you on Wednesday. Is this the best number to text you on, or do you prefer a phone call?”

And they might say, “No. Text is fine.” “Okay, great. I’m going to text you on Wednesday to confirm our appointment for Thursday. Is that cool?” And they go, “Yeah, that’s cool.”

All right, for any reason, if anything comes up, will you call me and give me the courtesy of the call so I can resell that time slot because I only have one and it’s possible that I have a waitlist where I could put somebody on there at the last minute. So, would you do me the courtesy of letting me know?”

Let the Know the Rules for Your Engagement

How Do You Follow Up After a Walkthrough, Two Women TalkingNow you’re leaving. Now they know your rules for engagement. They know how much it’s going to be, they know when you’re coming. They know your rules for not talking when you arrive, and you’ve already moved them through the walkthrough, the sale of the house itself, and what the expectations are, starting from your very first cleaning moving forward.

So, the follow-up is not, hmm, I wonder if I got the job. The question and the follow-ups are, I’m going to text you to let you know when I’m coming, and will you let me know if something comes up and you have to cancel.

That’s your follow-ups. Your follow-ups are brief. It’s short. It’s a simple text. Are we still on? Is everything still okay? And that’s when they say, “Oh my goodness, no, I’m so sorry. Something has come up.” Or “Yes, I’m expecting you here. I’m excited to see you then.”

So, the follow-ups are not closing the sale. The follow-up is a confirmation of a job that starts at a particular time with a particular pay attached.

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