Do you need more customers? How do you get those customers? Here is the best marketing strategy that you will ever need. Word of mouth advertising is the easiest way for you to gain customers, and this is how you can increase your client base without even having to look.
Listen: Need More Customers?
Watch: Need More Customers?
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 Get More Customers When You Start Out?
How do I get more customers as I’m starting out my cleaning business? Now, we have somebody that wrote in and they asked a couple of questions. And we’ve already covered one of the questions in another video. But I wanted to come back and I wanted to answer the other question because that’s also a very good question.
She said, “I started my cleaning company a year ago and I have around 12 clients as of today. I advertise my business on Facebook and Google. However, I ran into some problems and I’m wondering if you could answer them. I’m trying to get more clients to fill up my schedule for the summer. I advertise on my business Facebook page, Facebook groups, and sites for sale. Some of them have worked, but I feel like it isn’t working well anymore.
What advice do you have for advertising my business to get more clients? My target audience is clients in gated communities, townhouses, and big neighborhoods. I gave my contact information to real estate agents, so they can help me get the word out. Any suggestions.”
The Best Marketing Isn’t Anything That You Do
All right. Well, that’s really interesting. And I love the fact that you’re new to the business. And I love the fact that you have 12 clients so far. So yay, for that. Right now you’re advertising in Facebook groups and targeting specific neighborhoods, which is great.
But, the very best sales and marketing that you will ever do for your business is not the advertising and marketing that you, yourself do. Oh, wait a second. Did I just say that? I did. Because here’s what happens.
The best marketing you will ever have for your business is word-of-mouth advertising. This is where a satisfied customer whom you serve tells their friends, “You’ve got to hire my house cleaner because she is spectacular.” Or, “He is the best you’ve ever seen when it comes to cleaning the house.”
People Will Believe What Their Neighbors Say
When it comes from the neighbor, they’re going to believe it. If it comes from you, I don’t know because everybody says their company is the best, right? “We care when no one else does. We offer better deals than anyone else, we have better cleaning processes than anyone else.” Whatever. Okay. It doesn’t matter.
We’re all sick of marketing. We’re all sick of advertising. And we’re all sick of sales pitches that come from advertising companies, including house cleaning companies. But when a satisfied customer stands up in their neighborhood, in their neighborhood support group, in the next door, and they say, “Wait a second. You guys are not going to believe what just happened to me today. I had this amazing house cleaner and they are very consistent and they consistently do a great job. Let me give you their number. Because right now, I just heard they have one opening.”
That one opening is going to get smattered with emails and phone calls and texts and whatever from people that are like, well, I’m not happy with my house cleaner. I want to change because they’re happy with theirs, right? That’s the best marketing you can do, right?
What are You Doing to Make Your Customer’s Experience Better?
So as a service provider, my question to you is, what are you doing to make that process easier? Not running ads. Not going to fancy neighborhoods looking for a big win. But what are you doing to enhance the customer experience, so they will turn around and tell all their friends? That’s the real question.
I Use a Worksheet at Every Clean
All right. So, my answer is I use a worksheet. And if you don’t have a worksheet, I’m going to strongly recommend that you download mine. It’s absolutely free. We’ve been using this for three decades. We’ve used it in 31 countries around the globe. There are thousands of cleaning companies that use my exact worksheet because it works.
It’s got your contact information at the top. It has a list of all of the services you provide. And then it has a couple of things down here. There’s a QR code here at the bottom, where at every clean when you’re done, they can scan it and leave you a rating and review.
On the back page of this, it’s three pages long. On the back page note. These are notes that you have for the customer. And then, there are your rules and regulations.
Why I Leave a Worksheet at Every Customer’s House
I leave my worksheet at every clean, at every customer’s home. And the reason is this. This worksheet, it’s physical, right? This is not a text document that is attached to an invoice. This is a paper document that gets passed around. And so, what happens is it’s left in the customer’s house. They walk in. They have to do something with it. With an email, they can pretend they didn’t see, or they can delete it, or it just builds up in their inbox.
But this is on their cupboard. There’s nothing else on their countertop. They’re going to see it. They have to do something with it, they have to move it. They have to look at it or throw it away. But before they throw it away, hey, are there any notes here that my house cleaner left?
Oh wait, there is. I should check this out. Or they might say, “Oh, you know what? I’m going to hang on to this in case I have to contact them about something.”
Customers Might Share Your Worksheet With Neighbors
So, sometimes this will get stored and it gets saved. Now, here’s the cool part. They go to a meeting. They hang out at the school bus stop. Whatever. Their neighbor says, “Hey, what about your house cleaner? I see that your house cleaner is there again. How are they working out for you?” “Wait for a second, let me get you their information.” They’re going to go inside. They’re going to get this packet of information. They’re going to hand it to their neighbor.
I cannot tell you how many times we’ve gone to a customer’s home and our worksheet is on the customers, this is the prospect, on their countertop. And they’re well-prepared for what it is you do. And all your rules and regulations are on here. Everything that you do is on here.
And your customer sold you on them. You did not sell yourself. This trumps any marketing that you’re going to do. Any advertising, any Facebook ads, and driving through neighborhoods trying to run flyers, right?
You Can Customize Your Worksheet
This is word of mouth from their neighbor who uses your service. Okay. So, the reason this is so important is this. When you get to a customer’s house and they say, “Well, we don’t want this.” That’s fine. We can customize this for just you. The price will change. It will be a little bit different for you, but we can customize this for you.
And you don’t say customize like, I’m going to go home and I’m going to change all this on my computer. I’m going to use the same worksheet. But I’m going to cross out a name and say, “This is not the family room. We’re going to use this as the home office.” So, you will do everything on this list. But instead of calling it the family room, we’ll call it the home office, right?
That’s the customization that I’m talking about. And every time you come, you’ll just cross that out and write home office. That way you both know exactly what room that is. But the stuff is the same, right? So when the customer leaves and they go to work and you come and clean their house, what you’re going to use is this as your inspection list.
Your Worksheet is Your Satisfaction Guarantee
So that when you leave, you put it on your clipboard. You’re going to go through, oh, wait a second. I forgot to do that. Let me hurry and do that before I leave so that the customer doesn’t call me back. Then you hurry and you do the thing you forgot. You reinspect your work. You check it off. That is the stuff that you’re guaranteeing on your satisfaction guarantee.
So now when the customer calls you, it’s not because they’re calling you to say, “Hey, come back because you missed some stuff.” You marked off exactly what you did while you were at their house that day. They’re going to call you to say, “The house looks amazing.” And then you say, this is where you help them with the process, “Oh, by the way, thank you so much for saying the nice things about my business. I’ve got one opening on Tuesday afternoon. Do you have any neighbors?”
You Want to Work in the Same Neighborhood
Not friends, friends live everywhere. I want a neighbor that lives in your neighborhood. Do you have any neighbors that could use that one slot that I have because I’m trying to stay in your neighborhood to keep your costs low. Now, what happens is you made it easy for the customer to recommend you to the neighbors. And you told them you only have one opening. You just gave them permission to pass out your phone number.
And if nothing else, they can jump on next door and say, “Hey, my house cleaner has one opening on a Tuesday afternoon. And I’m very satisfied. I’ve used their service for four years.
They’re very consistent. They’re always on time. They always have a checklist. They always do this stuff. I’ve never had to call them back for a return or whatever. Check them out. They’ve got one opening right now.”
Boom! Your one opening is now booked. And it will be seconds after your call. If you’re out looking for business, that should trigger something that your process of customers recommending you to their neighbors is not easy enough. If your customers are not recommending you and closing the deal for you, your system is too complicated. You have to make your process easy for people to recommend you to their friends and neighbors.
Resources
Permissions To Share
You Have Our Permission To Share This Episode
Show Sponsor
Savvy Cleaner Training – House Cleaner Training and Certification
My Cleaning Connection – Your hub for all things cleaning.
HouseCleaning360 – A hub connecting homeowners with house cleaners
Savvy Perks – Employee benefits for your employees.
Turnover Cleaning Tips – for Vacation Rental and Airbnb Hosts
