We’ll be discussing how to get clients for a cleaning business, evaluating strategies that attract customers to your venture.
Clients are central to the survival of any business. This includes a cleaning business. It isn’t enough to want to start a cleaning business.
How to Get Customers for a Cleaning Business
First, there must be a demand for your service where you live or plan to establish your business. Secondly, you must be able to find effective ways to attract such clients to your cleaning services.
This is exactly what we seek to show you.
As you read on, you’ll find useful ways to overcome your challenge of client shortage. We will show you just what you need to do.
These strategies have been used with great results and the same can apply to your cleaning business.
Establish An Online Presence
No cleaning business will be considered serious if it has no online media presence. Online presence as used here refers to a website as well as social media accounts. This is a necessity for your cleaning business. The most popular social media platforms include Facebook and Twitter.
This (social media), when combined effectively with your website, can be used to create all the awareness you need for your cleaning business. Contents on your cleaning website should be shared on these social media handles.
One of the best ways to attract the attention of your target audience is to place targeted ads or sponsored ads.
These can be restricted to your business location or could go beyond. That way, a good number of potential clients within your location get to know.
Try as much as possible to include positive feedback from satisfied clients. You can ask for such satisfied clients to spread the word.
Create an Email List
At first, this might not sound good due to spamming problems. This continues to be a great way to reach potential clients.
However, you’ll need some wisdom on how to go about it. This is because your marketing email list might end up in the spam section and never get seen.
Almost everyone checks their email addresses daily. Hence, the likelihood that your mail might get opened.
List Your Cleaning Business in the Yellow Pages
A lot of people refer to Yellow Pages in search of certain services. This includes cleaning. This directory has been used successfully by several entrepreneurs with great results.
As such, you shouldn’t pass up this opportunity. Your cleaning business will need to be listed under a relevant section.
A client looking for cleaning services nearby won’t be searching under the plumbing services section. In other words, your cleaning business must be listed under cleaning services.
Introduce Incentives
Incentives continue to serve as a major pull for clients seeking a particular service. Discounts and other forms of promotions will help to significantly improve the number of people needing your services. While this is true, these incentives shouldn’t be such that they put a strain or limits your chances to become profitable.
It should be a win-win situation for both clients and your business.
Target Residential Clients
One of the best ways to land your first client is by targeting this segment of the market. There is a growing trend in people being too busy to carry out certain chores they ordinarily did in the past. This could be due to several reasons such as working multiple jobs, newfound hobbies or just being held captive by their smart devices.
You can begin by simply walking up their front doors to hand them your business card. One thing must be clear though. You shouldn’t expect patronage from your very first visit. These potential clients may have made other arrangements. As such, it might take some time before they contact you. That is if they aren’t satisfied with their current cleaner.
Follow-ups Are Necessary
Having distributed your business cards and flyers to potential clients, you’ll need follow-up visits. Don’t get this wrong though. There should be a reasonable waiting time for the client to make up their mind.
Call or visit after a week or whatever time seems reasonable enough.
By finding out what their feedback is regarding your cleaning proposal, such potential clients are likely to give you a try. On the other hand, pushing your luck too far might backfire.
After getting the cleaning contract, you must replicate the client’s trust with quality service.
Exceed Client Expectations
Yes! This is one way you can win yourself more clients. When an excellent cleaning job is done, your client is likely to discuss such with their friends or family. Getting the recommendation of your satisfied clients draws the interested of their friends.
This opens up their circle giving you access to more cleaning contracts.
As a cleaner, you have a reputation to protect. Therefore, new cleaning contracts should be treated with the same dedication as those of your satisfied clients.
However, we must be honest here. During your cleaning career, you are likely to come across difficult clients.
The good news is that these are much less in number than the usual clients you’re used to. In a situation where you end up with a difficult client, try to be calm and do your best. Losing such clients is worth it. Your many good clients should be enough to get you through.
Display Advertising
Advertising cleaning services work well when placed in the right location. As a business owner, you’ll need to target areas with cleaning business affiliations.
Such might include cleaning tool stores, cleaning supply stores and laundry services. Visitors coming into such areas are likely to be more conscious about your cleaning business flash display ads.
This might result in a potential client placing a call through to you. Ads used in these display advertising should be concise and catchy. These types of ads perform much better than those which aren’t.
Contact Businesses
If you operate a commercial cleaning business, you might want to look for corporate clients. These may be banks, offices or businesses. In any case, your single aim should be getting your cleaning business approved for a contract.
You can begin by contacting such a business.
Pay a visit to such businesses. Get to understand what they need. If possible, try to find out who’s providing this service to them. Get to know what they offer and how you can do better before contacting the potential client.
This is because having an edge over your competitors is a huge advantage that can be exploited.
Your cleaning business is likely to be chosen for a contract when the benefits of using your services are obvious. The more potential clients or businesses you contact, the better.
Promote Your Business
One of the things cleaning businesses want to do is to push or bolster their image. Yours shouldn’t be any different.
By promoting your business, you are setting it on a higher pedestal. Hence when bidding for a cleaning contract, every potential client wants to know what benefits they are likely to get.
This shouldn’t be absent from your proposal at all. You want to focus on the benefits of using your services. This is what should be continually hammered on until it gets the client’s attention.
That way, you’ll begin to attract clients to your cleaning business.
Choose Your Niche Carefully
One of the ways to attract clients to patronize your cleaning business is by carefully choosing your niche. The cleaning industry is quite vast. This includes specialized cleaning services as well as those which aren’t so specialized.
Find out where your strengths lie and pursue that vigorously.
A cleaning business specialized in cleaning crime scenes, for instance, will likely work with law enforcement. Those skilled in cleaning shipping vessels will be situated close to ports and will work with the maritime industry. You need to know where your strengths lie and exploit such strengths.
That way, you won’t have problems attracting clients.
Paid Advertising
Advertising today has reached an advanced stage. This includes print, electronic and digital advertising among others. While there are ways to market your cleaning business freely, it won’t go as far as paid advertising. This type of ad reaches your desired audience.
For this to be successful, you must know who your target clients are. You’ll be working within your neighborhood to sell your services. That means that your paid advertising campaign will be restricted to a specific territory.
This can later expand when you’ve been able to expand your business.
Time-Limited Offers
Time-limited offers have a psychological effect on targeted clients. This has been used in the past and continues to be used with great success. Time-limited cleaning offers to create a sense of urgency. It pushes potential clients to take action even when they won’t do so ordinarily.
Some clients might have the intention to patronize your cleaning services at a later time or date. However, with cleaning offers, they jump right in to patronize you.
We have attempted to provide the best answers to this question; how to get clients for a cleaning business. These tips when fully implemented will increase interest in your business. All that is needed is a commitment on your part.