The Appreciative Client

By: Cathy Green

 

 

I often talk about clients who present problems to a cleaning business. I now will discuss appreciative clients who are a blessing to your business.

99% (at least) of your ongoing client base will consist of people who are thankful and appreciative of what you are doing.

Think about something. If you are charging a particular client $165 every two weeks to clean her home, you are looking at a person who is bringing in $4,180 (+) to your company per year. That is a great deal of money.

How did I arrive at the numbers? Simple. 165 x 2 = 330. 330 x 12 = 3,960. To that number, add the first time cleaning fee. That person is bringing you in over $4,000 per year!

Occasionally such a client will give your name to a friend. That’s called “free advertising” on your behalf. And nothing beats referrals!

I will tell you what I do with referrals. I take the advice that Debbie Sardone gives. That is, I offer a FREE CLEANING for each referral that turns into a booking. And if the person who books only uses me once, fine. I still am going to give that free cleaning to thank the person who thought enough of me to refer my name.

Let’s take it from a positive perspective and say that the referred person will actually use my company regularly. I could end up earning anywhere from $2,500 to $4,000 per year off of the referred client. When you look at it that way, what is a free cleaning in comparison?

Know Your Clients

By:  Cathy Green

You will generally have three types of clients in the house cleaning business.

1. Very picky, who notice every nook and cranny

2. Impossible to please

3. Carefree clients who generally are easy to please

Of the three groups, which do you believe are the most difficult? Believe it or not, the carefree clients are the most difficult and I’ll tell you the reasons.

Impossible to please clients

Impossible to please clients generally will go through multiple cleaning companies every year. No company on this planet will ever please them fully. In fact, for the sake of your sanity and the sanity of your employees, you should drop these clients from your caseload as soon as possible. If not, they will drop you. I don’t find them difficult at all. I find such clients incredibly easy to read and I don’t personally deal with them once I figure out what’s going on with them. I have perfected the art of telling them that I believe a larger company may be in a better position to serve their needs.

Picky Clients

People who are picky are the type who will not bite their tongue when the cleanings are not up to standard. They know how much they are paying. They are aware of what they want done in the home. If they find that the home is not being cleaned at the level of their expectations, they will quickly call the owner or tell the cleaning tech directly what it is that they must do to bring the cleaning up to standard. Picky clients will keep a company on its toes. BUT…because of how vocal they are, they are easy to deal with. No, they are not necessarily easy to please but at least you know where they stand.

Carefree clients

 

 

My experience has been that the carefree clients are the toughest because they don’t always share their feelings. Picky clients and impossible to please clients are easy to read and they will call you, email, etc. to voice their likes and especially their dislikes. Not so [usually] with the carefree clients.

If they notice that the cleaning quality is slipping, they may or may not call the owner to share their concerns. The problem is that if you don’t know there is a problem, it might be too late by the time the client decides to cancel you.

How should you deal with the carefree group? Know first of all that they will make up the bulk of your clientele. You handle them as follows: Stay in touch with your clients. Even after your business grows to 300 – 500 clients and beyond, stay in touch. Email them personally. Call from time to time. Send out letters. Send out postcards during holidays. Stay visible—even after your company grows large. Be visible. Be reachable.

Treat them like gold because they are gold. Each client is responsible for adding to the overall wealth and health of your company. Remind your employees that each home must meet company standards and beyond every time. Not sometimes, not most of the time. But every time. Remember, your clients are paying the bill every time so why should they not receive outstanding service every time?

Get to know what type of personality each of your clients are. Most will be “carefree”. A small percentage will be picky. And an even smaller percentage will be impossible to please.

Don’t worry about the impossible to please ones. You won’t keep them, regardless of what you do. Concentrate your efforts on the picky and carefree clients. Nurture them. Be kind to them. Surprise them with “freebies” every now and then. Trust me, clients LOVE to have their fridge cleaned and appreciate when you throw in a free fridge cleaning from time to time.

Your clients are worth gold. Treat them accordingly.

Customer Service

 By:  Cathy Green

  When you own a service business, you really need to stay on top of things. Clients may or may not tell you when they are not satisfied.

Larger companies tend to have a unit set up for the expressed purpose of calling clients to ensure that they were happy with service. Some maid services create report cards that they have clients fill in periodically.

I’ve tried report cards and they are fine. But nothing beats direct contact. I often will call a client when he/she least expects to hear from me. And I’ll ask them how things are going. Most will say they are happy. Occasionally a client will tell you that they are having problems with something in particular. It could be the floors, dusting, whatever. But every client has his/her own areas of the house that they really want cleaned and regardless of how clean the remainder of the house is, if their specific area is lackluster, the client will not be happy.

Just today a client entered my mind. I sent her a quick email asking her how service was last week.

I was quite surprised when she emailed me back, saying that she had been thinking about discontinuing service. She was not pleased with the dustbunnies that she was discovering on her floors after each cleaning, and from time to time the cleaning tech would break something—never anything expensive, but at least three times, an object broke. Each time I greatly reduced the cost of her cleaning. But she said that was not the point. She was happier with the last cleaning tech than she was with the present one.

I told her that I would personally be on site for the next cleaning, to supervise, guide and ensure that her original cleaning tech cleaned her home and particularly her floors the way she wanted them done.

And that’s another thing. Always be careful about changing cleaning techs. Clients become accustomed to the way certain techs clean and often don’t do well with changes.

My goal is to never lose a client based on lackluster service. I aspire to literally be the best and most trustworthy, caring cleaning company in town.

I’ll end with this. No matter how rapidly you grow, never lose touch with the clients. Call them personally, as opposed to having someone else call. Email them. Stay in touch. You will be surprised at what they tell you.

Had I not emailed my client, I would have not known that she was not happy with services. And she would have ended up finding another company to replace mine. That’s not good.

After straightening things out with her, I called the employee in question and we had a long talk. I told her that she must bone-up on her floors. This was actually not the first client who had said something to me about the floors.

My hope and prayer is that by next year this time, I’ll have at least 300 clients. But you know what? Even if we grow to 3,000 clients, I plan to always go on site to check things out. I plan to go out on first time cleanings and direct the techs in how I want that home cleaned. I plan to personally spot check the nooks and crannies that are sometimes missed.

Customer service is so important in growing a business. And it’s equally important in maintaining a business.

Showing Client Appreciation

By:  Cathy Green

One way to set yourself apart from other maid service companies in your area is by doing special things for your loyal clients.

Case in point. One of my clients contacted me a few weeks ago and told me that she and her husband own a second home which they rent out. She told me that the home is empty now and that she wanted my company to clean it so that she could prepare to rent it out again.

I sent a crew over there the next week. They cleaned it and she sent me an email saying how pleased and “great” their work was.

While thinking about how pleased I was that this loyal client sent my company more work, I pondered what I could do to show my appreciation.

I emailed her back, telling her to let me know the next time she needs her fridge cleaned because I’ll have a crew member do it for free—to show my appreciation for her loyalty to my company (she’s been with me for almost a year and never cancels).

She emailed back, thanked me and said that she wanted to take me up on the offer. So one of my techs will give her a free fridge clean the next time they are at the woman’s house.

It’s the little things that mean a lot. If I were to charge for a fridge clean, it would cost $25 – $35, depending on the condition of the fridge. YET….this woman allowed my company to clean her other house, and I charged her $240 for the job. In perspective, what’s  a $25 – $35 fridge clean, when compared to $240?

My tip to you for today is as follows. If a client is an ongoing, loyal client, do special things for that client from time to time. Throw in a freebie every now and then. Have your cleaning techs clean a few of the client’s window-wells for free. Or throw in a free fridge clean. Give the client an unexpected $25 off coupon….just because!

Trust me, people appreciate anything that you do for them. Wouldn’t you? As a consumer, wouldn’t you appreciate a company whom you work with regularly throwing in some freebies every now and then?

Showing appreciation to your clients will put you in a position to receive more referrals and more work. Think about it.  It just makes good, common sense to treat your clients like royalty because they represent the wealth and butter of your company!