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[hide]Setting up a cleaning business sure might look easy. But you need to follow the do's and don't s carefully from veterans and experts. Take a look at what you should never do in a cleaning business.
Don’t give discounts
Yeah yeah. I get your point. Contrary to all marketing messiahs who strategize their marketing campaigns offering discounts, don’t start with discounts. Once you start negotiating in terms of the price giving them offers, the customer would take it for granted and always choose a business that gives him a better deal.
You end up working at a lesser price and also end up losing the customer as he only stuck to you for your price until now. Try to sell the value. Get started with "Why a client must choose your cleaning company". Look into the unique aspects of a cleaning business. Make customers stick to you for the value you provide them. Could be sticking to the right schedule, performing a great cleaning job, and so on.
Don’t fail to communicate
If something troubles you, if you are feeling uneasy physically or otherwise at a client’s location politely communicate. It’s okay to say “No” when people ask your employees to do something that is not mentioned in your contract.
Just in case your employees skipped lunch while shifting from one client's location to the other, they can politely ask you and the customer to take a short break to have food. Communicate with your employees and find out what motivates them at work. This would go a long way in increasing your business productivity.
Don’t take your employees for granted
Your maids are your family. What keeps a good team running? Trust and motivation. In order to motivate your employees to incentivize them and encourage them by giving awards to recognize their performance. They deserve to be lauded for turning up on time every time, for taking that extra mile to ensure that the windows are clean, for giving recommendations or useful tips for maintenance, and so on.
Don’t tolerate unprofessional conduct
Your maids might have arrived 30 minutes late and the customer would have stayed up for some time waiting. Or they might have carried a cigarette with them inside a smoke-free house or a kids' house.
Do not tolerate such behavior and take the appropriate action. Customers are our sole reason for growth which also does not mean your customers can be absent on the day of cleaning or are creating an environment that is unsafe for your maids. We also need to deal with such unprofessional customers.
And this is why it's always better to sign an NDA before starting a job.
Don't set the same tariff for residential and corporate businesses
If you are starting out, get this straight. Residential and corporate cleaning services are never the same and due to the square foot price tariffs and the nature of the job, corporate cleaning is always charged higher in comparison with residential cleaning services. The average production rate (how many square feet per hour one person can clean) for residential is typically 700-1000 sq. ft. vs. commercial which can range from 2500 to 4000 sq. ft. per hour or more.
Pricing commercial is more time-consuming also. Commercial clients normally require a bidding process, a building walk-through, and an agreement was drawn up to include the list of cleaning specifications, terms, and conditions of payment, signatures, and references.
Conclusion
If you’re thinking about starting a cleaning business, be sure to avoid making these common mistakes. From giving discounts to your customers to tolerating unprofessional behavior from your employees, there are a number of things you should never do if you want your business to succeed.
Of course, this is just a short list – for more detailed advice and resources, be sure to check out our website dedicated entirely to helping those in the cleaning industry grow and thrive. And whatever you do, don’t forget to communicate with your team!
