4 Ways To Get More Clients For Your Cleaning Business
Growth is one of the biggest challenges for cleaning services. IBISWorld reports that there are 5,913 commercial cleaning services in New Zealand, making it an extremely competitive market. Some would call it cut-throat, but Kiwis are known for rugby, honey, being friendly and down-to-earth. So let’s just say that there are a lot of tenacious good people in the industry to compete with.
Positioning Your Cleaning Company In The Market
In building your brand the two key questions are:
- “What service am I providing?” and
- “Who is my customer (and what do they want)”
Once this is figured out, ensure you have the right team of cleaners to do the job and make sure that your commercial cleaning services- or industrial cleaning company, have the details right.
Cleaning Service Quotes
Having formed your Commercial Cleaning Services Company, one of the most challenging aspects of running it that you will encounter immediately is in getting your quotes correct. The cleaning company- correctly, covers its costs in doing the cleaning and adds a margin for a fair profit, whilst pitching at a level that is still attractive to the potential customer.
With small contract cleaning jobs taking place once per week it is not so much of a problem as you can charge a premium rate because of the infrequency of the cleaning, but as the contracts become larger the difficulties in finding the right level intensify and it is straightforward to be left making very little money out of a particular contract if you get it slightly wrong.
As a business, you have to decide at what level you are going to enter the market;
- Are you going to offer cut-price cleans to secure contracts?
- Are you going for the higher end of the market offering quality cleaning but at a higher price?
- Are you aiming for the high end of the market offering extra services as well as top-quality cleaning?
Be very thoughtful before you decide. If you are going for option 3, then you have to ensure that you can indeed offer all the specialist services that the customer may require. Commercial cleaning and contract cleaning are the most competitive areas of the cleaning market. And bang for the buck is what most people look for.
Get An Edge Over Your Competitors
Scaling your cleaning services in Auckland to new heights involves figuring out strategies and asking yourself some difficult questions :
- What can you offer that is unique?
- Do you cover a wider area?
- Do you always answer your telephone?
- Do you respond to inquiries immediately?
- Do you have a unique marketing strategy?
Having made your choice of where you are going to place your business in the cleaning industry, the next important step is getting your business processes correct.
Unless you have previously worked in cleaning this can be a mystery at the outset, and you will find yourself drastically underquoting or over-quoting. There is nothing like experience in this area, and you must be prepared to undertake a steep learning curve.
CleaningNZ has a Facebook Group page that may help give you some idea of what the cleaners have to say.
Empower Your Team
Clients interact with cleaners, making building the right team an important step in gaining leverage. Historically, cleaners in Auckland resign regularly. Keeping good cleaners happy must be balanced with sourcing the right cleaners to represent your cleaning business.
A few things to look at when assessing cleaners:
- Identify natural leaders- and develop their abilities
- Think outside the box occasionally- it’s not always productive to group together people with the same backgrounds
- Two-way communication enables you to get their input from their perspective on the ground
- Positive feedback helps entrench loyalty
But- if all else fails, CleaningNZ is the platform they will be looking on. They are asking “How do I find a cleaning job near me?” As a cleaning service, staying ahead means comparing yourself- including looking at market trends. For example, looking at wages and perks currently on offer helps you to gauge where the market is at the moment.
TAKEAWAYS: How To Get More Clients For Your Cleaning Business
- Position your cleaning services company in the market effectively.
- Get cleaning service quotes out quickly and correctly.
- Get an Edge over your competitors by looking closely at your business model- and the blueprint your competitors use.
- Empower your team- they can be your best or worst advertisement.
