Cleaners & Janitors
How to bid on a cleaning job
Your bid or pitch to a prospective client can be the difference between winning more work or not. Learn how to bid on cleaning jobs and grow your business.
As a cleaner, you have the opportunity to make someone’s home or workplace a little more orderly and organized. Whether you focus on residential or commercial, what you do is good, honest work. Your small business provides its clients with the order and peace of mind they need to live an uncluttered life.
But there’s a lot more to running a cleaning business than simply making sure that the carpets are vacuumed, floors and counters scrubbed, and blinds dusted. For instance, there are several steps you must take in order to grow and protect your business. To that end, use these 5 tips to learn how to promote your cleaning business.
#1. Stoke word of mouth advertising
Like many other gig-based businesses, a good portion of your clients will come via word of mouth. Especially in a digital age, business and homeowners rely on others’ reviews and opinions in their decision making process. Ways you can encourage positive recommendations include:
Provide great customer service – Customers are far more likely to share word of a bad customer experience than they are a good one. So, be sure to always treat customers with respect and courtesy. Be open to their complaints and willing to admit fault. By going above and beyond, you can ensure that a negative review won’t be your downfall.
Set up a referral program – Incentivize happy customers to recommend you to their family and friends by rewarding them for a successful referral. Easy gifts include:
- A certain percentage off their next cleaning service
- A free service upgrade
- Gift cards
In addition, if a client referral does result in new business, consider sending them a thank you card expressing your gratitude.
Monitor your online reputation – Stay atop of social media and review sites, particularly for negative reviews. If a client does have a bad experience, respond and demonstrate that you wish to make things right. By actively engaging with your reviews, it demonstrates how much you care.
Contribute to the community – Are you a longstanding member of the community? If so, you should demonstrate leadership by giving back to it. Consider sponsoring community, charity, or church events that work towards a good cause.
#2. Focus on your local & social media presence
An online presence especially, social media marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal. Not only do people check social profiles to confirm the business is legitimate, especially before someone comes to their home, social media can help you find more work. It has the power to reach targeted customers and a larger audience at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.
Before building out your social profiles, make sure you set up your local accounts on Yelp and Google My Business. These two platforms are critical to helping clients find you in your area. As with any online profile, it’s critical that you’re actively involved, in particular replying to reviews – even just to say “thank you.”
For cleaners, the most powerful social media platforms that you should focus on are:
Facebook – Set up a Facebook Business page. Here, you can advertise your services, display photos, and interact with current and potential customers.
Instagram – The photo sharing platform lets you visually showcase your cleaning company, team, and happy clients. Consider regularly posting:
- Before and after photos
- Happy customers
- Cleaning tips
By giving your social media channels the love and attention they deserve and engaging with customers genuinely, you can organically grow your cleaning company without having to spend a dime on advertising.
#3. Set up a website
If you don’t already have a website, it’s a great way to help you win more work and show you’re a legitimate business. While building a website may sound like a daunting task, thanks to the various easy builder platforms (Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, etc.) anyone can build a website and do so quickly.
Your website is your digital storefront, your virtual business card. It’s the place prospective customers will go to when they’re trying to learn more about your services, prices, and company. If you don’t have a website, many would-be clients might assume you’re disreputable or that you’re not “professional” enough.
Today, a well-designed website is one of the simplest ways you can market your services (both organically and intentionally) and build trust with visitors.
As you design your website, consider the following tips:
- Keep it clean and easy to read (don’t be scared of whitespace)
- Provide quotes from happy customers
- Make it easy for customers to request your services – include a phone number and contact form
- Ensure that the website builder you use is mobile-responsive
- Use engaging photos and videos (consider before and after photos) – try to avoid obvious stock photos
- Link to social media accounts
#4. Get your name out there - advertising
Your budget will have an impact on what you can or can’t spend in terms of advertising; however, there are cost-effective ways to spread the word. While print ads may be cheap, you have little control over who receives the ad. With digital advertising your budget can be used more effectively.
Yelp paid listings make it easy to get started with a small investment. The paid listing automatically brings your business to the top of a page, ensuring that curious customers see your services.
Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are other great platforms for advertising but more complicated.
Most of these digital marketing tools are PPC (pay per click) so you’re only paying when people are actually being led to your site.
Pro tip: before you run any ads, make sure your profile has good reviews. For example, if you want to invest in Yelp but you only have a few reviews, it’s probably worth it to first focus on increasing your positive reviews and ratings. Ask past costumes to leave you a review and make sure the reviewers are not compensated.
#5. Protect your business
For every home or office you visit for a cleaning, you expose your business and its employees to risk. For example, a client could trip on a wet floor, or your equipment could damage expensive property. Should a mishap like this occur, your business could be held liable for the damages.
This is why you need general liability insurance. A general liability policy protects your office and house cleaning business from third-party claims of:
- Bodily injury
- Property damage
- Personal & advertising injury
But where’s the best place to go for a small, gig-based business like yours?
Here at Thimble, our affordable, on-demand cleaning business insurance goes by the hour, day, or month. Thimble is insurance that’s reliable even when your schedule isn’t. Just click “Get a Quote” or download the Thimble mobile app to get started.
As we’ve shared there are a variety of ways to build and promote your cleaning business. You can use all or only some of the tips. The key is finding the best approach for your business. Happy cleaning!
Our editorial content is intended for informational purposes only and is not written by a licensed insurance agent. Terms and conditions for rate and coverage may vary by class of business and state.
Related Articles
Read More
Cleaners & Janitors
How to start a carpet cleaning business
Key considerations Franchise or solo? Which market will you operate in: residential or commercial? Do you need a physical location? What equipment do you need
