Ways to Promote Your Business

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Promoting & Marketing Your Service

In How to Start a Cleaning Company (And Make It Pay!)
we show you how to develop a successful company from the ground up with a very small outlay of cash. The same principle can be used in advertising and marketing. You can use your time and ingenuity instead of big amounts of money to promote your business.

Testimonials

Testimonials are not only one of the best tools you can have for getting new customers, they're free! Whenever you are in contact with a client you should have a pencil and notepad handy. When a customer compliments you immediately ask if you can quote him. When he agrees, write down his remarks. It is very rare that anyone will turn you down in a case like this. After all, what could be more flattering than to have someone wanting to quote you?

You can use testimonials with very good results in brochures, flyers, and cold calls. (In our manual we go into detail about using flyers and brochures and we cover cold calling in one of the free reports we send with our manual.)

Referrals

Referrals are much like testimonials but are mostly used between businesses.

A referral, like a testimonial, is also very easy to get. Let's say you are doing a monthly walk through at a business you have been cleaning for some time. The owner of the business makes a complimentary remark about the work your crew has been doing. You respond by saying, "Thanks, that's nice of you. Say, we intend to expand in this area, would you mind if I use you as a referral with other business owners in the area?

Once you have permission to use a referral like this you can really go to town. It is a very effective sales technique to have a referral from 'the business across the street' or 'the people next door'. Even if your prospective client has never even spoken to 'the people next door', knowing that you clean their property makes it much easier to convince him that you are the company to take care of his business as well.

Future Business

Another way to use your relation with current clients to get more work is to get more work from them, your current clients.

Let's say that you and your crew have just finished a spring cleaning of a private home and you are taking the proud owners for a quick tour of their sparkling-clean home. This is the best time to ask for future business. In this case, either changing from a one-time clean to a regular once-a-week cleaning account or perhaps doing their windows as well.

Not only will your customer's enthusiasm be at its highest level at this instant but it is always harder to say no to a request made in person than one made over the phone or by mail.

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New Services

Once you have gotten your foot in the door and are working for someone it always pays to be on the look out for new services you can provide them. From maintaining indoor plants to cleaning parking lots or cleaning awnings there are almost an unlimited number of jobs you can do besides basic cleaning.

The question is, how do you find out which of these services your established cutomers want? This is an important question and one you need to answer before you start investing in new equipment. Luckily, it's pretty easy to find out, you ask. Since you send your customers a bill once a month anyway you can always include a questionnaire asking them about new services they might be interested in.

A good relation between a cleaning service and a client is much like a marriage. On the one hand, it should be a stable and enduring partnership; on the other hand, it has to have that little spark of romance...

Write Them a Note

Writing a thank you note to a customer is far from original but they are appreciated and because so few cleaning companies do it, they will make you stand out. Make the extra effort with your customers and it will pay off.

Give Them Your Picture

With modern computers it's very easy to get a picture of yourself on to a brochure, flyer, or even plain old letter. You can use a digital camera, scan the picture in, or have an image digitized at the photo center of your local drug store.

Having a small picture of yourself in your sales material commands more attention than just text alone. Also, it provides a connection between you and your audience that the printed word alone can't.

Send Them Candy

On special occasions nothing will do but candy. You don't have to send your customers a box of expensive candy on their birthday or anything like that. But when someone does you a nice little favor, like giving you a referral that leads to a new account, you can acknowledge it with sweets.

Again, this doesn't have to be expensive, a roll of lifesavers in a small padded envelope with a note reading, "Thanks -- you're a lifesaver!" will do nicely.