Do you know why your customers say “Yes” and hire your house cleaning company?
If you don’t know all the reasons your customers say “yes”, you’re likely missing out on opportunities to maximize the value of your leads. Learning why a prospect says “yes” can help you improve your sales process and close more business. However, the answer to the question isn’t always simple. Let’s take a look at the various factors that go into a prospect saying “yes” and becoming a customer.
Your Services
Certainly, a prospect will not say “yes” if you do not provide the service they need. But let’s face it, on paper (or on a website), it can be extremely difficult to differentiate your business purely through your services. One-time and recurring? Yep. Deep cleaning and maintenance cleaning? Yep. Move In/Out cleanings? You get the idea. House cleaning service have almost become commoditized these days as most cleaning service checklists are more or less standard from one company to another.
So this factor allows you to essentially stay even with your competition, but is rarely solely the reason a prospect says “Yes”.
Your Reputation
In today’s business climate, it is absolutely critical to have a good reputation. There are literally hundreds of websites that allow literally anyone to review your company, for better or worse. Sites like Google, Yelp, Nextdoor and Facebook carry more weight than most.
You definitely should have strategies in place to easily encourage your customers to review your business on the sites that matter most. A recent survey found that online reviews impact 93% of purchasing decisions. Consumers tend to trust companies with a history of positive reviews and transparent, professional responses to occasional negative reviews.
Your online reputation can certainly help you differentiate your cleaning business from most of your competition, but it is unlikely that you’re the only company in your market with a solid reputation. Reputation management has been standard practice for businesses for nearly a decade, so it’s safe to say you’re not the only one working to get more reviews. Again, this factor can help you keep up with the best of your competition, but is only one part of why a prospect says “Yes”.
Your Pricing
The costs of your cleaning services can be a factor if you are very low or very high compared to your competition, but you rarely want it to be the driving factor. Building a cleaning business by being the cheapest is a recipe for disaster because it can be extremely difficult to foster a high quality staff and provide quality services without the revenue to support it.
Never apologize for your pricing, but always provide a quality of services that justifies it. Many of the largest cleaning companies in the US are also among the most expensive in their respective markets. Customers will pay a premium for reliable, quality services that are at least somewhat competitive price-wise. Just be sure to not position yourself too much higher than your competition and you’ll discover that pricing is rarely the deciding factor in a prospect saying “Yes”.
In fact, if pricing is the sole deciding factor for a prospect, it can sometimes be best that they do not say “Yes”.
You’re Selling Trust and Reliability
Yes, your company provides cleaning services, but in reality you are a sales and customer service company. In the mind of the average prospect, all cleaning services are essentially the same until they actually experience them. So what are you really selling?
When a prospect considers hiring your company to clean their home, you are asking them to provide the keys to their home and allow strangers to basically have unfettered access, often when the homeowner is not even home. It is critical that your customers trust you and your company. It is critical that when they call, you answer. When they email, you respond in a timely fashion. Train your phone staff to be able to answer most questions and try to avoid “Let me check on that and get back to you” conversation enders. Poor customer service is nearly worse than no customer service.
Be honest in answering any of the prospect’s questions so that when they hire you, their expectations are realistic. For instance, if you cannot guarantee the same cleaning techs every week, do not say you can. Remember the old cliché: “Under promise and over deliver.”
The single biggest factor in differentiating your cleaning business is through customer service!
If a prospect has asked for a cleaning quote from you, it is safe to assume that they have also contacted at least one or two of your competitors. The prospect is simply trying to check something off of their to-do list and the task of shopping around is likely not one they enjoy. If we assume all other factors (services, reputation, pricing, etc.) are essentially equal, the deciding factor may quite simply be who answers the phone first!
It is important to address all the reasons why a customer says “Yes”, but always put a priority on your customer service. No single factor has a bigger impact on all aspects of your business.
