Why Your Cleaning Business Needs a Website

We live in a digital age where a variety of communication, research, and decisions are made using online resources. 

While word-of-mouth recommendations for your cleaning business are still valuable, how they get passed along from person to person has changed. Nowadays, word-of-mouth can be considered “word-of-text” or “word-of-email.” 

This makes having an easy to use, mobile-friendly website for your cleaning business a necessity, especially if you want to compete with other industry leaders.

A cleaning business website will not only enable your current customers to more easily share your company with their friends and family but it will provide you, as a business owner, with numerous benefits. 

Online marketing with a website is key to finding success as a cleaning company. Your cleaning business needs a website and here are all the benefits it will bring:

A Cleaning Business Website Lands Your More Customers

When someone is interested in hiring a cleaning service for personal or commercial buildings, they often have one main goal: to end up with a sparkling clean space. Rather than a potential customer having to spend time looking for pricing, contacting your business, and waiting for a response to find a time that works for everyone, a website enables you and your customers to get the information they need with less time in between. 

A cleaning business website that is optimized for the service industry offers online booking and checkout options. This quick, easy, and streamlined process is essential in landing more customers. With your booking process highlighted on the front page of your website, customers don’t have to search for a contact number or wait to hear back from you. They can get what they came for: a clean space.

A Cleaning Business Website Hosts Reviews 

While Yelp and Google reviews are an important tool for businesses, having reviews on your cleaning business website is another way for potential customers to learn more about your service from a customer’s perspective. 

People trust referrals more than advertising. In fact, studies have found that 92% of customers believe referrals from friends and family are more trustworthy than advertisements from a company. And 88% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust the opinion of their friends and family.

While a company can claim whatever they want about themselves via an advertisement, hearing from actual customers is what helps potential customers make their final decision. Having multiple reviews on multiple platforms, including your own website, is key to landing more customers.

Nowadays, if any company doesn’t have at least a basic website, their validity may be questioned. A cleaning business website is a way for you to show the online world that you are a legitimate business with expertise in your industry. 

By having a clear, easy-to-navigate website for your potential customers to view prior to hiring you, they will get a sense of who you are and what you do, which will begin to establish trust. And consumers are more likely to work with a company they know, like, and trust. 

A Cleaning Business Website Enhances the Customer Experience

In a 2017 survey, it was reported that 84% of companies that made customer experience a priority in their marketing strategy saw an increase in their overall revenue. One easy way for cleaning businesses to enhance their current and potential customers’ experience is with a website.

With a website template tailored to the cleaning industry, you can save yourself and your customers time by optimizing the user experience with online booking and payment options and easily accessible contact information. 

A Cleaning Business Website is Cost-Effective and Provides an Immediate Online Presence 

Long gone are the days where a business has to spend thousands of dollars on traditional marketing and advertising to reach their ideal customers. With the accessibility of a web platform, you can start promoting your cleaning business to the digital world within minutes. 

Whether you tackle the task of developing a website yourself or save time and money by utilizing a customizable cleaning business website template, you can start online marketing today. The results are worth it. 

Launch a Custom Website for Your Cleaning Business With the Help of Maidily

If you are looking for ways to grow your cleaning business, land new customers, and spread the word about your services, online marketing is the place to start. With the vast benefits a website brings to your company and customers, there is no more time to waste.

At Maidily, we have developed a highly optimized cleaning business website template that produces results. Customized to your unique needs and business goals, your new website will result in high conversions and increased sales. 

As a cleaning company owner and leader in the service industry, we know what works when it comes to online marketing for cleaning companies, and we are excited to help your cleaning business grow. 
Find out more about how Maidily can launch your cleaning business website today!

Top 6 Reasons to Use a Scheduling CRM for Your Cleaning Business Today

Have you been dreaming about landing more cleaning clients, growing your maid business, and effectively managing your cleaning company online? Your dream can become a reality by using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) scheduling software tailored specifically to the needs of your cleaning business. 

At Maidily, we understand, firsthand, what it takes to run a successful cleaning company, which is why we have developed a robust CRM software system just for cleaning and maid service businesses that will meet and exceed your needs.

Investing in a CRM system will help your business grow and increase your customer base and revenue. Discover the top six benefits of investing in a scheduling software for your cleaning company today.

1. Increase Productivity and Save Time

From maintaining a schedule, to following-up on new bookings, to managing a cleaning team and doing jobs yourself, you are an extremely busy business owner. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a software in place that helps you save time, money, and energy while increasing your overall productivity? That’s exactly what a CRM system can do. 

You can effectively manage every aspect of your cleaning business online and remotely by utilizing a scheduling software. Track your to-do list and never miss a beat by prioritizing and filtering tasks so you know what is coming up next.

2. Miss Fewer Cleaning Appointments 

Long gone are the days where you have to write down your appointments in a physical calendar, erasing and adjusting multiple jobs with just a pen and paper. A CRM scheduling system manages your customer subscriptions for you and automatically tracks each job, including cancellations and rescheduled customers. 

Manually managing your schedule leaves room for error, which may lead to missed appointments and loss of business. Having an online calendar with the ability to recreate jobs for you based on your customers’ needs means less hands-on work for you. 

Do you have a bi-weekly cleaning appointment? Your calendar knows your customer’s subscription and can automatically add a recurring job every two weeks. This is a convenient way to stay organized when you have multiple cleaning jobs each day.

3. Get Paid the Right Amount On-Time

Rather than having to worry about your pricing for each product and service for each customer, a CRM system allows you to integrate your products and pricing online with easy-to-use forms that are customer-friendly. These ready-to-use booking forms integrate into your website for an easy and seamless checkout process for your customers, which leads to increased online conversions. 

At Maidily, we know determining pricing for your cleaning services can be difficult. That’s why we have included a standardized pricing methodology into our CRM software. This allows you to stop worrying about what you are charging and focus on performing your services well, getting paid the right amount on-time from here on out.

4. Keep Records Easily Accessible

With a customizable CRM tailored to the cleaning industry, you will be able to track and manage all your business relationships in one place. View booking history, notes from your cleaning team, customer analytics, and invoice and payment information for each client in their unique profile. 

By switching to a fully online record keeping experience, you will save yourself the time of having to sift through paperwork and be able to bring all your customer information with you on-the-go.

5. Effectively Manage Your Cleaning Team 

Whether you are a cleaning team of one or have a team of maids working for you, a CRM system that is tailored to the cleaning industry allows you to effectively manage all your jobs online. Rather than calling and trying to reach service professionals when there is a change, simply assign maids to jobs online with just one click. Sending out job reminders and updates is just as easy. Have a client that is recurring business? Great! Save yourself time by scheduling an automatic appointment for hands off tracking.

6. Get More Business Leads and Land New Clients

With all this time, money, and energy you are saving by switching to an online, customizable cleaning company scheduling system, you will have the ability to get more leads and land new business.

Plus, a robust CRM software offers unique functions to help grow your business even more like customizable cleaning discounts to entice new and past clients. Drive your sales higher than ever by offering discounts, creating urgency with expiration dates, and turning discounts on and off whenever it works best for your business. You can even track which discounts resulted in increased sales to ensure you are getting the best bang for your buck.

Grow Your Cleaning Business Now With Maidily 

If you are ready to boost your sales and grow your cleaning company, now is the time to switch to an online scheduling and managing system. At Maidily, we have multiple packages available, each tailored to your specific needs as a company. 
Long gone are the days of manual scheduling, missed cleaning appointments, and lack of tracking. Grow your cleaning business now with Maidily. Get started for free today.

How to Respond to Negative Online Reviews

As a business owner, you are probably very familiar with the concept of negative online reviews. At some level, criticism is pretty much guaranteed as an entrepreneur.

Truth is, whether you provide great service or not, negative reviewers are inescapable.

And no matter how unpleasant it is to read negative comments about your company, you have no choice but to accept them, but it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it!

A 2019 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, with 52% of 18-54 year olds saying they ‘always’ read reviews.

Based on that survey the average consumer reads about 10 reviews before feeling comfortable enough to trust a business and spends 13 minutes and 45 seconds reading reviews before making a decision.

What does that mean? Online Reviews are very important. It takes a single negative review to sabotage the decision of your potential customer before they purchase your services or product.

You can’t please everyone, and negative reviews are not something we have control over.

However, what we can control is the way we’re going to deal with the situation. By properly responding to the reviewer and taking action, you’ll be able to decrease the damage caused by the negative review.

Three steps to take when responding:

1. A thank you and an apology:

Start by responding to the reviewer and taking responsibility.

As business owners, we have a propensity to fight tooth and nail for our business’s reputation.

However, for the very sake of the business, approaching negativity with kindess and acknowledgment will have a much more positive impact from a customer’s perspective who’s reading through your reviews.

“Customers are sometimes wrong. But telling one that he or she is wrong about an issue could cost you your business.”

Instead of getting defensive, acknowledge the problem, thank the reviewer, and apologize. Taking the time to genuinely apologize is essential to show the reviewer (and people who read the reviews) you care for your clients.

You can say something like: “Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with our services. We acknowledge that problem and sincerely apologize…” This acknowledgment shows that you as a business (business owner) are taking responsibility.

2. How you’ll fix the problem:

After you’ve apologized, it’s time to explain what steps you’re going to take/have taken to fix the issue.

For example: if the reviewer criticized the quality of the service, you can offer them a free session. While also issuing an apology on behalf of the worker that was assigned to the job.

Make sure to offer to make it right by providing some sort of solution.

“Putting actions behind your words online helps the customer trust your company more.”

The unsatisfied customer needs to know any action will be done to fix their problem. Give specific details and let them know what has changed or will change. Future customers will see this as a positive sign and take your ability to communicate effectively as assurance for quality of their own service should they choose to use you.

3. Leave contact information:

At the end of your response, leave your contact information for the reviewer.

Your contact information should include your physical mailing address, your email address and your phone number.

From the reviewer’s standpoint, leaving personal contact information shows you’re not trying to escape the responsibilities you’ve taken to fix the problem and the commitment you have to keep them satisfied.

This is about establishing and fostering good customer relationships, something that is vital for your business’s longevity. Be a human and show them you care.

Real Examples of Good Responses:

Notice here how both companies do a great job by starting with an apology, then going on to look for a solution. Also, they both leave contact information at the end giving the customer an opportunity to reach out to them to resolve the negative review.

1. A client shares dissatisfaction with the service of a dental office, Forest Family Dentistry.

2. A client shares a bad experience he had while at Honda of Thousand Oaks, an auto dealership.

Let Negative Online Reviews Make Your Business Better:

It’s important to remember that criticism is healthy, and responding to negative online reviews is essential.

A 2016 study done by Cornell University revealed that responding to reviews, particularly negative reviews, “appears positively related to the consumer’s view of the hotel, as measured by increases in the TripAdvisor score”

This kind of data can reflect on your cleaning business as well.

Once you’ve taken all these steps, you need to refocus your energy on what’s important-providing outstanding services.

The more you try to improve your business and please future customers, eventually you’ll get less and less negative reviews.

Nevertheless, make sure to follow the essential steps given and start applying them to your responses.Negative online reviews might not be so negative after all!

How to Get More Customers for your Cleaning Business in 2020

Running a cleaning business brings endless challenges — pricing, finding good employees, insurance and tax regulations — the challenges never end.

But the most important challenge is of course to build a profitable business, that’s what this is all about.

In order to build a profitable cleaning business, acquiring and retaining customers is the number one priority that we should devote the majority of our time to.

The 4 most powerful ways to get more customers are: (1) Referrals; (2) Email Campaigns; (3) Yelp and Google Business and (4) Social media marketing. Let’s dive into how to get the most out of each.

1. Referrals 

Who were your first customers? They were most likely friends and family or people you already knew. This is because people buy from people they know and trust. Even huge enterprises like AirBnB and Uber attribute their success to the power of referrals.

Just because you’ve been in business for one or two years doesn’t mean it’s too late to leverage referrals—it’s always a good time to leverage referrals.

How do you leverage a referral program, you ask? Simply ask for it! Simply ask customers once you finish a job by sending an email or use a referral software to send to customers and friends and family. Use a software referral program like Vyper, Ambassador, or even just create a special coupon code that’s assigned to each person you reach out to.

2. Email Campaigns

Launching email campaigns is one of the most effective ways to get new leads and convert them to customers.

Collecting emails is as easy as it can be. All it takes is asking for the prospect’s name and email address, by offering them a free or discounted product in exchange.

This can be done by offering them a free ebook or infographic once they hop on to your website’s homepage. Make sure it’s something relevant to your audience than they can get value from. A free Ebook would be a better option.

Not only do they help convert traffic into sales, but you get a chance to build a relationship with the prospective client, which increases the likelihood of customer retention.

Take advantage of email marketing services like MailChimp/ConvertKit/Constant Contact to help you automate your email marketing and make the best out of it.

3. Your Yelp and Google Business Page

The goal of social media isn’t to sell people things. The goal is to be social, that is, to form relationships. The biggest mistake I’ve seen in social media is when companies try to use social media solely as a place to sell.

It’s like going to a BBQ with friends and having that one guy try to sell you on some product while you’re trying to relax?

There are 3 goals of social media:

1. 1. 1. To make your company easily accessible to potential customers
      2. Interacting with your customer base
      3. Social trust

Do these 3 things well and watch the leads pour in.

Setting up the accounts is pretty straightforward so let’s take a look at some best practices for the top 3: Yelp, Google, and Facebook.

A. Yelp: There are roughly 140 million users visiting Yelp every month! In my cleaning business’s first year I had $60,000 worth of leads come from Yelp alone (picture of Revenue between April 2019 – March 20th. Here are four tips for successfully running your Yelp account:

1. 1. 1. Add your photo (owner/manager) to the profile. This will give you a personable edge over those big faceless companies.
      2. Add before and after photos of your best work to the highlights page.
      3. Make your Call to Action links to the next step to book appointments.
      4. Create response templates To streamline getting back to Every inquiry you get. Don’t Ghost on your customers!

B. Google: In 4-5 months I usually get 400+ leads come in from Google, with the average job being over $130, granting me at least $52,000. Make sure you let Google help you collect business! Apart from the same tips from Yelp, make sure to:

1. 1. 1. Take time and constantly adjust your target market.
      2. Start off with a big budget and then move down if it seems ineffective or too expensive. This will help you better understand where to spend your time and efforts as you’ll have more data to analyze.
      3. Try multiple strategies (A/B Testing) and always track and measure its progress!

C. Facebook: Facebook is a place where people spend tons of time looking for ideas and are open to exploring. In other words, everyone is ready to mingle with your company! You’ll want to balance just being helpful with gently guiding people towards your company. With Facebook you’ll just want to make sure to:

1. 1. 1. Prioritize helping others over trying to help yourself. By doing so you’ll actually end up helping yourself more.
      2. Take risks and put out content that creates energy. Mix it up
once in a while and get people’s attention. Bring up topics like: “5 things Customers do that offend maid service workers.” This type of content will drive traffic and gives you a platform to show how your service is unlike any other. But remember: play nice!

4. Social Media Networking

The secret to success, whether you’re trying to become CEO or trying to get more law clients is: you need tonetwork. Social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin, are magical tools that allow you to foster impactful relationships right from your desk or phone.

There are 2 main ways to use social media to your advantage, let’s take a look at both.

1. 1. 1. Directly interact with people in common/general groups or online networks. Since we are trying to gain cleaning clients, which are normally homeowners and complex residents, we’re going to want to “hang out” where these people hang out. Join Facebook groups from your city where people ask general questions about where to go for services, join neighborhood groups, or request to become a preferred vendor for a neighborhood HOA website.
      2. Create your own social media page (instructions here) or forum where you can foster your own specific community. The main goal here is to engage with your customers by building customer relationships, increasing brand awareness, and by sharing your industry expertise.

Top tips for running a successful Facebook page are:

1. 1. 1. Earn responsive badges by responding very quickly to messages and inquiries
      2. Make quality posts and worry less of quantity
      3. Post at the best times (Facebook = Wednesday at 3p or 12p-1p on Saturday and Sunday)
      4. Use high-quality images to build your site
      5. Mix it up with videos by using Facebook live

Here’s a full list of 26 tips from the marketing masters at Hubspot.

 

Ready, Set, Grow!

Follow these steps and watch the customers pour in. One final question remains, though: How are you going to manage all these new jobs?

Invest in software, like Maidily, that automates capturing leads and scheduling your clients’ jobs. Don’t try to do everything manually and risk losing all those clients you worked so hard to acquire.

Learn more about how Maidliy can help you organize, maintain, and grow your cleaning business.