House Cleaning - The Professional Business
Most people get into house cleaning to earn some extra money.
You may have family, friends and neighbors as your regular
clients. Are you ready and motivated to take your part-time
business to the next level?
Growing any business takes time and patience. And if you have a
loyal client base now, set aside a portion of your gross revenue
for advertising, custom business forms and your own products and
equipment.
Expanding your business also takes planning. How can you start
getting new clients without a large advertising budget? A small
one-time investment in custom business forms is the first step.
So what's wrong with not using business forms? Absolutely
nothing if you're satisfied with your client base right now and
not interested in making more money.
But I hear from a lot of professional house cleaners that are
struggling in their business. They wonder why they don't get
more of the jobs they bid on. They ask why people won't pay
their rate and instead want to negotiate the price down.
If you're not presenting yourself as a professional business,
your prospects assume you just need to make some extra money;
you don't have their respect and they think you'll be happy to
take whatever they offer to pay.
Now think about this for a minute. Who would you be more likely
to hire: the plumber that shows up to estimate your job with a
clipboard and custom business forms or the plumber that shows up
with a flyer? Be honest with yourself; you are going to trust
this plumber inside your home around your personal possessions.
What if this person were to break or damage something? Do you
think about this issue with the plumber with the clipboard and
custom business forms, or is it more of a concern with the
plumber with just the flyer?
Your prospects are judging you and forming an opinion from the
moment you answer their call. And you know what they say about
first impressions? It's absolutely true in running a business.
Not only are they judging you before they hire you, but they
judge you again when you arrive on the scheduled service date.
- Use the Service Agreement to define your terms of doing
business and to document the service for each client. This forms
performs dual purpose as it is also your estimating form that
you use during your in-home or telephone bidding. You will
discuss the content with your prospect and then have them sign
it, not as a contract, but to provide you and them with an
understanding of your terms and the service start date.
- The Customer Checklist records your estimate for your new
client and has all the cleaning tasks listed that you perform.
This form alone can get you the job immediately or even later
after your prospect has tried other services.
- The Work Order is created from the important notes you
recorded on the Service Agreement during the walk through or
telephone interview. It specifies the client, the address and
phone number, information pertaining to pets in the home, client
specific requests and directives, including important notes you
documented about the home.
- The Service Checklist is used by you or your team on the
scheduled service date. It is a reminder of the regular service
tasks that are to be performed and is used to maintain quality.
One of the biggest complaints from clients is that quality
deteriorates over time. If you're not using a Service Checklist,
you're not instilling trust in your clients, especially new
clients. They will auto- matically check your work on every
appointment to make sure you didn't miss anything. And if you
did, you'll hear about it - quick!
When you start to use business forms for your existing clients,
they will probably ask you why the sudden change. This provides
you with a chance to tell them that you're expanding your
business and would appreciate referrals. This leaves them
impressed and knowing that you are serious about running a
professional business and will be more likely to make referrals.
Custom business forms speak loudly to your prospects and in the
long run land you more jobs, referrals and larger profits!