Episode 39: Ways to Build Trust in Your Cleaning Company: The Key to Long Term Clients

It takes a lot of time and effort to get a new client, so once you've got them, it's important to keep them long-term in order to build your business. One of the keys to retaining clients is to build trust. When clients trust you, they'll stay with you long term. This video explains five ways you can build trust with clients.

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Episode #39 - Video Transcription

We always talk about "building relationships" with people in order to build your cleaning business, and we truly believe this is the best way -- at least if you're looking for long-term clients. But many people focus most of their time on building relationships in order to gain NEW clients, and then forget about how they're going to build trust and keep that relationship going long-term. So today I'm going to talk about the five keys to building trust with your clients.

#1 - Under-promise and over-deliver. Don't just strive for delivering exactly what you say you'll deliver. Strive for OVER-delivering. For example, if a client asks if you can come over sometime in the next week to do some carpet spotting, don't just go a few days later to do the spotting. Sure, that will make them happy, but if you go over TODAY to take care of it, then you'll probably WOW them when they come in to work the next day to see the spots are gone. So the key to getting people to trust you in this situation is to do what you said you would do, BEFORE you said you would do it.

#2 - Be a problem solver. If a client needs something, respond quickly and find a way to solve their problem. For example, if a client asks a question and you tell her you'll get back to her by this afternoon with an answer, well then get back to her this afternoon with an answer! Don't string someone along because you don't know how to solve the problem.

We used to work with a property manager that would call us up all the time and say, "I've got a problem!" One day it would be, "someone spilled toner on the carpet", the next day it would be "we've got a flood in the restroom and out little shop vac can't keep up with it - do you have any equipment that'll clean up all this water?" Even though this property manager had his own maintenance people that were supposed to handle some of the day-time issues that came up, he would still call us because he knew we were always ready to help resolve any problems that came up in the buildings.

#3 - Be dependable. If a client calls because he need a last minute cleaning, do whatever you can to make sure the job gets done. If you don't prove yourself to be dependable, he'll never trust that you can handle the job, and when that happens he'll eventually stop asking and find someone else to do it. When you are dependable, they'll consider you trustworthy.

#4 - Tell the truth. Never lie to your customers. You'll lose their trust and probably lose them as a client. Sometimes people lie, cover-up, or stretch the truth when they find themselves in a sticky situation. This is not the right way to handle your clients because they'll see right through it. If you've done something wrong or made a mistake, own up to it. They may not be happy about it, but you'll earn their respect and probably keep them as a client if you always tell the truth.

Here's an example of stretching the truth and how it will come back to bite you. One of our members shared that a new client wanted him to strip and wax their entryway floor. Now floor care is a service he really wanted to offer, but didn't have any experience yet. So instead of being honest about his lack of experience, he stretched the truth and told the client he DID have plenty of experience and agreed to do the floor. Needless to say, the floor didn't turn out well and he had to come clean with his client. Do you think that client was able to place much trust in anything his new cleaning contractor had to say after that? Probably not.

#5 - Provide excellent service. You may think this is a given, but a lot of companies get complacent after a few months, or even a few weeks after gaining a new client. Things seem to be going smoothly, so they let up on the follow up and things start to slide. Hold yourself and your employees to high standards. The less your client has to reach for the phone to call you with a complaint, the more trustworthy you'll become in their eyes. Chances are, when they pick up the phone it will be to ask for your advice in dealing with a problem they've encountered, rather than complaining about the service.

Building trust with your clients doesn't happen overnight, it takes time. However it doesn't take a lot of EFFORT to build trust. It's those the little things that can make the difference; replying to their calls immediately, handling last minute problems, and providing the best service you can, all contribute to building trust and maintaining those long term client relationships we all desire.