How to Leverage your Best Residential Cleaning Clients to Get More Sales

Most businesses, including those in the cleaning industry, find that they get the majority of their business from just a small pool of customers. And these companies soon realize that this has something to do with the 80/20 rule.  Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist developed this rule in the 1800s. 

Simply stated, the 80/20 rule means that 20% of your resources (or cleaning customers) bring in 80% of your results (sales).  It's also important to understand the reverse can be true - activities that take up 80% of your time produce only 20% of your results. This means that you could be spending a lot of time and effort on customers who generate little income for your business.

Do you know who your best residential cleaning clients are?

What does all of this mean for your residential cleaning business? 

It means you should identify those important customers that generate most of your income and target your marketing to suit their needs. Paying attention to and catering to these "select" customers can pay off big time. The cost of gaining new customers is estimated to be 8 to 10 times more than the amount you spend keeping your current cleaning customers. 

So by doing the math it is easy to see there is a bigger return on investment when you focus your marketing efforts and dollars on your most important customers.

Are your best customers the biggest customers?

Another thing to remember is that your best customers may not necessarily be the ones that get the invoices with the largest dollar amounts. What you are looking for in your best customers are the ones that generate the most profit. This may be something you know right off the top of your head, but you might also have to do a quick analysis to see how much you are spending on labor and supplies to figure out your profit. 

Also, even if you make a good profit off a customer, consider if they are more trouble than they are worth. Are they extremely demanding and always insisting that your employees do more? Are they always calling to complain about every little thing? If so, they may not be prime candidates for added services, so don't target them with your marketing efforts.

Who are your best residential customers?

To help find out who your best customers are, you need to keep track of the services you provide and the total amount of revenue they create for your cleaning company. The best way to do this is to set up a customer database. Your database should include the relevant information about your customers - zip code, income, size home, price of the home, type of home (townhome, retirement, etc.), or any information you feel is prevalent.

You may already have this information in your files or on your computer. There are many computer software programs that can help you in setting up a database of your customers or you can easily set up an Excel spreadsheet. 

Include the following information:

• Customer name, address, phone number, contact person, and e-mail address.
• Annual sales with your company (from the types of services you currently provide)
• Annual expenses (include any supervision, inspections, or administrative costs associated with the customer)
• Annual profit (sales – cost of goods = gross profit)
• Notes on special offers acted on or customer service history.
• Special requests for services.

Once you have this information into a database or spreadsheet you will be able to determine who on that list makes up the best 20% of your clients. With this information in mind, you can start tailoring your marketing efforts to increase your sales and provide your customers with value-added services.

Some marketing ideas you can plan for include:

• Cross-selling or selling additional services like carpet cleaning, carpet spotting, upholstery cleaning, hard floor care, and window washing.
• Give rewards or discounts to your best customers. 
• Talk with your customers to find out the best way to inform them of your special offers; e-mail, postcards, bill inserts, newsletter or an on-site visit. 
• Create time-sensitive offers (such as carpet cleaning or window washing in your slower time periods or during seasonal peaks).
• Giving referrals to your customers. Everyone loves a referral and your customers are more likely to refer you when they know you're referring them.

It will take a little work to get your database together and identify your best cleaning customers. But once you become focused and start marketing to your prime candidates, you will see the benefit in increased income!