Residential Cleaning Business Do's & Don'ts

There is a lot of advice out there on how to run a successful residential cleaning business. If you aren't sure which advice to take or which direction to go, check out these residential cleaning business “Do's and Don'ts” from our Co-founder, Steve Hanson. He has over 30 years of experience running successful cleaning companies and teaching others how to do the same.

Residential Biz Do and Don't

Residential Cleaning Company DO's

 DO: Market Non-Stop

You're signing new contracts left and right, your teams are so busy you need to hire more help, and everything in your business is running smoothly. In this scenario, it's tempting to ease up on marketing expenses, but that would be a mistake.

Continuously marketing—even when business is booming—will keep your pipeline full. It's the best way to avoid the feast-and-famine cycle so many residential cleaning businesses experience.

DO: Keep Networking

Similar to marketing, networking must be a priority no matter how well (or poorly) your business is performing. In many ways, success in business isn't about who you know but who knows you. Networking is the best way to make your name known in your community.

Don't attend events only to sit alone in the corner. Introduce yourself to others, ask about their businesses, and give your elevator pitch. If you are too shy to work a room, consider appointing another, more outgoing, team member to serve as your proxy at these events.

DO: Take Applications

You've worked hard to assemble a strong team, and it finally feels safe to stop looking for new cleaners. In fact, it's smart to continue accepting new applicants and keep the good ones on file.

If you never stop marketing and networking, the time will come when you need to expand your team to handle all the homes you add to your client list. Keeping a pool of quality candidates at your disposal can keep you from overworking yourself and employees, or settling for substandard employees.

DO: Hire Floaters

Employees taking last-minute time off for illnesses, family emergencies, jury duty, or “mental health” days is inevitable—and frustrating. Someone has to step in to cover their responsibilities and, when staffing is tight, that person is likely to be a manager or owner. The only way to prevent this predicament is to prepare for it.

Even if your team is small, consider adding a few part-time members who serve as floaters or “on-call” to help out as needed. When a regular employee calls out, these workers can jump in without missing a beat so you are forced to drop everything to pick up the slack.

DO: Cluster Service Areas

Whenever you identify a desirable neighborhood, perhaps based on pricing or style of home, work hard to land multiple contracts in that area. Focus your efforts, including referral marketing, until you secure a cluster of clients.

Having multiple homes in a small geographic area reduces travel time, allowing your team to complete more work in less time. Time is money, so using this clustered approach to sales is an easy way to increase profits.

Residential Cleaning Company DON'Ts

DON'T: Discount Services

Too often, cleaning companies offer temporary price cuts to win new clients. Unfortunately, this tactic tends to attract price shoppers who will flee as soon as their discount expires. This churn makes it nearly impossible to make up for the loss of profits on these jobs.

While it's a bad idea to use discounts as a routine part of business, it may prove useful for infrequent promotions. A special discount just for a holiday, such as Valentine's Day or Mother's Day, can generate new leads that turn into long-term clients. The key is to use discounts as an exception, not the expectation.

DON'T: Mix Commercial and Residential

If you have both residential and commercial cleaning operations, or hope to expand into the commercial sector, be careful about overlap. Sending your home cleaning crews into an office building will likely cost you money.

The typical residential cleaner averages 700 square feet per hour, due in large part to their attention to detail. That's fine when cleaning a home, but far too slow for a large commercial space (the typical commercial cleaner averages 3,500 square feet per hour or higher). Unless you price the job correctly, or cross-train your crews, your bottom line will take a hit.

DON'T: Have one Production Rate

Residential cleaning companies find it difficult to expand into the commercial sector. They tend to price themselves out of the market, even on small accounts, because their production rates are far slower than the averages of commercial cleaners.

Don't use residential production rates to price commercial accounts. If you want to be competitive, price these jobs based on the faster commercial averages above. This is why you need a dedicated commercial team, or specially trained crews, that can deliver speedier results.

DON'T: Customize Work for Each Client

Giving your clients personalized attention is an important part of delivery quality service. But that doesn't mean you need to customize the scope of work for each of them. Doing so creates a management nightmare. Team members must pore over the job sheet at each home, and the chances of missing some detail—and hearing customer complaints about it—go way up.

Whenever possible, stick to a standardized list of cleaning tasks. This streamlined approach allows team members to memorize and efficiently execute their work without mistakes. Limit customization to big-ticket jobs where personalization gives you a competitive advantage and when the price allows you to deliver on the promise without losing profits.

Remember, there's no singular path to success as a residential cleaner. These do's and don'ts are based on decades of experience and represent best practices, but there are exceptions to every rule. Through trial and error, you will learn how to provide the efficient and effective services possible, to maximize your time and profits.