Best way to find new customers - Local Cleaning Company

Best way to find new customers - Local Cleaning Company

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Wing Commander

Original Poster:

2,179 posts

231 months

Monday 19th September 2016
quotequote all
I am looking to try and gain a bit of insight into the best way to attract new customers to my domestic cleaning company. We are a local company, serving quite a small geographic area so most of my focus so far has been on printed advertising and word of mouth.

We currently advertise in local parish magazines, leaflet drops (professionally designed, and printed on card rather than home printed on paper as is often the way with one man band cleaners), referrals from existing customers (but this could always be pushed more I guess).

We have a website - it is seriously out of date and needs a fresh rebuild from the ground up. This is on my radar, but realistically won't happen for at least 6 months. Instead, I am keen to get some landing pages set up (10-15 of them) which cover 10-15 different topics. The idea being to really try and dominate the search results when local people search for cleaning. The competition does not spend any money on google advertising and it really wouldn't be too hard to push my way to the top, but my skills on webdesign are limited so that any result would look homemade. My brother and father both have used Jammy Basturd on here for some IT work, so it is my intention to ask him if he would do some work for me on these landing pages.

Ideas I have to increase visibility are:

Cross referrals with similar businesses ie letting agents, builders, plumbers etc
Referrals from existing customers (how do I promote this for maximum effect???)
Asking existing customers to leave a google review for us
Maybe some sort of local publicity event to try and get the business in the papers
Editorials which I would write and get published in local papers, parish mags etc.
Getting together with other local businesses and sharing advertising costs within a little trusted local magazine/pamphlet.

Any other thoughts?? My mental target at the moment is to try and get 1 new customer a week. Sounds simple enough, but we maybe average 1 new one every fortnight to 3 weeks at the moment. Which is fine for me whilst this is a second income, but would love for it to be more than that.

Our conversion, once people contact us, is extremely high so I have no doubt that we offer a good service right from the moment people get in touch - it is just that first hurdle that I really feel we are not particularly efficient in.

Many thanks!

Rotaree

1,146 posts

260 months

Monday 19th September 2016
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I think you already have some good ideas but to answer your question with regard to existing customer referrals: perhaps you could offer a discount to both the referrer on their next clean and referree on their first clean.

Funk

26,254 posts

208 months

Monday 19th September 2016
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What's the company name?

Oceanic

731 posts

100 months

Monday 19th September 2016
quotequote all
I would be looking at Facebook and Google Adwords and doing location focussed ads based on where you want to target users geographically.

Dejay1788

1,311 posts

128 months

Monday 19th September 2016
quotequote all
Locally targeted Facebook ads.

EDIT: IF you want to do some 'free (although not targeted) advertising, join local buy sell / business groups and post an ad for your services in there once or twice a day, might generate some leads and at worst will only take five minutes of your time.

Wing Commander

Original Poster:

2,179 posts

231 months

Monday 19th September 2016
quotequote all
Rotaree said:
I think you already have some good ideas but to answer your question with regard to existing customer referrals: perhaps you could offer a discount to both the referrer on their next clean and referree on their first clean.
Yes, tried this and it works generally. My only concern being that you are incentivising people to give a recommendation, rather than people just doing it because they are genuinely happy. Maybe I'm over thinking it but could the potential new customer think we are only being recommended because if the financial reward?

Wing Commander

Original Poster:

2,179 posts

231 months

Monday 19th September 2016
quotequote all
Funk said:
What's the company name?
Trusted Home Cleaning and the business is based in Bradwell, Norfolk but also covering other local villages

Wing Commander

Original Poster:

2,179 posts

231 months

Monday 19th September 2016
quotequote all
Oceanic said:
I would be looking at Facebook and Google Adwords and doing location focussed ads based on where you want to target users geographically.
Ok that's good. I can certainly try three things but my follow on question then is - where do I point the advert towards? The website at the moment is shocking and has a very high bounce rate, hence wanting new landing pages done. This should be much quicker to get done, and will always be useful anyway.

Can Google adverts and Facebook ads point to my "Google business" page?

Wing Commander

Original Poster:

2,179 posts

231 months

Monday 19th September 2016
quotequote all
Dejay1788 said:
Locally targeted Facebook ads.

EDIT: IF you want to do some 'free (although not targeted) advertising, join local buy sell / business groups and post an ad for your services in there once or twice a day, might generate some leads and at worst will only take five minutes of your time.
Good thinking on the local Facebook groups. Will have to look into that

toon10

6,140 posts

156 months

Monday 19th September 2016
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My BIL has an industrial and domestic cleaning company and he uses Linked In and Facebook to promote his company. Lots of before/after shots and any positive comments from customers get shared. You'll be amazed how quickly getting your family and friends to like your page will filter down to their friends and beyond. If you're not into the social media thing then it may be a bit of a ball-ache to update but it seems to be working for him.

Frimley111R

15,537 posts

233 months

Monday 19th September 2016
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Go to Streetlife's website (local forum essentially), loads of requests for cleaners on our local one!

veevee

1,455 posts

150 months

Monday 19th September 2016
quotequote all
Wing Commander said:
Dejay1788 said:
Locally targeted Facebook ads.

EDIT: IF you want to do some 'free (although not targeted) advertising, join local buy sell / business groups and post an ad for your services in there once or twice a day, might generate some leads and at worst will only take five minutes of your time.
Good thinking on the local Facebook groups. Will have to look into that
Forget the groups, just buy targeted ads, you can specifically target any demographic you want. I.e Women aged 30-60 in your local area (I think you can even draw a geographical area on the map). You can also add a slightly scary amount of details, working/not working, has kids, etc. So you can get exactly who you want.

You'll still need a good website though, I'd sort this out ASAP, a static website is not that difficult or expensive, so a reasonable web person should be able to do you one in less than a week for a few hundred quid. This really matters as the whole point of cleaning is for things to look nicer, if your site looks rubbish people will immediately discount it.

951TSE

600 posts

156 months

Monday 19th September 2016
quotequote all
Wing Commander said:
Rotaree said:
I think you already have some good ideas but to answer your question with regard to existing customer referrals: perhaps you could offer a discount to both the referrer on their next clean and referee on their first clean.
Yes, tried this and it works generally. My only concern being that you are incentivising people to give a recommendation, rather than people just doing it because they are genuinely happy. Maybe I'm over thinking it but could the potential new customer think we are only being recommended because if the financial reward?
I don't think you need to do the free first clean for the referee. Let them make their own referrals to get the reward, you shouldn't need to reward for signing up. Only reward on sales not referrals.


Wing Commander

Original Poster:

2,179 posts

231 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
quotequote all
toon10 said:
My BIL has an industrial and domestic cleaning company and he uses Linked In and Facebook to promote his company. Lots of before/after shots and any positive comments from customers get shared. You'll be amazed how quickly getting your family and friends to like your page will filter down to their friends and beyond. If you're not into the social media thing then it may be a bit of a ball-ache to update but it seems to be working for him.
Before and after shots, I can do. I will have to make a bit more of an effort with the social media side of things. I think little and often will be the way.

I have already sent an email around to various customers who have the internet asking for reviews, and have had 1 come back in already, as a 5 star, which is nice. Hoping to get a few more which may well boost my Google My Business listing.

Wing Commander

Original Poster:

2,179 posts

231 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
quotequote all
Frimley111R said:
Go to Streetlife's website (local forum essentially), loads of requests for cleaners on our local one!
What a little goldmine!! Thanks for the link. I guess I had heard of that website but it never registered with me. I will sign up and see if I can make a few regular posts on there and answer any relevant questions.

Thanks

Wing Commander

Original Poster:

2,179 posts

231 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
quotequote all
veevee said:
Forget the groups, just buy targeted ads, you can specifically target any demographic you want. I.e Women aged 30-60 in your local area (I think you can even draw a geographical area on the map). You can also add a slightly scary amount of details, working/not working, has kids, etc. So you can get exactly who you want.

You'll still need a good website though, I'd sort this out ASAP, a static website is not that difficult or expensive, so a reasonable web person should be able to do you one in less than a week for a few hundred quid. This really matters as the whole point of cleaning is for things to look nicer, if your site looks rubbish people will immediately discount it.
You are right about the website - I will look into this ASAP. Agree on the ability to target specific demographics on Facebook. Being able to zoom in with laser accuracy on my target audience is really useful.

Thanks

Wing Commander

Original Poster:

2,179 posts

231 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
quotequote all
951TSE said:
I don't think you need to do the free first clean for the referee. Let them make their own referrals to get the reward, you shouldn't need to reward for signing up. Only reward on sales not referrals.
Good point. We, as a rule, offer the first clean half price just as a little sweetener. It doesn't cost much, and is a nice gesture to start with. I would probably look at offering a free clean to the referrer, and a half price clean to the referee.

Thanks

beko1987

1,636 posts

133 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
quotequote all
Having a facebook page is a cheap and easy way to get started, then join lots of the local selling sites. Ours always have people asking if anyone knows any one off/end of tenancy cleans etc.

I run my Dyson repair facebook page. 150 likes in a year, but with zero advertising. (I have a full time job so almost don't want it to fully take off). What I have done is sell loads of refurbished dysons, but with a sticker on the machine saying 'Refurbished by Dyson Repair and Service, then a little blurb, serial number, model number and date. Just printed them out at work on nice avery labels.

You want to get all the unemployed facebook addicted mums singing your praises, that way when someone posts up asking for what you do, you get tagged. Then you can either just reply to that, or post the link to your page up in the comments and direct people there. I get about 5 likes every time that happens to me.

Before and afters are key too, I make sure to take photo's of the most minging before vacs, then once they are done and looking like new. Exploded pictures are good too, you could do 50/50 shots, or some particularly nice track marks in carpet etc?

Have a page and pay some money though, and it could all take off! I just haven't bothered!

Oceanic

731 posts

100 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
quotequote all
Wing Commander said:
Ok that's good. I can certainly try three things but my follow on question then is - where do I point the advert towards? The website at the moment is shocking and has a very high bounce rate, hence wanting new landing pages done. This should be much quicker to get done, and will always be useful anyway.

Can Google adverts and Facebook ads point to my "Google business" page?
If you don't have time to do a full rebuild/tidy-up of your site you could use a service like ClickFunnels.com to create a landing-page and sales funnel, using targetted Facebook / Adwords ads you could probably clean-up in your local area (excuse the pun).

globalcarparts

3 posts

95 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
quotequote all
Hi,

My wife has recently setup a domestic cleaning business (www.homeclean-uk.com)

She has only advertised in local village shops so far and is getting lots of enquiries.

She only wanted 3 jobs per week - which she got in the first 2 weeks of advertising... She's currently turning work away... It's got me thinking about making more of a business of it.

Andy