With today’s uncertain economic conditions and increasing market competition, it is not unusual for cleaning companies to cut their budget. Add up the rising cost of commercial cleaning products and demanding customer expectations, it’s hard to keep up and keep the business thriving.
Luckily, there are smart cleaning solutions you can employ to stay on top of your financial plan without sacrificing the quality of services. In simple words, smart cleaning is the act of improving your cleaning services in the most efficient, affordable, and strategic way possible. It allows you to get the job done without customers pilling up for complaints. With smart cleaning, you’ll get the most out of your services without spending more.
Although, smart cleaning requires utmost planning and intervention to make it a success. Check out tips on how to use smart cleaning solutions for the betterment of your business.
Understand the needs of your customers
Keep in mind that in any business, it’s hard to attract potential customers but it’s much more difficult to gain loyal followers, and the janitorial industry is no exception. Before you even begin offering smart cleaning services, you need to first assess the needs and wants of your potential or existing clients. Customers hardly communicate, and when they do, anticipate it to be a complaint.
You can unlock this silence by asking them what they want, what they expect, what they need, and what “clean” means to them. This way, you have a more accurate overview of where to focus and save time doing things that don’t matter much to them. However, needs and wants change over time so you have to ask them regularly to update on-hand information.
- Build rapport with your clients to establish trusted and healthy communication.
- Do a quarterly or annual sit down conversation with your customers.
- Solicit their feedback, comments, or suggestion on areas that need improvement.
What makes your business different?
Janitorial cleaning services are not a monopoly business and there are tons of companies out there offering the same. If you will not differentiate your business amongst competitors, no one will notice your company, and the chances are low for you to grow your business. You need to recognize what makes your company unique, and what are the things you can offer that are exclusive only to your business.
To be able to stand out amongst a sea of competitors, ascertain the difference between value and price. Is your cleaning company offering real value for money? Or do you offer affordable cleaning services with ineffective outcomes? The last thing you want is to let customers choose price over value. If this happens, it’ll drive your cost down to the point of losing your business since you can no longer make money.
- Price is what people pay you, and value means what they will get from you.
- Balance everything out, offer efficient services at the lowest price possible.
- Optimize the budget of your customers and create a plan that suits everyone’s needs.
Make pricing transparent
Next on these smart cleaning solutions is the importance of transparent pricing. Remember that nothing makes a business bad more than showing a customer a surprising bill that they didn’t expect. Whether it’s made by purpose or not, this is a very common mistake done by janitorial companies. Your pricing needs to be clear, transparent, easily understandable, accurate, and straight to the point. Customers need to understand that they will get these cleaning services for this price point – end of story.
People love to compare prices from one business over the other, so avoid making cloudy pricing that is sometimes purposely done to confuse customers. If you want to stay in the game, be transparent and honest upfront. It will also help to do quotations based on your clients’ priorities. When making price quotations, always:
- List all details, important sections, and fine print in a clear and precise way.
- Avoid having hidden costs, extra fees, and unplanned surcharges.
- Explain the payment terms and accepted modes of payment before finalizing a project.
Invest in technology
Smart cleaning wouldn’t be smart without investing in proper technology. Let’s face it, technology helps make our lives easier, in an affordable way. There are tons of technologies out there made specifically for janitorial cleaning services. It cuts down working hours and improves the use of resources while delivering effective results. Invest in equipment like vacuums, cleaning machines, software, etc.
But before you capitalize on these tools, first you must learn how to do SMART investing. SMART investing stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bounded. When used correctly, this will help reach your goals in a practical way. Ask yourself these questions:
- What do you need to invest in and where are you going to use it?
- How much money does it cost and how much will you save from it?
- Is it feasible for your company and will it help boost your business’s image?
- Are these technologies relevant to your cleaning business?
- How long are you going to use these tools and what is the payback period?
Hire the right people
Finding a good staff and building a right team of people will help you save time as well as money because you don’t need to invest a lot in training, supervising, and managing. If your cleaning business is managed by qualified and highly skilled personnel, you will have better credentials in front of customers.
When hiring people, always make sure that they have cleaning experience. It doesn’t need to be years of working in the same industry, but they should at least have some related experience. Also, they should be independent workers who require little to no supervision at all. Smart cleaning requires utmost commitment, and only those who genuinely care need to be accepted.
- Hire people that are physically fit for the job, since it requires strength and stamina.
- Evaluate their personality, go for those with friendly and customer-oriented qualities.
- Find people who are truly motivated and want to make a career out of cleaning.
Related: Effective Interview Questions to Ask Candidates for Hiring Your Team