Don’t let anything slip through the cracks! Use a cleaning task checklist to promote your business and show clients your true value.
Do your clients and potential clients know how much you have to offer as a commercial cleaning service? They may know you empty the trash and vacuum the floor, but they might not realize that you also clean HVAC units or wash windows. One way to inform your clients about what you can do is to make a cleaning task checklist that clearly outlines your offerings.
A cleaning task checklist is a menu. It shows your clients exactly what services you offer, which will hopefully get them thinking about things they hadn’t considered before. Do they want the floor buffed and waxed? Or maybe they need carpets cleaned? How about cleaning out the office fridge once a week? Offering a checklist ensures that your clients don’t miss out on something that goes beyond a standard cleaning.
What your cleaning task checklist should – and should not – include
Keep it simple and informative
Before you start on a cleaning task checklist, remember that your clients need to understand it easily. Keep it simple and clear. While you want them to know your full array of services, you also don’t want to overwhelm them with options. Ultimately it’s a balance. Include most of the options that you regularly offer, but maybe add a clause on the checklist that says that clients may make special requests as well.
That said, there may be add-ons to some services that you’ll want to include as a subcategory. So under “floor cleaning,” have one line for mopping or vacuuming, a second line for buffing, and a third line for waxing. Grouping services together in a way that makes sense helps your customers recognize the range of your services and also makes them think about what they need.
Use a price list effectively
Just like most menus, it’s helpful to include pricing on your cleaning task checklist. Doing so gives clients an upfront idea of what they’ll have to spend, which will ultimately help them decide which services they need. Putting your prices out there also helps build trust, as your clients won’t have to worry that you’ll come back with an unreasonable or unaffordable quote.
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But there are drawbacks to putting the prices out there, too. For one, it makes it easy for clients to shop around. Second, it forces you to commit to a dollar amount that may be less than the job is worth if it’s a difficult or unusual worksite. Also, sometimes individual prices are more likely to make a client decline a service than if the price is offered later as part of a complete quote.
Whichever route you decide to go, make sure your pricing model is clear, complete, and competitive. Avoid fine print when and where you can. And if you can’t decide on one model or the other, try a cleaning task checklist where you show prices for the more common tasks and instruct clients to ask for a quote for the bigger, more expensive jobs.
Include details
Especially if you’re going to include pricing, add information about the time you agree to spend or the surface area you agree to cover. Bathroom cleaning, for example, might be priced per fifteen minutes since some bathrooms are much larger than others. Or, for window washing, make the prices per square foot of window. The last thing you want to do is sell yourself short!
And whether or not you put prices on your cleaning task checklist, remind customers somewhere on there—again, avoid fine print—that prices are subject to change at any time.
If eco-friendly cleaning is something your business offers, the checklist is the place to put it! Identify exactly what you mean by eco-friendly cleaning, so you and the client are clear about expectations.
Update your list regularly
Finally, keep your list updated when you add or remove services, or when prices change. Whenever you decide to make a change to a service, updating the checklist is the first thing that should pop into your head. We also recommend looking at your list on at least a quarterly basis to make sure it still aligns with your business model.
When you update a list, make sure you distribute it to your clients and give them some notice as a courtesy. If you’ll no longer be offering vent cleaning, notify your clients thirty days in advance and provide them with a new checklist, so they know what’s changed (or grandfather current clients in for an extended period). Likewise—and perhaps especially—when you update prices, give a fair warning. Not only is it courteous, but it shows your clients they can trust you and that you care about them enough to provide them with information ahead of time instead of simply hitting them with a price increase at the last minute.
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