How to Market Your Luxury Commercial Cleaning Services

Are your commercial cleaning services a luxury or a necessity?

My sweet mother has always refused our efforts to hire a cleaning service to help her around the house. She likes doing things herself and she has always been able to do the work. However, the real reason she won’t agree to a cleaning service is that she sees it as a luxury. We just wanted her to have time to do the things she wanted. But in the end, she’s technically right. Having someone else do the work for you, especially hiring commercial cleaning services, is a luxury.

Commercial Cleaning Services are Different…Sort of

An organization hiring a cleaning company is a kind of luxury. Not having to clean your toilets or take out the trash is fantastic! Who doesn’t want to have a beautiful, well-maintained and clean facility? Back in the day, hiring an outside commercial cleaning service for your facility probably would have been considered purely an opulence, especially for smaller organizations. Not anymore. Now it is absolutely critical for the performance and success of the organization.

These days when you are selling your cleaning services, you have to focus on the necessity of professional commercial cleaning services as much as the luxury you provide.

Sell a Necessity, Provide a Luxury

Most of the time you don’t have to convince potential customers that facilities need to be cleaned (though I have seen exceptions!). How do you convince hesitant customers that a cleaning service is an absolute necessity? More importantly, how do you convince them that YOUR cleaning service is a necessity?

Consider emphasizing the essential benefits of your cleaning service:

Health

We’ve all seen the studies that show the germs that live on surfaces in public places. We’re also all familiar with the substantial costs of employee illness. If your employees are frequently sick, your productivity will suffer and costs will increase. A properly sanitized office reduces the spread of germs, saves money and increases productivity.

Time

Business owners are constantly aware of the value of their time and the never-ending list of demands they carry. Taking something off their list and giving them the confidence that it will be done with excellence gives them freedom to focus their valuable energy elsewhere.

Liability

Whether a company uses an in-house custodial staff, an outside cleaning company or assigns cleaning duties to its employees, there are potentially serious liabilities, both for employees and potential visitors. A reputable commercial cleaning service will not only ensure that all safety measures are taken and proper signage is displayed, but they will also carry proper liability insurance.

Regulation

OSHA requires any business to ensure its facility be maintained in a clean, sanitary and serviceable condition. Employers are also expected to establish and implement a schedule for servicing, cleaning and supplying each facility. Sell your cleaning company as a solution to regulatory compliance.

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It’s amazing the difference a clean office can make. In an aggressively competitive market, a company needs every possible advantage to differentiate it from the field of competitors. Whether the facility is an accountant’s office, a warehouse or a medical clinic, visitors feel better when it’s clean. Maintaining this image for the businesses you clean is a powerful selling tool for your pitch.

Maintenance

Facilities are expensive and they have a lifespan. Building owners can protect their investment with proper routine professional cleaning. Dirt breaks down carpet fiber. Dust can build up and damage equipment. Spills or soil left on a floor will stain. Cleaning can make a facility last longer and save money on expensive remodeling.

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Understand the Priority

Your potential customers have a thousand things they have to think about to be successful. Often cleaning their facility is only an afterthought. You can be the expert they need by understanding and communicating the necessity of commercial cleaning services. Craft your sales pitch to convince them that your cleaning service is not an optional luxury, but rather a vital component in the success of their company. It cannot be overstated how important quality cleaning is to the success of an organization and that is what you need to communicate to your potential customers.

Get Your People Onboard

You can talk a good game about the premium level and necessity of service you intend to provide, but if your employees aren’t performing to that standard, you will inevitably be looking for new customers. Worse, you will develop a reputation of being an inferior service provider. This will make it increasingly difficult to secure new clients.

Invest the time in training your employees to the correct standard and then hold them to it. Your cleaning company will never be any better than your front-line employees. They too have to understand the vital necessity of the cleaning services they are providing and how to provide at a superior level.

Once you have a superior training program in place and every new employee is properly educated, it is important to follow up with them on a regular basis. Establish routine quality inspections to ensure that the services your employees provide meet or exceed the standards you have promised.

Make Sure You Have What You Need

Just like poorly trained employees will not achieve superior results, inferior tools will be a barrier to your success. Startup equipment and supply costs can be very substantial when beginning a new account. However, improperly equipping a job will only serve to inhibit your employees’ ability to perform.

There is a very real temptation to cut corners on chemicals, supplies and equipment, but this is never a good idea. You might be able to get away with it at first, but inevitably it will cost you customers and affect your reputation.

I learned this lesson early on when working with wood. It’s true that you can rip a sheet of plywood with a Sawzall, but good luck keeping that line straight! You need a good table saw or, even better, a track saw. Using a nail gun wildly improves efficiency over a hammer and I’m less likely to hammer my thumb. Having a sharp blade makes life good, but trying to cut anything with a dull blade is incredibly annoying and yields inferior results. Nothing is more frustrating that trying to complete a job and being inhibited by an ineffective or inappropriate tool.

The right tools not only make your life easier; they also make your product better. Don’t shortcut your own success by trying to save money on equipment, chemicals and supplies.

Luxury and Necessity

To secure new clients and avoid losing them to your competitors, market your company as a provider of high end, essential services. Establish yourself as the subject matter expert on the necessity of cleaning services for the success of your clients. Demonstrate the superior quality of your services and create a reputation of providing luxury.

Incidentally…

Having a good software system to help manage operations is also a necessity. Accuracy, efficiency, timeliness, productivity and effectiveness can all be improved with a well-designed commercial cleaning software. Janitorial Manager has been working for years with industry professionals to develop an industry-leading software platform to empower commercial cleaning companies to provide excellent services to their customers.