- Mobile home park door knob hangers: Because mobile home parks can provide a large volume of business with no extra travel time due to the close proximity of the mobile homes, you may want to distribute targeted door knob hangers in these mobile home parks. The hangers should provide a special price or dollars off coupon for greater response and a specific day should be set aside for these cleanings so that you can concentrate enough time per park to make the effort worth while. Write on the hangers the specific day that you will be working in that park and ask that those interested in cleaning call your office and schedule ahead for that day.
- Pricing charts: If you are not comfortable selling add-on services while in a customer’s home, the next best thing is to print up a large quantity of price charts to provide to each customer upon beginning the job. Simply tell her that if she wished to have any additional work done she can refer to the chart to determine the cost of the additional cleaning, protection treatments (Scotchgard, Teflon) etc…
- Refrigerator van magnets: Placing a van shaped magnet with your name, phone number and company logo on each customer’s refrigerator prior to a cleaning job is a great way to keep your company name on her mind, encourage referral business from friends and neighbors, and assure that she won’t forget who cleaned her carpets last time (you would be surprised how fast they forget).
- Coupon books:
a. Have ten various coupons professionally designed and printed up in booklet form;
b. Have them printed up in quantity (at least 500 – 1,000 at a time);
c. Give each customer a coupon book after you clean for her to assure a repeat customer
d. Coupon books should contain 1 or 2 extra coupon books for her neighbors.
e. Coupon books should contain coupons for carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, and drapery cleaning (if you offer this service). - Various advertising outlets: Yellow pages advertising, Facebook, Twitter, Craiglist, Kijjijji, Blogs, etc,…There are so many social media sites that cost next to nothing to utilize so make sure that you take full advantage of them.
- Thank you/critique cards: To show your appreciation for the customer’s patronage, you should send each customer a thank you card to arrive at her home the day after the cleaning job. This shows professionalism and character and is an important goodwill gesture that the customer will appreciate. You may also want to include a separate section that can be detached and mailed back to you (at your expense) with various questions on how you may improve your service to better serve your customers and ask whether she was satisfied with the service you provided and if she was dissatisfied, why. This will help you improve your services by letting you know what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. It will also give you the opportunity to correct any problems the customer may have, but was too timid to tell you during the follow up call (you did give her a follow-up call didn’t you?).
- Reminder cards: Each customer should be sent a reminder card 10-12 months after the initial cleaning to let her know that it is time to have her furnishings cleaned again.
- Billboards: Usually too expensive for the “average” carpet cleaning company, but if you do use billboard ads, remember to keep the message short and sweet.
- Christmas cards: Should be sent 2-3 weeks before Christmas. No sale or solicitation, just a sincere thank you for her past business and a Season’s Greeting. A great customer goodwill tool.
- Residential newsletters: These are a great way to keep your name in the customer’s eye all year long.
Tips 1-10 – Tips 11-20 – Tips 21-30 – Tips 31-40 – Tips 41-50 – Tips 51-60 – Tips 61-70 – Tips 71-80 – Tips 81-90 – Tips 91-101
Kleen Kuip Supply Mart Inc.
New and Used Professional Carpet Cleaning and Restoration Equipment
Carpet Cleaning How To 