August focus: Domestic Cleaning Service

Handling the Inquiries Whilst Working

When a client calls you their inquiry and booking is usually made during office hours – the same hours that you are out working. It is not wise to be taking calls from new clients while cleaning for others, so it is better to let your messagebank service take your calls if the client that you are cleaning for is present while you are working. If not you can quickly take the new inquirer’s number and call them back in between bookings.

If you are letting your calls go to your message service or if your new inquirer sends you a text message, then in-between bookings you can check your messages and get back to clients that have called or sent a text while you were working. If you are relying on your answering machine at home to take your messages (or your mobile phone message-bank and you do not check it regularly), then by the time you have arrived home there will have been a lapse of time since the client left that message. So it is imperative that you call the client straight away in order not to lose the booking. The less time between when they leave you a message and when you return their call, the less chance that the client will find someone else to do the work.

Keep your mobile phone with you at all times and have your ad running, even after you have filled your roster with Regular bookings. Domestic cleaning clients have a habit of canceling at the last minute, and by always marketing yourself and being able to be contacted you can fill the gaps relatively quickly.

If you are returning a call from an inquirer, be aware that sometimes a woman has not informed her husband that she wants to book a cleaner. So it is best not to announce why you are calling to any man who answers the phone. Just leave your name and number in case your client does not want her husband to know about you. Husbands also have a habit of telling their wives that they should be doing the cleaning themselves, or that the estimate that you have given her is too expensive.

In returning calls be aware that if you leave a message on an answering service or with a child who answers the phone your message may not get through to your client. It has been found that on many occasions the message was either forgotten, not written down, written down and lost, or wiped off the answer service by somebody else. The only time that you can be 100% sure that your client knows that you have called is when you speak to them personally yourself.

You can read in next article about: The Build-up Period – Part I