August focus: Domestic Cleaning Service

Questions

Here are some questions and exercises for you to do to test your preparedness for running your own home cleaning business. Answer them without going back to check for the answers in the previous articles. Once you have answered them, then check.

• What is the first thing you should do when your client calls with an inquiry about your services?
•  What process would you go through to establish what type of service to recommend to your client and how much to charge for your services?
• What is the basic rule that helps you when estimating over the phone how much time it will take to do the work that the client has requested?
• What would you do if you arrived at the job and the client had only briefly described the state of their home in the hope that the quote would be cheaper, and you could see that the number of hours booked would definitely not be enough to do the work?’
• If you need more time to complete the job, when should you ask and what should you say?
• If your client won’t extend their booking so that you can complete the job, what should you do?
• What questions would you ask your client to help you in the above situation?

Exercises

Memorise the Rates chart. Practice with a family member being asked questions by a prospective ‘client’ about your services and how much you will charge..

1. If you are not living in Sydney while reading this, you will be curious as to how much to charge if you set up your business in the area that you live in. To find out what fees homeowners in your local area will pay, phone the local cleaning agency to find out how much they would charge to clean a three bedroom, one bathroom home on a regular basis. Then try a four bedroom, two-bathroom home for a Spring-Clean. Ask if there are extra charges for using your own products and equipment, and what those charges are.
2. Look up your local paper or search your local classifieds on the internet and give other cleaning operators a call to see how they handle your inquiry. You will be surprised how little skill most people have on the telephone. This will give you the confidence you need to handle your own inquiries well. Make sure you memorise all the phrases to use when estimating on the phone.
3. Write your spiel and have you booking forms ready so that you don’t have to think about how to handle the calls as they come in. Practice again with a family member while using your booking form.
4. Remember that the booking form can be used when either estimating the job on the phone, or when at the client’s home doing the quote. The best way to go about taking bookings is to take down the information on the phone, but also to go out to see the home and do an on-site inspection as well. This should be done prior to the time set to actually do the cleaning, and any misunderstandings can be sorted out at the time of the quote. While there, this is the time to clarify your terms of business as well.
5. When at the home doing a quote, refer to the individual time schedules that you will find in other articles to help you calculate how long the home will take to clean. Also, use the previous schedules in combination with the time schedules per room in upcoming August articles to get an overall estimate that is almost exact.

You can read in next article about: Taking the Bookings