How Can Cleaning Businesses Find More Jobs? Part 1

The Secret to Cleaning Businesses Finding More Jobs Today Isn’t Chasing After Customers with LOW Prices but in Attracting Them with MORE Value!

Things have changed.

You know it. We know it. And every janitorial business out there today can see and feel it.

What is it? It’s simply this… the old ways of growing a successful service business simply DON’T work any more.

For example, years ago, when we started our janitorial-cleaning business, nearly anyone could do pretty well for themselves and have a sizable customer list, just by knocking on doors, word of mouth and, of course, delivering a reliable service.

Really, it was really about that simple.

Growth and profitability were within relatively easy reach; hard work and a good reputation would get you more accounts and at prices… that made you money!

Not any more.

Today, when commercial cleaning businesses desperate to find new jobs, send out brochures or post cards with yesterday’s marketing messages such “We’re bonded, licensed and insured!”, they’re likely to hear only the deafening sound of silence in response.

That’s right, little no interest at all, and a blank stare from their prospective business clients, who simply demand more today.

Specifically, more value.

And when we’re talking about service type businesses, like cleaning, you can define value, to a great degree, in terms of being able to guarantee a measureable level of performance or service.

It may be how many hours it takes you to respond to a service request, how little variation you’ll allow your actual cleaning times to vary from your budgeted cleaning times, but no matter the part of the business you’re talking about, it generally has to do with what we call Measureable Guarantees of Performance.

Creating Measurable Guarantees of Performance

As buyers, we are all the same.

We are looking for someone who can show they have real answers to our real problems… and be willing to guarantee it!

We call these real answers – Measurable Guarantees of Performance or MGP’s for short.

Over the years, we’ve read a number of other marketers explain similar concepts called USP’s, which stands for Unique Selling Propositions or UCA’s, which stands for Unique Competitive Advantages.

But, we prefer our term, MGP, for a couple important reasons:

1. MGPs emphasize the importance of MEASUREMENT. Anyone can make broad claims. Measurable ones are more difficult to create, let alone guarantee. But that’s why they’re so much more powerful and effective.

2. MGPs emphasize the importance of GUARANTEE. This speaks for itself. You might say you’ll do something, but will you stand behind it?… with your checkbook if necessary!

3. MGPs emphasize the importance of PERFORMANCE. And in the service business that’s where, as they say, the “rubber hits the road” – namely, performance.

Here’s an example of an MGP from the cleaning industry dealing with the important topic of quality:

Our Quality Guarantee:

“You’ll Be 100% Delighted With The Quality Of Each Cleaning Visit…
or it’s FREE”*

*That’s right! To guarantee you get the quality of cleaning you deserve, your building will be inspected after each visit using our fast, yet effective, “QC Check” form, which will be graded, faxed to our office and placed on your desk. If you disagree with a daily “grade”, or feel you were not cleaned properly on any visit… it’s FREE!

Bold?…Yes!

Hard to create the systems required to support making this kind of strong statement and guarantee?

Absolutely! But think about this for a minute…

How different would your company be if you could offer a set of 3, 5, or more of these MGPs hitting on every single one of the most important “answers” to problems your prospects are desperately looking for?

That’s right – very different!

How can cleaning businesses find more jobs? Start by creating more value.