How to Bid On Residential Cleaning

How should your cleaning business prepare a bid on residential cleaning jobs?

There are two parts to the answer.  One deals with the outline you use to demonstrate professionalism; the other deals with the message you send to create interest. Both are important.

Let’s tackle the outline issue first.  Any professional residential cleaning bid or quote for maid services should cover a variety of important topics. These topics should be organized into a logical order so the homeowner can quickly and easily get clear answers to their basic questions.
What questions?

Well, the primary ones include: Who are you?  What do you offer?  How are you qualified or experienced for this job? What does your cleaning plan for them consist of in the areas of service schedule, job specifications and task frequencies?  What systems, policies or procedures do you have in place to guarantee your cleaning?

Other topics needing to be explained in detail in a residential cleaning bid include billing, payment terms, supplies, equipment, and insurances, as well as, references, length of the agreement and provisions for cancellation.

Plus, a cleaning bid should have, whenever possible, insurance certificates, list of references and detailed supporting reports.

Finally, if you offer any additional cleaning services beyond standard maid service duties, it is a good idea to describe them in your residential bid as well. For example, you might offer carpet and upholstery cleaning, stone and marble care, power washing or window cleaning services.

Your residential cleaning bid should follow standard formats homeowners are used to seeing when comparing programs offered by contractors who provide maintenance services. For example, customized cover pages and cover letters provide unique opportunities to demonstrate your attention to details about the home you are bidding on.

The outline or structure of a residential cleaning bid should be clean, thorough, easy to understand and accurate.  It should also be without grammatical or spelling errors to further reinforce their opinion of you as a professional with an attention to detail.

The second part of the answer to the question of how you should prepare a cleaning bid is – the message.  What message you send to your prospective residential cleaning or maid service customer is just as, if not more important, than the layout of the proposal itself.

In some important ways, your cleaning bid becomes you, or at least represents you, during those times in the sales process when you cannot physically be with your prospect to explain the program, answer their questions or handle their objections.  Your residential cleaning bid or proposal becomes in a way, a salesperson for you, remaining with the prospective client even after you have left their home.

From the cover letter to the last section of the proposal, you are sending a message whether you know it or not.  That message is what creates or destroys their interest in you and your cleaning business.  It is a big opportunity.  It is a big responsibility.   You want to be sure you’re sending the right message.

What is that right message?

It is the message of why your cleaning business, more than any other, is the best answer or solution to the customer’s cleaning questions and problems. If the outline is about the ‘look’, your message is about the ‘substance’.

Your message should consist of all the important ‘things’ that defines your company – makes you who you are.  Hopefully, who you are, is different than your competition in important ways that will powerfully attract your prospects to want to do business with your cleaning company.

What goes into the message?

Well, lots of things, but mostly it should be the procedures, policies and most importantly systems that allow you to consistently deliver the kind of residential cleaning you say you can deliver.

Prospective residential cleaning customers want more than promises. If the message in your cleaning bid makes it clear you have the necessary systems in place to deliver on the commitments you make in critical areas such as cleaning quality and customer service, you will have gone a long way in proving your case.

Your message should not be limited to only one or a few sections of your maid service proposal, but should instead be reflected in the wording used and explanations given throughout your bid proposal.  For example, commitments to quality and service apply to how you handle cleaning supplies and equipment as much as they do to how your people are trained and supervised.  Your cleaning prospects need to see and read about it in every part of your proposal.
So, how should you prepare a residential cleaning bid?

The answer lies in having a powerful value message that attracts prospects delivered in a professionally formatted maid service bid that convinces them of your commitment to that message.