The cleaning industry is booming. Both the domestic and corporate sectors are expected to grow substantially in the next six years, and companies can look forward to increasing their revenues and hiring more employees.
If you run a small or medium-sized cleaning business, it’s imperative that you prepare yourself for the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. It’s easy to become distracted and focus on day-to-day tasks, missing the bigger picture in the process. But this is a costly and unnecessary mistake.
In this post, we’re going to look at six practical ways you can prime your business for success in the coming months and years.
1. Update Your Tech Stack
If you rely on outdated, legacy software to power your day-to-day business tasks, you’re unnecessarily putting yourself at a disadvantage. Modern tools, which can handle everything from online appointment scheduling to marketing automation and contract management, are inexpensive and easy-to-use. Many of these solutions have been built specifically to fit the needs of smaller companies.
Advanced tech stacks aren’t the exclusive domain of large enterprises. And owners and managers that invest in good cleaning business software have a significant edge over their competitors. What’s more, the vast majority of businesses usually see a positive return-on-investment after purchasing new software in only a few months.
2. Clarify and Expand Your Value Proposition
While the cleaning industry is active and growing, it’s also highly competitive. It’s important to understand that a potential client will likely be evaluating multiple alternatives. A generic set of services will carry comparatively little appeal. That’s why you should think about how you can build and communicate a multi-faceted, compelling value proposition.
The term “value proposition” refers to the unique package of services that you provide. While they might not be particularly innovative on their own, when seen as a collection, these services differentiate you from your competitors in a significant way. Do you, for example, offer fast turnaround times? What about the environmental impact of your cleaning products? Are you an equal-opportunities employer? Are all your staff pre-vetted to ensure that they’re reliable and trustworthy?
3. Explore New Marketing Strategies
Cleaning businesses tend not to be at the forefront of emerging marketing trends. To the contrary, many rely on outdated advertising methods like flyers, print adverts, and referrals. While these aren’t bad in and of themselves, they only represent a portion of the broader marketing opportunities on offer.
Consider leveraging tools like social media, paid ads, content marketing, account-based marketing (for larger clients), and so on. By taking a proactive approach and testing these channels, you’ll generate new pools of leads and reach previously untapped markets. What’s more, leveraging an up-to-date tech stack will enable you to automate many time-consuming marketing processes, like posting regularly to social media or optimizing your site for search engines.
4. Build Loyalty With Your Existing Customer Base
If you’re like, most small businesses, you’re probably overlooking opportunities to further monetize your current customer base. Building a loyalty program will achieve two things. First, it will ensure that you lose as few of your existing clients as possible over the long-term. Second, it will allow you to pitch additional services and drive referrals.
Offering discounts and rewards to long-term clients is one way of building loyalty. You should also maintain a mailing list and communicate regularly with customers and potential customers to build relationships. Finally, think about referral incentives you currently have in place and how you can improve them.
5. Implement Employee Wellness Initiatives
Employee wellness initiatives have been shown to provide an array of business benefits, including higher levels of productivity, fewer sick days, and increased employee retention. While the research around employee wellness programs is still emerging, it’s worth committing resources to programs that promote workplace health and satisfaction and tracking the results.
In particular, consider gathering feedback from employees and opening a dialogue so that you’re able to pinpoint and address problematic areas. It’s also worth considering opting for an outsourced solution and working with experts to design your employee-facing processes and environment to optimize happiness, health, and efficiency.
6. Provide Flexible Subscription Plans
Customers of subscription services are increasingly demanding a high level of flexibility. As a cleaning business, it’s likely that you have long-term weekly or monthly contracts with the majority of your clients. Building flexibility into your subscription packages is a great way to add value and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
While it might seem counterintuitive, enabling customers to change their subscription packages quickly and easily can actually lead to increased revenues and loyalty. Do you allow corporate clients to reduce cleaning frequency when employees aren’t in the office? What about when individuals are away or on holiday? Do you provide one-off services for events, conferences, training days, and so on, in addition to a core package?
Conclusion
While the cleaning industry is experiencing significant growth, and will generate in excess of fifty billion dollars in 2026, there are still many challenges.
Businesses of all shapes and sizes need to deliver superior customer experiences, implement environmentally-friendly practices, and take care of their workforce. All while fending off competitors.
Business-owners that implement the tips outlined in this post will put their companies in the best possible position to thrive in the coming months and years. And now is the perfect time to start.