Why Do Commercial Cleaning Clients Cancel Accounts?

Losing a commercial cleaning account is never a fun experience, but it is your job as the owner to figure out what went wrong.

There are many reasons commercial cleaning clients cancel accounts:

• performance is sub par
• lack of communication
• theft
• client went out of business
• client is relocating outside your area
• client is going to in-house cleaning
• client is going with another cleaning company for personal reasons

These are just a few of the reasons you may lose a client. There are some things you can do nothing about, such as a client going out of business or relocating outside your area. But there is something you can do about sub par performance and lack of communication.

First, review your quality control procedures if performance is the issue. Make sure all employees understand the cleaning specifications, and make sure the supervisors are following up according to your standard. Clients have little patience for a cleaning company that offers subpar service.

You need to make a concerted effort to communicate with your clients. If lack of communication is the reason for losing the account, it could be that your client just wanted to hear from you more often. Communicating with your clients regularly is often more important to them than the quality of the service; especially if you resolve concerns immediately.

If you address the reasons you lost the account and take steps to correct the problem, cancellations should be a rare occurrence. If you lost the account due to no fault of your own, stay in touch with the former client. You may be able to win them back over time.

What are some of the reasons you've lost accounts? What did you do to win them back?

Comments

[moxiemaids]

I own a maid service in Parma, Ohio and have actually got out of the commercial cleaning business and stick to residential cleaning. I have tried but it seems like commercial cleaning is sold based upon price. Any any time you sell a service base on price you are bound to be undercut. In my opinion residential clients may be more tedious, but they are also more loyal.

[Jean Hanson]

I would have to disagree with you. We've owned 2 commercial cleaning companies and had a very profitable business based on solid relationships with our clients. Yes, commercial accounts typically have a budget to adhere to and price is a factor, but when it comes down to making the decision they will go with the company that offers the best value. If you only dealt with people looking for the lowest price then you either targeted the wrong type of account or you played into their concern about price and didn't focus on the benefits of the service.

[Jen McCleve]

I think that if you have a good honest cleaning company that does a good job then I don't think that you should have any problems keeping clients. If a client leaves then there really isn't anything you can do about it, but if you have a good reputation then you're going attract more clients.