Cleaning-Success.com

Does Text Marketing Work For Cleaning Companies?

One of our members recently had a marketing company contact him about text marketing for his cleaning company.  "He said that for $99 per month, they would send out 3,000 texts to people who had 'opted in' to receive marketing texts. $.03 per text. Not bad."

But is it really a good deal? I recently saw a story on one of the morning shows about the poplularity of text message marketing. One woman said, "I love getting texts with deals from local businesses because it saves me a lot of money". But she was talking about discounts at restaurants, coffee shops, discounts on oil changes, hair cuts, and dog grooming. These are all purchases that are quick, inexpensive and don't require a lot of thinking or planning.

Hiring a cleaning services is not a quick-decision service, unless you're practically giving it away like some of the coupons I've seen at Groupon. And even then, people need to do some planning to get it scheduled. Is this the type of service you really want to provide? Most of us are looking for regular clients with ongoing service. Text marketing is designed to generate traffic and quick sales in the hopes of upselling when they get in the door. I don't know too many cleaning company owners that like to market their business this way.

Do you agree? Post your comments below.

Why You Can't Ignore Dissatisfied Customers In Your Cleaning Business

I just read an article about customer churn rate in a magazine called Upsize.

"According to the 2010 Harris Interactive Customer Experience Impact Report, 86 percent of consumers quit doing buiness with a company because of a bad customer experience, up from 59 percent just four years ago."

Wow, that's quite a statistic, isn't it?  Your customer churn rate affects your revenue, which in turn affects how much you're able to  spend to gain new customers. So if you're not paying attention to what customers really think about your cleaning service, I hope this gets you to start.

"In addition, 60 percent of consumers will often or always pay more for a better experience, even in a negative economy."  So isn't it worth it to make sure every customer is getting the best possible experience every time their home is cleaned? You bet it is!

The article goes on to say, "The White House Office of Consumer Affairs notes that a dissatisfied customer will tell between nine and 15 people about a bad experience. Their comments often happen online." So if you aren't monitoring comments about your business online, now would be a good time to start.

But don't use social media monitoring alone. Although it's important, there are other ways to solicit feedback about your service -- surveys, comment cards, client focus groups, client interviews and online monitoring. Be pro-active when it comes to getting feedback about your service -- don't wait for your customer to send you unsolicited feedback because it won't paint a true picture of what is happening in your business.

It doesn't matter so much how you gather customer feedback, it's important that you recognize how critical it is when it comes to retaining your customers. When you listen pro-actively and respond quickly to your customers, you'll not only outshine your competition, you'll have happy, satisfied customers!