Kim D.

Blog posts by me
The 8 Key Features You Need for a Successful Cleaning Business Website

The Most important Features that Every Cleaning Business Website Should Have

What do most people do when they need someone to perform a service, such as carpet cleaning? They google it! In a sea of competition, you’ve got to make sure your business stands out from the rest. Having a clear and easy to read website is one of the best ways to stand out and make yourself the obvious choice. It’s one of the most valuable sales tools you can have! This is where having certain elements on your website to drive those sales becomes critical. Luckily, there are a few very simple - and easily executable - things you can do yourself to make your website the best it can be without having to go out and hire an agency. 

With that in mind, here are some essential website features that will make you the easy choice for whoever’s surfing your site looking for their next cleaning. 

1. Have a Gallery Showcasing Your Work

Seeing is always believing and if you're in the cleaning business, there's no better way to convince potential clients to hire you than by showing them photos of your work. Also, there's something oddly satisfying about before and after pictures, especially when it comes to cleaning transformations! All it takes is a few simple snaps before and after and you can highlight your past jobs and craftsmanship.

Pro Tip: Pro Tip: If a customer insists on bargaining, learn how to overcome their price objections here.

Photo gallery of before and after pictures for a pressure washing business website
Pressure Kleen Co. provides a gallery of the exterior cleaning work they done for previous clients, showcasing both residential and commercial projects.

2. Have a Clear Call To Action

For most cleaning pros, this will likely be a button or a link that takes a customer to a contact form, scheduling screen, or contact number/email. Whatever shape this call to action takes, it should drive them directly to you in as few clicks and steps as possible. Your goal with the call to action doesn't have to be just to book new clients, either. You can also use them to gather potential new customers’ information so you can market to them later

A good call to action is clear, concise, and it should be obvious to the reader what actions you want them to take. Call to actions can be buttons that say “Contact Us Now” or “Schedule a Cleaning Today”. These call to action elements should be consistent in their design (color, fonts, size, etc.) and placed in key areas of your website (near the top, after any major sections) and definitely at least once on every page.

Construction Cleaning website page featuring a clear call to action button to request a quote
Pacific Northwest Construction Cleaning has a very simple yet effective design that makes it easy for potential clients to request a quote with 1 easy to see button

3. Build Trust & Give Customer Testimonials

Nowadays, reviews are one of the first things someone looks at when choosing a business. If you put a lot of time and effort into providing great customer experiences and your clients are letting you know, don’t be afraid to ask them to post written feedback for you. Platforms like Google and Facebook do a great job of showcasing reviews of a job well done, and you’d be surprised how much attention potential customers pay to them.

Pro Tip: Make followup easy and automate communications with your clients after each job: Automate and engage users with pop-up widgets like those you can get from the free Engage tool by NiceJob.

Make sure your website features a good variety of client testimonials. Your reputation says a lot, and by letting your past clients speak to your professionalism and quality of your service, you’re going to increase credibility. You can not only feature client reviews, but also any industry awards you’ve received or quality guarantees. 

Feature your customer testimonials in multiple areas. Highlight them on various sections of your website between major blocks of content. Once you've gathered enough, dedicate an entire page to house all of your reviews. If you're new and in the early stages of your cleaning business, focus on building credibility and go the extra mile.

Testimonials page for a pressure washing website containg genuine customer testimonials
Pressure Washing Clearwater has a page dedicated to genuine customer testimonials

4. Have an 'About Us' Page

Everyone loves a good story. Even if it isn’t thrilling to you anymore, most potential buyers on your website will be interested in learning about your team and and how your company came to be. You can use it to talk about your company philosophy, where you're based, and how your company came to be.

To introduce your team, all you really need is a picture of each employee with a short bio about them. That’s it! What’s key is to just show potential customers the faces of the people doing work for them. 

Pro Tip: Another great way to add trustworthiness and let your potential clients know more about your team is with ID badges from The Seal. They provide a photo and 3rd party proof of verification of background check, are an excellent way to show clients that you’re reputable.

The 'About Us' section for an exterior washing company website, featuring the history of the company
ProShine SoftWash has a great 'About Us' section along with photos of team members to give people a good impression of the people behind the company.

5. Have Service-Specific Landing Pages

This mostly applies to companies that offer more than one service, but it’s a good thing to think about for any business, regardless of your scope of work. Say you’re an exterior cleaner who offers soft washing, window cleaning, and roof/gutter cleaning. In most cases, a potential customer will be searching for one of the services you offer, not just general exterior cleaning. 

A great way to boost your ranking for your relevant search terms is to have a specific landing page for each service you offer. The end result is that when a potential customer searches “window cleaners in [insert city]” on Google, you have a higher likelihood of showing up for that specific service. While your main page should highlight everything that you do, it will definitely help you to have specific pages that go into more detail on each service you offer.

Carpet Cleaning website featuring a menu of specific floor cleaning and restoration services offered
ChemDry has an easy drop-down menu to take you to different specific landing pages dedicated to all the different cleaning service they offer

6. Make it Easy for Customers to Get in Touch

While this may be similar to the call to action element for you, it’s worth revisiting. Having clear and easy-to-find contact information on your website is CRUCIAL. People need to know how to contact you as soon as they are on your site, as well as on any page after that. 

Make your contact info easy to find and intuitive. There’s nothing worse than making someone hunt and search to find out how to find or contact you! Put your phone number, email, and in some cases your physical address, in the footer of your site, on a “Contact” page, and within any sort of call to action. Many cleaning businesses even put their phone number in the header of their website so it’s clearly visible at all times. 

Pro Tip: Learn how to connect to potential customers by using your website as a sales too here.

7. Make Sure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly

The vast majority of website building is done on a desktop computer, and because of that it’s shockingly easy to forget about what your site looks like on a mobile device. A lot of recent data suggests that about half of all internet traffic is from a mobile device. So it’s safe to assume that about half of your website visitors will be on their phones. This is why it is so, so, SO important to have your website optimized for mobile. 

If you do your web design yourself, make sure the platform you’re using has a good way to optimize specifically for mobile. If you hire out, make sure that whoever you hired is spending just as much time on the mobile version of your site as they are on the normal desktop version. 

8. A Detailed FAQs Page

Having an FAQs page will not only help give your potential clients a better experience, but can also save you and your employees time in fielding phone calls or emails about simple yet frequently asked questions. If you've got techs or a sales team, they're sure to come across questions from clients that pop up again and again. Talk to them and let their feedback help you compile a list of the most often asked questions to include on this page.

The FAQs page can also help your website visitors with information to help guide their purchases. In addition to providing more info to sell to potential clients, having a comprehensive FAQs page will also help boost your visibility on Google and other search engines.

The FAQs page for a carpet cleaning website (ChemDry), containing the most frequently asked questions
Providing frequently asked questions on your website will help save you time in repeating yourself and also help potential clients make a decision to purchase.

In Conclusion

Again, your website is one of your most valuable sales tools. Give it the proper time, attention, and resources that you have to make sure it stands out from among the competition. Your potential customers will get a good sense of who you are as a business within the first 30 seconds of landing on your website, so it's important that you leave them with a good impression! Make sure to include these 8 elements on your cleaning business website and you will be set for success.

Marketing
Category:
How a Bootstrapped Seasonal Gig Grew into a Thriving Multi-Service Cleaning Business: Pete Happy of ProShine Part 2

In part 1 of Pete Happy’s story, we introduced to you how ProShine had its humble beginnings to grow into a thriving company. Pete talked in our interview about the reasons why he needed ServiceMonster to come in and help his company’s operations. There were so many elements that led to his company success that we wanted to continue it with this next series.

We’ll talk more about how ProShine worked through its growing pains and put tools to the task to make their business more efficient, and about how they ultimately were able to leverage their findings from a SWOT analysis to grow despite the challenging times.

Owner standing at 2 monitor screens looking at reports and schedules for his exterior cleaning business

QuickBooks as a CRM? Eventually you’re going to need the real thing.

QuickBooks obviously isn’t a CRM, but it’s not uncommon for small businesses to use it as their first CRM. Pete was no different. QuickBooks was his main tool for managing customer relationships from very early on because of its capacity to let him easily write estimates, convert those invoices and get payments. It worked great for a time but as the company grew, Pete recognized very quickly that things might start falling apart if he didn’t make some changes. Couple that with the fact that Pete was moving off the trucks and into sales - he wasn’t too keen on the idea of employees having unfettered access to his sensitive accounting data either.

Pete needed a buffer between his employees and the business accounting, and introducing ServiceMonster as his CRM helped establish that. Now he was able to give his team the tools they needed to be able to go do their job, but not put them in a place where there was the possibility of accidentally altering any crucial accounting statements. 

Everything Under One Umbrella

When it came down to making the move, ServiceMonster’s QuickBooks integration made the switch simple and easy! All it took was an invoice history import and everything was there at Pete’s fingertips. Now, he could get the support he needed for multiple worksites, and get a robust snapshot of each customer's history with a newsfeed while being able to process payments online all under one umbrella. 

And QuickBooks wasn’t the only application that he added to the mix. A few of the applications Pete already had in place that could be used within ServiceMonster were:

  • ResponsiBid - to streamline the sales process. It provides instant quotes online and in the field and follows up with leads to help them though the process.
  • The Seal - to find trustworthy employees and contractors with certified background checks. The Seal provides high-quality identification badges for employees to wear, along with sending an email to the client to  let them know the employee entering their home has been checked and is trustworthy.

ServiceMonster has many other integrations to help boost your company’s performance, too. To learn more about them and to find out if we have an integration for any of your existing business applications, visit our MarketPlace.

Make Life Easier for your Employees

Technician employee running a hose from work truck while doing an exterior cleaning job

When Pete was getting off the truck and adding more employees to expand his business, he needed to make sure his dispatchers and techs also had a seamless experience with the new software. Luckily, ServiceMonster was very user-friendly and one of the easiest things for his employees to learn when it came to training. Here are a few things techs have to make life easier:

  • Get text reminders before the job along with Google Maps navigation
  • Attach photos to a work order and see any work done before even going off to the job site
  • Get a newsfeed of work and communication history
  • Be able to review scope of work with the homeowner
  • See every task that needs to be completed with an end of job checklist 

Having ServiceMonster as a software keeps ProShine employees from waiting on answers and lets them better focus on their jobs. It's a great tool to help set them up for success from day one.

How ProShine went from surviving to thriving during covid

Ultimately, I don’t really believe we sell window washing.  I don’t really believe that we sell pressure washing. We sell an experience.

Covid changed the trajectory of many service businesses. One of Pete’s biggest struggles during that time was with staffing. With new work-from-home measures, ProShine saw a high increase in requests for their services to accommodate more outdoor activities. The flip side to the rise in business, however, was that there were not enough employees to get the work done. How did ProShine combat this? They raised prices to try to lower the amount of people that would be accepting their bids and to cover additional expenses. 

Though necessary, raising prices can be a daunting task for small businesses because it might mean a decrease in sales. But in Pete’s case, the loss in sales turned out to work in his favor. It reduced the demand during the pandemic to a level his workforce could now accommodate. 

But there was another missing piece to this equation. Pete knew that potential clients could easily hire any other provider to get the same job done for less money. So what made his clients choose to pay a bit more for his services?

Pete and his leadership team had done a SWOT analysis and found that hiring was one of their weaknesses. They were struggling internally and during covid, especially, there were literally zero job applicants. So they made a push to attract and hire top talent, and it ended up paying off in spades. Clients love his team, and because of that they return again and again. Pete understood that hiring a good team would be better for the bottom line, and what came from it was an impressive 74% residential repeat rate. Client retention and repeat business played a large part in the overall growth of his business.  

A Responsive Support Team

ServiceMonster is #1 reason why we can fulfill that value of being responsive

Alongside other key factors such as making company-wide changes to benefits and to attract top talent, ProShine devised an acronym that better reflected their mission and values: ROOTS. 

The acronym stands for:

Responsive

Optimistic

Ownership

Teamwork

Service

And Pete attributes  one of those key values - responsiveness - to the support he gets from the ServiceMonster team. He or any one of his techs and call on the phone and talk to someone from the team every time. They can give immediate answers or if not be relentless in figuring it out. Pete knows that, as the owner, if his dispatcher has an issue they can pick up the phone or shoot an email and there will always be a friendly, knowledgeable person on the other side ready to help. 

Thanks so much for the kind words, Pete. We appreciate you too!

Interviews
Category:
How a Bootstrapped Seasonal Gig Grew into a Thriving Multi-Service Cleaning Business: Pete Happy of ProShine Part 1

How a Humble Window-Washing Gig Grew into a Successful Multi-Service Exterior Cleaning Business

Back in 2013, and with only $180 worth of hand tools, Pete Happy decided one day that he would create his destiny - even better, to be his own boss. His seasonal gigs at Mt. Hood ski resort meant that he'd need to figure out quickly what to do with his summers, so with big ambition and some ingenuity, his window-washing business, ProShine, was born.

Nearly five years into bootstrapping the Pacific Northwest-based cleaning business with hard-earned cash, Pete was able to add an additional service vehicle and expand his services menu from purely windows to everything related to exterior cleaning - from roof cleaning, gutters, and solar panels to decks, driveways, and patios. 


The growth was exciting, and shifting into becoming a more grown-up business was more than a welcome event. Yet it started to become clear that the expansion would add some complexities to operations that couldn't be handled with the few existing tools they currently had. 

Watch the Interview:

With Growth Comes the Growing Pains

Until 2017-2018, it was one truck with Pete doing everything. He was using Google calendar to schedule things, and QuickBooks was his only software to manage estimates, invoicing, and payments. 


Using the Google calendar for scheduling jobs worked fine when it was only him. However, as Pete started adding more vehicles and services, things quickly fell into disorder and disarray, with random notes piling up everywhere and a calendar that couldn't handle multiple jobs and sites. He knew he needed some type of extra support for handling that, or else things would quickly go downhill. That's when ProShine made the switch to ServiceMonster.

"Notes were all over the place, you're using Google calendar for scheduling things…it was really just kind of a mess. It worked ok for just 1 truck but when we started adding additional vehicles it was going to fall apart."

ServiceMonster handled the more complex scheduling requirements that ProShine needed for its multiple worksites. In fact, ServiceMonster is a scheduling platform first! But beyond just scheduling, there were many other things that ServiceMonster helped with while Pete was navigating through his business expansion.


All your customers' info at a glance

"Being able to attach photos and review that history was another key piece…"


Pete was excited to be able to communicate info easily with his techs and have them see all their customers' info at a glance. They were no longer scrambling around and trying to make sense of random notes! They could also easily pull up info on their mobile devices. 


While inside customers' accounts, ServiceMonster's newsfeed gives them a full view of everything that's happened between you and the customer - including all communication history and work done. Employees could attach photos to the work order, review the scope of work with the homeowner, and see all of ProShine's previous jobs - all from out in the field and under one umbrella.


Business owner standing in front of his roof & exterior cleaning truck with colorful business logo


Marketing Made Easy

"No one answers the phone. It's the least effective way of getting anything on the schedule."


Before ServiceMonster, Pete's marketing system involved:

  • Importing his invoices to a spreadsheet.
  • Going through each invoice line by line.
  • Physically picking up the phone to make calls.

The phone calls were a personal way to reconnect, but he found it to be the least effective way of getting anything on the schedule. No one ever picked up the phone! In Pete's words, it was 'extremely labor intensive and really depressing.' 


ServiceMonster helped automate ProShine's marketing with straightforward drip campaigns that follow up with customers every time after the work is done - all done at a combination of different touchpoints and channels. 


Pete was looking for a more efficient way to market to his existing clients, and he understood that when he ran an email marketing campaign, only about half of the recipients opened their emails. Enter FillMySchedule (also known as FMS). With FillMySchedule, ServiceMonster's in-house automated direct mail marketing service, ProShine could automatically send out cards so those not checking their emails would get something in the mail.


And because it's automated, it's easy and consistent. And we all know that consistency is king when it comes to marketing!


Know your reports. Know your business

 "If there's one thing you can't screw up, it's someone's pay."


Pete's life got easier once ServiceMonster could help with providing automated marketing campaigns and support for his operations, all under one umbrella. But in addition to cutting down on time spent on tasks, ServiceMonster software provided another valuable and critical source for his business: Reports.


Before using ServiceMonster, Pete had no idea what his residential or commercial repeat rates were. Today, Pete can happily say what his repeat rates are (72% and 77%, respectively)! Repeat rate was a metric they didn't even know about until ServiceMonster entered the picture. If you know where your business stands, you know where you need to make adjustments.


Another ServiceMonster reporting game-changer for ProShine was being able to track employee performance pay. When it's time to run ProShine's payroll, Pete can easily pull a report to see how much each technician receives for their production bonus based on their production rate. It's an effortless way to track employee commissions while keeping things accurate. And if there's one thing you want to be accurate, it's someone's pay!



You've just read the first part of the story of ProShine's journey to becoming a growth hero. There's still a lot more to share! In next week's post, we'll talk more about how ProShine made a values-led decision to focus more on employees during covid, and how, while many service businesses struggled, they were able to work through the challenges and end up thriving.

Read Part 2 Here

General
Category:
10 simple ways to go the extra mile with customers

What Does 'Customer Service' Mean to Your Service Business?

You may think of customer service as the work you do in your clients’ homes, but it goes way beyond that—it's about how you carry yourself and treat people in general. In fact, many successful service businesses have built their reputations on going beyond just completing jobs; they've inspired customers with their professionalism, great attitudes, and general willingness to help whenever possible. 

I can think of one time I had a plumber in my home to fix a burst pipe. The first thing he did was take off his shoes before he entered so as not to track dirt inside. That level of respect for my home left a lasting impression on me! It went a long way toward building trust for him and his company and I never thought twice about calling him again.

Customer service is crucial for any home service business, but what’s more important is to be engaging, honest, and helpful so that you can go the extra mile for your customers every time.

Here are some simple customer service ideas you can use in your service business to set yourself apart from your competition:

1. Reach out. Don’t be afraid to make some calls.

The phone is an underutilized tool in the customer service arsenal, but it can be a powerful way to show your appreciation when you take the time to call someone who's given you their business. Call them up and ask them how they found you. Do they have any questions about the work done? Is there anything else that might make their experience better? Research has shown that a simple phone call works better to help people connect in a meaningful way. This type of personal touch will make for a lasting relationship with your customers—and it won't cost you much money at all!

2. Greet clients and prospects with a warm welcome

Have you ever stepped into a retail store and none of the sales people even bothered to look up and acknowledge you? You’d be surprised how far a simple ‘hello’ and a smile with eye contact goes. Even if you're busy, be sure to greet every client in person—it's a great way to set the tone for your relationship with them.

Use their name when you greet them and throughout your conversation. People like being recognized as individuals by those who serve them, so make it a point to use names whenever possible (including when addressing groups).

If you have a long list of open tasks on your agenda or are slammed at the office or on a job, don't let that interfere with showing up ready to serve the customers who matter most: those who've already shown interest in doing business with you! You'll turn off prospective clients if they get the impression that their needs aren't important enough for you to prioritize over yours.

3. Be honest about your skills and pricing

Be honest about your skills and pricing. Don’t over-promise, but don’t under-promise either. If you can usually do a job in one hour but you foresee this one taking three hours, tell the truth! Educate your client on the factors as to why and let them know if there are any delays in service that happened because of something outside of your control (like bad weather or an illness).

Be honest about the cost of materials if you have them on hand at a discounted rate for clients who use them for projects. For example, let's say that you sell tiles at wholesale prices as part of your business model; when someone purchases from you, they're paying retail prices anyway—so why not make up some ground by giving them some savings where they don't normally expect it? You could also offer services such as delivery or installation at no extra cost—because after all, what good is a discount if there's still an expense associated with obtaining said discount?

4. Offer reassurance to anxious customers

Make sure your customer knows you’re there for them. When customers are anxious about something, they need to feel reassured that you can help. So, let them know that everything will be okay: “I’m glad you called us about this problem; we want to make sure our customers are happy with their services. I know how frustrating it can be when things don't go as planned, but rest assured that I am here to help fix the situation as quickly as possible."

On the flip side, be transparent and honest if you don't have an answer yet. While offering them reassurance is important, sometimes a situation isn't clear-cut enough for a simple solution or quick resolution—in which case it may be best not offer any promises of fixing things right away until more information becomes available. Try this instead: "It sounds like there might be some work involved on our end in order to solve this problem--but since we've never dealt with anything like this before ourselves either, I'm not sure what exactly needs doing at the moment."

5. Go out of your way to provide helpful information

Be proactive with customers. You can’t assume that your customer understands the processes of the job involved. So be proactive in asking questions when talking to them to gather info that’s helpful in understanding their needs and wants better - including why they are looking for services like yours, along with what impact this would have on them (e.g., cost savings, time savings). 

Don't assume you have all the answers. Ask! While this may seem obvious, many businesses don't take any opportunities to dig deeper because they want quick sales rather than long-term relationships with their clients. Going above and beyond here will help generate repeat business down the road if done correctly.

6. Become an expert they can trust

You're a professional, and you want to be treated like one. That means that when you ask a customer for their opinion on your product or service, they should take the time to respond with constructive feedback. To earn that kind of respect from customers and clients alike, become an expert in your field by reading relevant books and articles, attending seminars and conferences related to your industry, and staying up-to-date on current trends in business.

Becoming an expert is also about building trust with customers—they'll feel more confident about trusting you when they can see that you know what you're talking about! You can earn this trust by being honest about what works best for them (and why), being reliable by showing up when expected or delivering work on time (or early).

7. Always clean up the job site

This should be a given, but you’d be surprised how often I’ve had experiences where service providers complete a job and leave a mess. A clean job site means a happy customer. It's easy to leave behind bits and pieces of your work, but it pays off in the long run to leave a clean space when the work is done. After all, what's the point of being done with a project if you're leaving work for someone else to deal with? The rule of thumb should be to treat and leave your clients’ space as good - if not better- as your own.

Another thing that customers appreciate is when workers clean up before they go home for the day. Show care and consideration on behalf of everyone involved in getting something done right.

8. Don't be afraid to apologize when appropriate

Apologizing is a skill that can be learned and perfected through practice. You don’t need to be perfect; it’s better to apologize than not, especially when it comes to customer service. Apologizing is beneficial for both parties involved because it demonstrates an understanding of the issue and shows your willingness to fix the problem, even if you weren’t the one at fault.

Effective apologies are simple: they include an acknowledgement of wrongdoing, an explanation of what went wrong, why it was wrong (if applicable), how you plan on fixing the problem and what steps you'll take next time something similar happens. In addition, an effective apology should avoid blaming others or making excuses—which means saying things like "I'm sorry" or "This isn't good enough." Instead, express regret for having disappointed someone's expectations by saying something like: “I know this isn't what we agreed upon but I'm going to try my best."

9. Always follow up

Once you've done a job for a customer, don't walk away and leave them hanging. If you're the type who's good at following up, it can be an opportunity to deepen your relationship with your customers and make sure they're satisfied—and happy to refer you in the future.

Here are some great ways to follow up after completing a job:

Call or text. Sometimes all it takes is a friendly phone call to put someone's mind at ease and confirm that everything went well. At the very least, this demonstrates that your company cares about getting things right!

Following up doesn't have to only pertain to after the job, either. A quick followup call or text to a prospect who didn't get back to you after an estimate also shows a commitment to relationship building and follow-through. If you haven't thought about using text messaging for followups, you should check out ServiceMonster's CHIIRP integration to see how you can easily automate followups with prospects or current clients. It's a great way to win warm leads and get repeat business!

Send a handwritten note or card. A handwritten note from someone means so much more than just an email or text message—it takes time and effort on their part as well as yours for both parties involved (which is why it's worth doing!). Plus, people love receiving snail mail these days!

Send a gift card or voucher for their next purchase/service with you. This could be used toward any follow-up services you offer that are specific to the work you just did or a coupon or discount code tucked in a handwritten thank you card. If you were particularly pleased with how understanding they were with a tough situation, consider sending them free merchandise or added services as well.

10. Handwritten thank you cards

Sound old-fashioned? Maybe so, but it works! Handwritten thank you cards are an excellent way to express gratitude and build lasting relationships with your customers. With the rise of social media and text, handwritten notes are far more meaningful than digital messages.

A handwritten note is a great way to show your customers that you care. You can use a template or make it unique, but the important thing is that you add your personal touch and let them know how much they mean to you. 

It's also a nice way to show customers that their business matters. If they see their order has been carefully packaged, they're more likely to believe that other aspects of their experience with your company are being cared for as well.

Did you know that ServiceMonster has an automated feature to help you do this very thing? It's called FillMySchedule, and instead of handwriting and mailing cards yourself, you can let ServiceMonster take care of it all with one tap of a button. It's one of the easiest ways to get repeat business and will come back in spades when it comes time for reviews! Customers remember good service and tell others about it—especially if there's something specific about it, like a personalized, handwritten note.

Remember, it’s the little things that often stand out

Customers remember the little things. They’re not just looking for a good service experience; they want an exceptional one—the kind that makes them feel special and appreciated. So go the extra mile in whatever ways you can: deliver above and beyond, send thank-you cards when someone has chosen you for their services, and even leave handwritten notes on receipts thanking them for their business (seriously!).

Customers remember how you make them feel. One of the best ways to make customers feel special is by going above and beyond their expectations and making sure experiences are memorable for all the right reasons—not because something went wrong!

If you want to build customer loyalty and make a lasting impression on your customers, then it's important to go the extra mile with them. By doing small things that show you care about their needs and wants, they'll be more inclined to trust in your service and return again in the future.

General
Category:
Spot Out: The Story of How a Small, Family-Owned Operation Grew into a Successful & Reputable Carpet Cleaning Business

How a Family-Owned Carpet Cleaning Business Used ServiceMonster to Save Time and Grow Into a Successful Cleaning and Restoration Company

Spot Out is a well-known floor care company in the Coachella Valley owned by Josh and Connie Klopfenstein. For almost 25 years, loyal customers have been trusting them with all of their high-end cleaning and restoration needs. Josh and Connie believe in offering only first class experiences, and they’ve made it their goal to set themselves apart from the competition by educating their customers with knowledgeable and informed expertise along with providing unsurpassed levels of thoughtful and personalized service.

Watch The Interview:

A Scalable Solution to Operating Your Business (Hint: It’s not doing everything with pen and paper)

In their early days as a family operation, Connie took over admin duties to help her husband, Josh, while he was moonlighting to start his carpet cleaning business. After some time, though, she found herself struggling with multi-tasking and the manual tasks involved with keeping track of new jobs and work orders - whether that was sending follow-up cards after each job or taking phone calls and booking jobs while at her kids’ baseball games. Doing everything with pen and paper was proving too chaotic and, as a result, this juggling left her with little faith that her current system of operations was a reliable one. The final straw was the one evening she forgot her business scheduling calendar at her daughter’s guitar lesson. Every record of the next day’s jobs and beyond disappeared in the blink of an eye! That’s when she knew things had to change and that she needed a way to reliably keep track of things. 

Josh and Connie began looking for a business solution. ServiceMonster was the easy choice to help automate all those tasks that Connie was previously completing by hand. They could stop relying on physical invoices and job folders to carry to each job, and Connie could stop having to rely on a calendar notebook to write down each client that needed to be scheduled. With ServiceMonster, Connie could now easily handle work orders and scheduling from her phone - all while still balancing life with kids and raising a family. Now she can schedule jobs from anywhere like a pro!

One of the Best Things You Can Do for Customer Retention

Besides reducing the chaos and clutter of pen and paper work orders and scheduling, one of the big things for Connie that set ServiceMonster apart from other service business softwares was FillMySchedule (otherwise known as FMS), ServiceMonster’s in-house automated marketing feature that sends out stamped, addressed high quality thank-you and follow-up cards to clients. Connie was already sending follow-up cards as a way to stay true to Spot Out’s ’old-fashioned service experience’ because it added a great personal touch and was a way to show appreciation for their customers’ business and loyalty. But instead of writing and sending each one by hand, now she could send them out with just a few clicks. And clients loved receiving them! 

For Spot Out and other companies, FillMyService is an excellent way to show how much you value your customers, as well as a great tool to get repeat business. If you want to read more about how a vast majority of ServiceMonster users have had their biggest growth and customer retention by using FMS, go here.

Be More Efficient and Manage Your Time Better

During Josh’s early days working as a delivery driver, time and efficiency was drilled into him. Subsequently, he carried this work ethic into his own business practice. So it was important to Josh that he be able to get the most work done in the shortest amount of time, and for the quality of client that he had. Introducing a software to do the things that he and Connie couldn’t - or didn’t want to - do themselves was key to keeping them professional and efficient.

Know Your Business To Make Better Informed Decisions

As a budding young business owner, Josh also understood there were certain aspects of his business that were still unfamiliar and new, like bookkeeping. With its QuickBooks integration, ServiceMonster helped him get a better grasp of where his company stood financially. Also, being able to see and track reports of his business progress helped him to make better informed decisions, such as being able to identify which clients brought the highest ROI and which ones who might not be the best fit.

Keep You and Your Employees on Track

After a few years, Josh and Connie were able to expand their business and hire new employees. For a long time, they were using route packets and handwritten invoices with job folders containing each client’s necessary paperwork. Just this year they went mobile using ServiceMonster! Now, both they and their techs are able to have visibility and tools from their mobile devices. Josh and Connie can see how far away techs are from the next job, and their techs are able to do a variety of things right in the home, like quote and collect payments.

Make Difficult Estimates Easy on Techs

ServiceMonster also allows for pre-filled pricing menus within the CRM, which Spot Out techs could refer to and quote with. This took a lot of stress and fear away from techs having to present high priced ticket items to the client, while allowing them to be consistent and build credibility.

Make Your Life Better with a Service Business CRM 

Adding ServiceMonster as their customer relationship management tool has helped Spot Out be more professional, more efficient, and to keep their highest ROI clients. Their goal of running a successful cleaning business while managing a family is now simpler than ever. As a result, they’ve even been able to make more time for themselves and expand their business to hire employees.

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