Not every job in the cleaning business is a regular recurring cleaning account. Some are one-time jobs for services like window cleaning, carpet cleaning and spring cleanings.
These certainly aren’t as profitable as having a 5 time per week cleaning account, but you can’t be choosy. A paying customer is a paying customer right? Take what is given you is my philosophy.
But just because a customer hired you for a one-time job DOES NOT MEAN that you will never see them again. Odds are if you do a great job and provide knock your socks off service they may call you again when the need arises.
But this call is NOT GUARANTEED. You could have done the most fantastic job ever. The customer might have been wildly happy with the results. They might have even given you a testimonial praising your awesome service.
They might have said they’ll call you in a few months, and yet you NEVER heard from them again. What the heck happened? Why haven’t you heard from them? What changed? The answer is probably one you never considered.
They FORGOT YOUR NAME. I know that sounds pretty simplistic, but statistically that’s probably the answer. The reason behind this is PEOPLE ARE BUSY. They lead hectic lives and their priority in life is THEIR FAMILY.
The SERVICE YOU PERFORM may be important to them occasionally, but the company that performs the service IS NOT IMPORTANT. This is HOW your name slips through the cracks and GETS FORGOTTEN.
You can counter-act this tendency of the customer by staying in front of them regularly by sending them postcards, leaving them your business cards or even a magnet plastered with your company info.
These tactics are low-cost and give you the ability to stay in front of them regularly so you build some brand recognition. These ideas are what the “big companies” do and should be a part of your retention marketing game-plan.