Don't Lose Thousands to Save Hundreds

For the past several episodes, I have focused in on the current crisis of COVID-19 in hopes of helping you through it. It's May and spring is in the air. States are beginning their reacclamation to the world. I felt it was time to catch you up on my own solo cleaning business and get back to the show format that I began. Before I go backward, let me share an awesome story. In "Local Heroes", Ellen Johnston of Above & Beyond Housekeeping in Reading, PA was ecstatic as her company's video clip on the news of passing out free sanitizer to her community was picked up in a video by musical superstar Alicia Keys. Ellen's very own Cary Extraordinary (my nickname) is featured at the 53-sec mark in Alicia's new song "Good Job" music video! So cool!

Let's go back in time as I would like to catch you up on my own solo cleaning company before COVID-19. My aim is to show you how this crisis affected me personally and then tease out lessons from each episode to help you with your solo cleaning business going forward. The last Carfagno Cleaning update was "Know Your Numbers", where I explained the mindset behind a $50 client referral. If you missed that episode, check it out!

I was tracking the leads from my housecleaning client Erika. She posted a testimonial in our local mom's group. This kindness generated eight leads and one hired me! Here's the mindset, so you can follow along. I built a strong cleaning profile on FB. My wife joined the FB mom's group and participated in the group. She saw a mom's post who was searching for a cleaner and private messaged Erika. Erika called me and we set up an estimate, followed by a proposal, and I was hired! I worked with excellence to impress my new client, which I did for 2 months. Erika wrote a follow up post on the mom's group that she asked for a cleaning recommendation a few months ago and found a great one. This post generated 8 leads. Kim contacted me and ultimately hired me. I paid Erika a $50 referral credit as a thank you. I now needed to impress Kim to repeat the cycle of excellence, trust, and more referrals.

I did exactly that. In my first visit, I did part 1 of an initial deep cleaning of Kim's house. It looked awesome and Kim noticed right away. She was so happy with the master bathroom especially. While I was there, we had a conversation that lead to two breakthroughs:

• I've always known how simple, yet powerful it is to have your solo cleaning company legit with insurance and tax-compliance. Kim let me in on the backstory with her former cleaner. It was a mother-daughter team. They were capable, diligent, and reliable. However, they were not legit. Kim always wondered, 'what if something happens?' Inevitably, something did happen. The cleaner damaged a piece of furniture. Although she owned the error, she didn't offer to pay damages and Kim had no recourse to file an insurance claim. This is what lead Kim to call me. In my communication, I gave prices and details for my fully legit service and gave Kim instructions for how to get her cleaner compliant as well. Kim followed my advice and asked her cleaner about insurance. Her cleaner's response didn't surprise me. "Oh yeah, I'm going to getting to that soon." They are ALWAYS getting to that soon, yet never get to it. After Kim and Chris heard this, they decided to invest the extra money into a cleaning service that gives them great service and peace of mind. That peace of mind has a value. Unfortunately, the old cleaner lost thousands of dollars because she didn't want to invest a couple hundred. Don't let that happen to you!
• Kim is in a new development with over 100 homes. She shared that they have an internal What'sApp chat for the women and men in the development. Kim shared my business on that internal group and offered to continue promoting my business. It took 2 months with Erika before she was willing to refer me. Kim was willing after one visit. This is uncommon, but it shows the potential of how referral marketing is supposed to work.

​During this week, I also followed up on my Google My Business listing. I asked 10 more past clients to write reviews and checked back with others I've already asked. This online profile has an opportunity to grow my cleaning business by providing free SEO locally when people search "house cleaning" in my area. I also posted before & after pictures of Kim's house cleaning to my profile.

Mentions:

• Andy Storch (Talent Development Hot Seat)
• Vincent Pugliese (Total Life Freedom)
• The 80/20 Rule for Sales and Marketing