All businesses require the trust of their customers. This is more obvious and necessary in some markets than others.
When it comes to the cleaning industry, trust is a non-negotiable. If you want to be profitable and successful with your new cleaning franchise, you must establish a strong reputation from the get-go. How do you do that if you haven’t had the opportunity to prove yourself? And how do you use trust to gain momentum? Here are three ways.
1. Forge Strong Business Relationships Early On
It takes a healthy amount of trust for a person to let you into his home. He needs to know the team he hires to clean his house won’t gossip with neighbors about anything they see, steal anything he has laying around, or damage his property. This isn’t something you can build through your website or marketing. It’s something that takes time.
When you’re starting your cleaning franchise, time isn’t always on your side. By forging business partnerships early on, you can harness the built up trust those contacts already have with your potential customerbase and use them to gain momentum in the market.
2. Choose the Right Partners
Just as important as it is to partner with people early on, you must choose the right people to partner with. Here are a few types of business partners to look to:
- Real estate agents;
- Mortgage brokers;
- Day care managers;
- Interior decorators.
Basically, anyone who works with residents to help them maintain a happy home and family life is a good connection for your cleaning franchise.
But there’s more to it than this. You must also know the reputations of each of these people in your area. If someone has a poor reputation and they spread your name around town, your reputation will take the shape of what they’ve built. Other companies and professionals who are admired will make your cleaning franchise look good. The opposite is true too. Choose wisely.
3. Ask for Reviews
People are busy. They often forget to leave a compliment or a kind word for a friend, much less a business. Still, having these compliments and kind words can work wonders for building trust and building a strong reputation in your community. To get them, you need to ask for them.
When you’ve finished cleaning a person’s home or a local business, don’t be shy about asking for a review. You might even want to leave cards to leave behind, letting the customer know exactly how he can rate your company and where. Google, Facebook, Angie’s List, and Yelp are four of the most popular review sites where potential customers go to learn more about cleaning companies. Getting reviews there can help you get more customers.
Growth Starts With Trust
In the cleaning industry, growth starts with building trust. This is hard when you’re just getting your feet on the ground but it shouldn’t stop you from buying a cleaning franchise. By connecting with the right people and asking for a little bit of help from your customers, you can dramatically increase your chances at success with your new venture.
Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Communications, a marketing firm specializing in content writing and social media management. She’s written three business books, including How to Get More Customers With Press Releases, and frequently blogs about small business and marketing on sites including Forbes, AllBusiness, The Marketing Eggspert Blog, and Tweak Your Biz. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.