When starting a small business, you work hard to quickly fill your schedule and perform quality work to keep your customers happy. But there may come a time when you would be better off turning down a sale in your cleaning business.
When you have a customer who is eager for your service, why would you turn them down?
I can think of many reasons when it would be better to turn down a job than take it. After all, your main concern should be the quality of work and profitability. If you cannot guarantee these two, then your business will be at risk. If either of these may be compromised, then it’s time to pass on the job.
Table of Contents
Square Footage
If you’re doing the cleaning yourself, you may want to limit the size of the homes you service until you can hire workers to help. Large homes are very difficult for one person to clean on a regular basis, especially if the home has children and pets. Where you can clean 2,000 square feet easily, 4,000 square feet will usually take more than double the time to clean. Home owners with this square footage may not want you in their home that long and may prefer that you bring more team members.
Consideration should be given to the size of the rooms, type of flooring, and the number of bathrooms. Do you really have enough energy to clean the square footage and provide the work quality customers expect? After cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms, you may find it difficult to get through the remainder of the house and start cutting corners. Over time this adds up and this is when you have an unhappy client.
Location of the Residence
Sometimes home owners in outlying communities end up calling you. If the home is not close to the other homes you clean, you could be spending excess time and money traveling to the home. Make sure you don’t end up losing money on the job. If you can’t make a nice profit and still travel to your other appointments, then maybe you should take a pass.
Excessive Demands
Some homeowners want to customize the cleaning you do in their home. As long as you can charge appropriately, this isn’t a bad thing. A good reason to turn down clients with excessive demands is when you can’t charge what you need to because the client demands will never stop. These types of clients always want more for less and can quickly suck up all your time.
Your Target Market
If you are interviewing prospects when they call, then you should quickly know if they are your target market or not. If not, how are you going to service them? Do you have the right products and equipment? These are real concerns because not everyone is your ideal client. When you go outside your target market you put your business at risk. Make sure you can provide the service they need before taking the job.
For instance, senior citizens can quickly get confused with too many people in the house. If you are sending workers, try to limit it to one person who knows how to handle seniors. Without training your workers on the customer service issues of seniors, you could quickly generate negative feedback for your business.
Start looking at your business in terms of long-term success. Often it’s better to turn down a job than take it and have your business suffer down the road. Your business needs a constant flow of the right customers who are happy they have chosen you to service their home. Don’t let the wrong job impact your cleaning business success.
Have you taken on a job that made you wish you hadn’t? Leave a comment and share.
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