Free Webinar on how to target market you residential cleaning service

I am sorry I have been pretty quiet recently.  I have been working on some new projects including the webinar below.  This is a free webinar I did for the Institute for Service Excellence on how to do target marketing for the residential cleaning industry.  This is a long webinar at an hour long so don't sit down to watch it unless you have some time.  I had a lot of fun.  This is a topic I really enjoy due to my background at P&G.

Marketing Webinar

Reason 2 Groupon will Kill Your Business

Imagine a sales person comes into your office.  He has this great idea for you to get new clients with no upfront expense.  He has developed a network of hundreds of people that will hand out coupons for a $100 of cleaning all over the city.  All he wants in return is the right to sell this coupon for $50 and to keep half the money himself.  You will lose at least $35 on each coupon client you work for but imagine all the people that will try your service and buy more at full price.  It is an interesting idea.  So you ask some questions.

Service Owner:   Where are these coupons going to be handed out? 
Sales Person:  We have thousands of people that wait for us on the street corners every day.
Service Owner:  But where, exactly?  Do you do Highland Park?
Sales Person:  We have too many users to track, they are all over town but we always sell at least 200 of these.  
Service Owner:  Will you sell them in Over the Tracks?  I do not service that area.
Sales Person:   We will sell all over town but you can clearly state on the coupon that it can only be redeemed on this side of the tracks.

Now would you sign up for this?  You have no idea who is going to get these things.   This guy could be standing in the welfare line.  He could be going to the local college.  He could be going to the worst most dangerous neighborhoods in town.  You have no idea where he is going to hand these things out.   Let’s be 100% clear, this is EXACLTY what Groupon does.  They do not care who buys the certificate.  They will sell to anyone.   I think this is part of the reason a FEW cleaning companies have had some success with Groupon, they got lucky.  In their area Groupon happened to go a slightly better demographic.  I did a small Groupon like offer and it seems they all sold to college kids in my area because that is who subscribed to Groupon. 

Even worse, Groupon is least appealing to the people we most want to attract.  What we are selling is really free time not cleaning.  We are selling the time and relaxation they are going to get from not cleaning their own home.  These are people that value their time more than money.  These kinds of people are the kinds of people that do not have time to read a bunch of emails and offers every day to try to save a few bucks.  They do not want to print out coupons or keep track of codes.  The customers we really want are seeking to make their lives simpler and Groupon does not make their life simpler.  Simply put you have no control over who is going to get your message and even worse, the people you really want are not going to use a service like Groupon.  And this is reason 2 of 5 why Groupon will kill your business.

Creating a Sense of Urgency - the science of why it matters

I had a couple of people email me to ask about my feelings on offers and what kinds of offers we use.  I do believe in doing an offer and part of the reason why is to create a sense of urgency.  I have attached the back side of a post card we use here at My Maid Service as an example. 

In a previous article I explained that effective marketing materials have three things, including a call to action.  For a really effective call to action, you have to tell your customers what to do and to make it urgent.  There is a famous experiment at Yale by a scientist named Howard Leventhal that provides proof.  Leventhal was trying to increase the number of students getting a free tetanus shot from the on-campus clinic.  So he created two brochures which were given to seniors.  The first was very descriptive with facts and data.  The second was designed to test the theory that marketing with fear would be more effective so he included lots of graphic pictures of people with tetanus and the terribly painful way they died.  Both brochures included the statement that shots were available for free at the student clinic and the phone number for the clinic.  In a survey after reading the brochure the students that read the more graphic pamphlet were three times more likely to say they were going to be inoculated.  However when he checked later in both groups only 3% of the seniors actually got the shot.

Dr. Leventhal then added to both pamphlets a map with the clinic circled and times when the shots were going to be given. This is the only thing that was changed on the brochures.  After this change both the high-fear and regular brochures led to 28% of the students actually getting the inoculation.  This one small change more than anything caused a nearly 10 times increase in the students actually getting the shots.  Remember these are seniors, they almost certainly knew were the clinic was.  The combination of the map and the times took getting a shot from a subjective idea to clear instructions to the students on how to fit this into their lives.  In the original brochure the students were convinced a tetanus shot was something they should get, eventually.  The second brochure made a tetanus shot something a student needed to have at a specific time and a place. 

This is a lot like our customers.  The scary brochure convinced the students that the shot was something they should do, when they got around to it.  They said on the survey they were 3 times more likely to get the shot but when it came down to it, only 3% actually did it, the same as the boring flyer.  Adding the date and time gave them a sense or urgency, they knew where and when they had to go to get the shots.  We need to do the same thing.  If our offers are good but they have no clear call to action, clients will throw it into their coupon box intending to get to it some day.  Some day never comes.  The idea that they may lose out on the offer encourages them to pick up the phone right now and take action.

What this tells us is that the single most important thing on any marketing material is the call to action.  You need to clearly tell the customer what to do and when.  For example we use “Call 513-934-3254 by Friday for $100 off the first time with bi weekly or weekly service”.  Not everyone will agree with this aggressive of a discount but we did it for a reason which I will explain in a future topic but you have to admit, it creates a real sense of urgency.  Call now is not enough.  You need to say to call what and when.  More than the expensive artwork and graphic designers you need to make sure you have a clear and urgent call to action.

Three things every advertisement MUST have!

Before buying My Maid Service I spent 12 years working at Procter & Gamble in sales and marketing.  P&G is considered the world's best marketing company with over 40 Billion-dollar brands including Tide, Pampers, Gillette, and Pringles.  Grab your latest advertisement and review it as you read this article to see if it measures up.

At P&G they taught us that all effective advertisements must contain three things.  There are lots of cute things you see in ads like catch phrases and humor but if you do not do these 3 things the advertisement will fail.  Don't get lost in the cute.

1. Make a Claim. - You have to tell your consumer why your product is going to make their lives better. For examples right now Pampers makes the claim “Helps maintain the natural healthy look of your baby's skin.”  In our industry we may claim things like “We will give you back your weekend.” Or to quote The Maids Home Services “Nobody outcleans the Maids.”  That is a great claim.  I really wish they did not have it trademarked.  
2. Provide a reason to believe - You just told the consumer how great you are.  Now back it up. This is why right after the claim on a TV advertisement there is almost always a demo, some cool technology explained, or some back up piece of data.  For example Pampers will often say “Pampers Swaddlers with absorb away liners are the #1 choice of hospitals.”  In My Maid Service advertisements I always include the phrase “Voted the best in Cincinnati for 3 years in a row.” If you cannot use a third party endorsement you can talk about the cleaning products you use, the 39 item check list, or the experience of your employees.  Use whatever explains how you will deliver on the claim you made above.
3. Call to Action – You told them what your are going to do and why they should trust you.  Now close the deal.  Tell the consumer what to do.  For example, “Call 513-934-3254 for $20 off your first cleaning” or “Join our email list to receive great deals.”

Look at all your advertisements and make sure they have all three of these.  Even the professionals make serious mistakes.  Just last month I paid thousands of dollars to be in one of those direct mail coupon envelopes like Val Pak.  When they sent me my advertisement it looked great and I showed it to all the people in my office.  No one noticed the error, including me.  Then I sat down and made a quick check for my 3 key elements.  There was no phone number or web address.  I had this great ad that the designer, my entire office staff, and even a 12 year marketing veteran did not notice had no way for the consumer to contact us.

So does this technique work?   Well it did for this article.  I convinced you to give me your valuable time to read my article.  Read the first paragraph again.  Claim  - I will teach you how to grow you business.  Reason to believe – I worked for 12 years in marketing for the world's best marketing company.   Call to Action -  Read this article and apply it to your latest marketing piece.

Lessons learned: No man can serve two masters

My blog on Groupon from Thursday made me think of another more general lesson I have learned and unfortunately it took several times of learning it for the lesson to really stick.  That lesson is no man, or cleaning business, can serve two masters.  Let me explain what I mean.  Most of you have learned that managing the expectations of one customer is hard enough.  What makes it even harder is managing the expectations of two people.  Let me give you a few examples. 

At some point, most cleaning service owners decide they want to work with real estate agents.  After all, agents know when people are moving into and out of town and clients often ask for recommendations.  However, more often than not, these relationships end in disaster.  Why?  The answer is simple, there are two masters.  Let me give you a few examples.  A realtor has a client trying to sell his house.  The agent recommends they hire cleaning service and recommends you.  You talk to the client listing the home and decide on a budget and scope of work.  You do a walk through and the client is happy.  The next day, you get a furious call from the realtor.  She has a standard of clean and we have not met it.  She expects a professionally cleaned house to look like X, Y, and Z and we did not do it.  We try to explain that her client did not want for and refused to pay for those services but she is having none of it.  She cannot show the house like this.  She has a reputation to defend and she will not refer us any more business unless we reclean the house to her standards. 

Lets look at another version of this I have seen.  You get a call from a landlord.  His renter is moving in and the house is basically clean, he already had it cleaned once and it met his standards.  His new tenant is not happy and wants a few things touched up.  The landlord agrees to pay for up to 4 hours of touch up work but not a penny more.  You get there and the landlord is right but this is a VERY picky tenant.  She wants every black mark off the baseboards, the fridge to look like brand new, and all the windows and tracks spotless.   You call the landlord and explain that it will take more time but he is having none of it.  4 hours is enough he says.  The place was already clean, make the renter prioritize.  The renter is furious, she wants her house spotlessly clean and it is our fault because we are refusing to do the work.  Everyone is unhappy and you are stuck in an impossible situation.

It has taken far too many times to learn this lesson but more often than not, if there are two parties to a cleaning service, it is going to end badly.  You are almost always better off to just walk away from these kinds of jobs.  They create far too much heart ache for the amount of money involved because they are almost always one time jobs.

Why groupon will kill you part 1

I am going to write an entire series on why not to run Groupon.  Part one, it is bad for your reputation.  All of these sites are designed to encourage impulse buying.  There is a time limit ticking down and a deal they will lose if they not act now.  People are busy and they DO NOT READ THE OFFER!  No matter how clear you think you may be in the offer, they are not going to read it.  They are going to skim it an make assumptions then press buy and their credit card gets charged.  Then they call you to schedule the serve. 

Compare this to how we normally sell our services.  Someone calls us and we talk to them either in person or over the phone.  Some people have crazy expectations.  Some people are outside our area.  Some people call the day before a major holiday and want to be scheduled before the holiday.  In each of these cases we explain what we can and cannot do and let them know we cannot help them.  They then move on to another service.   Bullet dodged.

Let me explain what happens with Groupon.  They skim the offer and read “house cleaning $75”.  They go great, my mother in law is coming this weekend and I really need more 6,000 square foot house 30 miles away from town cleaned and they press buy.  They almost never call BEFORE they buy.  I know people that sold 1,400 coupons and 12 people called before they bought.  Now you are thinking, but Derek, my offer was very clear.  When they call I will just explain I cannot give them what they want and they can get a refund from Groupon or give it to a friend.  Well yes, that is what would happen if we were dealing with a rational person but lets be clear, this is NOT a rational customer we are talking about.  This is the person that calls you for a quote and you decline their business and suggest they call your worst enemy to cuase them pain and torment.  This is evil impossible to please customer has already bought and paid for your service.  No one screaned this impossible to please customer out of your system.  These people will tear you to pieces on line because you did not deliver on their EXPECTATIONS. 

I did a small test with a Groupon like deal.  I am thankful every day I did a small test and only sold 54 of these.   I had one man that I sold a coupon just like I described above.  I kindly explained that I could not do what he needed done and to call Groupon and get a refund.  We did not even try to clean this guy.  I even pointed out that the offer said on it we could not guarantee days, we only services these areas, and the offer was for only 4 hours.  It did not matter.  This man was FURIOUS.  He had company coming.  He bought a coupon to get his house cleaned and we were letting him down.  He needed his 6,000 square foot (plus basement) house cleaned tomorrow on Friday and it was 20 miles outside our service area.  I very calmly pointed out the details of the offer but it did not matter.  I even told him how to get a full refund.

 Now the coupon was very clear.  If this went to court I would win in 45 seconds.  But in this case I get tried in a new court called on line and social media.  This gentleman, and I use the term very loosely, then went online to Yelp, Google, City Search, and anywhere else he could find and posted terrible reviews on how he had scheduled a cleaning service with our company and we refused to deliver what he was promised causing his big family reunion to be a disaster.   Yes I responded on line but it lowered my star rating and a lot of people do not read the comments and now my average is lower.

Some people I have shared this story with said I should have cleaned him just to keep him happy.  I disagree.  This man was impossible to please and basically an evil human.  If I had managed to get the 10 hours of labor clear on 24 hours notice to clean his home for $37.50, this is the kind of person that does not treat people well.  He would have mistreated my employees maybe causing me to lose some employees.  I would have had to bump other good full price paying clients.   I would have lost hundreds of dollars and he probably would still write a bad review.  I was *&%$ the second he pressed that buy button.  All I could do is minimize the damage.  For this reason Groupon, Living Social, and any other web platform that sells my service without having the client first talk to me, is doomed to fail.  We must always talk to the client first to make sure they have realistic expectations before they buy because no matter what disclaimers you have, if you cannot meet their expectations after the purchase they will not be happy.

How trying to get coffee this morning proves Chemical Free Cleaning will work

A lot of people keep telling me that this chemical free cleaning company is a bad idea.  I am constantly told that no one cares about green cleaning much less cleaning with nothing but water.  Even some companies that do offer it tell me they don’t think their customers really care.  Everyone seems to agree that no one will pay a premium for it.  They all seem to think I am nuts.

Well today I tried to go to breakfast with a friend.  I say tried because it became quite an adventure.  We are not at home so we would pull into a place, go in, then we had to leave.  They used foam cups and he will not drink out of a foam cup.  We did this 3 times before we FINALLY found a place he could get a cup of coffee.  Remember this is a $2.00 cup of coffee at most and we spent more than that in gas much less time driving from place to place.  The reason why he cared so much?  He said studies show that hot drinks leach the toxins from foam and that gets into his body.  He also will not eat anywhere that uses a microwave including his home because the excitement of the water molecules breaks down anti oxidants and creates free radicals.  This guy is my customer.  This guy will pay for chemical free cleaning.  He cares if there is chemical residue on his floor, shower, and counters.   He knows natural does not mean safe.  This guy cares a lot and it is not a price decision it is a health and life decision for him.  He spent 45 minutes looking for a place to give him coffee in a paper cup this morning.  A bi weekly customer will generate $3,000 - $4,000 a year in revenue so I only need to find 250 people like him to hit $1,000,000 in revenue. 

 My nemesis this morning

                                                 

It is true if I do mass marketing most of my customers will not care.   But if I really think about who this guy and where he goes, I can find more like him that will care.  I need to go where this customer is and not expect him to come to me.  I need to fish with a line and hook and not throw a huge net,  He probably uses gets his food from a farm coop or CSA.  He probably goes to a Yoga studio.  He subscribes to health publications.  He is highly educated on the topic of health so I can reach him there.  Not only does he exist but he is very easy to locate because it is a very specific niche and no one is serving him.  No one is speaking his language.  This is why the new chemical free cleaning company is going to be a success.