Communicating with Your Residential Cleaning Clients is Key

As a residential cleaning contractor, you not only need to provide a good service, but you also need frequent communication with your client to ensure that both parties understand their responsibilities and that there are no misunderstandings.

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communicating, residential cleaning clients

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Copyright 2006 The Janitorial Store

People hire a residential cleaning service to make their lives easier. As a cleaning contractor, you not only need to provide a good service, but you also need frequent communication with your client to ensure that both parties understand their responsibilities and that there are no misunderstandings.

Before taking on a new client, it is important to specify what services are included in their cleaning service. As you walk through the home with the client discussing the specifications list of what will be cleaned, be sure to ask plenty of clarifying questions. For example, "so you DON'T want us to dust the curio cabinet?"

Give your client the written specifications list so they know what is covered in their routine cleaning. Your specifications list may also include the additional services you can provide such as carpet cleaning or window washing, the fees for those services, and how much advance notice you need before taking on any additional tasks.

You may need to explain to your clients that your crews are scheduled to clean several homes on a particular day and therefore, any added services must be requested in advance. This not only ensures that your crew can spend the additional time needed to clean, but that they will have the right supplies for the job.

Good communication is also important in the case of accidents, mishaps or broken items. Instruct your employees to leave a note whenever a problem or accident occurs, and to contact you immediately so you are aware of the situation. It is handy to have a pre-printed form that contains a check off list (broken item, stain that would not come out, cracked window, etc.) to leave at the home and contact information for your cleaning company.

Your cleaning crew can also leave notes if they notice additional tasks that need to be done. Is it springtime and the windows need washing? Are the carpets looking soiled and need cleaning? This not only shows the client that you care about their home but can also lead to additional services you can provide and charge for.

Cancelled appointments or missed appointments can cause problems if you don't communicate with your client about your policies. Outline your cancellation policy in your customer contract and discuss it with your customer so they are fully aware of your policy. Conversely, if your employees miss an appointment, you need to have a policy in place that will keep the customer happy - perhaps a discount on the next service.

Don't let a simple misunderstanding of the services you provide escalate into losing a client. Keep open a good line of communication to help ensure your success. Make sure your crew leaves notes and check up with follow-up phone calls to keep your clients happy and your profits flowing!

Capture Clients with Words That 'Hook' and Graphics That 'Kick!'

Take these 5 design/marketing tips to heart. Using them consistently will save you time in the long run and attract more customers.

Keywords:

graphic design, marketing, desktop publishing, graphics, diy, design

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Do the marketing pieces you send out lack pizzazz and personality? Are they capturing the clients you want to work with?

As your company's in-house graphics person--perhaps more by default than by intention--you're pressed to be a jack/jill-of-all-trades. You want to do a great job of producing promotional pieces, but you have little time to learn advanced design and marketing skills.

Your ongoing challenge is learning to do a little more to get a lot better results--quickly and painlessly.

How can you improve them? What Techniques Can You Apply NOW?

Take these 5 design/marketing tips to heart. Using them consistently will save you time in the long run and attract more customers.

#1 Develop a brand identity and stick with it

Branding is an all-encompassing concept that brings together your business's product mix, pricing, ambience, promotions, identity, and much more. From a graphics point of view, it's your logo, stationery, business card, website, and flyers that create a graphic personality. Your descriptive tag line bonds these pieces with added pizzazz.

Think about familiar brands like Nike's. You know what it offers instantly when you see the logo (the Nike swoosh) and tag line (Just Do It!). You want that kind of instant recognition for your company.

The results? Your messages get noticed because you've built credibility and recognition into your brand through consistent use of graphic identity techniques.

#2 "Hook" customers with persuasive writing and a "call to action"

Make a habit of doing these two things: Use persuasive words that "hook" their interest, and include a well-defined call to action in every piece. When writing marketing pieces, what can you do to make them more effective? Apply these basics:

- Know who you are writing for and keep their preferences in mind as you write each word.

- Put your message in terms of "you" rather than "I" or "we." People don't care about what "we" offer; they care about how your product or service can make their lives better.

- Make it clear what your readers should do, think, or believe as a result of reading the information you present.

- State your intention as a command--known as a "call to action." It can be as simple as "Call Today" or "Order It Now."

The results? The whole point is to encourage your prospects to take action! Whether it's to send an email or pick up the phone and call you, using precision wordsmithing persuades your prospects to take action...now!

#3 Use digital photography and illustrations to add "kick" to your marketing pieces

A ho-hum marketing piece generates few calls. What a waste! Learn the ins and outs of working with digital photography and illustrations -- so much easier with Internet resources galore to choose from.

A few quick tips:

- Place your strongest image in the top half of the page where it will get the best visibility.

- Using one large picture makes a stronger impression than several smaller ones.

- Group several small pictures so they collectively form a single element.

- Juxtapose a small picture with a larger one for contrast.

The results? Photos and illustrations help you add the "eye" appeal that translates into "buy" appeal.

#4 Jazz up your layouts so your most important points stand out

Break up monotonous lines of text with attractive "pull quotes" or "call-outs," which make critical information stand out on the page. To create a pull quote, just copy a provocative or challenging statement from your text and paste it into a different position on the page using large, contrasting type. Add decorative quotation marks, border it with lines, or place it inside a box to jazz it up.

The results? The points of interest you've added draw the reader's eye to the exact point you want them to remember.

#5 Ensure professional results by using the right file formats

You've just created a flyer that will be printed and mailed to your clients. To finish it off, you import a needed graphic from a website and send your file to the printers. Ouch! The resulting graphics looks blotchy and amateur in print. What went wrong? Graphic file formats for the Internet (72 dpi, low-resolution JPG and GIF) and file formats for offset printing (300 dpi, high-resolution TIF and EPS) are totally different animals. In this case, you've used the wrong file format and resolution for your purpose.

The results? Choosing the right file formats gives you a professional-looking document with clear images and the quality you want.

Start using these five easy techniques to add pizzazz and personality to your marketing pieces now, and you will "hook" new clients immediately.

© Karen Saunders 2005

Computer Consulting: 3 Questions To Ask Your Clients

Computer consulting clients can be asked some simple questions for to help you get more customers and keep your current ones satisfied. Listen to the answers and use them to help grow your business of computer consulting.

Keywords:

computer consulting, small business computer consulting, IT consulting

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From a customer service perspective, you can ask your computer consulting clients three questions that will explode the growth of your company.

Question Number One:

“How Can We Improve the Level of Service That We Provide Your Company?”

Ask your computer consulting clients this question on a regular basis; at least a couple times a year. You will be amazed at the type of suggestions they give you.

They will tell you some things you’ll be able to implement without charging them another nickel or penny more because they’re simple no-brainer kind of things. For example, “Could you send us an email reminder the day before you’re coming in?” Obviously you don’t have to charge for something like that.

Some of the others may say, “It would be great if you could guarantee this kind of response time” or “It would be great if you could also take over finding someone who can help us with our PBXs.”

You’re going to get some ideas, some of which are going to make sense for you, some won't. Some of them may require a little more legwork and some of them may be great opportunities for additional revenue.

Question Number Two:

“Is There Anything Else IT-related That Your Company Needs Help With?”

Question Number Three:

“Do You Know Anyone Else Such as Business Associates, Friends, Family Members in the Greater Area That Could Use Some Help With Their Computer-related Problems?”

Help Your Computer Consulting Clients Help You

Spend a minute or two to tell your computer consulting clients what they should look out for. If they happen to be on the phone with a vendor or supplier or family member and they’re complaining and moaning that everything’s running slowly or that the LAN’s down again or email’s not working or the server crashed.

Get your computer consulting clients trained to listen for those clues and let you know that there’s an opportunity out there. If they’re a long-term client of yours and they’re happy with you, they should be more than happy to recommend you. All you need to do is ask and train them to be looking for these clues.

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Computer Consulting: Do You Keep Your Micro Clients?

Computer consulting professionals can keep their micro clients. Just be sure you still have enough time to market your business of computer consulting.

Keywords:

computer consulting, small business computer consulting, IT consulting

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A big question, especially among newly established computer consulting professionals is this: “I have some smaller clients with two to five PCs. Since they’re very close and they’re willing to pay our hourly rate and understand that I can schedule them when I can, is there a problem in keeping them as clients? Until I establish myself with more larger clients, I’d hate to lose this income.”

Are Micro Clients Taking Up Too Much of Your Time?

This is more of a focus and a time management challenge than anything else. If you have a way that you can fit this all in, so much the better. Keep in mind that you need to leave time to get your direct mail campaigns out, to get your follow-up phone calls out, to go to the expos, to hold seminars, to get out and network, etc.

Don't take the only excess time that you have in a given week and devote it to servicing just those smaller computer consulting clients who are probably not going to grow substantially bigger over the next year or two.

Be Sure To Schedule Time for Marketing

Many computer consulting professionals have told us that they are spending so much time taking care of running and operating a store that it’s very difficult to find the time to read marketing books and learn other new skills, then get out and practice them.

If you have enough time to devote to the marketing of your computer consulting business and servicing your sweet spot clients, So to the extent that you have time to do all this and you can fit it all in, that’s fine.

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Caring about your clients shows through in all you do

Caring about your clients and your product or service shows through in a hundred subtle ways to your clients. In my experience, I've found that people that either work in healthcare or start a business in the healthcare industry do so because they really, truly care about helping people. Does that show through in your marketing materials?

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caring about clients, caring, keeping clients, clients, Kelly Robbins, show you care, marketing materials, communication

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Copyright 2006 Kelly Robbins

Caring about your clients and your product or service shows through in a hundred subtle ways to your clients; regardless of whether you are in the healthcare industry or not.

In my experience, I've found that people that either work in healthcare, or start a business in the healthcare industry do so because they really, truly care about helping people. I also have found that most people in the healthcare industry - no matter if they are chiropractors or coaches or copywriters - are very passionate about what they do. They truly care about making someone’s life better.

And because they know at the core of their being that they can help you or someone you know live a better, possibly pain-free, healthier life they tell everyone they know about it. They do a good job talking about it and often give talks in the community and with their clients.

My question to you is...does this passion, this sincerity, this caring show through in all your marketing materials too? Does it shine through on your web site and your brochures? In the handouts and flyers you put around town? When you talk with people your sincerity and passion is shown by not only what you say, but in your body language, the tone of your voice, the sparkle in your eye...and people pick up on that energy. Communicating that in written materials is not as easy because people can see all of these subtle yet powerful things.

Here are a few things you can do in your written materials to demonstrate you're caring:

**Know what keeps your prospect up at night and be sure your sales letter or web site talks about those concerns in a friendly and personal way. It may be a pain in their leg, not being able to ski with their family, or not having the energy to make it through the day.

**Know about their pains and fears. When you are truly concerned about your prospects welfare it will shine through in your writing.

**Write like you talk. Be conversational and write to a fourth grade level. No big words or words that you have to explain their meaning.

**Picture one of your clients (or a good friend that's experiencing a pain) and talk to them. Write how you talk, not how you write. Writing marketing materials is different and it's ok to break the rules. You are not getting these published in academic journals or writing your dissertation.

**Give examples of people you've helped and how it's affected them in a positive way.

**Be yourself and let your personality show through.

Get More Clients For Your Home-Based Business by Avoiding These Five Deadly Mistakes

If you're receiving all kinds of opportunities to bid on contracts, yet don't seem to be converting prospects into buying customers, there may be a problem in the way you're trying to sell yourself. Don't let these five deadly mistakes kill your chances of success.

Keywords:

home-based,home,business,entrepreneur,work from home,work at home,entrepreneurship,job,based,SOHO

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Not long ago, I put out an RFP (request for proposal) for a virtual assistant to take over technical responsibilities for my web site, shopping cart and autoresponder, so I can focus my efforts on several large projects and my private clients.

I received close to 20 offers, however, less than a handful made enough of an impact for me to request a personal interview.

Of those I chose not to pursue, it's not because they were incompetent or lacking in any way. I'm sure they are competent VA's with a great deal to offer. The problem was the way they were communicating to me ... the potential client.

You can rest assured no matter what business you're in, you will be competing with perhaps hundreds, if not, thousands of other businesses who are vying for your ideal client, and you need to separate yourself from the others by avoiding these five deadly mistakes.

1. Not understanding the prospect's needs, or worse yet, completely ignoring them!

My needs were clearly listed - web maintenance, shopping cart and autoresponder administration. One of the offers I received listed typing, transcription, scheduling appointments and making travel arrangements as the services provided.

No mention of providing the technical skills I required.

If you're submitting a quotation to provide a product or service, make sure you understand what the prospect needs, then tell that prospect how you can meet those needs.

If you merely provide a list of what you offer with no reference to what the prospect is looking for, she will think you either a) don't pay heed to what you're reading, or b) just don't care - and either one of them will put your proposal into the round file.

2. Not walking your talk.

One bid listed web maintenance and design as a service offered, however, the bidder didn't have a site of her own or offer any references or testimonials for sites she 'allegedly' maintains.

If you offer a particular service that can be verified, provide testimonials, references and samples in your original bid so the potential client can corroborate them.

People are busy and if you don't give them what they want on first contact, they aren't going to take the time to contact you for more information when five, ten or fifty other proposals are giving them what they need.

3. Vague testimonials.

One bid provided a link to a web site where I could read testimonials. The testimonials were one and two liners followed by clients' labels instead of their names, locations, or businesses.

For example, "Betty does good work. - Accountant", "Betty always has her work to me on time. - Chiropractor."

If your services are worthy of receiving testimonials, there is no reason why the providers shouldn't approve the use of their name, business and town to validate the testimonials as authentic. Adding a picture creates even greater validation.

4. Don't meet requirements, but want the business anyway.

One proposal came with a note, "I don't know how to do what you need, but I'm willing to learn."

The thought and aspiration may be there and perhaps, you can learn, but ... if you're competing with many others who are qualified and can step in and start work right away, your bid will be discarded immediately.

Find out what kinds of services others in your industry are providing that you're not. Also, find out what kind of demand is being made for those services. If you discover numerous requests being made for a particular skill, consider learning that skill and get yourself into the game.

5. Don't make it all about you.

I received two offers that demonstrated no real interest in how they could meet my needs. The first went as follows ...

"I love working with coaches! I've been running my own business for "x" years. I have a degree in "x". I worked as a nurse's assistant for 'x' years, then decided to pursue my love of organizing, and I have ..." - there was no mention of skills that would meet my needs.

The second was similar ...

"Our company would like to offer you a free 1 hour consultation over the phone to tell you further information about who we are, what we do, and how we work." - does anybody care about the prospect and what she needs?!

One of the primary rules of marketing was missed in both.

When people are considering your service or product, they're looking for help or to fill a need. The only thing on their mind is "What's in it for me?" Nothing else. Nada. Zip. So make sure your entire focus is on what you can do for them.

If you're making any one of these five deadly mistakes, take corrective action right away.

Once you've mastered the art of how to communicate with your prospects and give them what they want, they'll be beating a path to your door.

2006 © Laurie Hayes - The HBB Source

Computer Consulting: Diversify Your Clients

Computer consulting businesses need to diversify their client portfolios. 10-20 are the magic number of clients to have in your business of computer consulting.

Keywords:

computer consulting, small business computer consulting, IT consulting

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Make sure that you never get to the point that any one computer consulting client has control over you. None of them should have such supreme leverage over you that you couldn’t afford to either lose them because of something that’s either out of your control or because you want to let them go.

Spread Out Your Risk Among Your Computer Consulting Clients

This is all about diversifying. Think about building your client portfolio like a mutual fund portfolio. It’s very similar with marketing where you’re using a couple different vehicles to give yourself some balance and lessen the risk a little bit.

If you have one particular computer consulting client that is your bread and butter, meaning that that’s the one who’s actually paying the bills, what you probably have is a part-time job. You don’t have a business. If they say jump, you really have to jump.

The Magic Number of Computer Consulting Clients

For a solo practitioner computer consultant, you don’t want to have a couple dozen or a couple hundred clients because it’s really hard to give tremendous service to them and be able to be as responsive to them as you need to be.

The ideal number is usually 10 to 20 at the most. It should never be below 8 because then individual clients will have too much leverage on you.

How Do You Find More Ideal Clients?

If you find that you do have one client, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions. How unique are their needs? Could you cookie cutter this and could you find other clients that are just like them?

Take a long, hard look at what you’ve done for this one client. What are their biggest problems that you’ve solved? What are the biggest problems that you haven’t yet solved? Figure out where you’re going to find other businesses that are just like them. Then you won’t be caught in a losing power struggle.

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Convert leads into clients and boost your sales

A major part of keeping profitable and growing your business is maintaining a focus on business development. Even when you've got the right mix of work, clients and employees you should be looking for new sales leads. Establish a process that ensures your existing customers don't get neglected while you manage new business opportunities in a cost- and time-effective manner.

Keywords:

small business, small business ideas, small business start up

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A major part of keeping profitable and growing your business is maintaining a focus on business development. Even when you've got the right mix of work, clients and employees you should be looking for new sales leads. Establish a process that ensures your existing customers don't get neglected while you manage new business opportunities in a cost- and time-effective manner.

1. Generate sales leads. Identify the types of companies you want to work with and a realistic number of companies you want to target over a given period of time. For example: An accountant with experience in the marketing industry might decide to target five opportunities per month focussed on marketing consultancies.

Finding potential clients and identifying new opportunities can be done through networking events, tenders listed in newspapers and industry magazines and headlines in newspapers about new projects and industry seminars. Keep an eye on your industry and stay aware of new developments.

Track the companies you approach in a database (you could use Microsoft Office Excel or Access). Tracking should cover the obvious things — company contact details — as well as details of what was discussed, potential work, actions and more.

2. Qualify the leads. Once you have companies identified, review it to ensure they are realistic opportunities. Some areas to think about include:

• Do you have the right contacts to get started?
  
  

  
  

• Do you have the right services to offer them?
  
  

  
  

• How can their website help you understand them better?
  
  

  
  

• Do you have any conflicts of interest in pursuing this company?
  
  

  
  

• Does this client have growth potential or would it be a quick job?
  
  

  
  

• Who makes the decisions? How can you reach them?

3. Raise your business profile. By raising your company profile (no matter how small you are) you'll be able to generate new business with less effort. As a leader in the industry, new business will come to you. There are many ways to raise your profile; you could try sponsoring events, adverts and gaining media coverage. The size, location and target market of your business will dictate the medium to use and the areas to cover.

4. Show them what you're made of. Start to reach your qualified opportunities by showcasing your company's products. Send them a brochure or a copy of any newsletters you produce and invite them to join; show off examples of your work; highlight relevant media articles. However, if you're using e-mail, avoid being overly intrusive or they may regard it as spam.

Develop standard template letters in Word to send to potential clients to accompany your credentials/brochures. Link to your database (Excel, Access or Outlook) when merging the letters and envelopes to ensure you don't have to re-enter details.

There is no specified time for this courting, so be patient. It could be six months before anything comes to fruition.

5. Set a meeting time. So you're in the door. Now you need to sell yourself. Tailor the meeting to suit the way you operate as a business. It could be a formal PowerPoint presentation or a discussion over coffee. You may have no choice for the style of the meeting but make sure you are comfortable and well prepared. During the meeting be sure to demonstrate the knowledge you have developed in the previous stages.

6. Follow up. You've presented your capabilities and ideas. Don't stop there. Follow up is essential. This is a major part of the process and should be taken as seriously as the other steps. You'll probably be able to build on ideas from the meeting, or you might find an interesting/relevant article or statistics you could send to re-open discussion. Even if you don't have anything to send, thank them for the opportunity.

Computer Consulting Business: Find the Right Clients

Computer consulting business owners need to latch on to the right clients in order to get their computer consulting business profitable. Make sure you are not running a charitable computer consulting business.

Keywords:

computer consulting business, computer consultant business

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If you really want to make a decent living and want to have a good, successful, viable computer consulting business, sooner or later you have to narrow down your focus and develop a keen intuition. Additionally, you have to become good at spotting the best small businesses accounts.

The Small Business Myriad

There are millions of small businesses in the U.S. and there are millions of small businesses abroad. There’s a pretty good chance that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of companies that would qualify as small businesses in your local area.

The sad fact is, if you latch onto the wrong ones, you’re not going to have a very good computer consulting business.

Finding the Best Accounts

You need to know where to find these best accounts. In the computer consulting business you also need to know how to say "no," and when to say "no."

It’s extremely important that you know where to look, and how to verify that a small business is going to be a gratifying client for your computer consulting business.

You obviously want to feel a certain sense of career satisfaction. That’s probably one of the reasons you’re looking at starting your own computer consulting business as opposed to sticking with a traditional corporate IT career.

Keep the Financial Aspects in Mind

Your computer consulting business also has to be lucrative financially because you need to have a profitable business. You want it to be a stable source of recurring revenue.

Remember, all small businesses are not created equal. Your job is not to be the Mother Teresa of PC support. You are not starting a computer consulting business as a charitable organization.

The Bottom Line about the Computer Consulting Business

Of course, you want to have empathy for the people you support and you want to do a great job for them. At the same time, you have to look out for your own interests to make sure you’re going to be there for them six months to a year down the road.

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Computer Consulting Businesses: What Your "Sweet Spot" Clients Are Looking For, Part One

Computer consulting businesses: Sweet spot clients are looking for four specific things from you. Companies that provide these benefits will win the contracts for their computer consulting businesses.

Keywords:

Computer consulting, computers, consulting, computer business, small business, small business consulting

Article Body:

When providing B2B service, computer consulting businesses' ideal clients, or “sweet spot,” are companies with 10-50 PCs and 1-10 million in revenue. These “sweet spot” small businesses typically look for four things in their computer consulting businesses.
1. Response Time
2. Knowledge (Business and Technical)
3. Customer Service
4. Price/Value
In this article we will focus on the top two items, response time and business and technical knowledge.

Speed is Paramount in Computer Consulting Businesses
The more that a small business needs IT, the more likely that response time will be the leading factor. Why? Downtime is money lost. How quickly computer consulting businesses can address their clients' urgent or emergency IT needs becomes very important.

Computer Consulting Businesses are more Than Just a Bunch of Technicians
Your technicians' quick response to IT needs is of prime importance to most sweet spot small businesses. Second in importance would generally be your business or industry knowledge. For example, how well do your employees understand the client's particular industry and niche? Sweet spot clients definitely want technology providers that can really solve business problems, as opposed to just running around doing “screwdriver” kind of work, such as upgrading RAM or loading software.

Computer consulting businesses basically becomes the outsourced IT department for your sweet spot clients. Your company will end up working on hardware support, software support, LAN and WAN support… so you deliver soup-to-nuts, end-to-end solutions.

The Bottom Line on Computer Consulting Businesses
In this article you've been introduced to your sweet spot clients' first two requirements in computer consulting businesses.