Account Retention In The Janitorial Industry
When it comes to maintaining success in the janitorial industry, a large part of your focus should be on the retention of your highest valued clients rather than customer acquisition of new ones. However, doing so is often easier said than done. Because of this, it is important to know and understand some of the different things that you can do in order to maximize your customer retention efforts. Below, we will highlight some of the different things that you can do in order to increase your retention rate.
Tips For Account Retention:
1. Proper Communication.
The main thing that you need to do in order to effectively retain a large majority of your clients is proper communication. You want to be sure to provide adequate communication with your clients. You want to provide consistent communication with your client about what they expect and do your best to deliver it to them. By having proper communication in place, you can ensure that both you and the client will be on the same page and remain on the same page throughout the tenure of the business relationship.
2. Do What You Say You Are Going To Do.
This is another very important step to maximizing retention efforts. You will need to do what you say you are going to do each and every time. As a professional cleaning service nothing is more important than keeping your promises. You want to do everything that you mention in your proposals. If your proposal says that you are going to do something, be sure to do it. A lot of janitorial companies make false promises and do not stick to what was promised within the contracted agreement. Because of this, they end up losing their clients as a result of not following through with all of the promises they made. Do not be one of these companies. This is an easy way to lose contracts with your current clients. No client wants to do business with a janitorial company that is going to make false promises that they can't deliver on.
3. Provide Great Results.
Another important thing that you are going to want to do when it comes to maximizing your returns and actually getting the kind of retention results that you are looking to get would be to provide great results. You want to do your best to keep their building(s) as clean as can be. This is the absolute number one best way to retain a customer in the janitorial industry. By doing your job better than other companies, you will be able to earn their business for as long as you are willing and able to provide the service at an exceptional level. You want to be sure to do this and you can provide this type of service by doing regularly scheduled checklists for inspections and by ensuring that you are adhering to quality control standards. You will want to exceed their original expectations upon signing their agreement. By exceeding their expectations and over deliver, you should be able to win their long-term business.
4. Take Care Of Them.
When it comes to business, if you take care of your clients and customers, they will end up taking care of you. You want to do everything in your power to offer your clients what they need on a consistent basis. By doing this, your clients are going to 'like' doing business with you (and maybe refer other potential clients!). The key is keeping them in this mindset. You want to ensure that not only are you friendly to them but that your employees are pleasant as well.
5. Train Your Employees.
Another big mistake that a lot of janitorial companies make which force them to lose business on a consistent basis is a lack of training. It is essential to train your employees as well as possible. You want to provide the right kind of training to your employees in order to be able to get the best results out of them. Without adequate training, you are not going to be able to achieve the kind of results that you are looking for with your cleaning efforts. You will want to train them on everything from cleaning techniques, procedures, and even safety protocol and customer service. Need more tips? Check out a recent post about this topic http://www.execvs.com/blog/growing-a-commercial-cleaning-business.
6. Use Checklists For Everything.
A checklist is something that can really ensure that your employees are doing their job each and every time. Having a checklist is not only a good idea, but it is a must-have in the janitorial business. You want to be sure that you have checklists for everything including individual areas, end of night checklists, and even monthly inspection checklists. Having checklists is a great way to ensure that everything is being done properly and that everything is remaining consistent.
7. Focus On Profits.
If your business is not in the black and you are constantly worried about cutting costs, you are not likely to provide the best possible cleaning results for your clients. By having your business in the black and profitable, you will be able to focus more on providing the kind of service needed to your clients. Thus, you will need to ensure that each job is profitable for your business. Focus on controlling labor costs (Save money) otherwise you are likely going to end up cutting corners and losing customers because of it. Need help bidding? Click here
There are plenty of things that you can do in order to increase your customer retention rate. Be sure that you are under promising and over delivering because that is typically the number one thing that a client is going to be looking for when doing business with a janitorial company. You need to provide them with realistic expectations and clear communication throughout the relationship. By following the tips above, you should be able to maximize your retention efforts.
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