Need Help Cleaning Up
Ok, my name is Ron. And before I ask my question, let me state one thing - I know everything!
At least I think I know everything. So asking you for help is akin to filling up my car with a tank of gas. I don't like it, but it's a necessary evil.
Here's the current situation....
I am the proud owner of a maid service located in northwest Florida called Two Maids & A Mop. We serve three locations along the gulf coast and we have never had a backwards quarter. I opened the business just five years ago and we've grown from a small office staffing three people to a real business staffing nearly 50 employees.
Through the years, Ben (mr. mcconnell to you!) has been a constant source of assistance. In fact, our famous Pay For Satisfaction Plan is the product of a brainstorming session with him. Of course, Ben's wasn't there and Ben probably didn't know anything about the meeting - but he was a big part of that meeting nonetheless.
Enough about Ben....let's get back to the problem
In my opinion, we provide a service that is unmatched in our area. We let each of customers rate their service on a scale from 1-10. The rating performs two big functions:
1. The rating determines the compensation level for the two maids responsible for cleaning the home
2. And the rating determines the actual rate that our customers pay us (we really mean it when we say "you get what you pay for")
Obviously, the way we run our cleaning business is much different than any other cleaning business. We're the only cleaning company that lets its customers run the show from start to finish. That being said, we need more of those customers!
Our current marketing plan consists of direct mail and yellow page advertising. We also perform various community service activities throughout the neighborhoods of the three cities that we serve. Our direct mail is supposed to be our best means of acquiring new customers (aside from WOM). But our direct mail has been unsuccessful at best!
We know who our perfect customer is. We know where she lives. We know how unhappy she is with her last cleaner. But we simply can't find enough of her.
This is where you can help. Give me some ideas. I want to know how we can create that elusive WOM. Because the reality is that we rarely receive referrals. And yes, we have asked for them directly. We even went so far as to have a contest once for the most referrals. The person that referred the most customers won a free Caribbean cruise. Unfortunately, the winner only referred four customers over a six month period.
Check out our website and blog at http://www.ineedamaid.com
Ron
P.S. Part of our problem is that our service faceless. It's pretty common for our customers to never see our employees. All they see is the final product. This makes it difficult to create any type of relationship. All our customer sees is a clean house - rather than a timely, professional staff.
P.S.S. I have attached our most recent direct mail piece for your review. The letter was sent to a targeted list of 900 people (based on survey taken by reoccurring customers). We personally stamped each envelope and we personalized each envelope by hand writing both addresses. The work sucked to say the least. Results were almost nonexistent. We received one response.
At least I think I know everything. So asking you for help is akin to filling up my car with a tank of gas. I don't like it, but it's a necessary evil.
Here's the current situation....
I am the proud owner of a maid service located in northwest Florida called Two Maids & A Mop. We serve three locations along the gulf coast and we have never had a backwards quarter. I opened the business just five years ago and we've grown from a small office staffing three people to a real business staffing nearly 50 employees.
Through the years, Ben (mr. mcconnell to you!) has been a constant source of assistance. In fact, our famous Pay For Satisfaction Plan is the product of a brainstorming session with him. Of course, Ben's wasn't there and Ben probably didn't know anything about the meeting - but he was a big part of that meeting nonetheless.
Enough about Ben....let's get back to the problem
In my opinion, we provide a service that is unmatched in our area. We let each of customers rate their service on a scale from 1-10. The rating performs two big functions:
1. The rating determines the compensation level for the two maids responsible for cleaning the home
2. And the rating determines the actual rate that our customers pay us (we really mean it when we say "you get what you pay for")
Obviously, the way we run our cleaning business is much different than any other cleaning business. We're the only cleaning company that lets its customers run the show from start to finish. That being said, we need more of those customers!
Our current marketing plan consists of direct mail and yellow page advertising. We also perform various community service activities throughout the neighborhoods of the three cities that we serve. Our direct mail is supposed to be our best means of acquiring new customers (aside from WOM). But our direct mail has been unsuccessful at best!
We know who our perfect customer is. We know where she lives. We know how unhappy she is with her last cleaner. But we simply can't find enough of her.
This is where you can help. Give me some ideas. I want to know how we can create that elusive WOM. Because the reality is that we rarely receive referrals. And yes, we have asked for them directly. We even went so far as to have a contest once for the most referrals. The person that referred the most customers won a free Caribbean cruise. Unfortunately, the winner only referred four customers over a six month period.
Check out our website and blog at http://www.ineedamaid.com
Ron
P.S. Part of our problem is that our service faceless. It's pretty common for our customers to never see our employees. All they see is the final product. This makes it difficult to create any type of relationship. All our customer sees is a clean house - rather than a timely, professional staff.
P.S.S. I have attached our most recent direct mail piece for your review. The letter was sent to a targeted list of 900 people (based on survey taken by reoccurring customers). We personally stamped each envelope and we personalized each envelope by hand writing both addresses. The work sucked to say the least. Results were almost nonexistent. We received one response.
Tags: business, marketing, mouth, of, small, word
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DeepCleaning.pdf, 41 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cynthia Clinton on -
Hi Ron,
I read your mail piece. I can tell you honestly that I wouldn't have responded to that mail piece had I received it in the mail. I felt like it gave me too much info about your company and too little info about the great cleaning I was going to get.
Also, it made me feel bad for the employees. I caught myself thinking, "It must suck to work there because nobody's going to want to admit how great the service was because then they'll have to pay full price, so the employees are going to get screwed." I'm not saying that's how it is... I'm just saying that's what popped into my head as I read it.
For me, I'd want better reason than money/price to use one company over another because you get what you pay for. Of course, I want great housecleaning for a great price, but I'd want to know why I should pick up the phone in the first place (aside from the picking the price thing). I'd want to know if the maids were bonded, I'd want to know what other clients said, I'd want to know what the rate of theft was (like many how many bond claims there were due to theft), I'd want to know what was going to greet me when I came home at the end of a long day and the maids had been there. Is it a 25-point cleaning system, is there some kind of signature nicety that would make me feel great? Am I going to be greeted by wonderful smells and little triangles on the toilet paper? If I have company over after the maids leave, what will make my friends want to use your service too? What'll have me handing out your cards to all my friends? It's not price, that's for sure. So, I know I get to pick my price, but what do I get for my price? I don't want the cheapest maids in town, I want the best maids in town. I want your company to make my life easier than Merry Maids can. I'd want to know what was going to be so great that I'd want to have have your company do my cleaning again and again instead of trying someone else. You see where I'm going?
I think it's always hard to compete on price alone and that's what your mail piece sounds like it's trying to do. The picking your price thing is all it really talks about. As a consumer, I'd rather feel like the people who were cleaning my house were being paid a great wage for doing the work I didn't want to do and if I left a good recommendation perhaps they'd earn money bonuses or other nice things. I wouldn't want to feel that my satisfaction was determining their pay. It would be more responsibility than I wanted.
I hope my input helps, at least in some small way, figure out what's wrong with your mail piece. Hopefully some other folks will reply too. It can be kind of intimidating to reply to someone who prefaces their request for help with a statement that he knows everything ;).
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Permalink Reply by Karin on -
I have two recommendations besides a big "Ditto" to Cynthia's comments:
Either don't mention leaving a message at the end of the letter (let your greeting on your answering machine do that) or forward that # to your cell phone after hours. First, you're not going to recieve that many after hours calls anyway; Second, it is always a pleasant surprise when someone answers the phone at a time convenient to me.
Where's your company logo?
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Permalink Reply by Tanya on
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How about putting a face to your business by making inexpensive cards for employees to leave at each site with their name and photo - maybe print on the cards "If you're happy with my work, pass it on" or something like that?
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Permalink Reply by Brad Bentz on -
Ron,
I think Tanya's idea is great.
You've definitely differentiated yourself from other cleaners with your unique pricing system. However, I'd echo Cynthia's comments. There are some people who might be reluctant to use your service, because they don't want to be responsible for causing an employee to get paid less. Even if they weren't entirely satisfied, I expect that there will be some customers who would rather pay full price. They just won't use you again. I also expect there are other customers who pay less than full price even when they are really satisfied. The pricing strategy encourages some of this kind of behavior from less scrupulous customers.
I think it also creates the impression that quality may be inconsistent. What if some of your maids are OK with earning less and doing a half-assed job? Customers who demand a spotless house each and every time won't be satisfied paying less, and price-sensitive customers won't want to pay full price if your crew does a terrific job.
I'd recommend including your company's logo and a picture of your crew in your mail piece. A simple B&W flyer without graphics or images doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. I would enlist a graphic designer's help and get it printed on good quality stock.
From what I've heard, it takes repeated exposure to a message before people take action. I don't think you can draw many conclusions from a single mail drop. Rather than blanketing a large list with one mailing, I'd take a much smaller list (maybe 100) and hit it 9-10 times over several months. Then, collate the results and assess the effectiveness of your campaign.
You can tweak the ad copy as you go or split your list into two groups and send each one a slightly different variation to see which one is more effective. Split testing is used extensively in direct marketing. The main idea is to run small, cheap experiments until you're sure that you've got the right message and the right market. Then bring out the big guns.
I hope this helps,
Brad
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Permalink Reply by Derek Schoen on -
Hi Ron,
Since your business model is so unique you might consider contacting your local publications, especially business ones, to do a profile on you and the company. It is a great way to put a face with a company and also pick up some business clients.
I am a "newer" generation communicator and there is one thing about text that I will let you in on in this age of the internet, no one will read more than the first paragraph. We glance, skim and fly through text now-a-days. I would add some color to the mailer, professional but distinguishing, shorten the copy to only your top 2 or 3 most important points and make sure you have a logo that really identifies your company. Your goal with that should be to leave folks wanting more and drive them to a phone number, or better yet a website, to research for themselves.
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