7 Ways to Optimize Your Sales Funnel and Attract Your Ideal Cleaning Customers

May 7, 2021 in Business, Sales & Marketing

Last Updated on August 21, 2023 by The ZenMaid Team

Whether you realize it or not, every sale you make is the result of a sales funnel. If your business sells something, it has a sales funnel. 

It may not be intentional or optimized, but it exists. Once you’re able to identify what parts of the funnel you already have, your goal becomes to find out where there are gaps and how you optimize that funnel to improve your sales. 

If you research sales funnels, you’ll likely be bombarded with hundreds of opinions about what your sales funnel should include. While there are a few different variations of the funnel depending on what marketing channels you use, the sales funnel’s fundamental sections tend to be consistent. 

In this post, we’ll break down the key steps maid service owners should include in a sales funnel to maximize the chances of moving customers through the entire funnel to the final sale. 

Have you ever found yourself staring at the phone, client on the line, sweating over what number to say? You’re not alone. One of the most common questions among residential cleaning business owners is how much should I charge for my services?

Charge too high, and you might scare clients away. Too low, and you’re undercutting your value. It’s enough to make anyone second-guess their math skills. In this article, weโ€™re breaking down industry standards and how to calculate the best price to charge for your maid service. 

Now, letโ€™s get to it. 

Hourly vs. flat rate pricing:

The debate between hourly vs. flat rate is as old as the industry itself. Many seasoned experts advocate for flat-rate pricing as the golden ticket to scaling your business. It offers predictability for your clients and ensures you’re compensated for the value you provide, not just the time you spend.

However, don’t toss the idea of knowing your hourly rate out the window just yet. Understanding your approximate hourly rate is crucial for accurately setting your flat rates. It serves as the foundation upon which you build your pricing structure, ensuring that you’re not only competitive but also profitable.

The trick is to calculate your hourly rate based on your operating costs, desired profit margins, and the market rates, and then transition to a flat-rate model that reflects the value and efficiency of your services. In this article, weโ€™re giving you step-by-step instructions on how to determine this rate. But first, letโ€™s cover some industry averages:

Industry average prices for cleaning services

The standard flat rate for cleaning services can vary widely depending on the location, the size and condition of the space, the type of cleaning required, and the cleaning company itself. Here’s a quick breakdown of standard cleaning rates based on averages from HomeAdvisor and Angi.

1. Hourly Rates:

  • Standard cleaning prices also range from $35 to $60 per hour for each cleaner. 
  • The national average cost of house cleaning is noted to be $40-$50 per hour, per cleaner.

2. Per Room Rates:

  • The rate is about $30 to $50 per room.

3. Square Footage Rates:

  • Cleaning a 2,000-square-foot home can cost about $0.06 to $0.16 per square foot, which would total $110 to $320.

4. Flat Fee Rates:

  • For a typical three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot home, the cleaning cost usually ranges from $160 to $200. 
  • A one-bedroom apartment is priced at around $80 to $110.
Cleaning typeHourly rateFlat rateSq Ft Rate
Residential Cleaning
Standard Cleaning$25 – $50 per cleaner$100 – $200$0.05 – $0.16
Deep Cleaning$40 – $100 per cleaner$200 – $400$0.13 – $0.17
Move-In/Out Cleaning$40 – $100 per cleaner$300 – $400$0.13 – $0.20
Commercial Cleaning
Standard Cleaning$25 to $90 per cleanerVaries by size$0.10 to $0.25
Deep Cleaning$40 to $150 per cleaner$200 to $500N/A
Special ServicesVaries by serviceVaries by serviceVaries by service

Additional Services You Can Charge: For residential cleaning, add-on services such as changing bed sheets, laundry, interior and exterior window cleaning, fridge cleaning, oven cleaning, etc., come with additional costs ranging from $4 to $50 per serviceโ€‹. In ZenMaid, you can easily add these extra charges to your cleaning job. 

The pricing strategy formula

Now that weโ€™ve covered some average industry rates, letโ€™s break down a bit more. Everyone likes a good roadmap, right? Here are the four steps for how to find your cleaning service rate: 

  • Step One: Find your target hourly rate
  • Step Two: Calculate how much square footage you can clean in an hour
  • Step Three: Develop a pricing strategy
  • Step Four: Use the pricing formula

How to find the hourly rate for your business

The first step to finding an hourly rate for your business starts with doing local market research. When conducting your market research, consider these targeted questions: 

  • What are other businesses charging? More specifically, what are businesses the same size as yours charging? 
  • How often do they offer services?

The easiest way to find out what your competitors are charging is when prices are listed on their website. Unfortunately, that’s not very common. So, pick up the phone and call up your competitors to ask. 

Once you know what your competition is charging, try to understand how much you can get for what you offer. 

  • Will the demographic in your area pay for a premium service? 
  • Do you want to charge the same as a franchise’s cleaning business?

Facebook groups, client surveys, and competitors are great places to find these answers. 

After you’ve done your market research, you’ll need to figure out how to position your company in the marketplace. Are you just another residential cleaning service? Or, do you offer a premium, specialized product? 

When you know the direction you’re headed, the road to your pricing strategy is easier to find. Some cleaning services like to specialize in large homes or luxury homes. Others just want the โ€˜meat and potatoes’ of a basic cleaning service. The good news is that there’s plenty of business for everybody. 

Employee pay

The next factor that influences your hourly rate is how much you pay your employees. If you want to pay the bare minimum needed to hire people, that’s going to put you on the lower end of the hourly rate. 

If you aim to offer a livable wage with benefits, you’re going to need to charge more. There are no correct answers here, but you need to understand these factors when developing your hourly rate.

The average employee pay range for cleaners is $15.30/hour. You can use this for calculating your hourly cleaning rate. 

Consider your marketing strategy

The final factor for your hourly rate is your marketing strategy. 

Are you trying to grow your business? 

Your rate will need to be competitive if you’re hoping to grow at a fast pace. 

If you need to grow rapidly but don’t want to lower prices, read this article three ways to get more cleaning customers without lowering your prices.ย 

If your business has grown to a place you’re comfortable with, or if you’re well-known in the area, you can probably charge a higher hourly rate. And you can definitely charge a higher rate if you have a waiting list of clients! 

How many square feet can you clean per hour?

After you’ve found your hourly rate, understand how many square feet you can clean per hour. Now, at first, this can seem hard to find, but you likely already have the information you need โ€“ it’s just a matter of finding it! 

It’s important to know your square footage per hour because you will use it as a baseline for all your prices.

Use data from past cleaning jobs to learn how fast you can clean 500 square feet. You’ll want to calculate an average from your recent jobs. 

  • How long did the last ten *typical jobs take you? 
  • How many employees were on the cleaning job? 
  • How many square feet were the homes?

Don’t have any recent data? 

No worries! Start recording this data for the next week and then use it to find your average.

*Several variables can affect your average cleaning rate, so use only typical homes when calculating your average cleaning pace. Your typical homes are the predictable ones that are simple to clean, requiring only your basic cleaning services. (We’ll touch on how to avoid pricing disasters in these kinds of homes at the end of this article!)

How to find your pricing strategy

The next step to nail down your pricing system is to identify your pricing strategy. 

In other words, how frequently do you hope to charge for services? We’re going to use your pricing strategy to calculate our prices based on frequency. 

Do you want your main revenue to come from weekly cleans, bi-weekly, or monthly with extra fees?

Many residential cleaning companies push for bi-weekly cleans. Offering a small discount of around 5% is a great option to incentivize clients to choose these more frequent cleans. 

On the other hand, charging more for monthly cleans is a good way to help clients choose more frequent cleans. It’s often reasonable to charge an additional 50% for a monthly clean. 

We see too many cleaning business owners charge the same rate for bi-weekly and monthly cleans. When this happens, your client has no reason to choose bi-weekly over monthly. 

Determining an effective pricing strategy is crucial and should align with your current business standing and long-term goals. Assessing your booking rates and understanding your clientele’s price sensitivity are pivotal steps.

More factors to consider:

  • If you find that your services are in high demand, with a fully booked schedule being the norm, it might be an indication that your clientele values your services highly. In such a scenario, adopting a premium pricing strategy could be beneficial. This approach reflects the high quality and demand for your services and provides additional revenue that can be reinvested into growing and enhancing your business further.
  • On the flip side, a different approach is warranted if your booking rate is lower than desired and you’re struggling to cover your operational costs. Penetration pricing, where you initially set a lower price to gain market share and cover your fixed expenses, might be a viable strategy. This can help attract a customer base and establish a foothold in the market. Once a loyal clientele is built and market recognition is achieved, prices can be gradually adjusted to a higher point.
  • Alternatively, crafting custom packages could be a smart move. By offering tailored cleaning packages, you encourage customers to engage with your services over a longer term. This not only helps cover your fixed costs but also enhances each customer’s lifetime value, thereby boosting your overall profitability. Structuring packages that provide value while ensuring profitability will create a win-win scenario for your business and clientele.

To learn more about building a pricing strategy for your cleaning business, check out this article!

How to calculate your pricing

We’ve made it to the pricing formula. After you’ve gone through all the steps above, this next step is pretty simple.

First, take the square footage of your client’s home and divide it by your rate of square feet cleaned per hour. Then, multiply it by your hourly rate. The total number is how much you’ll charge for a single job in that client’s home. 

So let’s use an easy number as an example: If a client with a 2,000 square-foot home calls you looking for a quote, divide 2,000 by 500 (rate of square feet cleaned per hour) multiplied by $50 (an hourly rate.) The total one-time clean for that client is $200.

Bi-weekly rate

Offering a 5% discount for bi-weekly cleans is a great incentive for clients. Using the $200 example above, this would mean a client can have a 2,000-square-foot home cleaned twice a month for $380 (after the 5% is applied.) This is an example of a baseline bi-weekly rate. 

Monthly rate

Your monthly cleans can have an additional 50% charge to encourage more frequent cleans and account for the extra dust and dirt the home will accumulate between cleans. Using the $200 example, a monthly clean would cost a 2,000-square-foot client $300 (after an extra 50% is added.) This is an example of a baseline monthly rate. 

You can use this formula to calculate any specialty service in your business. Just play around with different percentages and values until you come to a reasonable and profitable baseline. 

Minimum rate

No matter what kind of service you’re offering, it’s important to set a minimum rate to avoid losing money on out-of-scope services. This will save you the headache of negotiating with a client who might only want a certain room in their home clean. Or perhaps, if they have a smaller home that would only require an hour of cleaning based on your square footage cleaning rate. Set this minimum rate using the pricing calculator and the base amount required to make a profit per clean. 

Factors affecting cleaning service pricing

Sometimes, you will find people reaching out to you for a quote, but once you get to the location, you find out there are a lot of factors at play that affect pricing.

Other than the factors mentioned earlier, here are some factors to be aware of:

  • Size of the Area to be Cleaned: The total square footage or the number of rooms and bathrooms can greatly affect the time, effort, and resources required to complete the cleaning task.
  • Level of Clutter: A cluttered space can take longer to clean as it might require decluttering before the actual cleaning can commence.
  • Type of Cleaning Required: Whether it’s a standard cleaning, deep cleaning, or a specialized service like carpet cleaning or window washing, different types of cleaning have different pricing structures.
  • Frequency of Cleaning: Regularly scheduled cleanings may be priced differently than one-time or less frequent cleanings.
  • Accessibility: If certain areas are hard to reach or the location is in a high-traffic urban area, it may add to the cleaning time and cost.
  • Special Requests or Preferences: Clients may have special requests such as using eco-friendly cleaning products or working outside standard hours, which can also affect costs.
  • Pet Situation: Homes with pets may require additional cleaning efforts like fur removal, which could influence the price.
  • Parking Facilities: In urban areas, the availability of parking near the location can be a factor as it may affect the ease with which cleaning crews can access the site.
  • Additional Services: Services like laundry, dishwashing, or organizing could be additional and would affect the overall pricing.
  • Supplies Provided: Whether the cleaning company needs to provide all cleaning supplies or some are provided by the client can also impact the cost.
  • Lifestyle Factors: Does the client smoke indoors? Does the client keep surfaces clean during the week? Do they host a lot of guests?
  • Urgency: Urgent or last-minute cleaning requests may carry premium pricing.

Protecting yourself from pricing disasters

With flat-rate pricing, you need to protect yourself from pricing disasters. We’ve all been there: after quoting a home, we walk into a cleaning job that takes way longer than estimated. There are mountains of clutter, piles of dust, and floors in need of a little too much love. So what do you do?

When taking any new job, set the precedent that you may need to overcharge if any visit takes longer than planned. An example line you can add to your contracts is, โ€œquoted prices assume average-sized rooms in average condition. Extra hours needed to clean will be priced with an additional $50 per hour.โ€ When a client agrees to this ahead of time, you’ve protected yourself from being underpaid. 

Then, when you find yourself in a job taking longer than expected (which is bound to happen at some point), take a break from cleaning to notify the client that an extra fee will be added to keep cleaning. If they give you the go-ahead, you can proceed and charge extra as needed. 

If the client declines moving forward, then you can wrap up the job without any penalty. Don’t wait until you’re at the end of a job to notify the client of an extra charge. 

Wrapping up

Your cleaning business’ success starts with finding the right rates to charge. 

Luckily, finding the perfect pricing strategy for your cleaning business doesn’t have to feel like solving a complex puzzle. With ZenMaid, you can take the guesswork out of quoting and make the process as clean and simple as the services you offer. Our software comes equipped with an instant booking form feature, making it effortless for your clients to get accurate quotes online directly from your website.

Say goodbye to pricing woes and hello to a smoother, more professional booking experience with ZenMaid.

What is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is the process that businesses use to lead customers through a set journey. This journey usually starts by building awareness of your brand or the problem you solve and ends with the lead turning into a paying customer. 

The sales funnel is divided into multiple steps, and within each step, your goal is to build more trust with your audience and nurture the relationshi[p until they are ready to buy your service. 

80/20 rule

When working on your sales funnel, keep in mind the 80/20 rule. This states that 80% of your outcomes stem from about 20% of your efforts. This rule is likely to apply to all aspects of your business. 

Take a look at which of your efforts are reaping the most reward. 80% of your profits likely come from 20% of your customers. Or it may be that 80% of your leads are coming from 20% of your marketing efforts. Identify that 20%, and you can then try to maximize and optimize your efforts in that area. 

Now let’s break down the seven steps of the sales funnel that your maid service can benefit from most. 

1. Define your dream client avatar 

Before you can start advertising your services, you need to identify your ideal customer avatar. You probably already have a few of these customers in your roster that you can draw inspiration from. 

These customers are easy to work with, leave you great reviews, bring in referrals, and are generally happy with the service you provide. Model your avatar after these customers and try to learn as much as you can about them. 

It can be helpful to survey a few of these customers to dive deeper into the reasons why they like your service and continue to hire you. 

Then you can use this information to create marketing materials based on real feedback from your users. This will be the key to attracting more customers like them. 

2. Raise awareness of your business 

Now identify how much awareness your audience has about your business and your services as a whole. 

Are your customers aware of their problem, or do they need you to educate them that a problem exists? 

With most cleaning businesses, you won’t need to sell your audience so much on the problem they face but on the solution that you provide. Cleaning customers tend to be problem-aware and are mainly looking for the right solution for their specific needs. 

In this case, the awareness stage will make your audience aware of your business, services, and solution you provide. 

There are a few different ways you can raise the awareness of your brand. You can invest in advertising through Facebook ads or Google Ads. You can also put effort into your SEO strategy by ensuring that your website and pages are optimized so that your business shows up in local Google searches. 

Identify which marketing channels are bringing the most leads and allocate more time and resources towards those channels. 

3. Preframe your offer 

Before you can make a sale, you need to make sure that your audience is in the right frame of mind. Creating a relevant preframe will ensure that your customer has everything they need to know before presenting them with a call to action. 

By providing this information upfront, you’ll increase the chances of qualified leads filling out your forms or making a phone call. You’ll also be able to know that the majority of the leads that come through are ready to buy. 

Get creative about how you market your services and try to hone in on the actual value you bring to your customers. 

For cleaning services, this can mean selling the feeling of a clean home, more time with their families, or time to do other things besides cleaning. You’re not just selling a few hours of your time. You’re selling them the peace of mind of a clean home and everything that a clean home affords them.  

4. Collect important information 

Once you’ve pre-framed your offer with information that gets your audience in the right frame of mind and tells them more about you, it’s time to capture that lead. 

Depending on how you are marketing to your audience, make sure you have a clear call to action and collect all of the information you need to follow up with your customer and make the sale. 

Collecting the lead usually involves the customer requesting a quote or booking an appointment. Make sure you’re asking for all of the information you need including their name, phone number, email, and other relevant information such as their zip code or the size of their home. 

If your CTA doesn’t directly result in a booked appointment, you can use the information you collected to continue to nurture the relationship with an email or a phone call. If you’re doing paid advertising, you can even target them with paid ads to increase the number of touchpoints and encounters they have with your business. 

5. Go for the sale 

The previous four steps are all in place to set you up for the best chance to make a sale. Now is the time to make your customer an offer and try and get the sale. Here is where you finally ask them to book the appointment. 

You can get creative with this process, but the goal is to have the customer spend money, no matter how small the amount. This will solidify their commitment and show you that they are willing to spend money with you in the future. 

If they are not ready to book an appointment, you can sell them a gift card or a package they can redeem once they are ready to schedule their cleaning. 

6. Present an opportunity for an upsell

Once a customer has committed to using your service, this is an excellent opportunity to offer them additional services or add-ons that they may not be aware of that you sell. 

These can include aromatherapy options, pet cleaning services, carpet cleaning, car cleaning, or any other service you provide for an additional fee. 

Allowing them to add these directly from the purchase will increase the likelihood of someone opting for these features. Even if only a tiny percentage of customers go for the add-on, that extra boost of income can make a huge difference at the end of the month. 

7. Referrals, reviews, and recurring bookings 

The last step of the funnel is to follow-up with your customer after the cleaning and continue to nurture the relationship. This is where you ask them for feedback on their cleaning, present an offer to make their next booking or let them know about a referral program if you offer one. 

This step is a great place to ensure that you are staying on top of quality control and making yourself available to feedback that they may have before they write an online review. You can also provide a review link and encourage them to leave a review if they had a good experience. 

Final Thoughts 

It’s okay if your current funnel doesn’t have seven steps or if you notice some gaps in your marketing systems. Your sales funnel should be a constant work in progress. As your business evolves and grows, you can gradually start adding new parts to your sales funnel and identifying new ways to optimize your current systems. 

For a more in-depth look at how to incorporate these steps into your sales funnel, check out Owen’s full presentation from the 2020 Maid Summit

About the presenter

Owen Lutz is a self-proclaimed master of lead generation and founder of Cleaning Leads Fast. In this post, we’ll outline his seven-step sales funnel that every maid service owner should work towards implementing. 

This talk first aired at the 2020 Maid Service Success Summit.

The Maid Summit is an annual online event that brings together the most successful leaders in the cleaning industry, like Debbie Sardone, Angela Brown, Courtney Wisely, Amy Caris, Chris Schwab and more. Get free access to masterclasses and workshops that will help you to grow, scale and automate your cleaning business so you can get more leads and create more profit. Make sure youโ€™re on our email list to find out how to get free tickets to the next event.

Find more great articles like this one on ZenMaid Magazine:

ZenMaid

Amar is the founder and CEO of ZenMaid Software, Inc. He started and ran Fast Friendly Spotless, a maid service in Orange County, CA. With the help of customized software to automate work he successfully operated the service in under 30 minutes per day. He created ZenMaid scheduling software to help other maid service owners do the same.

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