Surviving the upcoming “Dark Days” of winter!

slow-season-cleaning-gift-cardsSo are you busy, busy, busy now? If so- wonderful! And yet (key the foreboding music here!) deep down inside you know the “Dark Days of Winter” are approaching!

Especially if you live in the winter “snow and rain belt” your residential cleaning likely drops off dramatically after Christmas. (In fact, with my Colorado carpet cleaning business I found I couldn’t even give my services away for FREE to home owners till after the snow and mud had dried up!) So what to do?

Remember that all your commercial accounts have employees with dirty carpets, upholstery and tile floors. (And especially after those holiday parties!) So why not “kill two birds with one stone”? Show appreciation to your commercial clients by making them look good to their employees AND give yourself a “burst of business” in your slow residential months of January, February and March. Here’s how…

Print up $50.00 plastic gift cards good that expire on 3/31. (Or whenever your slow season ends.)

Now go to all your commercial accounts and hand them one free gift card for each of their employees. Now they can include your $50.00 gift card as a free bonus with their employee’s final pay check of the current year! So your business client will now be a hero to their workers!

NOTE: Or get with it and let your accounts give out your $50.00 gift cards on Black Friday at the end of November! After all, people are primed to spend money then and why not with YOU?

Commercial HINT: Be sure to make a personal visit to all your commercial accounts before the end of the year to thank them for their business. Ask how many employees they have and carefully count out the gift cards in their presence. (This gives respect to your gift casrds instead of just mailing out an uncertain quantity.) Explain that you’d like the gift cards to be a bonus from your commercial client. (Not from you.) So if they wish they can hand out the gift cards as a Black Friday or year-end employee bonus.

Restoration HINT: Give these gift cards to your insurance adjusters and agents to hand out to everyone in their office!

NOTE: Don’t diminish the “perceived value” of these cards by putting restrictions (other than an expiration date) on them. Everyone will do much more than 50 bucks in work plus you are protected by your standard minimum charge! And you’ll be cleaning (and making Cheerleaders) in February instead of staring at your phone willing it to ring!

Steve

10 thoughts on “Surviving the upcoming “Dark Days” of winter!”

  1. Great write up Steve! Gift cards can work great! Love your ideas here.

    One thing, for some of the guys who are on a limited budget, you can get a European style business card, which is more of the size of a card card. When it’s full color it looks like a gift card and it’s a fraction of the cost of a plastic card.

  2. Steve can you email me a copy of the back of the $50.00 plastic gift cards for the commercial clients employees? I believe i will try this out and see what happens.
    my email is dennis@speedcleanservices.com
    Thank you,
    Dennis Neumann
    SPEED CLEAN SERVICES
    586-791-1500

  3. If no restrictions, do you find that people give their unwanted gift cards to another employee who does want to have their carpets cleaned so their job ends up being free?

  4. Sure. I don’t care who they give the card to BUT you can only use one card per service! The idea is I want to fill my schedule during a slow time of year. (Therefore the March 31 expiration date.)

    Re: where to purchase them just Google and you will find a “plethora” (big word for an old rug-sucker like me to use) of inexpensive sources.

    Here is one company that offers gift card imprinting:
    http://4colorprint.com/print/Plastic-Cards-30mil (Prices run under .20 per card if
    ordered in runs of 3,000 or more.)

  5. Steve,

    I, too, would like to see the back of a gift card to gain ideas for the one I will create. I appreciate your help and insights.

    Regards
    Greg Allen
    Allen Rapid Dry
    Anchorage, AK

  6. This is GREAT news! Thank you for sharing it! I tell every SFS class, “This stuff works… IF you work!”

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