Surviving the upcoming “Dark Days” of winter!

So 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