Learn how to grow your maid business, using the silent art of sales.

Before:

Salesperson: Hi, thank you for calling the cleaning company. Can I help you with home cleaning or did you need something else today?

Client: Home cleaning, please.

Salesperson: Okay. Have you given us a call before?

Client: No, but I actually just missed a call from you guys a while ago. I tried uh to get an online quote.

Salesperson: Okay. Yes, ma’am. And what is your first name?

Client: Well, I put it under Birdie. It’s for my mom, Birdie Straws.

Salesperson: Got it. Okay. And the address is [redacted] apartment 110?

Client: Yes, apartment 110. That’s right.

Salesperson: Awesome. Can you tell me a little bit about what exactly you’re looking for with this cleaning? Is she moving in?

Client: No. So, she lives in an independent living community for elderly people.

Salesperson: Okay. And they have a cleaning service that usually comes by weekly, but they just do a light cleaning and they just haven’t really been doing a very good job. And so we’re looking at having somebody else basically.

Salesperson: All right. And so is this more for recurring or for like a one-time deep clean?

Client: Yeah. No. Uh, I would be looking for a weekly clean.

Salesperson: A weekly clean. Got it. Okay. And how soon did you want to get started with this clean?

Client: As soon as possible, please. Tomorrow if there’s anything, but if not, then sometime next week.

Salesperson: Yeah, we do have some availability. Yes, ma’am. We have some availability tomorrow. Now, we do work in arrival windows. So, say if you wanted to do the morning, our arrival is anytime between 8 and 12. The afternoon would be anytime between 11:00 a.m. to 4 in the afternoon. Which one of those would you prefer?

Client: I think the 11 to 4 would be better.

Salesperson: Okay. Yeah. And then we will let you know about 30 minutes prior to our arrival that we’re on the way.

Client: Oh, that’s great. Uh, and then I just wanted to ask about getting a quote. So, I just kind of wanted to check maybe on the price.

Salesperson: Yes, ma’am. Um, I— Mhm. I know that it’s usually set for a regular apartment. She has a very, very small studio apartment. Like she doesn’t even have a kitchen. It has a sink and a microwave, but it doesn’t have anything else.

Salesperson: Okay.

Client: And just like the bedroom and living room, they’re all kind of one space. And there’s a bathroom. And that’s literally all it is. It’s very small. And I also saw online that things like blinds were extra, but I wanted to see maybe once they get in if they can just wipe down or dust the blinds if that could be included. I don’t want to if it’s going to be extra. It’s just a really small space and if that’s something that you can’t do, I would like for that to be included.

Salesperson: Okay. Well, first let me tell you that everything that is going to be included in our deep clean is included. You’re going to love that. And then from there, we can kind of see if we need to adjust things. So, in a deep clean, we do bring a two-step ladder so we can reach higher than what we would in a normal regular maintenance clean. As for the kitchen area, we’re going to clean the countertops, the fronts of the cabinets, the sink, inside of the microwave if you have one, and outside of the rest of the appliances. In the bathrooms, we will scrub the toilet, we’ll clean the showers, we’ll clean the sink, the countertops, and the front of the cabinets in the bathroom. All of the flooring is going to be vacuumed and all hard floors will be mopped. And then we’re going to be dusting from the top down. So, in a deep clean, we’re going to be hand wiping ceiling fans, door frames, and all woodwork. And then we will dust any furniture and belongings that are in there, as well as the blinds. And we do dust the baseboards. All the trash will be taken out. The beds will be made. Now, we don’t do laundry, but if you leave us fresh linens, we’ll at least change the beds. Yeah. And then we just tackle the buildup in the kitchen and in the bathrooms and doing the dusting. So, as far as the add-ons, we can do cleaning inside of the windows, hand wiping the baseboards, hand wiping the shutters or the blinds. Now, if you want what is already included in the clean, that’s us dusting with a long duster. So, if you want us to do something a little more thorough, like hand wiping—like say if you know that there’s a good amount of buildup and they do need something more thorough—then I would recommend doing the hand wiping of the mini blinds or the baseboards.

Client: No, she doesn’t need anything like that. It’s just a basic cleaning.

Salesperson: Perfect. And then, of course, with our deep clean, like once we do it, we can adjust anything for the next clean. But let me give you some pricing here. So, for the deep clean, it does come out to be about $263 plus tax, plus we are going to give you $50 off on your first clean. I know the price is, you know, important to you. So, it actually would make the deep clean $213 plus tax and then every week it would be $93 plus tax.

Client: H Okay. Uh, and then how does it work if I want to adjust her schedule? Like maybe weekly is too much and like I go bi-weekly. Do I just call and tell you?

Salesperson: Yeah.

Client: And do I also have to schedule each week or—?

Salesperson: No, ma’am. So, the way that it works is say if you wanted to schedule your first clean with us on a Thursday, we would keep you on that same Thursday in the same arrival window. If you ever wanted to change, just let us know 24 hours before the clean. We can always adjust it. The same with if you want to change from weekly to bi-weekly or bi-weekly to weekly, just let us know. Give us a call, text message, email. That way, we can just adjust all of that for you. But it does have to be within 24 hours.

Client: Okay.

Salesperson: So, at any time you can call or change or anything.

Client: Okay. Uh, if you don’t mind, I’m going to just go ahead and call um and go over all of this with my mom, then give you guys a call back to actually schedule.

Salesperson: Of course. Is this a good number or is there a better one?

Client: Oh, no. This is absolutely the best number.

Salesperson: My name is Liz. So, whenever you call, just ask for me. I’m going to go ahead and save your quote and email it to you.

Client: Okay.

Salesperson: I’m going to email it to you right now. And it looks like it should be in your inbox maybe in the next 10 minutes or so.

Client: Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.

Salesperson: Yes, ma’am. You’re welcome. You have a great rest of your day.

Client: You too.

Salesperson: Bye.

Client: Bye.

After:

Salesperson: Hi, thank you for calling the cleaning company. Can I help you with home cleaning or is there something else you’re needing today?

Client: Home cleaning, please.

Salesperson: Great. Have you given us a call before?

Client: No, I actually just missed a call from you guys a while ago. I tried to get an instant quote online.

Salesperson: Oh gosh. Okay. Sorry about that missed call. Uh, can I get your first name?

Client: I put it under Birdie. It’s for my mom. Her name is Birdie Straws.

Salesperson: Okay. Birdie. And that’s your mom. Okay. And what’s your name?

Client: My name is Linda.

Salesperson: Hi, Linda. Nice to meet you. I’m Liz. I don’t know if I said that when I first answered the phone. So, nice to meet you. Uh, okay. So, let’s see. I got your address here. It is [redacted]. And that’s apartment 110, right?

Client: Yes. Apartment 110. That’s right.

Salesperson: Okay, great. Can you tell me a little bit about what exactly you’re looking for with this cleaning? Is she moving in or what’s going on there?

Client: No. So, she lives in an independent living community for elderly people, and they’ve had a cleaning service that usually comes by weekly. Um, they do a light cleaning and they just haven’t been doing a really good job. So, we’re looking at just having somebody else come in basically.

Salesperson: Okay. Well, gosh, that’s kind of a bummer that you’re going to have to pay to have cleaning when you’re already kind of paying for it.

Client: Exactly. You get it.

Salesperson: Yeah, I know. Okay, let’s see. So, um, it sounds like you’re probably looking for recurring? Or is it not that bad every week and you just need it done like maybe once?

Client: Um, yeah. No, it would actually be for a weekly cleaning.

Salesperson: Weekly? Okay. Gosh. So, they’re really not doing a good job over there. Bummer. Okay. Uh, a weekly clean. Got it. Okay. Uh, let’s see. How soon did you want to get started with this cleaning?

Client: As soon as possible, please. Um, if you guys have anything for tomorrow, that would be great. But if not, then sometime next week.

Salesperson: Someone loves you, Linda. We do have availability. We’ve got availability tomorrow.

Client: That’s amazing.

Salesperson: Yes. I’m thinking so, too. So, does your mom— is she an early riser or do you think mornings would be better or afternoons?

Client: Definitely mornings.

Salesperson: Mornings. Okay. So, let’s see. Our arrival time in the morning is between 8:00 a.m. and 12. That means that’s what time we’re going to get there. Does that sound like it would work?

Client: Um, do you guys have anything a little bit later than the 8:00 just so that I don’t have to tell her to get up so early?

Salesperson: Ah, you know what? Here’s how our arrival times work. We either have that morning slot where we’re arriving anytime between 8 and noon, or the afternoon slot, which is anytime between 11:00 and 4:00.

Client: Nope. 8 to noon works perfect.

Salesperson: You sure?

Client: I’m positive.

Salesperson: I’m putting a note over here, Linda, that she usually sleeps in just a little bit later. Sounds like maybe 9 would be better.

Client: Oh, yeah. That would be great.

Salesperson: Okay. Don’t hold me to this, Linda, ’cause I can’t guarantee it, right? But I’m putting a note on here. And I’m making it all pink—’cause everybody likes pink over here. Let’s see if we can make that work.

Client: That’s awesome. Thank you.

Salesperson: You’re welcome. All right. One of the things that might help is we do let you know about 30 minutes prior to our arrival that we’re on the way. So, give your mom a little bit of a heads up. Do you think that’ll be helpful?

Client: Oh, she’s going to love it. Yes, that’s great. Thank you.

Salesperson: Okay, good. And then—

Client: Yeah. Oh, go ahead.

Salesperson: Uh, yeah. I just want to make sure that that was going to be okay.

Client: Yeah, a text or “on the way” will be great. She’ll really appreciate that. And then I just wanted to ask about getting a quote.

Salesperson: Okay, let’s see.

Client: Uh, so I just kind of wanted to check on maybe the price. Um, I know online it’s usually set for like a regular apartment. Um, but she has a really, really small studio apartment. Like it doesn’t even have a full kitchen. It just has a sink and a microwave in the kitchen, but it doesn’t have anything else. And just like the bedroom and living room are kind of one space. And then there’s a bathroom. And that’s literally all it is. It’s very small. But I also— one thing I wanted to ask you about is I saw online that things like blinds were extra. But I wanted to see if maybe once they get in, if they can just wipe those things— the blinds— down or dust them, if that can just be included. I don’t really want to pay extra for that. Um, but I do need it done. It’s just such a small space. Um, I’m not sure if that’s something that you can include in the price.

Salesperson: Oh, I can’t even imagine that we can’t. It sounds like that place is tiny. Doesn’t even really have a kitchen. Really kind of sounds like three rooms. Little bathroom, kind of almost two rooms, right? The living room/bedroom area and then that kind of kitchen-ish thing. There’s just not a lot to it.

Client: Yeah, it’s really— I’ve never seen anything like it, Liz.

Salesperson: Okay. It does sound really, really tiny, but I bet it’s comfortable for your mom, too. Nice and cozy in there.

Client: It is. Absolutely. Yeah, she really has been really, really happy there.

Salesperson: Yay. Oh, I’m so happy for her. I, um, I have an elderly mom myself and, you know, they just like things smaller, cozier, more comfy—less things, right?

Client: Yeah.

Salesperson: Yeah, for sure. That’s— that’s my mom right there.

Salesperson: All right. Well, you’re right that the price normally you see online is for a regular-size apartment. So, I can’t even imagine that we wouldn’t be able to include the blinds and all of those additional little spaces in the price. It’s— it’s going to be fine. I can’t even imagine we’re going to need all the time, to tell you the truth. Uh, we do have a minimum. So, you are going to run into that problem, and I’m sure you saw that online— that you hit that minimum price. Did you see that?

Client: Yeah, I did. Yeah.

Salesperson: All right. Um, since they are having somebody come in and cleaning every week, even if they’re not doing a good job, I just am finding it extremely difficult to believe that the house is going to be in bad enough shape that we’re going to need all this extra time. So, we’re just going to go with it— that that’s going to be included.

Salesperson: Um, do you want me to give you a rundown of what we’re going to do or do you kind of have an idea about what cleaning is like?

Client: Um, I mean, she already has a regular service, so I feel like you guys probably just do the basics. Is there anything specific that I would need to know outside of like cleaning the bathroom, doing the regular dusting?

Salesperson: Well, here’s the only thing that I think maybe I should get from you— because they’re not doing a great job right now. So, what are some of the things that they might be missing? Let’s just make sure that we’re going to hit all that stuff and it’s included.

Client: Yeah. So, here’s the crazy part. So, as small as her studio apartment is, I get a call from her quite often saying, “Hey, are they supposed to clean the coffee table?” Because it wasn’t clean. And I put, you know, coffee there and the little coffee ring is still there. And I’m like, “Yes, Mom. Yeah, that should be cleaned.” And then, you know, I’ll call the company and say, “Hey, just so you know, the coffee table was missed.” And then the next time they come, I’ll get a call from my mom— “Hey, just curious, but were they supposed to wipe down the top of the TV because it still has a little bit of dust on it?” So, it seems like it’s always something.

Salesperson: Yeah. And you know what? I know when you are elderly, you don’t have anything else to focus on. You know what? You focus on your little environment. So, if they’re missing something every time, she’s going to see it. She’s also watching them clean. So, she’s going to see the stuff.

Salesperson: All right. Uh, guarantee we’re not going to be missing that stuff. Don’t even worry about that, Linda. That stuff’s real basic for us. We’re probably going to have time to even sit and chat with Birdie just a hair. Don’t tell anybody I told you that because that’s not part of our job.

Client: Oh, she would love it. And Birdie’s a chatter, that’s for sure.

Salesperson: Oh, is she? Okay. Well, then I’m going to tell the girls— well, hold on, I’m going to write down here that she is a chatter, so they shouldn’t plan on sitting down. She’s probably going to chat with them the whole time they’re cleaning.

Client: She loves it.

Salesperson: Okay. They love that too, actually, when they’re cleaning for a real person. It’s so different than when it’s just like an empty place and just trying to get a job done. It’s just drudgery then, you know?

Client: Right.

Salesperson: Yeah, that’s awesome. That sounds really lovely.

Salesperson: I think we’re going to be getting everything done that you want. Um, the only thing is we don’t typically do laundry, like change the linens or anything, but if you leave them out, we can do that. Is that something that’s already being done or would that be helpful?

Client: Um, I’m so glad that you brought that up. It’s not being done. And yes, that would be really helpful for her.

Salesperson: Great. Okay, I’m going to make a note here. Got it. Let’s get that laundry done, too. Oh, I’m so glad that she’s going to be able to have fresh linens every single week. You know, back in that time frame, people always changed their linens every single week like clockwork. It’s not as common these days, though.

Client: Yeah. And now they don’t have to wash the linens or anything like that. They just actually— if they can put it outside of the door, they do have somebody that will come by to pick up the linen and wash it and change it, like, you know, recharge it or refill it. So, if they can just make the bed, that’s good.

Salesperson: Perfect. That’s going to be great. Nice and easy. All right. So, looks like we’ve got everything included with everything that you’re going to want included. There’s no deep clean really needed here. Um, but I am going to give you that deep clean price if you want it for us to go in that first time and make sure that we hit every single surface just because we know that they have been lax on the cleaning in the past. It’s not necessary. I’m just thinking that sometimes it feels good to have every single thing done and start fresh. Would you like the price for that, Linda?

Client: Okay. Yes. Thank you.

Salesperson: All right. So, the price for that is $263 plus tax. Uh, we do have a special going on right now. That’s $50 off that first cleaning if it’s part of an initial clean package, which yours would be. So, you’d be eligible for that. That’s always a bonus. Uh, so it looks like to do the deep clean— oh, that actually knocks it down quite a bit— back down to $213. I think online you probably got $263, right?

Client: Uh, I did. Yes. That’s exactly right.

Salesperson: Yeah, we could knock it down to $213. And you know what? I think we can probably even take another $30 off of that because from the sounds of it, that kitchen is non-existent. And the bathroom’s pretty darn tiny as well.

Client: Yeah, that would actually be great.

Client: And then what if I wanted to adjust your schedule from— let’s say like if the weekly is too much and I wanted to adjust it to a bi-weekly. Is that possible? Can I just call you guys?

Salesperson: Yeah, it’s going to be super easy. You’re going to love it. You can email us, call us, text us, whatever you want. And your price isn’t going to change either. Uh, Linda, I thought you’d like to know this: you’re at our minimum right now. We’ve got you weekly at $93 plus tax. And even if we went to bi-weekly, we’d still be able to keep this minimum price with the sound of Birdie’s apartment. Now, if we get in there and we find that, oh no, they’re not doing the stuff to keep up anymore ’cause they get used to us coming out, then we might have to have a call. But otherwise, yeah, you just contact us, give us 24 hours’ notice, and we’ll make it happen. It’s pretty darn easy, actually.

Client: Okay, that sounds great.

Salesperson: Okay. Uh, let’s see. I would love to be able to get you on the schedule. We don’t have any contracts, anything like that. It’s pretty easy. Uh, tomorrow I said I have some openings. We said we can do in the morning. Does that still work?

Client: Yeah, that would be wonderful. And I will— I’m so excited to call my mom after this and tell Miss Birdie that we’ve got new providers coming in.

Salesperson: Me too. Okay. Tell her— it looks like right now that we’re going to be sending Susie and Julie out to clean. I know that’s going to be a lot of people in that little tiny apartment, but they’re going to be right in the area. She’ll love to meet both of them. They’re super sweet gals.

Client: Awesome. I’m excited and I know she will be really grateful.

Salesperson: Great. Uh, so nice talking to you, Linda. I’m going to send everything out to you in an email. Uh, let’s just get your credit card and get you booked.

Client: Okay. Thank you so much, Liz.

Salesperson: Thanks, Linda. Bye-bye.

Client: Bye-bye.