Resources for cleaning businesses

Your Next Commercial Cleaning Client Is Probably Next Door to Your Last One

By Constance Beebe, former hotel general manager with more than 20 years in hospitality

It is 9:40 on a Tuesday night and you are locking the back door of the dental office you clean three evenings a week. Two doors down, a hair salon is still sweeping up. At the end of the strip there is an insurance agency, a small gym and a nail bar, and every one of them needs its floors, restrooms and trash done by someone. You have walked past them for months. Tomorrow you will drive twenty minutes across town to chase a lead from a stranger online.

This guide is for the solo commercial cleaner, or the owner with one small crew, who has a few steady accounts and open evenings to fill. The fastest way to fill them is usually not a wider net. It is a closer look at the businesses already sitting beside the ones you clean.

From my experience

Hotel housekeeping is planned by floor, not by request. A room attendant gets a block of rooms close together, so the cart moves a few steps between doors instead of riding the elevator all shift. Later, running a Gatlinburg cabin rental company, I had mountain roads between every cabin instead of a hallway. The lesson was the same in both places: the minutes between jobs are the ones nobody pays you for.

Where do commercial cleaning clients come from?

Most small commercial accounts come from businesses within a short drive of the work you already do. Offices, restaurants, salons, gyms, medical offices and hotels all show up on public map listings, and most of them are clustered in shopping plazas, office parks and main streets. Start there before you spend money on ads or lead lists.

Write down every account you have now. Then, for each one, list the businesses you can see from its parking lot. That list is your first prospect list, and it costs nothing to make.

Why are clients in the same plaza worth more than clients across town?

Because the drive between jobs is a cost you pay whether or not you charge for it. Fuel, wear on your vehicle and your own time all go into every trip, and a quote that ignores them leaves you working for less than you think. Our guide to pricing a cleaning job without forgetting your overhead lists travel as one of the nine costs every quote should cover.

When three accounts share one parking lot, you pay for one drive and get three jobs. Supplies stay in one vehicle, one set of keys covers one stop, and a crew member who finishes early can walk next door instead of sitting idle. Clients in the same plaza also see your work every night, which is better advertising than anything you can print.

How do I find businesses that might need a cleaner?

Search your area by business type and distance, then research each result before you contact anyone. A map listing tells you a business exists. It does not tell you whether that business wants a cleaner, already has one, or is a good fit for you, so treat every result as a lead to check, not a sale.

For each business, note what you can find out: its hours, roughly how big the space is, what kind of floors and restrooms it is likely to have, and who makes decisions. A medical office with evening hours is a very different job from a salon that closes at six. Drop the ones that clearly do not fit your schedule or your skills, and keep a record of where you found each one so you can come back to it.

Who should I contact at a shopping plaza?

Contact each tenant separately, and add the property manager to your list as well. Each shop usually decides on its own cleaning, so a yes from one tenant does not book the plaza. The property manager, though, often knows which tenants are new, which spaces are about to open, and who has complained about their current service, and some are responsible for common areas of their own.

Keep the property manager attached to every business in that plaza in your notes. When you invite the tenants, you can tell the manager what you are planning, which turns one contact into an introduction to everyone in the building.

What should the first message to a business say?

Your first message should say who you are, which building you already clean nearby, and two specific times you could come by. Short and specific beats a long list of services. A busy salon owner reading "I clean the dental office two doors down three nights a week, and I have Monday and Thursday evenings open" knows exactly who you are and what you are offering.

Offer two real openings instead of asking "when works for you?" It is easier to say yes to a choice than to a blank. Send every message yourself, from your own email or phone, and follow the rules for business messages where you work, including honoring anyone who asks you to stop.

How often should I follow up with a commercial cleaning prospect?

Follow up on a date you choose and write down, not whenever you happen to remember. Every business on your list should have a stage, such as found, contacted, quoted, booked or declined, and a next follow-up date. When a quote goes unanswered, a friendly follow-up that offers two real openings again is often all it takes.

Past clients count too. A business that paid you for a one-time deep clean last spring already trusts your work, and a short note offering a date for the next one can fill a gap in your schedule faster than a cold lead.

How do I plan a plaza day?

Pick one plaza, list every business in it that fits, and set aside one day to visit or contact all of them together. Bring your quote ready to go for the ones who say yes on the spot, and track each tenant as invited, booked or declined so you know where the plaza stands at a glance.

One plaza day will not book every shop. It does give you a clear picture of one building, and each yes makes the next conversation in that building easier, because now you can say "I clean for your neighbors."

Questions cleaners ask

Is it better to find commercial cleaning clients online or in person?

Both work, and they work best together. Use map listings to find and research businesses near your current accounts, then reach out in person or with a short, specific message from you.

Should I buy a list of commercial cleaning leads?

Start with the businesses you can see from the accounts you already clean. Those cost nothing, you can check them yourself, and they sit close to work you already do, which keeps your drive time down.

Does a business on a map listing need a cleaner?

Not necessarily. A listing tells you the business exists, not whether it wants a cleaner or already has one. You confirm the fit yourself through research and a conversation.

Do I need the property manager's permission to clean a tenant's space?

The tenant usually hires its own cleaner, but building rules for access, keys and alarm codes can come from the property manager. Ask both before your first night so there are no surprises.

Keep reading

• How to Price a Cleaning Job Without Forgetting Your Overhead
• How to Write a Cleaning Quote: 9 Things Every Quote Should Include

About the author

Constance Beebe spent more than 20 years in hotel operations. She started as a night auditor and worked her way up to executive housekeeper, front office manager, assistant general manager, and general manager, later managing 4- and 5-star hotels. She was Front Office Manager at the Best Western King Charles in Charleston during Hurricane Hugo, and a London newspaper wrote about her team. She never asked her staff to do anything she wasn’t willing to do herself, from cooking when cooks didn’t show up to cleaning rooms when housekeeping was short.