Gift certificates.
Are they a good way to drum up business for your house cleaning business?
We're going to talk about that today.
Hi, there.
I'm Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner.
This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question,
and I get to help you find an answer.
Today's question is brought to us by HouseCleaning360.com
This is a place where, if you are a house cleaner, you can list your business on HouseCleaning360.com,
and you can list gift certificates.
Okay, we're going to talk about that today.
HouseCleaning360.com, thank you for sponsoring our show.
Now, gift certificates.
Is it a good way to drum up business?
I got this question the other day, and the answer is yes.
Because it can cover in the gaps between slow areas of your business.
Now, January and February are traditionally slow months of the business, because people
just came off the Christmas holiday.
They've been traveling.
They're out of money, because they spent all their money on Christmas.
They're cooped up in the house.
They're sick.
All kinds of things happen, and they cancel the house cleaner.
Okay.
So while they're canceling the house cleaner, you still have bills to pay.
You still need money coming in.
This is an excellent time to go to your regular customers and sell them gift certificates.
It's also a great way for somebody who's never hired you before to get a gift certificate
for somebody that they know, and maybe try out your service.
Okay, so here's how it works.
You make up a little flyer for gift certificates.
You remind people under what circumstances a gift certificate is used.
"Hey, do you know anybody from your business that is retiring this year?
What a lovely gift to give someone who has everything, a house cleaning gift certificate."
Another thing that you could mention is, and we do this every year near Mother's Day.
"Mother's Day?
What are you going to get your mom for Mother's Day?
Lots of people don't know, because their moms have everything they need or want, and they
just buy them the same gift every year.
But what if you were to get her something new and exciting, like a clean house?"
It's a fun gift.
It's consumable.
She can use it whenever she wants, and so it's an awesome gift.
They can come in different increments.
So you can do $25, $50, $75, $100, $200, whatever you want to do.
What you might do is break it up, so that you can say, "Two hours is $75.
This is what it involves."
And you might throw in some tasks that that would include, so that people can vision,
"Oh, yes.
My mother needs this service.
This is how she would use this."
All right.
Everybody has birthdays.
Okay?
There are a lot of guys that have no idea what to get a woman for her birthday.
A great gift is that somebody comes in and cleans her house once in a while.
If they don't have a regular house cleaner, this is an awesome gift for a guy to get for
his wife for her birthday.
Okay, now there are anniversaries.
All of your clients have birthdays and anniversaries, and graduations, and holidays at different
times of the year.
So this is a great opportunity to do this throughout the year.
Maybe four times a year, when I leave my worksheet with my customer, I will leave a note, and
the note will be advertising something.
It might be a special that we're having.
It might be a gift certificate or something like that, where as a regular customer, they
get a savings because they are giving this to someone else.
What happens is, there are people that will say, "Well, my parents just live down the
street from me.
I don't want to clean their house, but I would love for you to clean their house."
And their parents aren't paying for it, but the homeowner that's already hired you will
buy a gift certificate, and then gift it to their parents.
The gift certificates that we've used in our business, we just print them up.
We got to the office store, and we have a template that we use, and we buy fancy paper,
and then we print up the name individually.
Like, "Hey, Karen.
Your son, Todd, bought this for you for your birthday.
Happy Birthday!
Your son loves you!
You're so lucky to have a son like Todd.
The value is ... " And then you name the value.
"And this is what it includes.
It's redeemable at any time, and it's good for three years from the date of receipt."
Or whatever.
That's just an example.
Then what happens is, she can keep it, and we've had circumstances where people forget
they have them, and they never actually redeem them.
But their child, or their husband, or somebody bought it for them, and already paid for it
upfront.
That money coming in upfront is what pays you during the slow months of the year.
Are gift certificates a good way to generate resources during slower months?
The answer is absolutely yes.
Think about ways that you can incorporate gift certificates into your existing business
plan with your existing clients.
Another thing that we've done in the past is, I'll get a little coffee mug from one
of the stores like Marshall's or something, and they have little decorative mugs of the
city that you live in.
I live in Charlotte, North Carolina, so it would be a little decorative mug that would
say "Charlotte" on it.
I would fill that up with chocolates, and I would wrap it in cellophane, and put a fancy
bow on it.
It's a door prize.
Then you go to these different business networking meetings, like the Kiwanis Club, or the Toastmaster's
Club, or different groups that are in your area.
So it might be for your neighborhood, or for a particular development, or a particular business,
so everybody is close to that hub, because you don't want to travel all over the city.
If it's a localized group, this is an awesome way to use gift certificates.
What you do, is you say, "I have this little mug of chocolate, and a gift certificate for
house cleaning, and we're going to be giving away this door prize at the end."
I've appointed myself the door prize giver for so many different events where they don't
give out door prizes.
Okay?
Nobody ever thought to do it.
So you stand there with a little basket, as people walk in, and you give them your house
cleaning card, and you take their business card, and you put their business card inside
the little basket.
Are you with me?
All right.
You have all of their business cards, and they have yours.
Awesome!
Okay, and you explain to them what you're doing.
"Hey, we're giving away a door prize for a little thing of chocolates and a gift certificate
for house cleaning.
I'm Angela Brown, and I have this house cleaning company, and I work this local area, whatever.
Here's my card, in case you know anybody looking.
But we're doing this giveaway."
Then they give you their card, and now you have their contact information.
Okay.
When the meeting is over, and it encourages people to stay to the end of the meeting,
then you stand up, and then you get to introduce yourself to all of the people.
Right?
"Hi, I'm Angela Brown, and I have this house cleaning company, and I would like to give
away this door prize as a gift certificate that you can give away."
And you let them know that, "You can give it away to your parents, for a birthday, for
an anniversary.
It's something you could give to your spouse.
It's something you can just call and use at any time, or you can give it to someone else
that lives within this geographical area."
All right.
What happens is you just got to pitch your business in front of all of these people.
That's the real value right there.
Now, what would you pay to give your commercial in front of a bunch of people who are qualified
to hire you?
A gift certificate, and a little mug of chocolates.
Right?
Something to eat today, and remember you by, and if you are so fancy to have your own logo,
or whatever, on the mug, awesome.
But what happens is you get to give something away, and then all of these people now know
what you do, and they all have your card.
You can choose to follow up with them.
Say, "Hey, I met you at this particular event."
You can do a mailer.
Let's say that you're doing an e-mail marketing, or maybe you're doing a regular mail that
goes out in the mail.
You can send them something, and say, "Hey, I met you at this particular event.
I just wanted to let you know that we're having a special, just in case you knew somebody
that was looking for house cleaning."
There are ways of following up with those people.
You could always contact them, and remind them near Mother's Day or Father's Day, that,
"Hey, I met you at this event, and we were giving out a gift certificate for house cleaning.
I just wanted to remind you we do have gift certificates available, if there's a specific
person in your life that you wanted to give them something nice for the holiday, and you
did not know what to give them.
I just wanted to reintroduce myself, and let you know that we have this going on."
It's a great way to reconnect with the people that you already have met, and the people
that already know you.
Then, of course, one lucky winner will walk away with a free house cleaning.
There are different ways you can use gift certificates, and it's all up to your creativity.
But yes, it's a great way to generate some extra business during slow months.
All righty. That's my two cents for today,
and until we meet again,
leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.
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