Add on services for a cleaning company that fit the visit

3 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

Domestic and commercial cleaning runs on tight, repeated visits priced close to the minute. There is rarely slack in a two-hour clean to add anything, which is why the usual advice to upsell during the appointment does not translate well to this trade.

What does work is periodic work sold alongside the regular contract: the things that need doing twice a year rather than every week, and which the customer either forgets about or does badly themselves. Those jobs carry better rates than routine cleaning and they fill the gaps in a schedule.

1. Add on services for a cleaning company should be periodic, not weekly

The regular visit is full; the calendar is not.

Sell the seasonal jobs

Oven cleaning, carpets, windows inside, upholstery, deep kitchen and bathroom work. Twice a year, priced separately, booked in advance. Put the dates in when the contract starts.

Use them to fill scheduling gaps

Cancellations and quiet weeks are exactly when this work should happen. A list of customers due a periodic job turns a hole in the diary into revenue. Keep the list where whoever handles the schedule can see it.

2. Build the offer into the contract from the start

Retrofitting extras onto an existing arrangement is harder than including them.

Present a schedule, not a price per hour

A yearly plan showing weekly cleaning plus quarterly and annual jobs. The customer sees a maintained property rather than a series of purchases. It also makes your price harder to compare.

Quote the periodic work at signup

Even if it is not booked immediately, having the figure agreed removes the negotiation later. Most customers accept it when the need arrives. Repeat the figure a month beforehand.

3. Commercial contracts have different additions

Business customers buy on compliance and appearance, not convenience.

Offer the things that carry obligations

Washroom consumables, waste, floor maintenance, high-level cleaning. These recur, they are budgeted, and they are easier to sell than domestic extras. Ask who currently supplies them.

Price consumables as a managed service

Supplying and monitoring stock is worth more than the products cost. It also makes you harder to replace.

4. Train and trust the cleaners to report

The person in the property knows what needs doing and is usually never asked.

Give them a simple way to flag work

A photograph and a line on a form. Cleaners see the oven, the carpets and the limescale every week. They are the best surveyors you have.

Pay something for a converted lead

A small share or a flat amount changes behaviour immediately. Without it, reporting is extra work for no benefit. Make the payment automatic rather than discretionary.

5. Protect the core contract above all

The recurring revenue is the business; extras must not put it at risk.

Never let an extra crowd out the regular clean

A customer who feels the standard slipped because you were selling something else will cancel the contract entirely. The routine work comes first.

Watch retention alongside revenue per customer

If average spend rises while cancellations rise, the additions are costing more than they earn. Judge the two together.

Conclusion

Sell the periodic work rather than trying to add anything to a visit that is already priced to the minute: oven cleaning, carpets, upholstery, interior windows and deep kitchen work, quoted at signup and booked twice a year.

Present a yearly schedule rather than an hourly rate so the customer buys a maintained property, use the periodic jobs to fill cancellations and quiet weeks, treat commercial consumables and floor maintenance as managed services because they recur and are budgeted, give cleaners a photograph-and-a-line way to report what needs doing and pay them something when it converts, and never allow an extra to compromise the routine clean that the whole business rests on.