Today I’m going to touch on a topic I’ve never really dived into before. Websites.
I may have lightly touched upon the importance of them in the past, but I know I’ve never dug in on the topic.
Having some kind of web presence for your cleaning company is mandatory, there is no way around it. A website is as much a part of your cleaning business as your phone is. It’s that important.
So today I’ll go over some obvious and not so obvious reasons why you need to get online sooner rather than later. Lets’ get started…
Number one…Websites are like the Terminator. They never sleep. We live in a 24 hours a day 7 day a week world. This means people want information at all times, even when your office is closed. Your job is to make sure that even when the office is closed, your company is still on auto pilot so to speak. Your website does that for you.
Number two…Odds are your biggest competitors have websites. If they have websites, then you definitely need one. Not having one puts you at a major disadvantage. Like I said earlier, people are online at all times of the day and night. If they can’t find you online, they’ll find your competition.
Number three…Google is the Yellow Pages on steroids. The latest number I could find on how many search queries are performed on Google per month is 76 billion. That number is so big it’s hard to get your head around. I bet the phone book didn’t have that many searches in a whole year. That many people looking for things can be a goldmine for you, but step one is getting online.
Number four…A professionally designed website instills confidence. Who does it instill this confidence in? The buying public. If you follow my site to any degree you’ll know that getting others to trust you is the first step to getting them to do business with you. If your cleaning business possesses a site that does you justice, then it will make you look good to everyone at large.
Consider this example. In the real world it’s all about how you are perceived. Like it or not people respond positively when you look your best, speak your best and try your best. The same is true in the virtual world. When your website has the same qualities it makes potential customers want to do business with you and not your competition.
Number five…78% of people research online before they purchase. This information came from a Pew study performed in May 2010. This means that people are doing their homework. The fact that they do is great news for anyone marketing a service, especially a cleaning business.
This is because you get to “position” your company in a favorable light. If you understand what makes people choose one cleaning business over another, you get to craft your website to that audience in a way that satisfies their needs. When you satisfy a need, you have a customer.
Number six…You’ll make more money in the long haul. This means that companies with a website earn more per year than those without. The Small Business Administration did a study that reached this conclusion. To be honest, there is no news here, as it just makes total sense. It would be similar to reaching the conclusion that those who advertise earn more than those who don’t.
Number seven…266 million users. That’s how many people are online in North America. It’s over a billion worldwide. This reason is kind of self explanatory. You need to go where the crowds are. In the old days this meant a storefront in a high traffic area, today it means a website.
Number eight…It’s affordable. In the past getting a professional web presence for your cleaning company could cost thousands. Times have changed in the last few years though and the price has dropped to the point where virtually any business can get online at a reasonable price.
If you don’t have a website for your cleaning business you now have eight pretty solid reasons why you need to change that. The need for a website is not going to suddenly go away, in fact it will only get more important as time goes on.
The Internet used to be only for the tech crowd, then it spread from there. It didn’t stop until it went all the the way to our senior citizens. Children nowadays will never know what it was like to not have the Internet in our everyday life.
This makes having a website for your cleaning business even more a priority then it was just a few short years ago. The good news is you now know why it’s so vital to your business interests. All you need now is to get on board.
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Tom,
I agree, a site sells you 24 hrs a day. I noticed you use paypal on this site. Do you find many (or any at all) customer requests to pay on-line? Do you offer it as an option? yes or no, and any thoughts on why.
Thx Nick
Hi Nick!
Over the years I have had a few customers request online payment options, but not enough to make a wholesale change in the way I do things. With that said, if the customer demands the ability to make a payment online, then I’ll invoice them via PayPal.
For instance, I was hired to clean the offices of a major trash collection firm last year. After getting set up as a vendor, they realized that I was billing them via snail mail. Well their accounts payable system was not set up to work that way. So if I wanted to get paid, I had to bill them online, which I did without incident. FYI – PayPal has a real easy way to send an invoice via email to a customer (once you have a business account set-up).
Another reason why I don’t change over is because not everyone will want to pay online. So in the spirit of keeping things real simple (which I’m a fan of), and uniform, I just continue with the old way unless I’m forced to make an exception. But that’s just me, and everyone will need to do whats best for them. At the end of the day the goal is to please your customers, so you can’t go wrong with offering online billing as an option.
For the record, another company that offers online billing services is a firm called Freshbooks. I have not used these folks to invoice anyone, but I have made payments via their system after being invoiced by other companies I’ve done business with. You can find them here: http://www.freshbooks.com/
Thx Tom,,,, I didn’t expect that detailed of an answer.
Nick
No problem, I’m here to help you!