Answer or return every lead inside ten minutes during work hours. Not a rule of thumb, a rule. The customer contacts four companies; whoever calls back while the motivation is hot books the job.
"Thanks for reaching out, this is Dana with Cornerstone Cleaning. I can give you an exact price right now if you have ninety seconds. How many bedrooms?"
"Happy to give you an exact price right now, it takes a minute. How many bedrooms? And bathrooms, counting half baths as halves? Roughly what square footage, even a guess? Any pets? How will we get in if you're not home, garage code or lockbox? And is this a one-time clean or would you like the biweekly rate, which is what most people do?"
| Lead detail captured | Answer |
|---|---|
| Bedrooms / bathrooms (half baths as halves) | |
| Square footage, even a guess | |
| Pets | |
| Entry method: garage code, lockbox, or home | |
| One-time or recurring interest |
"For your home, the first clean is one hundred eighty-nine, and after that one hundred sixty-one every other week, supplies included, same crew each visit, and we hold the day and time. Cards are on file so there's nothing to handle at the door. Want me to hold Thursday morning?"
Worked figures from the lesson's illustrative rate card; run your own bottom-up math. If they book, collect everything, because a booking without details unravels by Thursday:
"Confirming the spelling of your name, the service address, and the best email. We keep a card on file, charged after each clean, nothing at booking. How do we get in Thursday, garage code, lockbox, or will you be home? Any pets I should flag for the crew? You'll get a text Wednesday with the arrival window, and the cleaner's photos of the finished rooms after every visit."
Unusual homes (oversized, hoarder-adjacent, post-construction): "first clean at hourly, then we set the flat rate after we've seen it." Unknowns come out of the fixed price, never into it.
Three moves: agree with the feeling, re-anchor on the difference, offer structure instead of price. Do not match a competitor's number; matching teaches every customer to negotiate forever.
"I hear you, and there are cleaners in town at that price. Here's what the difference buys: background-checked crew, the same people every visit, insured and bonded, a re-clean guarantee if anything's off, and card on file so you never deal with payment at the door. If budget's the driver, the monthly plan comes down to about one seventy a visit instead of the biweekly one sixty-one. Want me to set up monthly?"
Every concession trades something: monthly instead of biweekly, smaller scope, drop the add-on bathrooms, or spread the first-clean deep surcharge over the first three visits. Still no: "No problem, I'll text you the quote so you have it, and I'll check back Thursday in case plans change." Then actually check back.
| Touch | Content | Sent |
|---|---|---|
| Immediately | Written quote with the price, the guarantee, and the review link | ☐ |
| Day 2 | One human line: "Any questions on the quote I can answer?" | ☐ |
| Day 5 | Value, not pressure: one sentence about the same-crew promise or a photo example | ☐ |
| Day 10 | Graceful exit: "I'll assume the timing's not right, here's the quote if anything changes." Archive. | ☐ |
Most bookings come from the second and third touch, not the first. Corpus operators describe their fifth and final no-pressure message as the one that surprisingly often converts, weeks later. Same-day review request after every completed job: twenty reviews at 4.8 stars outsells any discount.