As the kids go back to school and the busyness of the summer months begins to quieten down, it can be a great time to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Education isn’t just for the inexperienced. As professional window cleaners, knowing how to use your tools to get high-quality results and achieve a streak-free finish are the fundamental basics.
However, as with any industry, one of the pitfalls of running your own business is getting stuck in the daily grind. Investing in further knowledge is often viewed as a waste of money and time.
“My window cleaning service is doing well, why do I need to upskill?”
“My window cleaning business is struggling, I don’t have the money to spend on training!”
Whatever your current situation, we hear your rationale. But, why limit what you can achieve or continue to implement the same methods if they’re not working? To run a successful business, having the willingness to learn and improve your skills is essential to your personal and professional growth.
So what skills will help you to continue doing well or take your cleaning business to new levels?
Organisation and planning
Good organisational and planning skills will enable you to be more productive and effective. Mapping out your window cleans geographically, logically, and strategically will save you time and petrol, allowing you to leverage customers within one area.
Planning the night before will ensure that you are well prepared for the day. It will also allow you to take care of important matters and achieve a balanced lifestyle.
Marketing skills
Regardless of whether or not your business is doing well, marketing is an area that never stops and where tactics constantly evolve. Effective marketing builds brand awareness, increases credibility, and attracts, converts, and retains customers.
Your window cleaning business might be at full capacity, but what if your existing client base takes a hit? It’s great that you offer a professional window cleaning service in your local area, but irrelevant if no one knows it. Both online and offline marketing strategies should be applied across your business and ample time dedicated to it.
Sales
Turning your marketing efforts into sales requires technique. Competition exists within all industries to some extent. Marketing will showcase how you differentiate as a professional window cleaner in your area, but converting those leads into sales is highly driven by the customer experience.
‘People buy from people’ is NOT just a saying. Successful selling involves understanding how you solve customer problems and meeting their needs with your window cleaning service whilst being warm, personable, and surpassing customer expectations.
Communication
Being able to communicate your business offering and build strong relationships doesn’t come naturally to everyone. It requires confidence, transparency, and the ability to listen to others.
Talking to potential or existing customers requires a lot more consideration than when chatting to your mates down the pub. You have to be able to absorb what’s being said, anticipate what’s not, and interpret that before giving clear and concise feedback.
Organisation, planning, marketing, sales, and communication are skills that play an integral part in your business and have more of an impact on your success than you might expect. The good news is that further development in these key areas doesn’t have to be costly and can all be improved with a growth mindset.
Be thirsty for knowledge, seek out information and never get complacent. You’ll set yourself up for success and won’t go wrong.
A franchisor who is committed to helping your window cleaning business to flourish will include ongoing training and be happy to support your professional and personal development.
At Tidal Cleaning Services we offer monthly webinars and training resources through our franchisee members forum. We also have our blog where we regularly share industry insights to help new business owners succeed and thrive.
For more information, feel free to get in touch.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with Team Tidal.