Adam (00:17):
Welcome to Masters of Home Service, the best podcast for home service pros like us. I’m your host, Adam Sylvester, and I want you to crush it in business. If your company isn’t making irresistible offers, offers so good they just can’t say no, then you’re missing out. The best companies are making offers that are so good, so compelling that they just blow away all the competitors. We’re going to talk about that today. In fact, I’ve been working on this in my business, so I feel like I have a front row seat to all the awesome insights that our guests have today. So Savannah, tell us who you are, what you’re up to, and why you’re here.

Savannah (00:53):
My name is Savannah, and I am the owner of Earth Love Cleaning. We are based out of Colorado. We’re an eco-friendly, non-toxic cleaning company.

Adam (01:01):
Awesome. Great. How long have you been in business?

Savannah (01:03):
Next year is our 10-year anniversary.

Adam (01:05):
Awesome. So an irresistible offer. Let’s talk about this because it’s not just about making it cheaper. It’s not just about cutting your price, giving big discounts, huge promotions. It’s not about that. What goes into an irresistible offer?

Savannah (01:19):
So for us, we always get asked about price right off the bat. That’s pretty common with cleaning companies. But a lot of the time I’m going at it from an angle of what are we doing? How are we meeting the needs? I’m speaking about the pain points and the problems before the client even brings them up, so that they understand that there’s already trust built there, and they know that I already know what the issue is and how we can solve that problem for them. And what makes us different than the other cleaning companies? Do we guarantee our work? Will we send somebody back? Do we have checklists? Is it a 73-point checklist or 120-point checklist? And so you can offer all of that information in a really strategic way from the get-go to let your clients kind of know what is setting you above. And usually they’ll say something along the lines of, I never even thought of that. Or, Wow, you’re ahead of everybody else I’ve talked to. Or, Wow, it’s so organized. That’s awesome. So you get a lot of positive feedback that way really quick.

Adam (02:16):
Something you’re suggesting, or at least I’m hearing, is knowing your customer base so well that you know what their pain points are. Let’s be real, we know what they want. They’re all the same. You’re a snowflake, but you’re all the same. And so if you can say, And we will never leave your front door unlocked. 

Savannah (02:31):
Right. 

Adam (02:32):
The last three companies did that. It always made me so upset. How did you know that? You’re so smart. And they instantly will give you all their trust because you told them, articulated their problem for them before they even said it.

Savannah (02:45):
Right. Absolutely. And a lot of the time, one of the first questions I’ll ask somebody is, What was the last company? Why weren’t you happy? What happened? Were you able to communicate with them the problems and then find a solution? Or was it you communicated the issue, and then you never got a solution? You got told, Oh yeah, or it’s got swept under the rug. Obviously, with a large-scale business and a company that has a huge staff or a lot of jobs happening per day, it’s not always going to be perfect. You are going to have mistakes and issues, but how do you rise to those mistakes and issues with grace and accepting where your fault was, and how can we fix it so that the client feels like they’re heard and seen, and then they receive the service that they originally signed up for, right? Whether it’s a window missed or the door’s not done properly or something like that. Or maybe the oven was supposed to be a deep clean, and the oven didn’t get opened. Something like that. So how do you find the ways to work through that problem before it’s even happening by saying, Oh, we guarantee our work, and checking in right after the clean. How was everything? Is there any touch-ups needed? What can we do to make sure the service was absolutely perfect for you from start to finish?

Adam (03:58):
Yeah. I think one of our biggest pain points for customers is they hate being charged when we actually didn’t do the work. Now, if you’re billing monthly, it’s different, but if you’re billing per visit, they just hate the idea of having to monitor their credit card statement to make sure that lawn care guy didn’t double charge them. And so if we can promise them, guarantee them, Hey, if we skip a week for whatever reason, who knows why? If we skip, we’re not going to charge you. People hate that, but they love it if you never do it and you promise them and fulfill that promise.

Savannah (04:27):
Right. Absolutely. Yeah, we work like that. Usually if it’s a huge, deep clean or something where it’s a first time client, we get a lot of the time where clients are like, I haven’t received the invoice yet. And you’re like, Well, we haven’t sent the follow-up email to make sure that you’re happy with the service. We’re not going to send that invoice out until we’ve spoken with you. And they usually come around five or six PM, and sometimes clients will email right at the end of the cleaning at three and expect to have this invoice and pay for it. But we want to make sure, are you happy with the service? Would you like to look up at setting recurring cleaning? Because you do get a discount for setting something up. Basically customer service is reactive, and then you’re doing something else when you’re being proactive, and you’re making sure that the client is, the problems are already kind of addressed before they start to happen because customer service, you’re reacting to an issue. And then the other one I’m speaking of is you’re being proactive ahead of time. You’re making sure that you know what could happen and that you’re addressing those issues so that if it does happen, you have this seamless line of, Oh, well, I know this happened, but thank you for how you handled it. Thank you for getting it taken care of. We’ll still be super grateful and give you five stars.

Adam (05:40):
It sounds like if you want to craft an irresistible offer for our listeners, the first thing you have to do is identify the pain points and then craft your whole offer around it. That’s fundamental. The second part, what would you say is the next phase in developing an offer that’s just so compelling for your clients? Because we got the pain points, we know what they want. Now, how are we going to make it so compelling they can’t say no?

Savannah (06:01):
For us, it’s obviously tons of cleaning companies are offering discounts, like rate changes, entire free cleans, stuff like that. But it was, how do I craft something that people see and they’re like, What? I can’t even say no to that. I have to do that. That’s such a steal. And I think for me, it was crunching numbers and it was working with what’s the average lifetime of a client? How much money does that client produce for us, and how much money are we paying out for that job? So then we know how much we actually make and how much the offer could be worth, which you see a lot of companies like $50 off, $75 off. Well, we have a $250 off discount that we give for referrals. The referrals has some stipulations because it’s based on the longevity, which most of our clients are with us for at least two years. So that’s the average lifetime of the client. And then how much is the acquisition of the client? How much does it cost us to get the client? That’s usually virtually nothing because a lot of the time it’s a referral. And then the person that refers gets a very hefty discount, but the person that’s signing up gets this huge credit that makes it so that it’s really irresistible because,

Adam (07:12):
It’s a credit. You don’t write them a check. It’s a credit towards the credit service.

Savannah (07:16):
Towards their cleaning. So if they don’t use all of it at their first clean, they have how many dollars left on the next one.

Adam (07:24):
Yeah.

Savannah (07:25):
Yeah. And that’s been so beneficial because when I ran the numbers, I was like, What am I doing only offering $45 off? I could do so much more and make it to where it brings people in that gives them a chance to try us out, and then they realize how we run our business, and they want to stay with us.

Adam (07:41):
Yeah. If you decide or determine, is a better way to say it, that your customer lifetime value, someone pays you $2,500 over the course of their whole time with you. Maybe it’s a one-time job like you guys do, or maybe it’s over the course of the next two years. If someone walked up to you and said, Hey, Savannah, if you give me $200, I’ll give you one of those clients. If you say, Well, yeah, I do that, then that should be a referral. Just figure out mathematically too, you want to base it off your numbers, but it could be anywhere between five and 10% of that lifetime value would be worth the referral.

Savannah (08:17):
Absolutely.

Adam (08:18):
That was great. Let me pause for a minute, talk about Jobber. How does Jobber help you with these irresistible offers with quoting?

Savannah (08:25):
Yeah. For us, the advanced quoting feature has just helped us with add-ons. We have checklists that are applied for each type of cleaning so the client can see what to expect. They don’t have to ask us what is going to be done in the deep clean, what’s done in a basic clean. It gives all of those places for those things can be delivered, and the reviews being on there. I’ve really loved that.

Adam (08:46):
Love the reviews. 

Savannah (08:46):
Yeah, I love that. 

Adam (08:47):
I’m a big fan, you said add-ons. I’m a huge fan of upselling with a quote. People call in with one thing in mind, you add a couple of things on there that they didn’t ask for, and half the time they just select it and move on and it brings your average ticket up. Love the optional line items of Jobber’s quoting. If you’re not using Jobber to quote, then you are losing sales. Go to jobber.com/podcastdeal, get the exclusive discount and start increasing your sales with Jobber today. 

(09:12)
Savannah, you and I live in the world of recurring revenue. Do you have any ways of getting clients money upfront, like a year’s worth of cleanings or, do you do anything like that in order to get more cash upfront?

Savannah (09:27):
We have in the past. We don’t do it super often. A lot of the time when we see that, it’s somebody buying a package, like a package deal for a family member or somebody that is sick. A lot of the time though, when we have cancer or deaths or the real tumultuous type, painful situations that people go through, we also do things that we kind of treat as an empathy credit where we either give a free clean because the client reached out and wants to buy for the family member next to them that had a passing or we work with them so that they can actually do that. But when they buy a package, of course it’s discounted, right? But a lot of the time people just sign up for the recurring because it’s affordable, it breaks the price down, it sets them up so that if they ever need to reschedule or just move their clean or cancel it for the month, we don’t really have a bunch of strict contracts and policies on that. We pride ourselves on flexibility and knowing that everybody has life happening to them. You just kind of have to work with it. So I think some people will do that. I don’t feel like I see it as much in the cleaning business. I feel like I see it with stuff like landscaping or coaching packages, things like that, but not as much where people are selling more than maybe like a package of three cleans or five.

Adam (10:50):
That even sounds better than nothing though. I feel like getting the cash up front for say four cleanings instead of just, because if I were to tell you, I’m going to give you $5 million. You’d be like, That’s sweet. I’m going to give it to you when you’re 85 years old. You’d be like, Well, that’s cool, but not as cool as it was when I thought. If I give it to you right now, it’s way more valuable. So if a client gives us $1,000 today, it’s way more valuable than if a client gives us $1,000 over the next five years. It’s $1,000, but it’s different. And so I think part of my view and what I’m learning about making offers is like, how can I get more of my client’s money upfront? Essentially, I can do more marketing, I can do more of this. I look at offers, like sometimes you have an offer on a billboard, sometimes you have an offer over the phone when the client calls for the first time. Sometimes you have an offer in the home when you’re doing the selling presentation. And I feel like there’s different ways to present that offer, but if you’re going to run Google Ads and in the tagline it says, If you’re not happy, it’s free forever. Or whatever the guarantee is the offer is. Do you guys have any thoughts on how to make it a short offer, so to speak, like an eye-catching, eyeball, Whoa, no one else does that.

Savannah (12:01):
Numbers. Yeah. Big numbers, right? People see a big number discount that draws them in pretty quickly.

Adam (12:09):
So I feel like every irresistible offer needs to have some sort of transformational promise. Hey, your house was dirty and now it’s clean.

Savannah (12:17):
I mean, I personally think they’re super beneficial. A lot of the time ours is recommending that deep clean because that $250 is going to be off on that deep clean, right? That’s a big chunk. Most of the deep cleans can be like five to $600. So they’re getting 50% off, which is going to give them a fresh start, a fresh space. If they did want to have recurring cleaning come in, and even just once a month on that cadence, it would give that space the ability to be clean once a month and keep them feeling fresh in their home. And I do educate a lot of people on the energetics of having a cluttered or dirty space and what that can do for your mental health. And you have to think a lot of the people that are hiring residential cleaning are families, parents that are working out of the home. They have children, they have animals, they just need that extra support. And how do you kind of support them through that and make sure it’s done and give them a good start so that even if they’re not going to have you coming every month, maybe it’s going to be every three months or four months, that they feel really good in taking care of that space and managing it themselves, right? That it’s not too much. It’s not too overwhelming to try to clean the shower because now it’s deep-cleaned and we know that you can keep up with it. We even give them tips and tricks of ways to clean it on their own, like when they’re in the shower to make sure that it just doesn’t get built up. I talk about the water content of each city and how each shower looks different based on the content of the water. The color is different. And some are orange, some are pink, some are black. It just depends on which city you’re in and where we are. And I know the area very well from being in those homes. So I’ll bring up all those things and kind of explain to them how it starts them off on the right foot of them being able to also take care of it themselves.

Adam (14:02):
One of the things that we’ve been thinking about is like, if we guarantee our gutter cleaning surface for 60 days, if we clean someone’s gutters and then they call back a couple weeks later after it rains and say, Hey, they were overflowing, what are we going to do? We’re going to go back. We’re not going to say, Oh, well, it’s been a certain amount of time. We’re going to go back because we’re a reputable company. If we’re going to do that anyways, then let’s make that a feature, not a bug. Hey, within 60 days, we’re going to come back and check it for any reason. Now, if you do the basic package, we won’t. You’re on your own. Okay? We will not guarantee this at all. We’ll just clean your gutters, and you’re done. Now, that’s the cheapest option. But if you want the warranty or the guarantee, then it’s going to be X, Y, and Z. Now they realize, they’re like, Oh, I was kind of taking for granted the guarantee until you took it away from me. Well, now I want it and now I’ll pay for it. If you do the ultimate package, which is four times a year, then we’ll actually give your next door neighbor a free cleaning. You’ll look like a king in front of them. You get a free cleaning just because I’m the man. And now here’s the thing. We’re going to go into that house and clean them for free, but we’re going to get more business from them. It’s an upsell opportunity for us and it makes them look cool. It makes them a client for life. 

(15:07)
And so we’re just trying to get more and more creative with these offers because so many people look at business differently. Some people just want a really basic house cleaning business. I don’t want any bells and whistles. I don’t want to know who you are. I don’t really care. I just want you to clean my house. Then so many other people on the spectrum of like, Well, I want some bells and whistles. I want you to have a referral program. I want this. I want that. And I want to capture all of them, not just some of them, not just most of them, all of those people. And I think having a creative irresistible offer can help you capture some of the people that you might not have otherwise gotten.

Savannah (15:39):
Exactly. I agree with that 100%.

Adam (15:41):
Yeah. This is so good. I love this. I’ve got three takeaways that I think our listeners should do right now to go build these offers that we’re talking about. Number one is you have to, you have to understand your customer’s pain. What makes them dial the phone and call a landscaper, a house cleaner, a gutter cleaner. And then you give them the transformational promise. I know that if you hire us, we will do X, Y, and Z. Really, really important to identify their problem and solve it for them. Number two is understanding your customer lifetime value. If you’re a recurring service and you’re mowing lawns, your value’s not just that first lawn. It’s, do your customers last three years, five years, two years, multiply that out. It might be 10 grand. And so when you know those numbers, you make that offer a little bit different, it all comes down to how much is your customer going to pay you over their entire lifetime. And number three, you have to promise them that you will solve their problem. You have to promise them that they’re not taking any risk, no risk at all. Hey, you go with us. If you’re not happy, we’ll give you a refund. We’ll come right back and change it. You have to promise them that there is no risk because people do not like risk. They don’t buy when they’re afraid. You have to take away all of their concerns and promise you will deliver the goods. That was great. Thanks for being here. Really fabulous. Savannah, how do people find out more about you?

Savannah (17:01):
They can find us at earthlovecleaning.com. Also, our social handles are going to be @earthlovecleaningco.

Adam (17:07):
Bingo. Well, thanks for being here.

Savannah (17:08):
Thank you.

Adam (17:09):
On the next episode, we’re diving into how AI is transforming search and Google rankings and what that means for your business. We’ll cover seven key steps to boost your visibility, build trust online, and win work while your competitors are still figuring it out. Follow or subscribe today so you don’t miss out. And thanks for listening. I hope that you heard something today that will help you craft an irresistible offer. I’m your host, Adam Sylvester. You can find me at adamsylvester.com. And I want to hear from you. Tell me what you like, what you don’t like, and how we can make the podcast better. Your team, your clients, and your family deserve your very best, so go give it to them.