What a cleaning website must say before you let someone in

For your trade 5 min read

Hiring a cleaner means handing a stranger a key. Here is what a cleaning business has to put in writing so that decision is easy to make from a phone.

Somebody is about to give a stranger a key to their house, and then leave for work. That is the actual decision being made on your website. No amount of photography of a gleaming worktop touches it.

Everything below is the same idea in different clothes: put in writing the things a person would feel awkward calling to ask.

Name the people who will be in the house

Before anybody asks how well you clean, they want to know who, exactly, is coming.

Say whether it is you on your own, the same fixed pair every time, or a team that rotates. All three are normal and none of them is a problem, but not knowing which one it is stops people booking. If the same person comes each visit, say so plainly, because it is the single most reassuring sentence you can write and most cleaning websites never write it.

Put a photograph of yourself on the page, in the clothes you actually turn up in, rather than a stock model in a uniform.

Say how you get in, and what happens to the key

Write down the ways you can work. Somebody at home for the first visit and a key handed over afterwards. A lockbox. A code on a smart lock. Whatever you actually do.

Then say what happens to that key or code. Where it is kept, whether it is labeled with the address, and what happens when the arrangement ends. A cleaner who writes "keys are tagged with a number rather than an address, and go back to you the week you stop" has answered a fear the customer would never have raised on the phone.

Say what you are covered for

State whether you carry liability cover and, if you employ anybody, whether they are covered too. If you are bonded, say what that means in practice rather than putting a badge on the page.

Then answer the question underneath it. Something gets broken, because eventually something does. What happens next. Whether you tell them before they find it, which is the answer everybody hopes for and almost nobody puts in writing.

Put the contents of a clean in writing

"Standard clean" means one thing to you and something else to the person booking it, and the gap between those two meanings is where nearly every unhappy first visit comes from.

So list it. What a regular visit includes, room by room if you need to. Then list what it does not, which is the more useful half: inside the oven, inside the fridge, inside cupboards, windows from the outside, blinds, skirting boards, whatever your genuine line is. Nobody has ever been put off by a clear list of exclusions. Plenty of people have been annoyed by discovering one after the fact.

Answer the price question the way people ask it

People want to know two things. Roughly what it will cost, and what makes that number move.

Say whether you charge by the hour, by the visit or by the size of the house, because that alone tells somebody how to think about it. Give a range for a typical home and one sentence on what changes it: square footage, how many bathrooms, whether it is a first deep clean before a regular schedule starts. You are not quoting blind, only removing the fear of a number that cannot be guessed.

Say what you use, because somebody has a baby or a cat

Somebody reading has a newborn, or asthma, or a cat that licks the floor, or a strong opinion about bleach.

Say whether you bring your own products or use what is in the cupboard. Say whether you can go fragrance-free on request. If you use a particular range, name it so it can be looked up. This costs you three sentences and settles a question that stops a certain sort of customer from booking anybody at all.

Say what happens when nobody is home, or the dog is out

The awkward practicalities are worth the space, because every one of them is a reason somebody delays booking.

What happens if they forget you are coming and the door is bolted. Whether they need to shut the dog away. How much notice you need to move a visit, and how to tell you. What happens on the days you are ill. Write it in the tone of someone who has thought about it, not in the tone of a contract, and the whole arrangement starts to feel manageable.

A short checklist

• Who comes: one person, a fixed pair, or a rotating team, said plainly
• A real photograph of yourself, not a stock cleaner
• How you get in and what happens to keys and codes
• Insurance in plain words, and what happens if something breaks
• What a standard visit includes, and what it does not
• How you charge and what moves the number
• Products, fragrance-free options, and what you do about pets
• How to move or cancel a visit, and how much notice you need

Questions people ask

Should I put my prices on a cleaning website

A range and a clear basis for it, yes. People are not trying to hold you to a figure, they are trying to work out whether to call at all.

Do customers really care who is insured

They care what happens when something gets broken. Insurance is the short way of answering that, but the sentence about how you would handle it matters more.

Is it worth listing what is not included

It is the most useful list on the page. Exclusions read as honesty, and they prevent the conversation you would otherwise have after the first visit.

Should I show photographs of clients' houses

Only with permission, and never anything identifiable. A photograph of your own kit, your van or your checklist is safer and reads as real.

How do I look trustworthy without any reviews yet

Say who you are, how you handle keys, what you are covered for and what a visit includes. Specifics do the work reviews would do, and you can write them today.

What should the first line of my website say

What you do, where you do it, and who turns up, rather than a slogan. Somebody two minutes into looking for a cleaner should be able to rule you in or out from that one line.