How to Expand Your Cleaning Business to Include Exterior Cleaning Services

Are Exterior Cleaning Services Profitable?

Offering exterior house cleaning services as a part of your existing cleaning business can help you earn more money and reach new customers.

For a cleaning business, time is your profit. Since exterior cleaning services add up to two extra hours than an average interior cleaning, your business could see a significant increase in earnings.

Additionally, the exterior cleaning business has a market size value of eight billion dollars with a growth rate of 2.1%. This means that expanding your business to include a niche market could prove to be beneficial in the long run.

Tapping into a high-demand market can also show your customers that you are aware of their wants and needs, potentially leading to an increase in consumer retention rates. Increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%.

Ultimately, by expanding into a niche market, you’ll have more opportunities to reach new customers and provide a special service to existing customers.

Benefits of Exterior Cleaning Services

As a cleaning business, you could benefit from positioning your company as one that cares about the health of your clients.

Naturally, your client’s home’s exterior is susceptible to the accumulation of moisture during the winter months. With time, the moisture on walls forms a layer of dampened dust, debris, and other pollutants. This layer of dirt makes the exterior of the home easy to be infested by mold, discoloration, mildew, and algae.

Dust, mold, and other elements not only influence the look of your clients’ homes but can also harm clients’ well-being. It is possible to halt the growth and spread of mold from the exterior to the home’s interior by offering an exterior cleaning service.

What Do You Need to Offer Exterior Cleaning Services?

Exterior cleaning services cover windows, walls, and the entryway or patio of a home. Typically roofs and driveways are additional charges. Landscaping — tidying up front lawns or the backyard — is not considered exterior cleaning because yard work is in its own professional cleaning category.

Depending on the size of your cleaning crew, you will want to consider having a few staple items consistently on hand.

Exterior cleaning service tools include:

• Ladders
• Ladder stabilizers
• Squeegees
• Extension bars
• Mops
• Scrapers
• Cleaning agents
• Buckets
• Tarps
• Rubber gloves

By ensuring your vehicle is always stocked with the suggested tools above, your exterior cleaning job can be completed efficiently.

Guide to Exterior Home Cleaning

For a cleaning business, there are multiple avenues to consider when deciding what types of services to offer to your customers. For exterior home cleaning, we have gathered expert knowledge on the top three services to include in your offerings.

Pressure Washing

Pressure washing is the main method of accomplishing exterior cleaning. Pressure washing is the use of a high-powered machine that sprays hot water at a high velocity to remove mold, grime, dust, dirt, or paint from any desired surface.

Exterior cleaning experts prefer to use a pressure washer because they can eliminate or minimize the chance of a mold attack posing serious health issues for their clients.

Pressure washing may be the most effective and convenient method of cleaning sturdy surfaces. However, not all surfaces of a home can withstand the high-speed spray of power washing. When offering pressure washing services, you may still need to soft wash certain areas. Soft washing entails using a bristle brush and a cleaning agent to lift buildup.

Additionally, before you can offer pressure washing through your business, you have to make sure your cleaners are equipped with an occupational business license or permit.

Oftentimes pressure washing can include the use of harmful chemicals. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates what is allowed to flow into sewer systems, storm drains, and natural bodies of water. Make sure to check whether or not the state in which your business operates requires a license or permit for a pressure washer.

Gutter Cleaning

It is important to routinely inspect your clients’ roofs and gutters for potential damage. Gutter cleaning involves removing debris, dirt, and grime from a home’s gutters and downspouts. This process is typically done by hand.

Dirt, grime, and moss removal are done by scrubbing the interior surfaces with a cleaning agent and then using a garden hose or pressure washer to rinse the gutters. Downspouts first have to be snaked clear, as you would for a tub drain, then rinsed. Leaves and other debris are picked up and then disposed of.

Cleaning and clearing the gutters and roof enhances the house’s condition. A clean home exterior makes it more appealing to a buyer. When a home’s gutters are obstructed, you may have to deal with issues like water damage and negative drainage.

Patio Cleaning

Patios are often left unattended by homeowners. Before you pressure wash your patio, make sure you know what type of patio flooring you have. Certain flooring can potentially be damaged or stripped by the use of the wrong cleaning agents or methods.

Common Patio Materials

Before cleaning your client’s patio, double-check that you are aware of the type of patio they have. Certain patio materials do not work well with traditional cleaning agents.

Below, find our recommendations on which cleaning agents to use for the seven most common patio materials:

• Concrete: For concrete patios, plain water or a bleach solution will work well.
• Wood: Wood is a little more delicate compared to other materials, so be careful when using strong solutions. As an alternative, you can use the low setting of a pressure washer for a clean job. You will also want to make sure the wood is dried relatively quickly. If wood flooring remains waterlogged, it could lead to future damage.
• Brick: Similar to concrete, brick patios can take bleach solutions as well as pressure washing to clean.
• Flagstone: The best solution to clean flagstone is a flagstone cleaner, as it won’t stain or erode your stone and mortar. Alternatively, you can use vinegar diluted in water to wash away dirt and debris.
• Pavers: Cleaning pavers requires a soap and water solution. Using a long-handled scrubber works best to lift any dirt or grime. You can rinse with a garden hose.
• Tile: Tile patios require a plain soap and water solution to clean or a strong cleaning detergent containing trisodium phosphate.
• Cut Stone: Cleaners like Dawn or Ajax dishwashing liquid and a natural or synthetic bristle brush work well for cut stone patios.

When to Pressure Wash or Soft Wash

Pressure washing is not recommended for most patios. This is because pressure washing can potentially damage your patio floor if washed this way consistently.

When using a pressure washer on concrete, brick, or cut stone, make sure your pressure washer is set up with the right nozzle and pressure. It is recommended to use the green-colored tip because the red and yellow tips localize all the pressure at one point and can lead to future damage. Let the cleaning agent activate before scrubbing and then rinsing with a power washer.

Soft washing is typically done with a soft detergent or cleaning agent, bristled broom, and a garden hose. This method is best for wood, flagstone, pavers, and tile flooring. It may take a bit more time, but it will ensure that no damage is done to your client’s patio.

How to Get Clients for Your Exterior Cleaning Services

Are you thinking about expanding your business into providing exterior cleaning services?

With the exterior cleaning industry projected to reach 8.4 billion in revenue by the end of 2022, it would be beneficial to your cleaning business to offer exterior cleaning services. In order to reap the benefits of an increase in revenue, you will have to understand how to market your new offerings to existing and new customers.

Marketing Tips for Cleaning Business Owners

As a business owner, one of your main goals should be to consistently work on the acquisition and retention rates of customers. Below are helpful tips on how to strategically target your marketing efforts towards both acquiring and retaining new customers.

Social Media Promotion

Make a point to establish yourself on trending social media platforms according to your target market. Your target market will include the basic demographics of your consumers. Once you are aware of how and where to reach your customers, it is important to remain consistent in being active on the platforms you choose to use.

Promotions are social media content that can be done through a post, story, or live-streaming event. Optimize your promotion by including key information on what you are offering. If your business is expanding into the exterior cleaning industry, create straightforward content targeted toward customers in a way that is informative and visually appealing.

Include hashtags at the end of your captions that are within the scope of your target market. The rule of thumb with hashtags is to use key phrases or words that represent your post and company.

Hashtags are also a great tool to use to encourage engagement. For example, if you are offering a special, encourage clients to post the results of their exterior cleaning service with the hashtag. This will create a thread that can be used as a portfolio for future clients.

Website and Email Engagement

Make sure your website is updated with your new exterior cleaning offering. A simple way of using a webpage as marketing is to have your new offerings the first thing viewers can engage with.

To continue, emails are still an effective tool to use in this digital age. Target your emails towards existing customers since you should have their email on file.

The emails should be formatted in a way that catches your clients’ eyes. Utilize infographics or images to add value, and keep the body of the email short and sweet. Do not lump several new offerings or announcements in one email. This can be overwhelming to the viewer and decrease the chances of them spending time reading your email.

Customer Service

Even when on the job, your cleaners can help you market your business through their customer service.

This may seem like a simple and well-known concept, but about 89% of customers are guaranteed to make another purchase or further engage with a company after a positive customer experience. So, make sure your cleaners are following all company guidelines and providing positive experiences for your clients.

You can also use positive customer reviews on service to boost your acquisition rates. Maintaining good reviews is a good way of increasing word-of-mouth advertising. By using your customers to do the advertising for you, you’ll also save money.

Grow Your Cleaning Business

Tapping into the exterior cleaning service industry will not only help you grow your cleaning business but can also increase your potential revenue.

In order to expand your services, however, it’s important that your day-to-day processes and administrative operations are streamlined and efficient. Taskbird is an app that allows service business owners to communicate with employees, schedule jobs, manage their customer lists, and more — all in one centralized place.

Start working more efficiently, saving time and money, and growing your business today with Taskbird.