Website for a cleaning company: trust and an hourly rate

You're letting someone in

A facility manager or a household looking for a cleaning company mainly wants not to have to think about it anymore. But before it gets that far, something else plays a part. You're giving someone a key. You're letting a stranger into your office or home, often when you're not there yourself.

So the fear is very concrete: unreliable staff, or even theft. What your customer is looking for: screened people and a contract they're not locked into.

Choose your audience, or split your site

Offices, owners' associations and private households are looking for very different things. An office wants a cleaning plan and a fixed point of contact. A household wants someone who comes at the same hour every week.

Make clear on your first screen who you work for. Serving several groups? Then let visitors choose: "Office", "Owners' association", "Home". Writing for business and private customers at once means nobody feels addressed.

Trust first

Directly under your first screen sits the answer to the biggest fear:

• Your staff are screened. Every employee has a VOG, the Dutch Certificate of Conduct. Say so in those words.
• You're insured, for example with liability insurance.
• The OSB quality mark, if you have it, with a link.
• Your reviews, and for business customers logos of clients you're allowed to name.

A cleaning company that says nothing about screening leaves the visitor with their biggest question unanswered.

How it works

Explain in three steps what happens:

1. Intake: we come round and look at what's needed.
2. Cleaning plan: you get a plan with what we do, how often, and what it costs.
3. A regular cleaner: the same person, every time.

That regular cleaner is decisive for many customers. It's no longer a stranger, but someone they get to know.

Name your hourly rate

In a Nielsen Norman Group test, a participant passed over a cleaning company because it didn't state its rate. That's exactly what happens on many sites.

Put your hourly rate per audience on your site. For private customers including VAT, for business customers it can be excluding, as long as you say so. Also mention your notice period. "Cancel monthly" is a strong argument for someone afraid of being tied down.

If you work with quotes for bigger jobs, give an indication and explain what determines the price: the square metres, how often, and what needs cleaning.

A trial clean

A nice first step is a trial clean. The customer sees the result before committing. The buttons are then "Request a quote" and "Book a trial clean". Only call the quote no-obligation if the customer really isn't committed to anything.

Your team

Show your people, in work clothes, at work at a client's. No stock photo of a smiling woman with a bucket. A customer wants to know who's coming in.

The tone

For business customers efficient and to the point. For private customers it can be looser and more personal.

Better left out

• Not a word about screening or VOG.
• Business and private customers mixed together.
• No rate.