Cleaning Service Marketing Plan

Mother's House Cleaning Service

Marketing Strategy

MHCS' target market was chosen because these customers appreciate a professional, reliable, trustworthy, and immaculate house cleaning service, and are more than willing to pay for this. While Cleanly, WA has several different cleaning services, MHCS is the only one that targets the affluent exclusively. The wealthy are consistent customers. Whether they have a house cleaning service does not depend on the finances each month. These groups always have the money for our services, just as they always need/desire a clean house.

The affluent desire quality and are willing to pay a premium for a service that they can trust 100%, that extrudes professionalism. This is done in a seamless, customer-centric manner.

The company will be marketed through a three-pronged approach. One prong is the distribution of a color brochure detailing our services. The distribution of this document will be targeted to hit the chosen segment. This will be done by setting up strategic relationships with organizations or clubs whose members fit the targeted customer profile. Examples of this would be higher-end athletic clubs, country clubs, wine connoisseur clubs, etc.  Access will be gained to these clubs membership through deals where the club owners will receive Mother's services for themselves.

The second prong of our approach will be through word-of-mouth referrals. Mother's will offer an economic incentive (such as a free visit) to customers if they bring in new business.  This will be effective because the financial incentive will motivate their behavior, and people naturally like to share good deals with their friends.

The third prong will be an advertising campaign in two of the local newspapers.  The  advertisements will appear in the weekly home section of the newspapers.

Mission

Mother's House Cleaning Service's mission is to provide the customer with all residential cleaning services in an environmentally sound, completely trustworthy, and professional manner. We exist to attract and maintain customers. When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place. Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.

Marketing Objectives

• Increase repeat customers by 7% each quarter.
• Decrease customer acquisition costs by 8% per year.
• Develop brand equity so that Mother's is commonly known as the premier house cleaning service.

Financial Objectives

• A double digit growth rate for the next three years.
• Reduce overhead costs by 5% per year.
• Profitability within year one.

Target Marketing

Mother's House Cleaning Service will be focusing on two upper socio/economic groups. The first is the affluent where only one spouse works. Although the other spouse is at home and has time to clean, he/she chooses not to. This spouse would rather volunteer for a public interest organization, play tennis and golf, or just spend time how he/she chooses to. They have no desire to clean the house. To them that is not enjoyable and they have the money to pay someone to do that kind of work. This market has annual incomes over $200,000 and live in expensive houses.

The second segment of the market that is targeted is the two income family. Over the last couple of decades, the number of two-income households have increased, to a point where in parts of the country they exceed one income families. The target customer is two income families whose combined annual income is over $125,000. These families don't have the time to clean, can afford a cleaning service, and choose to hire a service because the opportunity costs are too high to waste time cleaning their house. These households are typically age 32-55 and live in houses valued over $250,000. Cleanly has approximately 10,000 families that fall into this demographic. It is this segment that has tremendous potential for Mother's. Nearly 80% of dual income households use an outside cleaning service for some of their house cleaning according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Additionally, there are potential customers that MHCS has labeled as assorted "well-off" households. These are families that have the money for our services that do not fit neatly into the two previous categories.

Positioning

Mother's will position themselves as a professional, trustworthy, residential house cleaning service.  Mother's will leverage their competitive edge of human capital investments to achieve the desired positioning.

MHCS begins with a rigorous training program for new employees. At the outset, employees with be trained on how to clean. Granted everyone has some idea on how to clean, but they will be shown a methodical way producing a cleaner home more efficiently. Mother's will then be training employees to work effectively on teams. While there are some households that prefer individual cleaners instead of a team, Mother's generally works in teams as they are more efficient. Working efficiently on a team takes training, and through this team training, Mother's is able to make significant gains in efficiency.

The next topic of training involves professionalism. Employees are given  the tools necessary to impress the most affluent clients. Professionalism is a skill that is used throughout the service call, from the way the employee greets and interacts with the client, to the way they clean, to the way they act when they break that priceless vase (which in the inevitable case that something is broken, MHCS has specific guidelines for the employee to follow to resolve the conflict).

MHCS will train the employees to know what the expectations of the clients are. They will be provided the tools needed to exceed these expectations.

This extensive training, both up front, as well as continuously (called the continuous learning system) builds a trust relationship between the company and the client. It is the bond of trust that will not only earn MHCS the loyalty of that customer but also the referral of several more of their friends.

Lastly, Mother's will emphasize the use of environmentally sound chemicals. Other companies also use environmentally sound chemicals so this is not a huge differentiation, but it is something that Mother's is proud of, and will be mentioned.

MHCS will also be creating the appearance of professionalism through the use of uniforms and large magnetic sign affixed to the side of the vehicles used.

Strategy Pyramids

The single objective is to position Mother's at the top of the house cleaning market, commanding a large market share within four years.  The marketing strategy will first seek to create customer awareness, develop the customer base, and work toward building customer loyalty and referrals.

This message will be communicated through a variety of ways.  The first is through printed materials (a color brochure) that will be widely distributed.  The second method is through an organized word-of-mouth referral system.  The last method of communication is through a targeted advertising campaign in the two local newspapers, specifically within the weekly home section of the papers.

 

Marketing Mix

Mother's marketing mix is comprised of the following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service.

• Pricing: Mother's pricing scheme will be based on the anticipated number of hours per project.

• Distribution: Services will be provided within a 25 mile area of Cleanly.

• Advertising and Promotion: The most successful activities will be brochures and a targeted advertisement campaign.  These activities will complement a referral system that is currently in development.

• Customer Service: Mother's recognizes that the secret to success will be exceeding customer expectations.  To achieve this objective, the employees have a fair amount of discretion to remedy most issues that may come up.

Marketing Research

During the initial stages of the marketing plan construction, Sarah held several focus groups in order to determine the market preferences for residential house cleaning.  Topics that were explored in the focus groups were how price sensitive consumers are, what services they valued the most, how many different cleaning services they have used in the last few years, how often they employ a service, how did they find out about their past services, etc.  The participants for the focus groups were made up of people from the two different targeted groups.  Overall, the focus groups provide Mother's with a lot of insightful information that would have been difficult or impossible to obtain using other methods.