With the right policies in place, your company can offer profitable deep cleaning services without extra stress.

There’s some controversy in the residential cleaning industry over deep cleaning. Some businesses refuse to do it. Others have turned it into a big revenue stream.

It’s certainly possible to offer deep cleaning services in a way that works for your cleaning company. Your success ultimately comes down to the policies and boundaries you choose to enforce.

Here are a few strategies you might consider to create a sustainable, profitable deep-cleaning service offering:

Don’t call it a deep cleaning service.

If you use the phrase “deep clean,” you might be making a promise you can’t keep. A customer might expect their house to look brand new after a deep clean. And you don’t want to end up disappointing someone over semantics. Consider a term like “deluxe clean” or “extra clean” instead.

Make sure expectations are clear.

Write up a checklist about what a deep clean service entails, so your customer knows exactly what they’re getting. Otherwise, ambiguity may lead to unreasonable expectations. But by specifying the services included and not the final product, you can avoid disappointment.

This checklist will make things easier for your cleaners, too. They know exactly what’s expected of them and can handle pushback from customers who are requesting more.

Establish firm boundaries on what you will and won’t clean.

As a business owner, you have the right to turn down work for any reason. This means you can decide that there are some deep cleaning jobs you simply refuse to accept, such as:

  • Hoarder houses.
  • Mold.
  • Frat houses with seedy reputations.
  • Any situation that exposes cleaners to biohazards.

Take time to think about what you will and won’t do, and make it clear on your website. This can save you and your cleaners from a lot of unpleasant situations.

Bill by the hour.

We’ve written before about the drawbacks of charging by the hour. But for deep cleaning, it can be a great strategy to ensure a profitable job. Deep cleaning usually comes with a lot of variables, and you never know exactly how long it’s going to take. You don’t want to end up losing money because a deep clean lasted for hours. You can remove the guesswork by setting a fair hourly rate for this particular service.

Pay your team extra for deep cleans.

Deep cleaning can be very, very hard work. Long hours spent tackling tough stains and scrubbing through layers of grime is exhausting. You need to compensate your team appropriately.

Talk to the customer ahead of time so you understand the situation.

Every customer will want something a little different from a deep clean. If someone books a deep clean, send them a message or give them a call to gather more information. Then you can determine whether the cleaning crew will need special equipment or supplies to tackle the job. When your cleaners are prepared for the situation, they can deliver better services. And your customer is more likely to be satisfied.

Good policies and firm boundaries make it possible to offer deep cleaning—without taking on anything truly awful. Your customers and your cleaning crews will appreciate it.