Finding cleaning contracts: build a reliable path to new customers

Your team could take on more properties and the equipment is ready, but the right enquiries are missing. So you start looking for cleaning contracts. Perhaps a recommendation comes in occasionally, or perhaps you have already tried advertising. The question remains: what can you do regularly to turn spare capacity into new customers?

A workable approach starts with a clear picture of the right contract. Shape your customer acquisition around it: use existing relationships, make your business visible locally and, when useful, buy customer enquiries selectively. What matters next is how you clarify the requirements, prepare a quotation and agree the next step. An enquiry will not clean a stairwell. It can, however, begin a good working relationship.

Start with contracts that fit your business

“We need more work” is understandable, but gives you little guidance when choosing. Regular office cleaning needs different planning from a one-off clean after refurbishment. Even an attractive property can be awkward if the journey is long or the requested time clashes with existing jobs.

Before searching, write down which services your current team can reliably provide. Are you looking for offices, stairwells, glass surfaces or other work? Which towns do you want to cover? Which times are actually available? Include cover for absences, travel, materials and looking after the new customer in your planning.

Hypothetical planning example: You already serve several offices in a business park and have spare capacity on two evenings. Another nearby office could fit the route well. A property across town requiring early morning cleaning would need a different work schedule. Both could be commercially attractive; the first fits your current gap better.

These considerations give you a short search brief: “Regular office cleaning in the western part of town, preferably evenings.” Use it in conversations, on your website and when selecting purchased enquiries. Your search becomes more specific and your offer easier to understand.

Help satisfied customers recommend you

If you already have customers, start with relationships where your work is known. At a suitable moment, ask whether other areas need cleaning or whether someone they know is looking for a cleaning company. A recommendation is easier when people understand which contracts you want.

For example: “We currently have room for another office here in the neighbourhood. If you know someone who needs help, feel free to pass on our contact details.” Your customer can make the connection without giving you another person’s details unsolicited. The prospective customer decides whether to get in touch.

Prepare a short description of your services. State your service area, the work you offer and how to enquire. A clear link to your website is often a practical aid. Someone recommending you should not have to summarise a novel about your company first.

Cooperation can also create opportunities, for example through existing contacts with property managers, caretaking services or businesses offering complementary services. In an agreed conversation, clarify which enquiries you can sensibly refer to one another. Stay within services you can deliver and let the customer decide whether to make contact.

Make your offer clear to customers who are searching

Someone looking for a cleaning business wants quick answers: do you work in my area, can you handle my property and how do I get a quotation? Your website should answer these questions before giving a lengthy introduction to your business.

Describe the properties and services you cover specifically. Explain how you establish requirements and when a site visit makes sense. Only show genuine references with the relevant permission. Photos should convey your actual work without revealing confidential information from customer premises.

A complete, current Google Business Profile can support local visibility. Google names relevance, distance and prominence or popularity as the main factors in local results. Correct information helps match your business with relevant searches. It does not promise a particular position. See Google’s guidance on local ranking.

Make the enquiry straightforward: provide a phone number, a contact option and a clear invitation to state the property type, location and desired start. The first contact does not need a questionnaire that takes longer than your next team meeting. You can discuss further details personally afterwards.

Paid search advertising is another possible addition. Limit an initial trial to the service you actually offer and the area you cover. Assess suitable enquiries and contracts won. Many clicks alone tell you little about whether the effort is worthwhile for your business.

Consider tenders when you can meet the requirements

Public bodies and larger organisations may award cleaning work through tender procedures. One place to find German public notices is the Public Procurement Notice Service. Finding a tender and submitting a bid are separate steps. The notice leads you to the relevant documents and procedural information.

Read the scope, location, duration, deadlines and required evidence first. Then check whether your business can meet the requirements and submit a sound bid. A large property becomes a good opportunity when staffing, absence cover and organisation fit it.

Use other channels alongside tenders for capacity available at short notice. Tender procedures have prescribed processes and deadlines. Decide deliberately how much time to invest in a procedure. Declining an unsuitable opportunity early preserves resources for a better one.

Add purchased enquiries to your own channels

Recommendations and your own visibility remain valuable. Purchased leads can complement them when you want additional conversations with prospective customers. A lead is a customer enquiry with a means of contact. Whether it becomes a cleaning contract is established through further discussion of requirements, service and terms.

The practical benefit is being able to work with an expressed need. You still need time for contact, a site visit and the quotation. Only buy as many enquiries as you can handle properly. Available cleaning capacity and available sales capacity are different things.

For commercial cleaning, webRichtung lets you set your area, delivery type and monthly upper limit. Regional selection uses a postcode and a radius starting at 25 kilometres in Germany. Standard enquiries go to at most three providers; with exclusive delivery, one provider receives the enquiry. Exclusivity concerns that delivery and does not mean a guaranteed contract. The upper limit is not a promised delivery quantity. These details appear on the commercial cleaning leads page.

Before ordering, check the displayed price and terms. For lead offers, also ask about the source, permitted contact and the information available. You may still need to clarify property size, cleaning frequency and access in conversation. The webRichtung industry page expressly distinguishes discussion topics from information already collected.

The specific contact also matters legally. A published phone number or email address alone does not permit unrestricted advertising. In Germany, section 7 UWG requires at least presumed consent for advertising calls to businesses. Advertising emails generally require prior express consent, with a narrowly defined existing-customer exception. Keep contact within the specific enquiry and its permitted scope. The relevant provision is section 7 UWG.

Give the first enquiry a concrete next step

Before buying additional enquiries, decide who will handle them. Reserve time and prepare a simple conversation guide. This helps you respond promptly without promising a quotation between jobs based on an unsupported estimate.

The first conversation mainly establishes whether working together could fit. Ask about property type and location, desired work, frequency and planned start. Discuss possible working times and who decides on the quotation. If another provider is currently involved, establish when a change would actually be possible.

Hypothetical conversation example: An office manager requests regular cleaning. You learn that cleaning should take place twice weekly and access is only possible after business hours. That broadly fits your team. Because areas, floors and washrooms are not yet described sufficiently, you arrange a site visit. You agree who will attend and when the quotation can be expected afterwards.

The enquiry now has a next step. You have avoided naming a price prematurely and given the prospective customer something clearer than “We’ll get back to you.” Be equally clear if the property does not fit your business. A friendly refusal saves both sides time.

A simple spreadsheet or your existing customer management system is enough for initial follow-up. Record the source, current stage, next step, date and responsible person. Collect only information needed to handle the enquiry and limit access to those involved.

Make your quotation understandable and comparable

A quotation should show what the customer receives for the stated price. Record the agreed areas, tasks and frequencies. Separate regular services from additional work. Describe relevant prerequisites too, such as access, who supplies materials and the intended service start.

At a site visit, ask about flooring, furniture, washrooms, routes through the building and existing routines. Square metres alone do not describe the work adequately: an open space and a densely furnished office can require different effort. Calculate using the actual scope and your staffing, material, travel and organisational costs.

When a prospective customer wants to discuss price, first clarify which services are being compared. Your quotation may include work missing elsewhere. You may be able to adjust the scope together. A lower price offers little benefit if it prevents you from reliably delivering the agreed quality.

When sending the quotation, agree when to discuss it. Follow up by referring to that discussion: is anything unclear, is information missing, has the schedule changed? Help the customer make a decision, rather than merely asking for a signature.

Measure which channel brings commercially suitable customers

Compare your channels using the same sequence. How many enquiries arrived? How many broadly fitted? How many led to a site visit, quotation and contract? Also record why an enquiry did not progress.

Those reasons show where to improve. Many enquiries outside your area suggest reviewing the area selection. If conversations happen but quotations do not, important information or suitable capacity may be missing. If quotations are often declined, examine the scope, clarity and reasons given more closely.

For a financial comparison, divide a channel’s costs by the new customers gained through it. For purchased enquiries, include lead costs and, for a fuller view, your handling effort. Without a customer gained, this does not yet give a meaningful cost per new customer.

Then examine the contribution of the contracts after attributable costs. For ongoing agreements, use a cautious period rather than assuming years of customer retention that nobody has promised. This lets you assess acquisition channels using your own figures and adjust the next trial on a reasoned basis.

Start with a combination you can manage reliably

You do not have to develop every channel simultaneously. First define the contracts you want, make your offer clear online and use suitable existing relationships. If you want more enquiries, add a limited lead order and reserve time to handle it. Review regularly which contacts progress and where adjustments are needed.

Registration with webRichtung leads to webRichtung Customer. There you configure your lead order and see the current price before confirming. Delivery requires, among other things, one-time industry approval, an order eligible for delivery and sufficient credit. The lead purchasing overview explains the general process.

If your team has spare capacity and you want new customer conversations, register your cleaning business on the commercial cleaning leads page. Choose your service area and a limit matching the time you have for consultation and quotations. You can then handle the next suitable enquiry with a clear process, from the first conversation to a concrete quotation.