Cleaning Business Websites: What Customers Check

A cleaning business website has to answer four questions before anyone books: do you clean homes, offices or both; what exactly a clean includes; how to request a recurring visit; and why a stranger should trust your team inside their home. That last one comes down to facts you can state plainly: the insurance you carry, who your cleaners are, and background checks, but only if you really run them.

Homes and offices are different customers

A homeowner and an office manager want different things, so give them separate pages.

Residential

Types of clean: standard, deep, move-in or move-out, after a renovation
How often: one time, weekly, every two weeks, monthly
Add-ons: inside the oven, inside the fridge, interior windows, laundry, inside cabinets
Home details that matter: pets, kids, whether someone needs to be home

Commercial

What you clean: offices, shops, common areas in apartment buildings, whatever you actually take on
When: after hours, early mornings, weekends
How you quote: from a walkthrough, from a floor plan, or both
What the buyer needs from you: a certificate of insurance, references, a written scope of work and invoices that fit their accounting

An office manager comparing janitorial companies doesn't want to read about pet hair. A homeowner doesn't need to read about stripping and waxing floors. Two pages fix that.

A checklist of what a clean includes

"We clean your whole house" doesn't tell anyone what they're buying. A room-by-room list does:

Kitchen: counters, sink, stovetop, outside of appliances, floors
Bathrooms: toilet, tub and shower, sink, mirrors, floors
Bedrooms and living areas: dusting, surfaces, floors, making beds if you do it
Throughout: trash, baseboards, light switches and door handles

Then show what a deep clean adds, and what you don't do at all, such as outside windows, mold, biohazard cleanup or carpet extraction. A clear "not included" list prevents some of the most awkward phone calls in this business.

Say who brings the supplies and equipment. If you use particular products for allergies or for homes with pets, name them, and only call them "green" if you can back it up.

A recurring booking request

Recurring clients are steady work, so make it easy to start. The request form should collect what you need to price and schedule without a phone call:

Home or business
Address or ZIP code
Size: bedrooms and bathrooms for homes, rough square footage for offices
Type of clean: standard, deep, move-out
How often: one time, weekly, every two weeks, monthly
Preferred day and a time window
Pets, and anything you should know about them
How you get in: someone home, a key, a door code or a lockbox
Notes, and photos of problem areas if they want to add them

If the first visit is always a deep clean at your company, say so on the form, before they send it. The same goes for a minimum visit length or a trial clean before recurring service starts.

Say what happens after they send it

Spell it out: you reply to confirm the price and the start date, and nothing is booked until you do. Then answer the questions people ask later:

How to skip, move or pause a visit, and how much notice you need
What happens if your cleaner can't get in
Your cancellation policy
What happens on holidays
Whether the same cleaner or team comes each time, if that's how you work

What customers check before they let you in

Hiring a cleaner often means handing over a key or a door code. People check carefully before they do. Give them facts, not slogans.

Insurance, in plain words

When a customer asks if you're insured, the question behind it is simple: if something breaks or someone gets hurt, who pays. The SBA's guide to business insurance describes general liability insurance as coverage that "protects against financial loss as the result of bodily injury, property damage, medical expenses" and related claims.

On your site:

Say which coverage you carry, in plain words.
Offer a certificate of insurance on request. Commercial clients will ask for one anyway.
Use the word "bonded" only if you hold a bond, and say what it covers.

Background checks, only if you run them

Many customers look for background checks. Write about them only if you actually do them, and say what that means: when you run them, for example before hiring, and what they cover.

If you run them through a screening company, federal rules apply to how you do it. The FTC's guide Background Checks: What Employers Need to Know explains them, including the written notice and the written permission you need from the applicant before the check.

If you don't run background checks, don't hint at them with words like "vetted" or "screened." Say what's true instead: how you hire, how you train new cleaners, and that the same people come back each visit, if they do.

Who is coming

Photos and first names of your cleaners, with their permission, help a lot. So does a line on how they arrive: in uniform, in a marked car, inside a set time window.

What happens if something is missed

If you come back to fix a missed spot, say how and how soon. If something gets broken, say how you handle it. Write only the policy you actually follow. A vague satisfaction guarantee invites arguments about what it means.

Reviews

Reviews from recurring clients often mention what new clients worry about: showing up on time, trust, the same cleaner every visit. Show them on the site, link to your Google profile, and ask happy clients for more. Here is how to get more Google reviews without breaking Google's rules.

What to leave off

Stock photos of models in yellow gloves wiping a counter that was already clean
"Fully vetted" or "background-checked" if you don't run checks
A chat popup that covers the booking button on a phone
Prices from two years ago

Check your own site

Look at your site on a phone the way a new client would. Make sure they can tell within a few seconds whether you clean homes, offices or both, find what a standard clean includes, and send a recurring request without calling. The request form and service area tools we build for trades work the same way for cleaning companies: see websites for contractors. To see how your current site does on a phone, run the free website checker.

See it with your own services

We build the first version of your website free, in 2 days, with your services, your cleaning checklist and a booking request that reaches you right away. You click around it, then decide. If it isn't for you, you owe nothing. Get your free preview.