New Lesson learned today

I was refilling my propane belly tank today and ran into an old friend and customer of my Father's refilling the tank on his hot air balloon.  This is a very interesting guy who used to launch his balloon from our farm when I was a kid....even forgot to tie the basket to it once forcing us to chase a balloon for a couple of miles.

Anyway, we started talking and he was checking out my box truck set-up and told me that he just had his house cleaned by a company out of town.  He was not happy with the results either and I told him that he should have called me instead.

This is where the lesson comes in.  He said that he heard about me years ago and watched me cleaning the local bank, store fronts, and heard that I also cleaned for other commercial clients.  He assumed that I only cleaned commercial buildings as a result.  The other company only advertises residential and is only seen cleaning homes, so that was who he thought of first when he needed a cleaner.

I never advertised myself as only a commercial cleaner, but the word of mouth always mentions the commercial work that I do when my name comes up.  Even the store front and offices that I clean for seem surprised when I tell them that I clean residential as well.

I never considered that my image would have become associated with just commercial cleanings and thus cause me to be over-looked when people need to clean their homes.  I suppose driving around in a box truck might have helped to solidify that thinking even more.

I have some work to do now to turn this around before Spring.  I guess I have my marching orders now for this winter and will have to formulate a plan to fix this image.

Oh, by the way, I was invited to join the next ballooning event with this guy.  He must be near 80 now and although holds a World Ballooning Record, he will always be the same guy that failed to attach the basket 40 years ago in my field.  Not sure if I will take him up on it....riding around in the winter in a wicker basket with an 80 year old might be more risk than I am willing to take.

Regarding the commercial image, one word of advise : "keywords", you need to put more "residential" word everywhere, your website, your Google listing, etc. You also need to post more residential cleaning pictures everywhere.

Regarding the hot air balloon, well you're on your own there bud, lol.

I think that is very sound advice...both the keywords and the balloon avoidance.

Off topic. I ordered a hole glide and some other parts from a guy names Joe who was banned from the site several years ago. I need to order another one. Do you know the name of the company and how to contact them? Appreciate it.

Wanders