Zenmaid
Today’s special 100th Episode features Amar Ghose, owner and creator of Zenmaid Software.
Mike and Amar talk Zenmaid software, automation, marketing and organization for any cleaning company looking to simplify and improve their business inner-workings.Amar shares a little bit about how he got into the cleaning business and what inspired Zenmaid to be created.

Born out of a desire to constantly improve and streamline their business Amar and his partner quickly realized they wanted to help other owners of cleaning companies run their businesses better more than running their own.

You may or may not be asking why should a cleaning company have software?

Because the time, energy and resources it takes to successfully plan a day with multiple employees, accounts and follow up shouldn’t be left up to the possibility of human error.

In the past software was just to manage information. But in this day and age, software can do so much more for you than before.

It can send emails out for you automatically, it can organize your day automatically, it can follow up with your customers and deliver a perfect message each and every time.

You can now organize customer information, notes on them, your interactions with them so you can customize and personalize how you communicate with them.

It doesn’t matter where a cleaning company is, they all have to manage their services. You have to know which customer is being served on which day by which employee and at what time.

Zenmaid can organise this information and have it sent out to your employees automatically and cleaning customers so there aren’t forgotten appointments or angry customers.

You can remind customers of cut off dates/times for cancellations without fees. You can get all the work details about a specific account to that cleaner.

Let’s diving into the details a bit…Automated reminders are absolutely best practice, you want to be constantly pinging, touching and bringing value to your customers as often as as you can.

With residential customers, you are going into their homes so giving those customers reminders and notices ahead of and after is really valuable.

Zenmaid can do it with text, email or both.

Zenmaid can also handle your scheduling with maid services in mind.

BONUS: Even with the crazy cat lady that wants her house cleaned every 8 days no matter what, even on holidays.

Unlike generic scheduling software that cover all service industries, Zenmaid is just for cleaning companies, so everything a cleaning company would want is already built into the system because it was built by people who ran a successful cleaning company.

You aren’t trying to make a one size fits all program work.

Not only do they provide time management and reminder features but they can also provide timed, repeatable and scalable communication with your customers.

Some online mailing programs and CRMs can be expensive, but Zenmaid integrates with mailchimp, which is a free email service, saving you extra money.

Being able to text your customers individually is key in reinforcing your key values and sharing your vibe with your customers.

You can set them up with fun reminder texts/emails and follow up texts/emails asking for referrals and reviews right after they see their homes sparkling clean.

They offer pre-made templates Amar’s business used and knows they are effective.

Follow up is key, not only can you ask for reviews right away but you can and should ask for feedback to nip any problems in the bud.

Knowing your customers are unhappy right away makes it easier to correct the problem and keep your customer.

BONUS TIP:Customer retention is much cheaper than customer acquisition.

Time management/scheduling software allows you to free up your mental energy to growing your business. It automates all the necessities you know your systems are getting done every time without fail. It doesn’t call in, get sick or make human mistakes.

Now you may have listened to the podcast featuring Hubstaff https://oldsite.growmycleaningcompany.commaximizing-employee-productivity/ and may be asking yourself, what’s the difference?

So glad you asked! Hubstaff is mostly about time tracking your employees and costs.

Zenmaid helps with work orders and really basic time tracking but they’re more like a marketing software.

BONUS TIP: If you have 20-30 employees Hubstaff is an absolute no-brainer.

If you really want to dive into what employees are where and what they did, how long they were at a job, who they served and how long it took to get to that job to drill down job costing, that’s a hubstaff job.

But if you are looking for building customer relations and making sure your customers get the individualized care they deserve then Zenmaid is where it’s at.

There are other companies that offer this type of programming, that are more established but with that comes older technology that isn’t readily integratable with today’s tech.

So now that we’ve covered what Zenmaid does, let’s get into…..

the Special Guest Edition of the Lightning Round
What do you see most maid services do wrong?

There’s a difference between the services and the service owners. With the owners, it’s the whole concept of working harder but not smarter. They feel like they are vital to specific parts of the maid service and are unwilling/unable to remove themselves from it.

You need to systematize and automate all of your business so you are not necessary and that’s what a good business is. A lot of owners are reluctant to give up certain parts of their business, but end up slaves to it because without them the systems fall apart.

Knowing how to clean a specific way, that nobody else can do better is great to feel good about yourself and perhaps even in the beginning building your business, but you don’t want your unique selling proposition to be YOU.

Unless you want to be cleaning houses for the rest of your life, at some point you are going to have to let go of that and spend your time building systems and using software so you can be running your business from anywhere enjoying life!

What’s the biggest mistake people make with software?

The first thing is to realize the power of software and what it can do for your business and realizing it’s just a matter of time for implementation.

When you are aware of what the software can do, it’s a matter of taking it bite by bite and fully implementing it.

Don’t try to do everything at once and get overwhelmed and say it’s too complicated.

The flipside is just as bad, getting the software but not using enough for it to make a difference anywhere but your pocket book.

So you need to find that balance of trying a software.

BONUS TIP: Figure out “how can this most quickly help my business?”, and get that part of the software in place and then slowly build towards using more and more of it.

Most softwares have the potential to bring a tremendous amount of value to you but no matter how good of a system and software you have, it’s only as beneficial as the implementation.

Most importantly, set aside a time budget to make sure any software you get to implement it in your business.

Don’t forget to take advantage of the Onboarding Concierge and the 45 Day extended FREE Trial! Go to www.zenmaid.com/growmycleaningcompany for Amar’s special deal for Grow My Cleaning Company Members.