A cleaner gets eleven enquiries a week. Six are outside the round, three are in a street he does on Thursdays and two are somewhere he could add if there were three more nearby.
Each one takes four messages to establish. That is a working day a month spent finding out where people live.
Why this costs so much
Because the answer depends entirely on geography and nobody publishes theirs. Every enquiry becomes a conversation that mostly ends in no.
Why the answer is not simply distance
Rounds work on density. Eight houses in one street is profitable and one house four miles away is not, even if the second is closer to home.
Publish the coverage precisely
Named streets, villages or postcode areas. Not a radius, not a town, not nearby areas. People check their own street against a list and rule themselves in or out immediately.
Publish which day you do each area
Because it tells a customer when they would be cleaned and it prevents the follow up question entirely.
Publish the honest edge
Areas you would consider with enough demand, stated as such. It converts people into a waiting list rather than a dead end.
Keep a waiting list that works
Name, address and what they want. When a round grows or a street opens up, four messages fill it without any advertising.
Explain why an isolated property costs more
Travel time, no other work nearby and the round it disrupts. Customers accept a higher price when the reason is given.
Offer a price for an outlying property
Rather than refusing. Some people will pay it and a stated figure is better than a conversation that ends in an apology.
Tell them who else might cover it
An honest referral to somebody who does. It costs nothing, it is remembered and it comes back as referrals in your own area.
Ask for the postcode first
In the very first exchange, before anything else. It settles the question in one step rather than five, which is the same problem as service area questions that waste everyone's time.
Use enquiries to plan expansion
Because a street generating four enquiries a month is telling you where the next round goes. Nobody records this and it is free market research.
Publish the additional services by area
Gutters, fascias, conservatory roofs and solar panels, which may have a wider radius than the regular round, as in solar panel cleaning enquiries from homeowners.
Say what would make a street viable
A single enquiry in a village is a no and four in the same street is a morning's work. Telling somebody that you would come if a couple of neighbours were interested turns a refusal into a small piece of work they frequently do for you, and rounds grow this way more reliably than through advertising.
Publish the frequency options
Every four weeks, every eight or twice a year, because customers on the edge of a round can sometimes be fitted into a less frequent rotation. It converts people who would otherwise be declined entirely and it fills the quieter weeks.
Answer coverage questions at any hour
So the yes converts immediately and the no costs nobody a conversation, which is the whole argument in answering service area questions, alongside the round management in payment and billing questions on a round.
Getting started
Publish your covered streets and days precisely, keep a waiting list and answer coverage questions at any hour. SpideyChat for cleaning businesses answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.