Summary
There are tons of tools out there to run your business. With the right tool you can grow your business, reduce mistakes and spend less time doing manual work.
But, with so many tools out there how can you compare them "apples-to-apples" and feel confident you are making the right choice?
First, develop a set of criterion. Then, find the alternatives that fit cleaning businesses needs best.
So let's jump right to it 💻
1. Criteria
The first step is to develop a set of criteria
Here's the 10 things you should be looking for when evaluating a new tool:
Ease of evaluation and sign up
How easy is it to evaluate and start using? How clear is the pricing structure? Can I get a good sense of how things work once I start using it? Can I sign up online and start using right away or do I need to schedule a demo? Do I need to enter a credit card to start using it? Is there a free trial period? If so, how long?
Look and feel
How does the product look like? Does it look professional? Does it look fresh? Are the interactions smooth? Is the way things work intuitive?
Feature set
These are the most common features found on residential cleaning CRM's:
Dashboard
Calendar
Reports
Calendar
Map
Activity Feed
Client list
Client Profile
Cleaner List
Cleaner Profile
Chat
Cleaner Apps
Client Apps
Notifications
Website
Online Booking
Applicant Registration
Applicant Tracker
Feedback, Rating, Tipping
Automations
Company
Who is behind the company. How big is the team? How are they funded? What's their product trajectory? Do they have a product roadmap? Do have transparency around their product roadmap and their uptime history?
Community
Price
How do they price their software? Does the price vary by the number of jobs? By the number of cleaners? Do all tiers include all features or do you have to pay for add ons?
Support
How easy is it to resolve questions? Is there a well-developed help desk article base? Do they offer instant response by in-app chat?
Portability
2. Alternatives
Here are the most popular CRM's used by residential cleaning companies (in no particular order):
There are other "field services management" software out there, like HousecallPro, Jobber, ServiceMonster and on and on. We are not including them as alternatives here because while they can be used by residential cleaning companies, they are not made for residential cleaning companies.
Because they are made to serve a wide variety of verticals within the "field services" space, their feature set is more generic and less specific to the needs of cleaning companies in particular. So using HousecallPro for a running a recurring cleaning business would be a little like using a wrench to hammer a nail in the wall; you can do it but it's not the right tool for the job.
Even
If you are considering another tool and want us to help you rate it, please let us know.
3. Comparisons
Here we compare some of the tools above in detail.
Zenmaid vs Cleanetto
Launch27 vs Cleanetto
BookingKoala vs Cleanetto
Jobber vs Cleanetto
