My first book, Susan Wittig Albert’s 180th—an inspiration to me for years, and finally, I got to give her one of mine.
I didn’t write Repeatable because the industry needed another book, although that wouldn’t be a bad reason, since there are so few written about the residential cleaning industry. I wrote it to answer a question I’ve thought about for years: Why haven’t the residential cleaning industry produced $50 million companies? From what I’ve seen over the years, it’s not because the opportunity isn’t there. In fact, running a cleaning business is easier today than ever before.
When I started, we used: a sack full of quarters to make calls, map code books to figure out routes, and handwritten schedules. It was harder—much harder—than it is now. And yet, even with all the tools available today, companies still struggle to scale. The reason is this: Most cleaning companies are not built around repeat clients—or they can’t keep them. And the reason they can’t keep them is simple: They lack a repeatable cleaning method.
Different cleaners. Different methods. Different results. That breaks consistency—and consistency is what keeps clients. Before marketing, before hiring, before anything else, the real question is, can you produce the same result, the same way, every time? That’s why I wrote Repeatable. Because a business that grows itself doesn’t start with more customers, it starts with a system that keeps them.