How to raise prices on a commercial cleaning contract
Most cleaning companies ask for an increase by hoping. They tell the customer they think they did good work this year and ask politely for a few percent. The ones who get it without a fight walk in with a year of records instead.
Here is the renewal conversation most cleaning companies still have: “Well, I think we’ve done good work in your building this past year, and can we please get a 3% increase?”
The customer has no way to check that. Most of the cleaning happens after hours. They don’t see your crew, they don’t see your supervisor, and they certainly don’t see the night your cleaner stayed late because a tenant flooded a washroom. So the request lands as a cost with nothing attached to it, and the property manager does the sensible thing and gets two other quotes.
Why the customer says no
A customer thinks about their cleaning company maybe four times a year. When they have a complaint, when they pay the bill, when it’s renewal time, and when some other company knocks on their door. Three of those four moments are about money or problems. If renewal is the first time all year you have shown up with anything, the only fresh memory they have is the complaint.
That is also why the next company that comes in $100 lower gets the job. The customer can’t tell whether they are satisfied with you or not, so the cheaper quote looks like the same thing for less. You are not competing on price because your work is the same as theirs. You are competing on price because the customer can’t see the difference.
What to bring to the renewal meeting
The conversation I wanted to be having sounded like this: “We were in here 26 times this year. Your building consistently scores in the 90s on our inspections. Tickets get resolved within 24 hours, and most within four. This year we’d really like to ask you for a 3% increase.”
Same ask, completely different meeting. To have that conversation, you need these on paper before you walk in:
- How many inspections you did, with dates. If you cannot list them, you did fewer than you think.
- The score trend for their building. Month by month, so they can see it held or improved.
- How fast problems were fixed. From the moment something failed or the customer called to the moment it was confirmed fixed, with photos of the before and after.
- What you caught before they did. The leak you reported, the carpet you quoted, the burnt-out lights you flagged.
The cleaning inspection report template shows the shape of a report a property manager will actually read. Send a short one every month, so the renewal summary is a recap and not a surprise.
Turn the complaints into your evidence
Take the carpet that tenants walk past every day. If it looks dirty, they assume the cleaners aren’t doing their job. Often the carpet needs an extraction that sits outside the contract, the cleaning company has already quoted it, and the property manager never approved the quote.
Once that is in writing, with the date of the quote and the inspection notes showing the carpet failing month after month, the complaint stops being about you. You can say it plainly: stop complaining about the carpet, because we gave you a quote for it. At renewal it becomes a point in your favour. Every problem you flag before the customer finds it does the same job.
Have the walkthrough before you ask
I would not ask for an increase on an account I hadn’t walked with the customer in the last quarter. The walkthrough with the client is where you hear what is bothering them while you can still fix it, and it puts you in the building with them, which most contractors never do after the first month.
It also helps to know how they are rating you. If the customer fills in something like the cleaning client satisfaction scorecard each month, you go into renewal with their own scores on the table. Good ones support the increase. Bad ones tell you to fix the account before you ask for more money for it.
Put the increase in writing the same week
After the meeting, send a one-page letter with the new rate, the effective date and the same figures you showed them: visits, scores, fix times. Property managers often have to justify the increase to an owner or a board. Give them the page that does it for them.
If you want the numbers behind all this tracked every month rather than assembled the week before renewal, KPIs for commercial cleaning companies covers the ones I would watch per site, and how to keep cleaning clients covers the rest of the year between renewals.
Common questions
How much should a cleaning company raise its prices each year?
Enough to cover what your own costs did that year, mainly wages, and no more than you can back with evidence. I usually went in asking for around 3%. The number matters less than what is on the table next to it. A small ask with no proof gets argued with, and a reasonable ask with a year of inspection records usually gets signed.
When is the best time to ask for a cleaning price increase?
At renewal, with notice. Send a short letter 60 to 90 days before the contract date saying you would like to meet to review the year, then bring the increase to that meeting. Springing it on the customer in an invoice is how you start a bid process you did not want.
How do you tell a cleaning customer about a price increase?
In person, or on a call, and lead with the year rather than the number. How many times you were in the building, what the inspection scores were, how fast problems got fixed, and anything you flagged before they noticed it. Then the ask. Put it in writing afterwards with the same figures.
What if the customer says no to the increase?
Ask what would make it work, and listen. Sometimes the answer is a scope change: fewer service days in a low-traffic area, or moving a task to monthly. Sometimes it is timing, and they will take it at the start of their next budget year. If they want the same scope at the same price for another year and your costs went up, you need to know that before you sign.
Will raising my prices lose me the account?
It can, if the customer has no idea whether you have been doing a good job. That customer will take the next quote that is $100 lower, because they have nothing to compare it against. The protection is a year of records the customer has actually seen.