The next 30 days: sell cleaning gift cards before Thanksgiving, and fill January with them
November is when people shop for gifts and January is when cleaning gets slow. A 30-day plan to sell house cleaning gift cards now and book the work for later.
Every cleaning company has the same two problems in winter. December is packed with holiday deep cleans you cannot fit in, and January goes quiet as soon as the decorations come down.
A gift card plan fixes part of both. You sell the cleaning now, while people are shopping for gifts, and you schedule the work for January and February, when your team has open slots. Here is a 30-day plan to set it up and sell it.
Why cleaning works as a gift
A house cleaning is one of the few gifts nobody returns. Adult children buy them for parents. Partners buy them for each other. Friends buy them for new parents, for someone recovering from surgery, or for the person hosting Thanksgiving.
It also solves a real problem for the giver. Most people do not know what to buy a parent who already has everything. "Three hours of someone else cleaning the house" is easy to say yes to.
Week one (Nov 1 to Nov 7): set up the offer
Keep it simple. Pick two or three fixed amounts tied to real services so the buyer knows what the gift covers.
- Standard clean: one standard clean for a typical home, priced at your normal rate.
- Deep clean: one deep clean, priced at your normal deep clean rate.
- Fresh start bundle: one deep clean plus one standard clean in the following month.
Do not discount the cards heavily. A small bonus works better than a price cut. As a hypothetical, "buy a $250 card, get a $25 bonus card for yourself" rewards the buyer without cutting the value of the gift.
Write down the rules once: expiration date if your state allows one, which home sizes each card covers, and that the recipient books by text or call. Check your state's gift card laws before setting an expiration date.
Then set up how people pay. A payment link from your booking or invoicing tool is enough. Each sale should create a contact record with the buyer's name, the recipient's name and a card code.
Week two (Nov 8 to Nov 14): tell your current clients
Your best buyers are people who already pay you. They know your work and they know someone who needs it.
Send one text to every recurring client:
"Hi [Name], we are offering cleaning gift cards this year, a nice gift for parents, new parents or anyone hosting the holidays. Reply GIFT and we will send the options."
Mention it in person at the next visit too. A small printed card left on the counter after a clean reminds people while they are standing in a clean kitchen.
Week three (Nov 15 to Nov 21): post it everywhere you already are
- Google Business Profile. Add an offer post with a photo and the gift card options. Posts are free and appear on your profile. The Google profile guide covers how to write them.
- Website. Add a simple gift card page and link to it from the homepage. If you do not have a website, this is a good reason to start one. Cleaning companies with a site hold a median of 12 Google reviews against 1 for those without, and 37.3% still have none.
- Neighborhood groups. Post once in local Facebook groups and on Nextdoor where business posts are allowed.
If you want to run a small Facebook ad, aim it at adult children, not the people receiving the gift. "Get your mom a clean house for the holidays" is the angle. The Facebook and Instagram guide covers budgets.
Week four (Nov 22 to Nov 30): the last push
Thanksgiving week is when many people realize they have not bought gifts yet. Send one more text to clients who did not reply:
"Last reminder: cleaning gift cards are available through the holidays. Easy to give, and no one returns a clean house."
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are fine days to post one more time, but do not run a deep discount. You want buyers, not bargain hunters.
The part most companies skip: booking January
A gift card is only half the value. The other half is the client it brings in.
When a recipient calls to book, schedule them in January or early February on purpose. Then treat the visit like a first clean for a new recurring client. At the end, the cleaner leaves a note and the office sends a text:
"Hope you enjoyed the clean from [Giver]. If you would like to keep it going, we have every-other-week openings on [day]. Reply and we will hold one for you."
If even a few recipients become regular clients, the gift card plan pays for itself many times over.
What to track
Keep one simple sheet: cards sold, total sold, cards redeemed, and recipients who became recurring clients. Ask every recipient for a Google review after the clean, too. The median cleaning company has just 6 reviews, so each new one moves you further from the pack. See where you stand on the benchmark report.
If you want help setting up the offer, the texts or the ads, the free 14-day trial covers any service, no card. Text or call (801) 666-2415.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, house cleaning companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor