With the increasing role of the economy of time, on-demand services that save the users' time by taking over the activities they don't want to spend time on are gaining more and more popularity as well. Cleaning services are one of the most widespread ones for multiple reasons.

They can free up time for more important tasks and arrangements. Moreover, certain materials and stains can't be efficiently and/or safely cleaned without the help of professionals with the needed equipment. Meaning that oftentimes, such services are not only time-saving but more cost-efficient as well.

As a company operating in this industry, you can get quite a lot of benefits from Cleaning Business App Development:

1. People spend more and more time on their phones, making desktop applications less favourable for providing cleaning services. By developing a mobile app for cleaning business, you might have a higher outreach and make your services more user-friendly.
2. With your custom icon on the display, your business will always stay in sight of users.
3. You can use Push Notifications to retarget users and remind them to book your services e.g. on a bi-weekly basis.
4. The whole booking flow will be much simpler which should increase your conversion rates.

If you think that Online Scheduling App for Cleaning Business will meet the expectations of your audience and you have a few trumps to beat your competitors, this article is exactly for you.

Let’s start our guide on how to create a Mobile App for Cleaning Business by figuring out what features your MVP should include.

📱 Cleaning Business App Development: Core Features

In a nutshell, your mobile cleaning booking Project will can of 2 software products:

• User App - the client’s side - that will let your customers book your services.
• Admin Panel (most likely, in a form of a Web App) - the company’s side for managing incoming requests.

Let’s get down to the details of each application!

User Application

# 1: Sign Up & Profile Management

This functionality is quite basic for different kinds of mobile apps and they normally have a very similar flow - creating an account by setting up login and password, profile details like name and picture, and so on. So, let’s rather focus on development tips and how this feature can help your business grow.

Here are some things to keep in mind that will help you make the Sign Up process fast, user-friendly and not annoying:

• Keep the Sign Up for the last stage.

For such a type of app, there’s no need to ask users for registration right away when they open your app. So, we’d recommend showing the Sign-Up screen at the end of the booking process and making it not obligatory.

• Social Login is (almost) essential.

To reduce the potential irritation users get when having to provide the same information every time they create an account, you can ask your developers to integrate the Social Login APIs that will allow taking the essential information (name & email) from the social media accounts. We recommend providing such possibility for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram + your local popular social network (if any).

As for non-social-media sources users might want to use for signing up, it's reasonable to enable login via Google Account and Apple ID. For that, you can use APIs like authO, Google Sign-In, Sign in with Apple REST API, etc.

• Ask for the minimal information.

Surely, not all users would love to register in your application via their private social profile. In this case, provide users with a fast and easy registration process.

One more thing: we recommend asking only the user’s name and email at this stage. Later, you’ll be able to ask for additional information to complete the profile but for starters, it’s more than enough.

But why do you need it at all? What’s the use of Personal Profiles for your audience and company?

For users, it’s a great possibility to save the needed data for quick access in future, keep a record of and manage their bookings, take advantage of personalized offers and use your service from different platforms or devices.

For your business, it’s a great possibility to form closer ties with your audience and keep your retention rates at a good level.
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# 2: Booking Flow

The Booking Flow is rather a set of features that supports the core functionality of your application.

The first thing your users are supposed to do is to specify the request. Possible options greatly depend on your business model and the services that you provide:

• If you offer complex cleaning (not specific cleaning services, e. g. windows or marble surfaces.), users just have to write the number, type and area of rooms to be cleaned. This model is used in the Handy app - you can check it to have a live example in front of your eyes.
• However, if you provide more specific services, leave a possibility to choose what exactly users want to book.

In both cases, it makes sense to leave a bar for comments so users can type in any additional information that isn't covered by the booking functionality.

Scheduling is another key element here. When the scope of work is defined, let people choose when exactly they need your services: either right now or at a specific time and date in the future.

Tip from Stormotion: leave an option to set up repeated cleanings (for example, fortnightly) to acquire repeating customers.

Users’ requests should be matched with any available cleaner (either automatically or manually through the Admin Panel).
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# 3: Payment & Reviews

No doubt that most users will prefer to pay for your service right in the app. However, we’d also recommend you to leave a cash payment option as well so as not to cut off those who can’t or don’t want to pay by card.

Since your Project will involve in-app payments, it’s crucial to choose a secure and fast payment gateway. What tools fall under this description? Read on, we’ll share our recommended Tech Stack for creating an Online Scheduling App for Cleaning Business closer to the end of the article!

Additionally, let users rate your cleaners (a traditional 5-star rating should suffice but there's always room for creativity, of course) and leave more detailed reviews (for example, write your own text or choose what things require improvement - timing, quality, etc.).

Later on, you can use this information to see how your employees perform and take data-driven decisions regarding business processes optimization, customer retention, and incentives distribution between employees if you have any.
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# 4: Bookings Management

It's essential to allow users to manage their bookings after confirming it. They might need to cancel, postpone, change details, or add comments so make sure to provide with functions for these purposes as well.

If you decide to include the chatting or calling feature, the relevant buttons can be also placed on this screen, making it easier to get in touch with cleaners and make arrangements more efficiently.
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# 5: Push Notifications

Push Notifications are an extremely effective marketing and retargeting tool. And here are a few reasons why you should make an App for Cleaning Business that includes them.

First, they improve the UX. For example, notification messages remind about upcoming bookings a few days in advance or notify users when a housekeeper or cleaner is already on their way to the client’s house.

Moreover, push notifications can become a powerful driver of your sales. Just a few ideas to consider:

• Once in a fortnight, you can offer users to book a cleaning so as to keep their space tidy.
• You can run massive marketing campaigns and keep users informed using notification messages (for example, a “Clean Tuesday” event during which users will be able to book services with some discount or extra services for free).
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Web App

The last piece of the Сleaning Business App Development puzzle is the Web Application. In a few words, this is a web platform (it’s also known as an Admin Panel) where you can control and manage all business processes.

More specifically, its core features are:

You might also want to enhance your application with advanced functionality. Here are 3 more features that will improve the UX and help you stand out from competitors.
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What Advanced Features to Include?

In general, there are 2 ways to create a Mobile App for Cleaning Business and achieve market success with it:

• You should either take a specific niche where you don’t have competitors.
• Or you should have some USP that puts you in a more favorable position than your competitors.

Let us review a few examples of features that can go beyond users’ expectations and add a few additional points to the overall impression our application makes.

As mentioned before, you can integrate an in-app chat or calling feature. It may be useful when users need to mention special instructions to cleaners or ask some questions.

You may (quite fairly) assume that it will allow people to make side arrangements. However, we faced the same challenge when working on the Pocket Promoter app and our solution was both simple and effective: the feature should become available only after the payment is done.

The only thing is that it's important to track all changes and additional information in the app. So, you can instruct cleaners to update the booking in case the changes were done via the phone or chat. Alternatively, you can warn users that they need to do it, otherwise the new arrangements won't be taken into account. This is important to avoid future inconveniences.

Second, you can build an app for booking cleaning where users will be able to see the real-time status of their bookings. Moreover, push notifications (like “your cleaner is on the way” or “the cleaner has arrived”) will keep users informed about what’s going on with their arrangement.

Finally, we can build an App for Maid Services Company with GPS-tracking. Together with a live map, it will provide users with the possibility to check how far the cleaner is right now and how much time it can possibly take to get to the user’s house.

To implement these features and features from the MVP-Scope, your Dev Squad might need to use specific tech tools. Here are our recommendations for you!
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🛠 Tech Stack for Developing a Mobile App for Cleaning Business

As a Mobile App Development Agency, we’re often acting as a remote CTO for our clients. Therefore, we usually have to pick up the right toolkit depending on project requirements and budget.

To create a Mobile App for Cleaning Business, we would suggest the following development tools:

• Braintree SDK and Stripe API will be a great choice to implement a payment system.
• For Push Notifications, you may use FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging), Amazon SNS or OneSignal services.
• Facebook, Instagram and Twitter APIs are something that you will need to implement the Social Login feature.
• If you decide to implement the GPS-tracking, Google Maps SDK is your best helper here.
• We recommend building the app using React Native. This will allow building a cost-effective cross-platform app with native UX.
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💵 Costs to Develop a Cleaning App

Important note: to provide you with an accurate estimate, we should know the details of your project. However, we couldn't leave you without a rough estimate so you can have an understanding of how much it can cost to build a cleaning application.

So, taking the common for Eastern Europe hourly rate ($40/hour), cleaning app development costs can be about $15-20,000. However, don't forget that it's only a rough estimate so for more accurate calculations, please, contact us and we'll talk about your project more detailed.
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💡 Takeaways

Let's briefly summarize what the process of your Cleaning Business App Development Process can look like:

1. Define core elements of the future Digital Product.
2. Find an App Dev Agency that will prepare an Estimate and go through the Discovery Phase to pick up an appropriate Tech Stack & create the Roadmap.
3. Build an app for booking cleaning (an MVP) and bring it to the market. Check if your Product solves the pain of your audience.

If you’re looking for a reliable technical partner to craft a Scalable Mobile Product for your Company or Startup, we’re ready to share our knowledge and expertise with you. Drop us a line by hitting the button below! 🚀