Yesterday, for the first time in eight years, I hired a cleaning service; The Maids. When we first got married, our solution to stop arguing over housework was to hire a home cleaning service. They were great, everything sparkled and the arguing stopped. When we bought our first home, we hired the local branch of the same cleaning service. They were terrible. There was no consistency between franchise owners. (Consistency is key to a good franchise. Just ask McDonald’s.) So, we tried about half a dozen other cleaning services. None would clean thoroughly. I even offered to pay more for a better job, but to no avail.

Last year The Maids had an online sweepstakes and part of the promotion was, you had to watch a demo of how thoroughly they cleaned. After entering everyday for two weeks, I thought, “Maybe I have finally found a service that will clean my home the same way I do.” I checked their website and, sadly, there was no franchise owner in my area. Last weekend I went to a local home show (to enter all the sweepstakes of course) and The Maids had a booth. YEAH! Someone decided to buy a franchise in my area. I took them up on their home show special offer. A team of four people showed up and now my home sparkles.

Sweepstakes are a very effective marketing tool. It made a first time customer out of me. To convert first time customers to long-term customers a company must deliver what promises. Since they have lived up to their claims, they now have a permanent customer out of me.

What product or service have you switched to because of a sweepstakes?

If you have not entered already, The Maids is running their promotion again and it’s open to Canada and the U.S. Ends May 31^st.