How to Start and Grow Your Own Cleaning Business
 

Under Promise — Over Deliver!
By Gary Goranson

Meeting clients’ expectations can often be a challenging undertaking. Neither you nor your cleaning staff relish dealing with complaining customers who are agitated due to unmet expectations. However, even worse than that are those people who do not express their dissatisfaction but who let things slide until they reach an irreparable point of frustration and simply fire you without saying why. For this reason clients should always be encouraged to offer genuine feedback on their degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with your cleaning service. This can help avoid losing good customers before they reach the point of no return.

Managing Expectations

One way to avoid, or at least minimize, client dissatisfaction is to establish the ground rules from the very beginning. What house cleaning may mean to your client may well be beyond your definition. If you don’t clearly define what your service includes and excludes before cleaning the customer for the very first time, you’re unlikely to meet your client’s expectations.

Every client should be given a Cleaning Checklist that specifically spells out what will be included as part of the service in both the first-time cleaning visit and in each subsequent regular visit. It’s important to explain the difference between “old dirt” and “new dirt” because you’re likely to be doing things on that first visit which won’t involve the same effort or attention during future routine cleaning visits. I recommend that you produce a brochure or handout specifically for first-time cleanings that answers these three questions: (1) Why is it different? (2) Why is it necessary? (3) Why does it cost more?

A cleaning checklist, given to both the client and your cleaning team, should detail what each regular visit will address. Here’s an example of how your Cleaning Checklist can be designed. Of course, you would customize it as may be appropriate.

Cleaning Checklist

Formal Living, Dining & Family Room Areas:
• Dust furniture
• Vacuum carpets
• Clean under couch cushions
• Dust light fixtures
• Dust exposed heat registers and baseboards
• Dust windowsills
• Patio doors inside and out

Kitchen and Laundry Areas:
• Clean countertops
• Clean small kitchen appliances
• Microwave inside and out
• Stove exterior and inside oven window
• Refrigerator exterior, rubber seals and air vents
• Cabinet exteriors
• Dishwasher and trash compactor exteriors
• Sink, faucet and drain
• Inside windows over sink
• Dust window sills
• Vacuum and mop floors
• Dust exposed heat registers and baseboards
• Washer and dryer exteriors; inside washer lid

Bedrooms and Office Areas:
• Dust furniture
• Vacuum carpets
• Linens: change or straighten
• Dust exposed heat registers and baseboards
• Dust light fixtures, lampshades and artwork

Master Bath:
• Tub/shower stall(s)
• Commode inside and out
• Lights, mirrors and counter
• Clean cabinet exteriors
• Paper holder/towel racks
• Vacuum and mop floors and rugs
• Dust exposed heat registers and baseboards

Hallway Bath:
• Tub/shower stall(s)
• Commode inside and out
• Lights, mirrors and counter
• Clean cabinet exteriors
• Paper holder/towel racks
• Vacuum and mop floors and rugs
• Dust exposed heat registers and baseboards

Half Bath:
• Commode inside and out
• Lights, mirrors and counter
• Clean cabinet exteriors
• Paper holder/towel racks
• Vacuum and mop floors and rugs
• Dust exposed heat registers and baseboards

Entry, Exit, Stairwell, Hallway
• Dust furniture
• Dust light fixtures, lamp shades and artwork
• Vacuum and mop floors
• Dust exposed heat register and baseboards

 Rotational Tasks:
These tasks are typically completed on a rotational basis, depending on the needs in your home from visit to visit, or we will select these tasks based on an area or room of concentration.
• Polish furniture
• Move and clean under furniture
• Edge carpets
• Clean unexposed heat registers and baseboards
• Cobweb patrol
• Dust ceiling fans
• Wash artwork/light fixtures
• Wash window frames
• Wash door frames
• Polish kitchen cabinets
• Wash kitchen baseboards and splashboards
• Polish bathroom cabinets

Extra Task Assignments:
The following services may be available with prior advance notice and at additional charge. These items are not considered every-time cleaning tasks.
• Wash windows inside
• Wash walls and ceilings
• Empty, wipe and replace items inside the cabinets and/or hutches
• Removes shoes, etc. from closets, vacuum and replace
• Vacuum drapes
• Clean ornate chandeliers
• Remove ashes from fireplace
• Strip, remove and replace floor wax
• Clean inside oven (please run self-cleaning ovens the night before)
• Clean inside the refrigerator

As we mentioned, you should customize a checklist based on the specific services you are willing to provide on routine cleaning visits. You can also further customize your checklist based on the specific needs of each client on which your prices are adjusted accordingly. A copy of this should be left with the client and a copy should accompany your cleaners on each visit. A quality control checklist is a valuable tool for the team to use to ensure each item is appropriately looked after.

You should also discuss those things that you don’t do, such as washing dishes, doing laundry, picking up toys or clothing that may be scattered around the home, changing litter boxes or feeding pets, shoveling a pathway to the door so the team can gain access in the winter, watering plants and other items that are not in your “job description”.

Clarify the Rules

In addition to making clear exactly what your employees will and won’t do as part of their job, it’s equally important to set the ground rules for the relationship. Here are some of the issues that need to be raised from the very beginning taken from the brochure in our housecleaningbiz101.com program entitled, “Happily Ever After”:

 Your Cleaning Schedule
Most cleaning services work five days a week, Monday through Friday. That means that they need to clean approximately 20% of their clients each day. Obviously, not everyone can be cleaned on Friday. Of course, not everyone wants to be — and for good reason. Monday, for example, is an excellent day to schedule your cleaning because it means the house gets spiffed up after the weekend and you get to come home to a cleaner home all week long. Then again, your cleaner can’t clean everyone on Monday, either.

A factor that may determine your specific cleaning day is the weekday on which a cleaning team is already in your area. If your cleaners are already cleaning several homes in your neighborhood on Wednesday, then that is likely to be your assigned cleaning day. It is not economically feasible to send a team several miles out of their way when they’re working in another part of the city on Tuesday, for example, if there is a team in your neighborhood on Wednesday.

It’s also important to understand that while your house cleaner may be able to tell you whether they will be at your house in the morning or afternoon on your scheduled day, it is virtually impossible to set a specific time of arrival. They can’t drop what they’re doing before they’re finished at the Brown’s house in order to get to the Jones’ house by 10:30 AM, for example. What is important is that if they promise to come on Thursday, then you have every reason to expect them to show up sometime on Thursday — and that is important.

Cancelled Appointments
Just as it might make your life miserable if your cleaners did not show up without notice for a scheduled visit, it is equally frustrating for your team to arrive only to find that you "forgot to call and cancel" this visit. For this reason, your cleaning company may have a policy of charging clients who fail to provide advance notice in canceling a cleaning visit. Conversely, if your team fails to show as scheduled, you may have an equal right to some type of recompense — like a reduction on the price of their next visit, for example. Of course, emergencies can arise which may make it impossible for one party or the other to keep a scheduled appointment. Since those types of emergencies are rare, empathy on the part of the offended party should be the order of the day. It would be a real shame to ruin an otherwise good relationship between you and your house cleaner as a result of circumstances beyond anyone’s control.

Ask your cleaning company about their "no-show" policy.

Security Issues
Since most clients are not home when their house cleaners visit, there must be some way for the team to gain entry into the house. The majority of clients provide their cleaning company with a house key — which a reliable company will treat with the utmost security. Besides management, only the team supervisor should have access to clients’ keys. Leaving a key under the front doormat, in a mailbox, or some other location is not a safe alternative.

If you’re not comfortable giving your cleaners their own key, and there’s a chance you won’t be home when they arrive, you need to have some agreeable and viable alternative for allowing them entry into your home. Being "locked out" for a scheduled cleaning visit is a very good reason for the company to insist on charging a missed-appointment fee.

Professional house cleaning companies pre-screen prospective employees prior to sending them out into clients’ homes. A background check that discloses impeccable honesty and integrity is critical to the screening process. The standards demanded of applicants and employees of your cleaning service may indeed be higher than those required by firms employing people in the security field.

One lesson we learned from The Bible is that even "perfect" humans can give way to overwhelming temptation. If Adam and Eve would chance eternal damnation over an apple, it stands to reason that we should not tempt lesser mortals with a "karat"! Never leave jewelry or cash where it can be easily accessed by anyone.

Accidents
Accidents can happen, even with the most careful of house cleaners. Most often they occur because the homeowner fails to notify their cleaners about "booby traps" that may be present: the lamp shade that collapses if you merely look at it wrong — the picture that’s hanging by a thread which falls off the wall the minute the dusting person touches it. Be sure to advise your cleaning service about any such potential perils that may be present in your home.

Many client/house cleaner relationships are terminated when something in the home is broken and the "good intentions" of the cleaners aren’t enough to pay for the damage. It’s important that your house cleaner be adequately insured, including a provision called "care, custody and control" (which all insurance policies specifically exclude, and which must be written into the policy as an addendum). Insurance is a substantial expense for those responsible house cleaning services that carry it, but it’s worth the peace of mind to you to pay a little more for a service that is properly insured.

 Damage to household objects is one thing, but it can be far more serious (and costly) if someone is injured on the job. Your house cleaner could slip and fall on a wet floor or while cleaning a bathtub, and that’s why it’s also important that your cleaning service cover its employees with required workers’ compensation insurance. You might be surprised — indeed, shocked — by the increased premium in your homeowners’ policy if someone is injured on your property and a claim is made against your insurance company for bodily injury and/or medical expenses.

A major cause of injury to house cleaners occurs during winter months when they attempt to enter a client’s home with ice-covered walkways or steps. Show common courtesy to your cleaning team by making sure that outside steps and entryways are safe to walk on and that a path is always shoveled through the snow on your established cleaning day.

Pets
Family pets can pose a problem for the house cleaner who doesn’t know whether the big, barking dog is excited friendly — or excited angry. Should Fluffy the cat be let in (or let out) by the team? If Fido has been locked in a room, you don’t want the cleaner to drop dead of a heart attack when she opens the door, only to be greeted by a lunging Rottweiler!

If possible, leave your pets outside on your cleaning day. It’s a lot easier to clean the house without the cat chasing the mop or having the dog freak out when the vacuum cleaner is turned on. If pets will be in the home when your house cleaners arrive, be sure that they have been warned ahead of time — like, "don’t let the cat out when you come," or "don’t worry about Rex’s barking."

Tipping
For those working in the service industry, be it as a waiter, taxi driver, bellman, hair dresser, manicurist, parking attendant or a house cleaner, tips are always appreciated. It is appropriate to tip your house cleaners when deserved. While 15% to 18% is considered the norm for good service in most industries, 10% of the cleaning fee is generally deemed appropriate for house cleaners. However, the decision as to whether to tip and how much to leave is entirely a personal matter; it is not a mandatory obligation.

Should you choose to leave a gesture of appreciation for your cleaning crew, a gift of cash rather than a check is the practice preferred by most house cleaners.

Avoid Over Promising and Under Delivering

I recently had to replace the 17 year old central air conditioning unit in our home. The unit came with a guarantee which stated that if the system was unable to achieve the promised level of cooling that I could either get my money back or the unit would be upgraded at no cost. Living in south Florida and our six months of 90-plus degree weather, I found that guarantee enticing enough to make the purchase. However, although we set the thermostat at 72 degrees, we quickly learned that by the height of the day around 3 PM the room temperature would rise to between 75 and 78 degrees.

Needless to say I was not a happy camper. When I called the company to complain, they arrived the next day and determined that the unit they had installed did not have sufficient capacity to retain a 72 degree temperature during the heat of the afternoon. They did replace the unit at no cost as promised. One problem. Even with the larger unit the system is still unable to maintain the desired temperature throughout the entire day. I am still arguing with the company over finding a way to resolve this issue.

Now the company is coming back with, “well, it has been very hot lately.” Well, duhhhh ….. that’s why I bought this air conditioning system. It was supposed to maintain the desired temperature. Nobody said anything about “unless the temperature hits 95 degrees at 3 PM.” They are also suggesting that perhaps the air ducts don’t have the capacity required of this particular unit. Funny, this was not a problem with the old air conditioning system.

A couple of years ago we purchased a new television at a major discount electronics and appliance retailer. A set was selected, its in stock status was confirmed and delivery was arranged and promised for two days later. I was to receive a call the evening before to confirm that delivery. No call was forthcoming as promised. When I called the store to find out if and when the delivery would be made, they said the item was out of stock. Wait a minute.

When I bought the television it was confirmed as being in stock. The delivery date was set. To make matters worse, when I attempted to find out why this mix-up had occurred, I was hung up on – not once, not twice, but three consecutive times. Take a guess. Do you think these folks had an extremely agitated customer on its hands? Damn right, and they lost that customer too!

These are perfect examples of over promising and under delivering. Sadly, these scenarios are not atypical of the way many companies alienate their customers. How many vehicles actually achieve the EPA city and highway mileage claims? Is it any wonder consumers are so skeptical?

Be Up Front Right Up Front

There’s nothing wrong with preparing clients for circumstances which might arise during the course of the relationship. Using a tool such as our House Cleaning Biz 101© Happily Ever After brochure (some of which is reproduced above) can help set the stage for a successful long-term relationship. But you can avoid aggravating clients by not “over selling” and by discussing other things right up front.

For example, your teams are likely well equipped to remove hard water stains from commodes and other porcelain surfaces. But before promising to remove such stains, ask yourself if indeed the sale will hinge on doing so. Might it not be better to simply note this on your “to do” list for this client and surprise them when they see their sparkling clean fixtures with those ugly stains gone? This way, even if some of the stain remains, their expectations will be exceeded (unless of course they raised the issue when you visited to do your initial appraisal). This is a perfect example of under promising and over delivering.

It also does not hurt to tell people right up front that your workers are not perfect. If they’re spending an hour every week cleaning a client’s home over a year, your team is bound to screw up on something during 52 hours of cleaning time. Don’t promise this won’t happen, but promising to make it right if and when it does happen can help prepare the client for what is likely to be inevitable.

Advise the client to notify your office immediately if such an event occurs and tell them the team will make it right on the next visit. However, exceed their expectations by sending the team out BEFORE their next scheduled visit to rectify the situation. This can turn what might otherwise have been a very unhappy customer into a lifelong client

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