It’s all about trust.

Trust.  Is there any more important ingredient in a cleaning business?  You might be the world’s best cleaner, but if people don’t trust you, you will never have clients (also an important ingredient, but if you don’t have the former, you’ll never have the latter).

Mardi and I have always marveled at the trust that people place in us.  It is incredibly humbling to think that someone you don’t know; have never met until that in-home estimate, would invite you into their home to clean.  Their home.  The place where most people feel most secure.  I wondered what made people trust someone so completely as to invite a (relatively) complete stranger into the place where they feel safest to clean it.

As I was doing some research, I stumbled upon an article by Margie Warrell, a best selling author, speaker and life coach, about the key ingredients for trust.  You can find the article here, but let me sum it up for you.  Trust is built on three principles.

Competence:  In the case of a residential cleaning business; does the prospective client think you know what you’re doing?  Are you proving to them that you know a thing or two about cleaning homes?

Reliability: According to Margie Warrell, reliability is “about whether you can count on someone to manage and honor their commitments”.  When you set up an appointment to meet a prospective client for the in-home estimate, are you on time?  If they asked for a list of references, did you bring it?  If the client perceives you to not be reliable, you will never have their trust.

Sincerity:  Sincerity boils down to how the prospective client asses our character, our “fundamental integrity” as Margie Warrell puts it.  While the person interviewing you (because in addition to providing them with a firm quote to clean their house, make no mistake; you are being interviewed) may care less whether the average person on the street is an honest, upstanding individual with morals and values, you are not the average person on the street.  The prospective client is considering you to come into their home and clean it.  While you may not be expected to walk on water, you had better be able to doggy-paddle with style and grace!

Like I said, we are so grateful that our clients have chosen us to clean their homes.  We are nothing short of honored that out of all the cleaning businesses and persons in the world we were deemed worthy of a homeowners’ trust.

Looks Can Be Deceiving.

There is just something about moving into a home.  Whether it’s your first home or you’ve moved a hundred times, the experience is always exciting.  Stressful, tedious and labor intensive, yes, but exciting nonetheless.

As the housing market continues to improve, more and more people are experiencing that excitement again.  There are good deals to be had in the housing market.  Recently we cleaned for a young family that managed to purchase a 5,000 square foot home on 11 acres of land.  The price they paid for it was a steal and before the boom this home would have sold for well over a million.  They got it for less than half that amount.  Of course there was a trade-off.  Many of the fixtures in the home were removed by the previous owners.  Items like granite counter-tops, light fixtures, etc. had to be replaced by the bank with less flashy items such as laminate counter tops.  Still, a great deal.

We have seen a large increase in Move-In cleanings recently and we are happy to be involved in that exciting time in people’s lives.  Most people believe their new homes just need a “shine”.  A light cleaning to remove dust that has built up while the home was vacant.

That was the case this past weekend with a couple who had recently purchased a home that had been a daycare, in its previous life.  They were excited to have the furniture moved in and start entertaining their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  When we arrived, they told us, “The previous owners left it in pretty good shape.  it should just need a shine up”.

As I mentioned in a blog a couple of years ago, most of your senses come into play when evaluating how ‘dirty’ a home is.  At first glance, the home was in pretty good shape.  But, further inspection, three hours worth of work and several Mr. Clean Magic Erasers later, the home was in relatively good shape and ready for furniture and grandchildren.

Items not easily seen from the floor such as range hoods and high kitchen cabinets, can be filthy.  The bathtubs and shower stalls can look clean and shiny, but if you run your fingernail down them, you may end up with a soap scum under your nail.  The toilet bowl may look free of hard water rings and scum, but what about underneath it?  There may be mold or mildew.  These are all things that we are trained to look for and see.

You want your new home to be perfect.  Moving into a home is like starting a new chapter in your life.  You are excited to make your new place yours.  You shouldn’t have to do it with the previous owners’ dirt in the way.

What is that orange stuff in my shower?

Have you ever looked around in your shower and noticed pink or orange stains?  These occur usually in the grout or, if you have a shower door, around the edges.  Sometimes they may show up where the shower wall meets the tub.  You may also see it around drains in sinks, the waterline in your toilet or even in your pet food and water bowls.  Did you think it was rust or just wonder what the heck it was?  I have an answer for you.

What you are seeing is a bacteria.  Specifically, it is Serratia marcescens ( sə′rāshēə mär′sesəns ).  Serratia are common inhabitants in the environment; they can be found in human and animal feces, dust, soil and surface waters.  They grow in almost any moist location where there is a food source.  Specifically these bacterium like to feed on fatty, oily substances such as soap residue in showers, feces residue in toilets and soap and food residue in pet bowls.   Although generally harmless to humans, in some cases it can cause urinary tract infections, wound infections and pneumonia in hospital patients.

Ok, here’s the bad news.  Once established, Serratia is almost impossible to get rid of completely.  It has been proven to be resistant to most types of medicines and antibacterials.

You can, however, control it.  One way to do this is to clean your shower and toilets regularly.  In the shower area, use a squeegee to dry your shower doors, walls and floor as much as you can.  Serratia loves standing water and will grow well in it.  Using a squeegee on your shower walls and doors also wipes away soap residue which the bacteria feeds on.  You can remove the bacteria each time you clean; it wipes right off.   The other thing you can do is to use a cleanser containing chlorine bleach.  Bleach will temporarily kill the bacteria, but, as we mentioned before, it will be back.

Loving What You Do.

As a whole, how many people in the world do you think love what they do for a living?  10 percent?  20 percent?  Less?  More?

Mardi and I have been blessed to be able to do something that, in the big scheme of things, I think most people don’t usually get to do.  We took a huge leap of faith over six years ago and started our own business.  We thought long and hard about what kind of business we could both do and could be started on a limited budget and came up with Freedom Cleaning Services.

Until that moment when we discussed it I had never considered owning a cleaning service, but now that I look back on it, I am not sure why.  I like cleaning.  I like making things shine.  I like the fact that some homeowner is going to come home at the end of a long day at work and look at their home and breathe a sigh of relief because of the effort I put in.

And it’s not just me.  I know Mardi feels the same way.  Even our new hire Terri stood back after cleaning a kitchen the other day and said, “I really like knowing I made that kitchen shine!”

There is something about taking something dirty and making it clean that appeals to me.  Yes, the work can be back-breaking and sweaty and not always pleasant, but it has the potential to be full of satisfaction.  Some people never see the results of the work they do.  We do.

There’s something to be said for doing what makes you happy, a job that you can leave at the end of the day and know you made a positive difference in someone’s life.  Do you love what you do?

Teamwork Makes Magic

Kerri Walsh and Misty Mae-Treanor.   Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love.  Victor Cruz and Eli Manning.  You and us.  All of these people have something in common.  they are teammates.   Each of these pairs needs the other in order to effectively do what they are paid to do.

Ok, fine.  Manning and Rubio have other team mates available to them.  But when the play calls for it, they must work together and when they do, magical, wonderful, exciting things can happen.

I suppose you may be scratching your head and wondering about the “you and us” in the first line.  Imagine hiring a maid service and giving them the instruction,” just do a good cleaning in this room.”  You have certain items you want cleaned in a certain way and you know what those things are.  You received a sheet from the service explaining what they do, but cleaning is cleaning, right?  You arrive home at the end of the day and are shocked to find that the books on the book shelf were not dusted.  Also, the blinds are still dusty!  Don’t these people know how to clean?

Likewise, let’s assume we come to clean your home.  When we did the walk through, we noticed that very old and very expensive-looking area rug in the living room.  We wondered if it was an heirloom, but didn’t ask.  You didn’t say anything so we assumed it was safe to vacuum.  We imagine Great-great-grandma Louisa is rolling in her grave after what our vacuum did to that rug.

In both of these examples, both you and we are to blame for, a). your disappointment with our cleaning and b). the destruction of Great-great Grandmas’ heirloom rug.

It is up to both of us to communicate our wishes, expectations and abilities to each other.

We have a client who, on about the fourth or fifth cleaning called while we were at her home and asked if we would clean the blinds that day.  The time before that it was make the beds.  The time before that it was something else.  I explained that, no, we would not be cleaning her blinds that day.  She was indignant that I would say no and demanded to know why not.  I explained that when we gave her an estimate, we were very clear about what we did or did not do and she had never mentioned anything about cleaning blinds or making beds or any of the other extra things that she was adding on every cleaning day.  Also, we had a very busy day that day and extra time spent cleaning her blinds would  make us late to other clients’ homes.  To be fair, we never said we don’t clean blinds.  Likewise, she never mentioned she wanted them cleaned.

Now we communicate on a regular basis.  We know exactly what she expects of us and she knows exactly what and how we will be cleaning.

When we and the client are in synch and communicate openly and honestly we can give you a house cleaning that you love.  The kind of clean home that you daydream about at work.  You know you will find everything exactly the way you want it when you get home that day.  After all, that’s why you hired us, right?

Hiring a Maid Service 101

Who knows how you came to this point.  Maybe you found yourself putting in more hours at work.  Maybe the kids are fully into hockey or soccer and you’re spending a lot of time in different cities or just at the practice facility.  The reason could be a combination or both of these things, neither of them or something else entirely.  The truth of the matter is; you’re here.  You have arrived at that place where frustration. exhaustion and a potential health hazard collide like a freight train full of soap scum and dust all over your house.Once, in a juvenile (and futile) effort to get our kids to clean their own rooms, we wrote ‘clean me’ in the dust on their TV screens.  Several weeks later, the words were gone.  Not because our children had somehow, miraculously, cleaned their rooms, but because the command had been covered by another layer of dust!  And this is where you find yourself today.  You need help.

It’s time to admit you are not, in fact, Superwoman.  It’s time to hire a professional to clean your home for you so that you can have time for the other things in your life that are important and still maintain a healthy living environment for your family.  But you have no idea where to start.  We’re here to help.

First you have to find a maid or cleaning service.  This can be a daunting exercise, but your best bet is to start with those close to you.  Ask family, friends or co-workers if they use a cleaning service and what they do or don’t like about that service.  Generally these are the people you trust most in your life and they will be honest with you.  A referral is the best advertising a maid service can get and they strive for it.

Nobody you know has a cleaning or maid service?  Try some of the more reputable online sources such as Angie’s List, Service Magic, etc.  The difference between the two is with Angie’s List, cleaning services cannot pay to advertise.  What you get are reviews of the company.  With Service Magic, companies pay a fee for each lead they get.

Another option you can use to find a cleaning service is Craigslist.  Almost every one has heard of Craigslist.  It is, for business owners and individuals alike, an inexpensive way to sell anything from pots and pans to cars to professional services.  The potential downfall to Craigslist, is that anyone can place an ad and you really don’t know who is posting.  Be especially wary of those postings that don’t include a reference to a website or something else that may indicate that this is a reputable business.

Only you know what your criteria is for a home cleaner.  Maybe you will sacrifice professionalism for a lower price.  Or, maybe you value trust worthiness and professionalism.  Either way, this is just the first step.  Be prepared to do your homework.  We’ll talk about that in another post.

Thirteen Things We’re Happy To Tell You.

A couple of weeks ago an article came out in Readers Digest called “Thirteen Things Your Home Cleaner Won’t Tell You”, and while I’m not sure how it was received in the general public, it caused quite a stir in the Home Cleaning industry.  Three cleaning service owners that I know contributed to the article.  The dust-up started because some in the industry felt that a few of the things that ‘we’ wouldn’t tell ‘you’ were unprofessional and, some felt, put the industry in a bad light.  Opinions are like noses; everybody has one.  I don’t want to get into a discussion about who was right and who was wrong and I don’t want to defend the industry as a whole.  There are others out there that are much more eloquent and experienced in this industry than I am.  I will leave that up to them.  All I can do is speak to my business.

  Therefore I would like to address the “Thirteen Things” as they appeared in the online version.

1. My best clients are people who work for their money, like teachers, bartenders, and cops.  Rich people think they’re doing      you a favor by allowing you to scrub their toilets. Working people understand you are doing them a service by making their lives easier.  This is complete and utter crap.  We don’t distinguish our clients by how much money they make and to say that one socioeconomic class treats us better than another is pure fantasy.  People are people.  Some treat you well and others treat you like the help.  Doesn’t have a thing to do with how much money they make.

2. I wish you wouldn’t insist on bleach and other harsh cleaners.  For almost every situation, there’s an eco-friendly option that’s just as effective.  Actually we would agree with this.  We work very hard to create a safer environment both for our staff and for your family by using products that are proven safer than their counterparts, which is the very definition of being green.  Nine and a half times out of ten we can get your home as clean or cleaner without using harsh or downright harmful chemicals.

3. After I leave, check the base of the toilet and the top of the fridge.  If they’re clean, you know I’m thorough.  Or the tops of your picture frames, or any other detail area you can think of.  Point is, if we take time to do these things, you can feel pretty confident that we did everything else you told us was important to you.

4. Many cleaning companies do not run any sort of background check or even check references.  I answered an ad, I was on time and presentable, and I was willing to take the job. That is all most companies care about.  We do run criminal background checks and check at least two references on each employee we hire.  Anything less is unacceptable.

5. I’m not even posting this one.  Too ridiculous to even comment on.

6. Want to save money on high-priced maid services?  Instead of booking a regular appointment, ask to be on our on-call list to fill last-minute slots at a discount. Or see if you can be a “training home” for new cleaners.  Unfortunately this is not a service we offer at this time.

7. If you use a service instead of an individual, ask for the same people every time.  Your cleanings will be more consistent, with fewer strangers in your home.  We couldn’t agree more.  Although your home will be cleaned to your standards no matter who cleans it, we make every attempt to have the same cleaners in your home each and every time.

8. When using a new maid service, leave a few dollars hanging out of a pants pocket or lying on the counter.  If we take a dollar or two, you’ll know we’re probably going to take other things.  You can leave a wad of hundred-dollar bills on the counter or a penny.  We might move it to clean underneath it, but our employees have been drilled about this since before they were hired.  NOTHING except garbage and our payment is removed from the home.  Taking anything from the home except our payment or trash that is in a trash can or liner is considered theft and is grounds for immediate termination.

9. Make sure we’re bonded and have liability insurance.  Otherwise, you’re on the hook if we break something or get hurt on the job.  We do and will be giddy with excitement to provide proof of it when asked.

10. Pick your clothes up off the floor, get your dishes out of the sink, and clean up your kids’ toys.  Your house will end up a lot cleaner.  You didn’t hire us to organize your home, you hired us to clean your home.  We can clean more area more efficiently if we don’t have to pick up a bucket of Lego’s first.  Of course, if you choose not to, your home will still be cleaned.

11. If you leave your personal life out for us to see, we most definitely will talk about you.  We may even send pictures to our friends and relatives.  We never, ever, ever allow discussions of clients’ personal lives or belongings either during the job or after.  Furthermore, if we ever found out that an employee had taken pictures of a clients personal effects and emailed them to friends, that employee would be on thin ice, employment-wise.

12. Recommend us to your friends.  We may give you $25 to $50 off a cleaning for each referral — if you ask.  Actually we just started a new referral program for our clients.  It doesn’t involve a cash reward.  It involves a free cleaning!

13. If you don’t have a lot of cash, ask me to come for just one hour.  I can do just the bathrooms and the kitchen or only the areas guests will see.  Another service we don’t currently offer.  We’ll look into it, though.

There you go.  Freedom Cleaning Services’ take on the (at least in the industry) infamous “Thirteen Things” article.  We hope it was entertaining and educational and we can assure you that will be our last word on the topic.

Spreading Kindness Part 2

Ok, so this is the post I originally intended to write.  When you think about businesses and kindness what type of business do you generally think of?  I’ll bet it probably is not a cleaning or maid service, is it?

If you live in Minnesota, where we are located, you might remember Joan Steffend from her days as a news anchor at KARE 11.  If you live elsewhere in the country you might know Joan from her work on HGTV’s Decorating Cents.  I was reading a story about Joan the other day.  It seems that she has been busy, post Decorating Cents, with a new project; Peace Begins With Me.  There was a quote from Joan in that article that stuck with me.  It is simple, yet powerful.  “Remember who you are. Be who you are. Share who you are. Change the world.”

What does this have to do with us, as owners of maid or cleaning services?  We all have many opportunities to make someone’s day (even though your clients may already say that you make their day).  We have the opportunity to make someone’s life a little easier, a little better simply by doing what we do.  Perhaps you have heard of Cleaning for a Reason, the organization that provides free cleaning services for women undergoing cancer treatment.  Recently one of our C4R patients asked if there was a service in Sioux Falls, South Dakota that participated with C4R because a dear friend of her family had recently been diagnosed with cancer.  There was not.

Or perhaps you have heard of Cleaning With a Meaning.  Founded by Kara Anderson, a service owner undergoing her own battle with cancer, Cleaning With a Meaning provides free home cleanings to families with sick children, enabling that family to focus its attention on the child and not on household chores.  These are just two examples of opportunities we have to positively impact others in our communities.  There’s also, Cleaning for Heroes, the organization that provides cleaning and other household services for disabled and elderly veterans.  All of these require a small portion of your time and very little, if any, actual outlay of money on your part.  But the kindness you provide is invaluable.  Mardi and I joined Cleaning for a Reason in August of 2008 out of a need to give back.  It has been the most rewarding thing that we have ever done and it has had little or no affect on our bottom line.

There was one other quote from the article about Joan Steffend that sums all of this up.  “We are all connected in seen and unseen ways. Science has caught up with that spiritual philosophy. What one person puts out energetically is felt by all. It ripples around the world,”  Today I challenge you to start a new ripple with your cleaning or maid service.

Spreading Kindness Part 1

I had this great idea for a blog about the positive impact we, as cleaning or maid service owners, could have on individuals.  Part of the inspiration came from the time I’ve spent with Lisa Metwaly, owner of the Q Kindness cafe in Saint Paul, Minnesota.   As I was hashing this blog out in mind, I logged onto Facebook and found an announcement from Lisa that the cafe that her husband Jimmy had bought years ago and she had transformed into a hub of Kindness in a oftentimes cruel world, had closed it’s doors.

 

I’ve mentioned The Q Kindness in several posts including this one.  That’s because I believed in what Lisa was doing.  Sure, maybe it was a marketing strategy, but the kindness was real.  Imagine going to pay for your meal and finding out it had been paid for already because someone had spun the “Kindness Wheel” and paid for whatever it had landed on.  Ok, feeding the starving in Africa it isn’t, but it made someone’s day and in turn, that person was inspired to do something nice for someone else.  The blanket drive that she organized for the victims of the earthquake in Japan last year, was no marketing stunt.  We got our clients involved and were able to ship a bunch of blankets to Japan.  Maybe that made someone’s life just a little easier.  The mitten drive surely kept someone’s hand a little warmer.

I was sad that the Q Kindness had closed, but that won’t stop Lisa.  You can’t keep kindness bottled up and confined to a small cafe in Saint Paul.  Lisa has been going global and continues to do so with her website Kinactor.  What is a Kinactor, you might ask.  According to the website, a Kinactor is; Kinactor (ke’-nakt-er) noun 1. A kind actor connector. 2. A person who initiates kind acts and asks others to do the same.  Pretty cool and just what this world needs, if you ask me.

So, instead of writing a blog about how we can make a difference in an individuals’ life, I have written a post about someone who inspired me.  I guess this will have to be split into two parts.  Because, you see, kindness is too big to be limited to one blog post.  It has ripple effects and it can transform not only your life but, more importantly, others.

New Year and Perspectives

Ok, I’m just going to say it.  The end of 2011 stunk.  There’s no other word for it; at least not one I can post and keep this blog somewhat clean.  As amazing as the first half of 2011 was for this little company, the second half was that spectacularly bad. We started off the year by hiring our second employee.  Then a friend in the business decided to scale back her operations and, in an amazing act of Kindness, she referred some of her clients to us.  We hired a third employee, and then a second third employee (one important lesson learned in 2011; never hire friends.  Either yours or your employees.  It never, ever, ever ends well).

So, that puts us in early October.  And this is where it all goes south.  I could go into the gruesome details of ruined counter tops and hurt feelings and a flight of clients not seen since the Book of Exodus, but that’s all details.  Suffice to say that 2011′s departure was greatly welcomed here at Freedom Cleaning HQ.  “Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?”

The first time I sat down to write this, I was interrupted by a phone call from one of our employees who we had just sent off to start their day.  “We’ve been hit!”  Thank God they were both fine.  But I couldn’t help but think, as I loaded the bumper of our van into the bed of our pickup, “Really??  2011 followed us!”  But something else happened.  Both Brianna and Melanie, our two employees that are like daughters to us decided they wanted to keep working.  I would have never insisted that they do.  Accidents can shake you up, physically and mentally.  But, the van was still drive-able and they wanted to do the cleanings that day. 

Instead of being cursed, we are blessed.  Blessed that we still have clients.  Blessed to have employees who actually want to work and do a good job.  Blessed to be able to do something that we love to do.  Blessed that we can still keep cleaning for cancer patients through the Cleaning for a Reason program.  2012 is going to be an amazing year for Freedom Cleaning Services.