I believe hand on heart that domestic cleaning is one of, if not the, hardest jobs to do in this industry. It is even harder if your sole role within your business is domestic. Anyone who does this and sustains this over a lengthy period of time has my utmost respect and admiration.
We started off just offering domestic but soon realised that there was no way we could sustain a business doing this alone. We have since dropped most of our domestic and will not take anymore new clients on. We've only kept the 'nice' ones that my wife and another girl share between them.
The reasons for getting rid of them are pretty much the same as dg. We used to charge per hour as well after trying per job, as we felt it suited us and the clients better. Whenever we did charge per job we would always end up arguing with the clients who would always time us etc - even the ones that signed an agreement on price for job !! Most of them were not business minded people and didn't care about overheads, insurances, wages, profit etc, they were convinced they owned us just because they give over some money.
As dg said their mentallity eventually became that they wouldn't tidy up or clean between our visits and some we are talking every other week. This then meant that they expected us to do more whilst we were there. This is where the per hour came in our favour as I would just say "no problem, we'll just charge you for an extra hour or 2". So I would have to recruit more staff to cover, until the client(s) decided they couldn't afford the extra hours and would get stroppy and demand that we work harder and faster in the original alotted time. Totally unrealistic and it would just become an unworkable arrangement. I know people say 'get rid and replace with another' but it ain't that easy when you have girls waiting around. I would even pay them to go out delivering leaflets to get there own work which worked to some degree but they used to get p'd off as they're cleaners not distributors etc. But even then when we did get the new clients the cycle would continue.
We even had one client who whilst we cleaned for them accused our girls of damaging a towel rail and toilet paper holder in one of their many loos. The girls denied it and said they noticed it when they went in one morning to clean but didn't think it neccessary to tell me. Anyway I went down to view and as it wasn't much I offered to give them a free week to cover the cost. "No, no, it's ok, just ask them to be careful etc" was the reply and all was forgotten. They even missed a payment some weeks later which I made a note of but thought I won't make waves due to it being quiet from their claim. That is until I gave them (along with everyone else) notice that we wouldn't be cleaning anymore - they went mental, demanding that we pay up for the damage that happened months earlier. When we informed them that they had actually missed a weeks payment and that we had proof, they threatened us with small claims etc. I became very angry and told them to go for it.....heard nothing since, touch wood.
Staffing was another issue as there are simply not enough cleaners out there who felt comfortable enough doing domestics, especially if the clients were in whilst they were cleaning. The hours would suit them with their kids schooling etc but they would eventually get dis-heartened with the moanings and nit-pickings of the clients. Some realised it wasn't what they expected and would just leave without notice leaving me with a huge headache. In just over a year we went through 21 cleaners on the domestic side alone which is just too many....and the paperwork was just doing my head in !! We paid well and have always looked after the girls but we just couldn't keep them.
It's been a few months now since we got rid and it's been like a weight has been lifted and I take pleasure in telling telephone/email inquiries that we no longer offer the service.
To Lisa, dg and all you other domestics, my hat goes off to you
