Clean It Up
UK General Cleaning Forum => General Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: tabitha on October 28, 2010, 08:32:05 am
-
I have a customer that i would like to stop cleaning for,i have cleaned ther for about 4years now but always dread going there.They dont need to go to work so they are always are at home when i clean and i have the husband follow me about the house all day talking and boasting about how much money he has and what hes brought,he really creeps me out.I cant seem to think of a good excuse to give them also i clean for a lot of people they know.has anyone got any ideas?
-
Difficult one that one Tabitha, as you clean for people they know.
Do they ever go out?
-
she does but hes always at home, it really gets on my nerves.plus he asks a bunch of questions about my personal life. i just wanna get on with my work
-
Give them notice say 30 days or two weeks and say your are taking on a large contract and need to concentrate on large jobs.
Or just say you are quitting due to personal reasons
Its not hard to quit... just hard sometimes to gain new work.
Dave
-
Hi ,how many hours are you there for a week?
I recently got rid of a 2 hour weekly clean that was doing my head in ,I ve another buisness as well which they knew about and I just said I had an oppertunity come up in my other buisness which I couldnt refuse to turn down,and there fore would have to do away with all my small cleans.. ie:them...to give me time to do it.
Ive been going to another one for about 3 years that Im often tempted to give the elbow,because they just have so much crap in the house ,but it is difficult as the client is such a sweet lady and it brings me in £40 a week :-\
-
im there for 7 hours a week its a mansion.im not worried about losing the money as i have to turn work down,i just feel so awkward around them. i have just taken on a lady that works with me on that job and she doesnt like going there either.do you work on your own miss dusty?
-
Hi Tabitha
Any chance that you could increase your charge and earn a rate that makes it worth your while?
or
Simply ask them if they would mind if you worked alone and gave them a quick summary at the end of the clean?
Just be straight and polite Tabitha.
Try and work it out
Grant
-
well i already charge them 20 pound a hour.They dont mind if i work on my own.i used to, until i employed someone else
-
That's worth trying to find a solution.
By working alone, you're saying, without them following you around
Grant
-
oh sorry yeah, well when i go to hoover or mop i do tell him hes in the way,but instead of going out the room he will move to the other side of the room!its weird because all my customers like to be out the way when your cleaning.Im sure i will work something out.
-
£20 per hour for 7 hours a week! that's a great one and i'd try to keep it if possible. no chance you can take on someone else and get them to do it?
edit: just had a thought, is that £20 per hour per cleaner, or £20 per hour which pays for the 2 cleaners, so actually £10 per cleaners hour?
if not the best excuse imo would be to say you're going to soon stop doing the work so you can concentrate on running the business so will slowly get stop your domestic cleans one by one, and that you'll stop theirs in 4 weeks etc. i did something similar with a few i didn't like and it worked fine even though we continued to clean for 2 of their friends for a further couple of months. if you're confident with what you say i'm sure they'll be happy that you're doing so well etc
-
im there for 7 hours a week its a mansion.im not worried about losing the money as i have to turn work down,i just feel so awkward around them. i have just taken on a lady that works with me on that job and she doesnt like going there either.do you work on your own miss dusty?
Yes I do ,but I too could do with taking someone else on as Im turning work away due to not having hours available,but it all seems a bit dawnting. :-\
-
no 20 pound per person, so yeah it is brilliant money just not worth the stress. i would love to get someone else so the two could work alone,but i dont feel confident enough to let people clean the house without me being there. Im a perfectionist and most employees don't care enough because it isn't their business. Hopefully i will find a way to grow my business without me having to clean myself,that was the idea. it's just getting over that hurdle
-
but if you're getting rid of the work then nothing lost to give someone else a try, however you'll need to deal with hiring etc and this doens't sound like the time for that so perhaps stick with it as long as possible and then just be confident with whatever reason and say you'll be stopping in x amount of weeks. if you're shy about it i think customer may get suspicious, but just imagine in the future you'll have to say to them all you'll be stopping the work yourself so it happens and they should be ok with it.
-
just replace and drop say that you have taken on new commercial work whitch pays £200 a clean that will shut the berk up oh and say you have booked a cruise this year to the med or somfin
-
Just tell them straight that you can't work to them anymore even through you want to, it's just that you can't because of personal issues. Then thanks them for being such a nice employer and you won't regret the years working on them and a blablablah! They will understand you, just be more nicely when you're talking them that your leaving... ;)
-
Hi Tabitha,was just wonderig how you got on with this client and how their reaction was as Im thinking about getting rid of one of mine ?
-
I haven't actually said anything to them yet.They did say they might be moving as they are looking for a new house,so fingers crossed. What was the reason for wanting to get rid of your customer Missy Dusty?
-
Hi Tabitha, Oh I just get fed up with all the crap they hog,the house is not so much a mess its just the clutter every where, they hoard so much rubbish,you just find when your moving things your knocking something else over if you know what I mean, and I know with xmas coming up theres going to be more clutter,and their also decorating at the moment ,so all in all bit of a nightmare! :-\
-
Hi missy dusty,I have that problem also with a couple of my customers,i never feel satisfied when i've cleaned their house.You can't really tell it's been cleaned as there is so much clutter.But that's the least of my worries,i just can't stand the creepy customers that hang round me all the time. I have taken on another lady to help me. I really want to expand because i don't want to be cleaning for the rest of my life even though it is good money.What are you planning to do with your business?
-
JUST THOUGHT i'd jump in and say this week we got rid of the last of our annoying customers and it feels so great to have got rid of them i strongly advise you both to go do it asap. it may sound silly but it's a big distraction having to think about the ones you don't like that pay little money, stopping you from getting on with the important jobs. i used to hate the day it come to cleaning theirs but now i cannot wait.
-
Clean Surrey ,Thats exactly how i feel,i dread going there all week and once i've cleaned there and gone i feel so happy until it comes closer again to the next week!how did you go about it?
-
i'm going to be very basic with this as it'd take a long essay to explain fully.
pretty much we have a minimum charge for commercial sites but we decided to split the charge for one customer between 2 of their small offices that are close to each other and work it out that from start to finish of both would be about ok for us.
eventually customer called me in to say how we're there too quick and expected 2 hours at each site. i explained that'll leave about £2.50 profit and would need more money. in the end he said good bye and i was trying so hard not to smile. i had spent all day thinking to myself how am i going to say we don't want to do theirs any more so i was so relieved when he said stop immediately.
only issue now is he said he'll get back to me about what he wants to pay for last 3 months that he owes us for one of the sites. will wait and see how that plays out but i'm sticking to it that we deserve our wonderful £20 per week.
-
Well least you've got rid of him now and who is he to decide what he is going to pay for your services,i can,t believe the cheek of it!
-
yeah that was my thought. there was no problems with the cleaning, we've never had one complaint or mention of anything so i said to him if he's had a problem he should have said something but he hasn't. he was probably just trying to be the big shot thinking as we're small business he can get away with it but it's very cheeky as you say.
-
Hi missy dusty,I have that problem also with a couple of my customers,i never feel satisfied when i've cleaned their house.You can't really tell it's been cleaned as there is so much clutter.But that's the least of my worries,i just can't stand the creepy customers that hang round me all the time. I have taken on another lady to help me. I really want to expand because i don't want to be cleaning for the rest of my life even though it is good money.What are you planning to do with your business?
Hi Tabatha ,we seem to be pretty much in the same boat ,although I have another buisness too ,I see my cleaning as my main income.Within 10 years time Id like to have a successful cleaning buisness with a reasonable amount of staff, and a very reliable supervisor who I could take over the buisness,and carry on running it for me whilst Im elsewhere,either busy with my other buisness or living somewhere else ,doing something else .I know of someone in this postion and envy her,but I know it didnt all come to her easy.
Recently Ive had a opportunity come up in my other buisness but I need more hours ,and thats why Im thinking this could be a good excuse to get rid of this clean.I see the lady this weeek,she is such a busy /flustered person and very sweet,I wanted to tell her ,but I just didnt have the heart.Im going to feel really guilty saying goodbye to a client on top of xmas,and Im not sure how much notice is going to be enough at this time of year?I also informed one of my clients I would be moving her day of clean as from December,...she wasnt too impressed,I felt abit annoyed as Im not giving the elbow ,just giving her the option of another day !
I currently work on my own, and have recently turnt down more work,due tto the fact I just havent got the hours available,I have to do a school run ,and my other buisness...take somebody else on springs to mind,but I know of so many others that have taken on staff and its all gone pete tong and it just scares me,my worst case senario,taking extra work on and my member of staff not turning up,and Im like yourself I dont want to be cleaning for the rest of my life ,but you know atleast if your doing it yourself ,your takin more pride over it.
Im not sure which road Im going to be going down at the mo,who knows,just wish I had a crystal ball to see to the future.
-
Hi missy dusty, I took on a lady about a year ago and i was so worried on how it was going to work out as i'm such a perfectionist but it has worked out ok.She only does about 20 hours a week so this isn't to bad if she isn't able to work as most of the time i can manage to cover the jobs.The only thing is i wouldn't want to leave her on her own cleaning as i feel she isn't quite up to my cleaning standards she's good but i really do pay attention to detail and i guess this stops me moving forward.I did take on a new lady recently but she was a nightmare,she was a brill cleaner just a bad attitude so i had to get rid of her.It is frustrating because i do wonder how other people do it,how do they get to a point where they can trust someone enough to leave them on their own!
Also another problem was because i worked on my own for a while some customers were a bit funny when i said i will be bringing someone else to work with me,there so used me but then its like they are limiting you. So with any new customers i get now i always take my lady with me. So then its not so personal.
I had to move one customers clean one hour forward and she was so upset saying im really unprofessional and she doesn't like change.She said she likes to be in her kitchen by a certain time! I gave her the option of having two of us clean so she could be in her kitchen by that time but she wasn't intrested.I think sometimes some customers get used to you and think they can treat you in such a way,i mean i have worked for her for three years never had a day off and she talks to me like that! I think because you work on your own they don't see you as running a business thats why i like someone working with me.
You just have to take that chance missy dusty.If you take someone on part time and work together you can keep a eye on their work ,least thats a step forward.
-
Hi Tabitha. wow £20 an hour the most I get is 8.50 an hour. Saying that I can fully understand where your coming from.
I would drop this clean too, there is nothing worse than someone following you about, but I'm just like you with the issue of how to give a client up. I've cleaned for a client for nearly 4 years now and as nice as they are she is always in and to be quite honest I am sooo bored with it everyday the same old + school holidays are an absolute pain house full of people getting in my way!!..but I don't know what to say about giving up, every Monday I say I will then I chicken out gosh it's so hard isn't it!
I have another I've cleaned for nearly 4 years who has just started her own business which is clearly doing very well judging by the amount of new things she's buying for the house and yet I said about a pay rise to her and she started going on about how she doesn't get a wage, she pays me 6.70 an hour all my others pay me £8, another I want rid off!
Let us know how you get on I'm hoping to find the guts to give up a few before the year is out!!
-
get rid of them all fayellen and go work at macdonalds. you'll get more per hour and more potential of an increase. working for your own should mean an increase in prices you get not a decrease. heck you could even work for another cleaning company and get more. e.g. £7 per hour plus holiday is 75p per hour = £7.75, and then you don't have to deal with the customer problems or even find more work as it's all covered for you. plus you get sick pay etc. why bother for £6.70 per hour when you're running your own business that's crazy.
-
Hi fayellen, How comes you charge so little? When i started cleaning i was at college and just did it for the extra money, but i realised i could make more money doing cleaning as a business than working as a chef. So what i did i told the customers i had at the time i was going to start a cleaning business.You see they were paying me £8 hr but i made it clear to them that as it is a business, rates will be going up. Some customers were funny at first but because i'm good cleaner they didn't want to loose me.Are you doing this as a proper business or is it just a bit of extra money?your best bet is to just say that your putting the rates up and that might make the ones you don't like get rid of you without you having to make any excuses.
-
Oh no whenever I put anything on here I get told off for charging too little!! I do it as a way to earn extra money I don't earn enough to pay tax and to be quite honest I wouldn't have a clue how to run a business.
It suits me, I like the freedom it gives me, If I want a day off I swop them all around and have a day off, I go on holiday when I want and it leaves me time for my favourite hobby of running.
I don't want to work in Mcdonalds I hate been tied to a regular job and having to book a day off or fixed holidays.
I just like the flexibility and most of my customers are lovely
-
Hi i wasn't having a go just thought it was a bit cheap to be charging that if your running a business, if it's extra money thats completely different. The best thing to do with your customer is just ring her a tell her you can't work ,least you wont have to face her then :)
-
you could work for a cleaning company as a flexible cleaner working as and when and end up with more money. i guess if you're doing nothing other then cleaning it's no different but still you can earn more money and far less stress dealing with customers. i'd say a price increase to at least £10 so that you can then put £1 an hour away for "holiday pay". think of it like this, if a customer doesn't think you're worth a very low £10 per hour why are you cleaning for that customer?
people pay £14 plus vat per hour so customers will pay it. if you're too shy to mention a price increase try making a nice professional yet personal looking letter saying as of new year your prices are going up to such and such because of x y and z.
say at the moment you're doing 10 customers a week at 2 hours per clean thats 20 hours a week at £7.50 approx per hour totalling £150 a week. when your price increases say you lose 2 customers brining you down to just 16 hours a week, but at £10 per hour you're now earning £160 but doing a whole day a week less.