Clean It Up

UK General Cleaning Forum => General Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: daveyc on August 15, 2009, 06:58:40 pm

Title: Newcomer needs advice
Post by: daveyc on August 15, 2009, 06:58:40 pm
I am starting my own home cleaning service, and am hoping that someone can give me some advice on where  to obtain and what to obtain the best cleaning products ie:surface cleaners floor cleaners etc.
any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
Title: Re: Newcomer needs advice
Post by: Joe H on August 15, 2009, 08:06:04 pm
Taking your own cleaning materials into a home is one way of doing it.
but we operate on the basis the client already have cleaning materials, we use theirs and when we need fresh stock we leave a note specifying what we would like them to get.

When we do "one offs" we take our own stff in and its usually the stuff off the supermarket shelves.
Title: Re: Newcomer needs advice
Post by: daveyc on August 16, 2009, 07:12:58 pm
thanks for answering. i was going to give the client the option of what they prefered to do regarding supplying materials themselves, and was hoping not to have to get the supermarket stuff but may look into the pricing of certain cleaners.
Title: Re: Newcomer needs advice
Post by: vacman on August 16, 2009, 07:19:30 pm
There is nothing wrong with supermarket cleaners, be it store-brand or brand name -brand. Apart from 'specialist' cleaning products which you'd only need for commercial jobs anyway, the products you see in the cleaning suppliers shop will be the exact same as in the supermarket. The main difference is that the bottles will invariably be a lot bigger, as will the price. Shop around and stock-up. 'Flash' is one product i use all the time and the massive bottles are very inconvieient to use. I buy 1 litre bottles which, depending on what shop  i go to and what offer they have, can be bought for £1 a litre.

Your customer will be measuring the quality of your service by the work you do, not what you use. Washing up liquid is the way to go for most cleaning jobs, especially general regulay bathroom cleaning and damp-dusting, but how many customers will you see using that? So your cleaning methods and products will always be different to the clients.....and they mostly wont care.



Also, your client will probably not care whether you bring the cleaning stuff or whether hey have to, until they have cleaners who bought the materials with them....after that, they kind-of get used to not having to worry about stocking up or question how much product is being used. I have to say i have a prefernce for using my own stuff and when i've had staff i felt safer knowing exactly what products they were using and that i had the COSSH / data sheets for them.

Title: Re: Newcomer needs advice
Post by: daveyc on August 16, 2009, 09:19:22 pm
thankyou this has been really useful for me.
Title: Re: Newcomer needs advice
Post by: suffolkclean on August 17, 2009, 07:37:49 am
For regular domestic cleaning I always gave the customer a price & thats with customer supplying all cleaning chemicals, hoover etc. If they can't then charge say extra £2 pr hour I did have a couple of elderly people who didn't want to buy a new hoover so we supplied it for the clean & charged extra.

One off cleans we take all the gear with us, huge crate of different cleaning chemicals, lime-scale remover, fairy, bathroom cleaner (use this as it gives a nice fresh smell), kitchen cleaner, kitchen cleaner with bleach in for inside kitchen cupboards, heavy duty de-greaser, polish, cream cleanser, glass cleaner, loads of cloths scourers etc

Good Luck

Barbara
Title: Re: Newcomer needs advice
Post by: daveyc on August 17, 2009, 08:59:13 am
thanks i will you have definately given me something to consider.