Hi Guys
Garyj, you are right but, what about my experance with both men and females can I not use that to make my choose? And yes the contact would not stand up in court but it works realy well. I would never take it that far as there has never been reason too, It might be that it puts people off doing it? BTW it was written by a professional person that had experance in this area.
Domestic bliss, You must look at what value you give your customers over and above the cleaning, if they dont see any then you whats the point of going though you? You must be strong and use contact for both customers and staff, it works really well and does put customers off. we evan have a foiur week notice and if they dont want to do this they pay us four week money, and they do. so contacts do work.
When your first quote its important to show how you work for your money, with thing like taking responsibility, quility control, cover, insurance,
some customers do only care about costs, its your job to show them though what you do how going for a cleaner based on this has risks.
Dont let this person take your deam of owning a cleaning business. You must learn from it and make changes and move on. I was lucky as I work for many contract firms from cleaning schools to car cleaning so I have had experance in lots of diffant areas. Trust should be earnt, what I would be saying to your old customer is is she has nicked all you work do they think that if honest?
What I would be doing is dropping leaflets that pointed out the risk of cheap cleaners. we have just finished one about the risks of using low cost carpet cleaners, and are about to start testing it. dont get personal just point out the risks and problems, you know them as you have to deal with them every day running your business. Customer might think that cost is important but how about cover? what happens when they are ill or their kids are. just think is a family of four get the flu it might mean her taking off about four week to look after the kids and herself.
You will find out that its not money at the end of the day it a clean house every week that really matters. Keep sending sales letters each month to your old customer, Joe polish does a great " We miss you " letter. people must be aloud to make mistakes let them know indirectly that they are welcome back at any time.
One other area that you should keep in mind is that most cheap cleaners will have to loads of work to make up their money to a good wage so as you know this does not go with good workmanship. you can be sure that within time this will be the case and then the customers will be saying to her that "I might as well do it myself" just be ready and as I have said leave the back door open. Good Luck.
Ian, If you have a guarantee and pay on a job basis then you will always have control over workmanship as the staff member will have to go back and reclean free of charge to you or your customer. All you need to do is do some calls at the end of the day to make sure everyone id happy. we do many of these each week to ours with our maid service. customers do find it hard to pick up the phone and tell you, and would just not use you again. so you never find out that the work was bad and thing carry on the same way.
The number one way for customers to save money and staff that would like to have their own business is nicking your work. its an important thing to get sorted as its one thing that will let you take the step from doing the work to running a cleaning business. its not easy and yes some time unfair to some people but, its your business not the european courts. for me its about living in the real world and being street wise.
Respect
Ian Harper