[lisa123]

hi everyone

Can any domestic cleaners help out?
Do you send 2 cleaners to a client  and charge say 9p/h x2?

I have a customer to ring who wants weekly housekeeping.
Should i discuss over the phone and then visit when she wants to go ahead, or should I ask for an appointment to meet and go through it all then?

I need to phone her today, any tips?

[garyj]

Oh come on Lisa, what do YOU think.

[blacksheep]

i think you need a visit,see state of house/job your taking on first.then discuss terms and payment

[lisa123]

thank gary, very constructive! just looking for experienced people to help out the very inexperienced ie ME.

I think I should visit, but just wondered what others did.

[lisa123]

just an update
I have spoken to th potential customer, and have quoted our regualr domestic rate for 3 hrs per week. totals £27 for 1 cleaner. I asked if she would prefer 2 to reduce the time, and she would prefer just the 1 cleaner.
I am going round to see her on thursday evening, to discuss duties, payment and take a look at her house.
i am going to say payment upfront weekly or 4 weekly to suit.
take task lists, agreement/t&C and declaration.

anything i'm forgetting?? cos i'm bound to forget the most important thing, usually

[Jan K]

Hi Lisa!

You are approaching it in exactly the way I would.......looks like you have it all in hand......good luck and let us know how you get on!

Good luck

Jan

BTW don't take any notice of Gary, he can't help himself!!!

[garyj]

Jan, you've no idea just how much I restrained myself.

I've had help on here, and ( I think ) have helped some people, but.................

[blacksheep]

hi lisa,now i know nothing about domestic have only done industrail and my own house BUT if i were a client i think i would like to see the job done first before i handed over my money, what you call clean someone else might not think so. also i may be wrong but dont the folks on here who do domestic send 2 key people around for safeaty

[garyj]

Well done Lisa you've come up with the right answer

And guess where you could have found it all along......
On YOUR website.  :

www.llcleaningservices.co.uk

[Jan K]

Gary

I think you missed my point......I was not inferring that you aren't able to help with regards to providing relevant information, I simply meant you can't help being sarcastic!!

Look back over your posts, especially recently, it appears that you can't help having a dig! Perhaps that's just your way and you don't intend to come across as being sarcastic, but unfortunately that is how I read your posts (not everyone will I am sure)

I have no doubts you run a perfectly good business and are very successful! We are all successful in some degress, and personally I think we should all give ourselves a pat on the back and congratulate ourselves in being successful enough to get a cleaning business of the ground, bearing in mind the lack of available staff, clients willing to pay good money for an excellent service, and of course managing it around a home life too!!

[garyj]

I got your point, thats what the first line is about, I even typed it slowly so you'd understand. 

Its not just recently either, I can remember having digs at you in the past, and it didn't do you any harm, did it?

I hoped they are being read as sarcastic.

No I'm not very successful, just run a small cleaning company with 30 odd staff. ( some of them are odd!!)

Maybe Lisa might learn from what I have written. She might think a bit before she asks a question and realise she knows the answer herself, this will make her a better manager and company owner in the long run as well as giving her the confidence to make a decision, and make a few mistakes.

Yep, some people have a go at me sometimes, but on the whole, I don't think I've ever been 'out of order' and I bet you whatever I've typed that has upset a few people there are a load more who agree with what I've said.

[lisa123]

i would prefer it if you spoke to me not about me gary!!

and yes i would normally send 2, if i thought it necessary, but that would bump up the price, and the customer only wanted 1 cleaner.

I thought i was sarcastic, but u r the sarcastic king!!

congratulations, here is your trophy  :

[garyj]

To quote your website " we always send 2 cleaners".
( Have you actually read your own website? )

I could go on,

bored now.

[lisa123]

would you charge £45 for 2 cleaners for 2.5hrs pw??
to me that sounds alot, and to my customer i spoke to who wanted 3hrs, £54 did sound alot to her.

In an ideal world I would send 2 cleaners and charge the above i don't think people in shrewsbury would pay that!

i am having to change and adapt the website and my business as i see fit, as i get more info and more experience.

Can you leave me alone now gary? or have you not got anything better to do??

[Fox]

Lisa

I haven't been in the domestic market for a long time now but when I was I always sent two cleaners.  There are lots of reasons to do this and they have been discussed on this forum before but they include - security, more clients per day, sickness/hol cover.

You can send two cleaners to any job and still charge the same price whether it be 2hrs, 3hrs or 4.5hrs. 

You will be charging for 'people hours'  so your three hour job will still cost the client £27 for two cleaners to attend but the cleaners will stay on site for 1.5hrs each equating to 3hrs work being carried out.

Fox

[lisa123]

Hi Fox

I didn't look at it like that   

gosh! i really am being an idiot 

I haven't got staff yet, just me and my biz partner. but i see what you mean.

thanks for opening my eyes 

Lisa 

sorry, amended post

but cleaners will both be on site for 3 hours, therefore they should get 3 hours pay each.
I'm really confused now.
so a customer wants 3 hrs work per week, we send in 2 cleaners for those 3 hours, therefore 6 man/woman hrs.
although the work has been divided by 2, is this how you pay your cleaners??

that doesnt sound right to me??? sorry but i'm confused

[lisa123]

i have updated my website prices, i think that it looks right now.

before gary says it, can i say it

I AM A DIMEBAR!!   

[garyj]

More Fruit And Nut than Dimebar  :

[Paul Kettless]

Hi Lisa,

I am a relative newcomer to this site, and I hope that this does not mean that my comments do not count.

I think that your confusion is in the actual amount of time that a customer wants you at the property v how long the clean will actually take.

For example, my company cleans a large amount of holiday homes.  For the average size property we know from experience that it will take approx 2 hours.

We use teams of four, thus meaning that we only spend 1/2 hour in the property, but we charge the customer 2 hours.

Putting this theory to your new client, if you had 2 cleaners in the property for 1 1/2 hours each, they would still complete 3 hours work, therefore you would only need to charge you client the same, 3 hours.

This is just my own opinion but I never ever quote a cleaning job over the telephone.  I will have a general discussion about hours wanted, time, regularity etc, but that's it.  The rest is face to face.  This gives me the opportunity to look at the job, i.e how clean the property is (or not as the case maybe) and be honest with the customer.

For example, I have just about to turn a potential customer away, as her five bed property was absolutely filthy, she wanted us to come in for two hours a fortnight.  This was not even going to scratch the surface.  I explained this to her, and the fact that I would not be happy leaving the property not to our standard.  she was o.k with this, and appreciated my honesty.  We have now succesfully tendered a thorough one off clean, and are now more than happy to continue regular cleans.

I hope this helps, and sorry if I have confused you even more

Kind regards
Paul

[Fox]

2 cleaners work 1.5hrs each = 3hrs cleaning

Cleaners paid 1.5hrs each = 3hrs pay

Client pays for 3hrs cleaning