[northstar]

I am in the process of recruiting staff for my domestic cleaning business. I am finding that it may not be sufficient to rely on employees to use their initiative to do what needs doing in a clients' home and that some form of work schedule detailing exactly what needs to be done may be needed.

Does anyone have any suggestions on this topic?

[Bertie Boo]

Yes, you can do what i did but i dunno if its cost effective.

I had a lady helping me when i went on holiday and i wrote a step-by-step instruction list of what had to be done in each house. I could do this as i cleaned each and every house myself (i work alone anyway) so it was very clear from the outset what she had to do.

I see where you are coming from about relying on the cleaners' initiative BUT many of my clients have very specific requirements as to what i am and am not to do, so even if i THINK i would do X, Y, or Z for someone else i have customers who specifically dont want this. Maybe as your organisation is clearly bigger than mine you may not be able to accomodate such individual requirements and as such you may want to offer a 'set' service to the clients, in which case the risk of the agreed work not being done is minimised as all staff should be working to the same format in each house (more or less).

It is a very difficult situation really, in fact 90% of my clients have had cleaners before -usually from a company (big and small)- and a lot of them report that certain jobs were always overlooked (usually the sort of things that dont need doing often like moving beds and sofas, although not limited to this, thats just an example) as they said they always got different cleaners on each visit, meaning that it was difficult for the cleaners to be fully aware of what jobs had or hadnt been done on previous visits.

But going back to a schedule, i think the only sure-fire way is to do at least one clean in each house yourself and then you will know what REALLY needs doing each time.

Hope this helps a bit

Stephen

[northstar]

Stephen,
Thanks for your reply, this is helpful. Cleaning myself in each client's house will assist me to produce a detailed work schedule if I decide to go down this route.
Mike

[Majestic]

I would do it myself first to see what needs doing . Then do a clean with them showing them what to do . Then leave them to it but put it in writting then they know exactly what they have to do .

[Bertie Boo]

Hey Northstar

If you can get the same cleaners to do the same houses each time this SHOULD make for a better job, although of course to send a different one now and then may help as the houses may be seen with 'fresh eyes'.

It is such a difficult task -house cleaning- because you could spend hours and hours on just one house because cleaning is endless. I am lucky that i know what each of my clients wants and exepects. Its easy for me because i work alone, i imagine that when you have staff it becomes more of a challenge.

I know that the clients i work for who have chosen to discontinue using whichever company they had have all been kind of non-commital about what exactly it was that they not happy about (in terms of the quality of cleaning), stating that it was just a 'general feeling' that the cleaning they did was not of any great standard. I suppose in a way they aren't complaining that the cleaning wasnt good enough, more prehaps they were saying it wasnt worth paying for.

But i dont think i work for anyone who directly discontinued a cleaning service BECAUSE the cleaning was poor. Most of my clients got fed-up with the service they were getting, for example one guy said he didnt think the quality of cleaning was very good BUT he carrried on using the company regardless and only changed (to me) when the cleaners regulalrly didnt turn up. He said bad cleaning was one thing but to come home and find that no cleaning had been done at all was quite another...

Another family had a local company who they didnt care for but carried on until the company began charging VAT (which put the cost of the cleaning through the roof). Another had Molly Maids and used them until the franchise owner upset her.

I think there is a lot of 'presentation' that needs to be done as well as cleaning (such as making sure storage jars are all the same way round, zips on cushions are all face down, seams on lampshades at the rear, towels folded, etc, though i draw the line at folding the end of the loo paper into a point...) and this can really add to the "WOW!" when a client arrives home. Well, so i find anyway.

Cheers

Stephen