Lowering Your Standards

By:  Cathy Green

Part of lowering your standards would be to ignore or disregard your company policies to please or hold on to a particular client.

I had a client whom I will call “Anne”.  When I completed my first time estimate with Anne I told her that we only take on biweekly and weekly clients—no once per month clients.  She agreed but after service initiated, talked me into offering her once per month service.

I’ll never make that mistake again!  In addition to the natural dust and dirt that accumulates in a home that’s only cleaned once per month, she had three animals, adding to the time in the house because of all the hair and fur balls.

I made a second mistake.  Because her home was only being cleaned once per month, she actually needed a “deep cleaning” each month.  But I did not charge her the deep cleaning fee. Instead, I charged her a maintenance fee.

And then I made mistake #3.  My employee lifted an elephant that her daughter had made for her and the trunk fell off.  I could easily have told my employee to simply glue the trunk back on.  Instead, trying to be nice, I offered the woman a discount on the next cleaning.

Doing so set up a cycle in which the woman realized that if she found anything wrong, she could get a discount.  For 3 months straight she was finding problems and I was offering discounts.

And once enough was enough, I discontinued service to her. It became apparent to me that there was always going to be something.  And we were losing money on that client.

In your business, you will encounter similar situations.  You will like a certain client and may even talk on the phone with or email back and forth from time to time.  Remember, however, that this is not “friendship”. Rather, this is business and if you start lowering standards to make a client happy, the client will end up miserable and you will lose money. It’s a no win situation.

You company policies are your standards.  Write down your policies. If necessary, give a copy to your clients.  But most crucial is that you stand by your policies.  Once you start to bend, you are setting yourself up.  It’s okay to offer a lesser price for a client who truly needs it.  But your hard core policies should be maintained.

By the way, I actually DO have two “once per month” clients. But they personally clean their own homes when my employees are not in there and they have no pets, so in their case it works.

Very few clients will be that conscious and it’s for that reason that I simply will caution you about taking on such clients without firm policies about the price difference in such cases.

The Price Only Client

 

 By:  Cathy  Green

I remember listening to a YouTube video produced by Debbie Sardone. In it she talked about a type of client whom she called the “price only” client. In short, the price only client is one who puts pricing first and they really don’t look at anything else, such as quality.

As a maid service owner, you will definitely run into such clients. And it will happen sooner rather than later. It usually has nothing to do with budget. Most of them have the money. However, for whatever reason they don’t believe it’s necessary to pay a cleaning company well, yet they want top rate service.

I recently explained to a price-only client that the reason he was paying so little with his last company was because based on the fee he quoted me, they obviously were paying their employees minimum wage or less. He also complained about them having a high turnover rate. Again, I explained that when people make minimum wage, they leave for higher paying jobs.

Even after telling me he understood what I was saying, he never called back and I’m happy about that. Let me explain to you why it is to your company’s advantage to avoid offering services to a price only client.

Price only clients never, ever change. I don’t care how perfectly well your employees clean their home. I don’t care about how great your services are or how professional your employees present themselves. The price only clients are never satisfied. They cannot get over the fact that in order to receive the level of service they desire, they have to pay a little more.

This is what happens when you take on a price only client. They will hire your company and within a month they will have found a cheaper company. It’s nothing personal. They were satisfied with your company’s services and will even tell you as much. But they simply want to pay less. And if it means that they have to switch to 10 different companies in one year, so be it.

Quite frankly, the price only clients are not worthy of the expertise that your company has to offer. They will have your employees work their fingers to the bone. They will never offer a tip, while they demand more and more. And all the while they are searching out a cheaper company.

That is not the type of person you want to deal with. It’s like casting your pearls before swine. Your goal as a business owner in the service industry is to build relationships with clients who care about you and about your employees. You need clients who understand and respect the amount of back breaking work that goes into cleaning a home. The last thing you need to do is waste your time on cheap individuals who are looking for something for nothing.

If you discover that a client is price only, move on!

Below is further information on the price only client:

Knowing When to Let a Client Go

 By:  Cathy Green

    There will come a time in your business as a maid service owner that you will need to let a client go. Yes, you will need to release, fire, discontinue services to a client.

I cannot tell you when to let a client go. It will depend on your patience and tolerance level but I will give you some general direction.

As a business owner, you will need to establish a written or unwritten policy to deal with clients who have complaints. Personally, I offer a discount on the next cleaning OR I send my employees back to re-clean problem areas.

Generally that will work fine. But here is the deal. If you find yourself constantly receiving complaints from the same client, there is a problem and the problem is not necessarily with your employees. Keep an open mind until you get to the bottom of the problem.

I like to teach by example so I will share with you something that happened in my business recently.

My client, whom I will refer to as “Gilda” called my company as a result of an ad she found. We initiated service and all was well for several months.

Gilda had two cats but the cats were manageable and my cleaning tech was able to just vacuum the cat’s hair up with a hand held animal vacuum.

All was going well until Gilda’s daughter suggested they get a dog— and she agreed.

So in addition to two cats, Gilda now had a dog. And not just any dog. She purchased a playful breed. The dog wanted to play while the cleaning tech was there and the dog would have “accidents” on the basement floor.

Long story short, the house was becoming increasingly more difficult to clean. There was another problem. Although my company no longer takes on once per month clients, Gilda only wanted her home cleaned once per month.

I actually should have charged her a “deep cleaning” fee on a monthly basis because houses cleaned only once per month require a deep cleaning every month. However, I gave her a very, very reasonable rate.

Then something interesting happened. She emailed me one day to complain about something that was not cleaned to her specifications and I gave her a discount. She complained again the next month, and I gave her another discount.  She complained again the next month….a third discount.

What I did not know at the time was that once she figured out that as long as she complained, she would get discounts, she simply would find something to complain about.

She took it to another level. My employee had spent 4 hours cleaning her home alone. He went against our policy and cleaned animal poop and litter from the floors (our company does not handle droppings).

He did the best he could working alone and dealing with her floors which were being destroyed by her dog. She had all types of spots on the carpet, the wood—every floor was filthy.

So if he missed a spot here and there, I personally can excuse it because he was essentially doing a deep cleaning alone, at a very low price—all because she was too cheap to hire us to clean her home every two weeks. And I blame myself for taking her on under those conditions.

Long story short, she called to complain but this time I did not offer a discount. Instead I offered to send my employee out to get the spots he missed. That was not what she wanted to hear. She was hoping for money off. And when I did not offer it, she requested a full refund, which I rejected.

I explained to her that he could re-clean but reminded her of our policy which clearly states no refunds.

She then went back and forth with me and I told her it was time for her to find another company that could meet her needs.  I even gave her the names of two local companies that offer eco friendly cleanings.

Again, I cannot tell you when to let a client go. Only you can make that decision for yourself. I will say, however, that not every client should be kept on your caseload. And once you let a client go, don’t look back. Instead look ahead to new, appreciative clients. They are out there!

Is The Customer Always Right?

By:  Cathy Green

I know that you have heard the old saying:  The customer is always right.

Well, remove that backwards thinking from your mind because if you stay with it, you might end up bankrupt.

Not only are customers/clients not always right, but some of them will approach you with an angle that is potentially dangerous for your company, in terms of finances.

I’ll start by saying that 99% of the clients you run into will be decent and upright.  But from time to time, dealing with the general public, you will run into a client who had intentions of fleecing you.

To date, I have had two clients try not to pay my company after having received superior service.  In both instances, I had personally inspected the work and the cleaning techs had done an outstanding  job.

In both cases, the women had had money issues to begin with and had mentioned those issues to us.  In the first case, the client did not leave a check, as agreed upon and refused to pay until after I threatened her with a lawsuit.  In the second situation, the woman paid but stopped the check almost immediately.  Her husband then re-issued a check after I threatened a lawsuit.  So in both cases I got the money that my company earned and deserved.

Had I been silly enough to allow them to be “right” when in fact they were dead wrong, my company would have suffered a financial loss and they would not have cared.

Keep in mind that your employees must be paid, regardless of whether or not your clients pay.  If a client does not pay, that leaves your business with a financial hit.  And enough of those hits will leave you bankrupt.

The only time you should offer a full refund would be if services were NOT rendered.  In other words, if a client paid ahead of time and for whatever reason your employees did not show up. That’s when it’s okay to offer a refund.  But if they cleaned the house, charge.  And if the client throws a temper tantrum, charge.  And if the client screams in your ear and calls you all manner of names, charge. And if they don’t pay, SUE.  This is a business.

Of course clients would love to have their homes cleaned for free. Wouldn’t you, if given a choice?  You are not being kind in giving such clients a free cleaning. In fact, you are enabling them to continue using their schemes to hurt other companies.

A small loss here and a small loss there adds up quickly to a huge loss and potentially the loss of your business.  Be professional. Be kind. But be firm. If you performed the labor, charge.  And no, the customer is not always right.  Clients are a reflection of society. Some of them are criminally minded.  But don’t you be a victim!