Our Surprisingly Uncommon Take on Taking Stress Out of Customer’s Lives
If you ever get the chance to sit down with us in person, bring along a cup of tea because we’ve got all the dirt on the cleaning industry. Now, we’re not going to name any names here–that’s just not how we were raised–but we do have the three top complaints we’ve heard from our new customers about other cleaning services, and they’re doozies.
Now, if you look at our list of “pain points” we’ve heard--no-shows, people not answering phones, crackheads showing up at people’s houses–all of these seem SUPER avoidable. The fact that we even have to bring them up, to us, just proves how well we’re doing by comparison.
Complaint 1: Just Not Answering the Phone
This one we just straight up don’t get. We’re pretty unabashedly capitalist, so we’re on board with the idea of doing good work and getting paid fairly for it. That doesn’t work, however, if people just don’t answer the phone. And, apparently, there are a lot of folks out there that don’t feel like working because one of the most common comments we get is people being surprised that we just answered the phone.
Well, score one for us. We’re happy to take calls (during business hours, of course) and business off anybody that won’t answer the phone. We’ll even return messages from calls left after business hours. To us, that’s just good business. That’s the minimum bar. So, we get the frustration from customers that haven’t gotten even that degree of consideration from other cleaning services.
Complaint 2: No Shows and Reschedules
After they’ve gone to the effort of getting past unresponsive services, the next hurdle we hear about a lot is no shows and reschedules. Plenty of other services are juggling sub-contracted cleaners that aren’t actually employed by the service the customer called at all. So, those services have issues with double booking cleaners or cleanings or just plain unreliable subcontractors. So, after all the phone tag to get in contact in the first place, people just don’t show up.
Frankly, we can’t think of anything more annoying than having to chase down people for service. That’s why we have professional, full-time staff we employ directly. Time is valuable, ours and yours. And that’s why, if you schedule us, we keep to a schedule. If you’ve taken the time to call us and carved out the time from your schedule to let us in to clean your home or business, we’re going to be at your door at the appointed hour. Barring blizzards, raining frogs, and zombie apocalypses, of course.
Complaint 3: Sketchy Characters at the Door
We’ve been told, straight up, “Thank you for not sending crackheads to my house.” Now, the emotional rollercoaster you go on when you hear that is pretty steep. First there’s incredulity, because, of course we wouldn’t send sketchy people to your house. Then, there’s a moment of realization that hits you with even more incredulity because someone has literally sent someone like this to your house before. And, lastly, there’s a bit of professional disgust because you are in a profession with people who would do that to people.
For the record, we vet all our staff very thoroughly. Nobody goes to your home or business that wouldn’t be welcome in ours. That’s just common courtesy and good business. We can see, though, how other companies that don’t have full-time staff and don’t know the subcontractors they are sending your way might have a problem taking what we see as a pretty simple and essential step.
So, that’s it. That’s the dirt that’s going on in other cleaning companies. Or, rather, that’s just the surface level grime. But, don’t worry, Cleaning Cents does answer the phone, we do show up, and we definitely don’t send sketchy characters to your door.
