I was recently asked what are some of the most important things I’ve learned from running my business, I thought answering this question was going to be easy and to be honest straightforward.
But when I looked back on how Maid 4 Time started , I realized there are so many lessons to reflect on. Pitfalls, missed opportunities, near misses, significant wins, lot’s of crying, celebrating small milestones.
Narrowing down my list was no easy task, but here’s what I learned and how my lessons reflect in our customer satisfaction rating of 97% and a 4.8 star review rating across multiple review sites. Ultimately this is my “test score” on how well I’ve taken those lessons and turned the homework assignments into being able to provide you, Maid 4 Time customers with the best possible service we can offer.
1. Treat your staff well
This may sound cliche, but the truth is, my cleaners are the ones delivering the service and making money for the business. Yes, it’s a team effort and we partner up with the best cleaners around. I can sell cleaning services all day, but if my cleaners aren’t delivering their best, then no amount of selling matters.
Cleaning, as an example, is a labor intensive job, so there can be some unconscious bias when it comes to the employment and development of workers. The key to success, pay above average wages and treat them like they are the Rock Stars they are! Most people think that cleaning is unskilled labor, I beg to differ, I don’t think you want your cleaning company to be unskilled on how to take care of your most valuable asset, your home and family!
2. Create a partnership
I realized early on in my business to say NO to potential clients. Why, because not every person that calls for service is going to be my client. I want to build a partnership and long term relationship with my client. In order for Maid 4 Time to be able to deliver on our promises we need clients that understand cleaning, you know the saying an educated consumer….. That’s not to say that the clients who have never used cleaning service can’t be our clients, we just want to make sure we are all on the same page. Ultimately at the end of the day, our success is your success.
Our happiest clients are those who utilize our service on a weekly or every other week basis. Why, this frequency is where clients are able to see the largest return on their investment of spending money to get time.
3. Know your worth
It took me longer than it really should have to learn this lesson!
Let’s face it there is no shortage of cleaning companies, competition is high and most people shop on price. I realized that if I’m only going to be able to compete on price then I will always be a commodity. That’s not what I wanted for the business, my staff or for my clients. I took what I heard from my clients, we want the same person, we want a great job, not a good job and we want reliability. You know what? Me too!!
Unfortunately you can not get that by hiring the lowest cost provider. I decided to differentiate myself by hiring the best cleaners, paying the best rates and charging my clients what our work is worth. I think you can agree that “you get what you pay for”. We offer so much more than cleaning. Not only do we offer free services throughout the year to our most dedicated clients, but we also offer the best customer service we can offer, and we work on making our customer service better every day.
We are not the cheapest cleaning company in town and we are probably not the middle priced company either, we will most likely be at the higher end, but you will get the best cleaning service in Rochester. But don’t take our word for it, check out our reviews and client testimonials.
