Just Hire The Best People

We claim to be the best cleaning company in each of three cities we serve. Two recent surveys have proven that many, many people know that we are the best cleaning service in town. But just how do we create the best cleaning service in town? It's really simple and it all boils to just one central idea.

Only hire the best people.

Of course, you've got to give people a reason to want to work for you. Our Pay For Performance Plan gives our employees a chance to earn the highest wages in the local cleaning industry. Money talks and our employees know that they can earn above average pay if they make you happy. That by itself is sometimes all it takes. But we do much more than just pay above average wages.

In the cleaning industry, most businesses pay on a commission basis. That means that you get paid based on the quantity of cleanings in one day. Notice I said quantity - not quality. The quicker you clean - the more money you make. The longer your day - the more money you make. Our employees get paid an hourly rate from the time they walk into our office to the time they walk back into our office. In many cases, our employees only clean two homes in one day. The absolute maximum number of homes cleaned in one day is just three. Many prospective employees have told us horror stories of cleaning six, seven - sometimes eight homes in one single day. They call it speed cleaning. We call it commission cleaning.

Like I said earlier, money talks. Using the commission scale, an employee wants to clean as many homes as possible simply because more money can be earned. But here's the kicker, employees at Two Maids & A Mop still earn (on average) earn more money than our local cleaning company competitors. We've heard time after time from previous employees of those companies.

So you not only work less - but you also get paid more money. That's an obvious win-win situation. And that's a win-win for our customers too. Our customers know that our employees get paid based on their satisfaction. But our customers can also be comforted knowing that their maids won't be exhausted by the time they enter their home.

That's our formula. Just hire the best people. It's worked for a long time now. And something tells me that it'll keep working.

Pro's & Con's Of Hiring An Individual Maid

The Pro's
- CHEAP. The most obvious benefit to hiring an individual maid is the low rate. Individual maids are cheap. In some cases, very cheap.

- SAME PERSON. Some people prefer seeing the same cleaning person each visit. An individual maid is only one person, so you should be able to receive the same cleaning person each time.

- QUALITY. There's a chance that you may hire the world's most ambitious housecleaner. She's not cleaning for money. Nope, she's cleaning because she loves cleaning. Believe it or not, it happens. And when it happens, there's no cleaning company on earth that can compete against it.

- CHEAP. The low cleaning rate of an individual maid needs to be mentioned twice because that's the biggest reason for hiring an individual maid.

The Con's
- CHEAP. That low rate offered by an individual maid may look cheap on the surface but you're missing one big point. What if she quits? What if she's late? What if is she breaks something? What if she hurts herself? What if you owe additional payroll taxes? And what if she steals from you?

The answer to each question is that the cheap rate will suddenly become real expensive. When she quits, you have to hire someone else - your time is money. Same goes for late arrivals - who wants to sit around all morning waiting on a maid to show up? The rest of the questions are obvious. But we've provided a few real-world examples for illustration.

What if she breaks something?
What if she hurts herself?
What if you owe additional payroll taxes?
What if she steals from you?

- QUALITY. There's a chance that you have hired the world's best cleaner. But there's also a chance that you have simply hired an out-of-work person that needs some quick cash. And starting a housecleaning business is one of the easiest ways to make some quick cash. The question you need to ask yourself is this.... Are you a customer, or are you a side job? Because side jobs don't get the same attention as customers. When you hire a professional cleaning company, you're a customer. We think housecleaning from 8 AM - 5 PM Monday-Friday. Housecleaning is our focus and that should be a big deal to you.

- FLEXIBILITY. You can cancel at the last minute and we won't care. You can rearrange your cleaning schedule at the last minute and we won't care. You can even schedule a cleaning 12 months in advance and we'll guarantee that we'll be there - and on time! We don't get too sick to work. We don't get pregnant and quit work. We don't move out of town. And we don't sleep too late every now and then. We show up when you tell us to show up. Something even the best individual maid can't promise.

- CUSTOMER SERVICE. To sum it up best, professional cleaning companies treat their customers better than individual maids. Plain and simple - no doubt about it. And the reason that professional cleaning companies treat you better is because our entire day is centered around serving your needs. We don't use notebooks to schedule your housecleaning. We don't use your supplies to clean your house. And we don't take a day off and ask to reschedule your housecleaning. We clean houses and nothing else. And that's great to hear if you're wanting to hire a housecleaning company.

On Diversification In A Down Economy.....

The rule of thumb in a down economy is to diversify in order to survive. The thought is that with less work comes less money. So the obvious strategy is to increase your service offerings (aka diversify). Here's a recent press release from Florida.....

"BOCA RATON, FL -- Mamashana Services, Inc. announced that they will do even more for their customers than clean, including running errands and painting the interior of their houses since many people are having to work longer to make ends meet."

Nothing against this cleaning company, but they're wrong. The last thing you want to do is diversify in a down economy. The first thing you should do is strengthen your focus on your primary means of business.

There's a reason Ruth Chris is the best at serving steaks. And there's a reason Burger King is far from the best at serving hamburgers. Ruth Chris sells steaks. Great steaks - everyday. Burger King sells hamburgers... and chicken.... and fish...... and salads..... even breakfast. None of those menu items are overwhelming.

Diversification may be a great thing in the stock market. But it's a marketer's worst nightmare. The very definition of diversification explains the problem. It's defined as spreading the risk so that you can avoid major loss.

Spreading the risks means providing equal investment in each of your service offerings. And Burger King has already proven that you can't be good at everything. But you can be great at one thing.

So that's what Two Maids & A Mop is doing. We're not diversifying at all. We're not painting walls. We're not washing cars. We're not even cleaning your carpets like so many other cleaning companies.

We're cleaning your house. Everyday - we have only one goal. To be the most professional housecleaning company in the world. And that's a whole lot easier than being diversified.

Mud On Face

June 12, 2008 - The guy noticed that his lawn and garden needed some professional help. The lawn needed to be mowed - but more importantly - all the pretty flowers needed to be maintained by someone that knew what they were doing.

June 13, 2008 - The guy visited Craigslist and scanned through a number of lawn care professionals. He called many - but only one called him back.

June 14, 2008 - The guy received an estimate that met his approval. It was cheap. And the lawn care professional assured him that he would be performing all the work. So the guy assumed that quality would be top notch.

July 1, 2008 - The guy had some concerns. The lawn didn't look healthy. The garden needed some work too. So the guy voiced his concerns to the lawn care professional.

August 1, 2008 - The guy was getting worried. The lawn looked worse than ever before. And the garden looked like a bunch of weeds. So the guy made another attempt to remedy the situation. After all, the rates were pretty good. The guy detailed each problem so that both parties could be on the same page.

August 25, 2008 - The guy's lawn looked terrible. It had been infested with insects and his garden needed some serious weed control. So he called the lawn care professional to complain - LOUDLY! The lawn care professional didn't answer so the guy left a voicemail message.

August 26, 2008 - The guy left another message.

August 27, 2008 - Another message.

August 28, 2008 - Still no response. That's when it dawned on the guy that his lawn care professional had quit. Left town. Without any notice. And without any warning.

That guy is me. The same guy who should know better since he owns a similar type company. I'm a hypocrite.

So, I'm left where many of you are left when your maid leaves without warning. I've ditched Craigslist and I've ditched the cheap rates. Rates are important, but the end result is more important. I need a healthy lawn and garden and I'll pay for it now.

But just two months ago, you couldn't tell me these things. You couldn't tell me these things because I didn't understand these things. I thought all lawn care people were the same - especially if the lawn care professional promised to perform all the work by himself. Of course, I was wrong. And now I'm paying for it.

It may not have happened to you yet. But keep hiring fly by the night service companies and it will happen eventually.

The mud has been removed from my face. My lesson is now learned. Has mud been on your face yet?

Taking Customer Service Just A Little Too Far

JACKSONVILLE, FL - Police say a man needs to learn that 911 is not the appropriate place to complain that Subway left the sauce off a spicy Italian sandwich.

Police said the man dialed 911 twice last week so he could have his sub made correctly. The second call was to complain that officers weren't arriving fast enough.

Subway workers told police that the man became belligerent and yelled when they were fixing his order. They locked him out of the store after he left to call police.

Complaining About Your Maid

Isn't it funny? You'll complain about a botched order from a fast food restaurant. You'll complain if the wait is too long at your local convenience store. And you have no problem complaining if you're cable TV goes out.

But when it comes to housecleaning, you're scared to death to complain. Why is that?

The reason is pretty simply to understand. When you're ordering food at that fast food joint, you're a customer. When you're standing in line at that store, you're a customer. And when your cable goes out during your favorite TV show, you're definitely a customer.

But when your maid makes the same mistake three weeks in a row and you stay silent, you're far from a customer. All you are is someone's side money. Someone's extra cash until something better comes along.

You didn't hire a business. You just hired someone without a job.

You're Looking For The Wrong Kind Of Maid.....

...if you think that professional means perfection. As definite as death and taxes, you can bet that we will make mistakes. Every day and at every customer's home. All it takes is a little digging to find something.

This is one of the biggest hurdles that we cross with new customers. New customers know that their last maid was late all the time. New customers know that their last maid decided to cancel at the last minute one too many times. Most importantly, new customers know that their last maid rarely treated them like a customer.

That's why new customers decide to call us in the first place. But new customers also realize that our rates are higher than their last maid. Yes, we show up on time every time. Yes, we never cancel your appointment. And yes, you certainly get treated like a customer now.

But with such high rates, shouldn't the quality of our cleanings be exceptional? Some would answer yes. But the reality is that our cleaners are not computers or robots. In other words, they make mistakes - no matter how hard they work or how well they are trained.

The quality of our cleanings is good. So good that we've received countless numbers of customer testimonials proving that our work is pretty good. But our work isn't always great.

So what makes us great? And more importantly, what makes our rates worthwhile?

We're great because we guarantee our arrivals. We're great because we show up on-time every time. We're great because our employees go through an extensive nationwide criminal background search. We're great because we've got you protected against any worst case scenario. And we're great because we let your feedback determine our employees' paychecks.

But the real reason that we're great is much bigger than how we dust your nightstand. It's bigger, but very simple.

We listen. We listen to you more than any other cleaning service in your area. We encourage you to talk to us. We beg you to talk to us. And in some cases, we demand that you talk to us. And we listen for one reason. Because the more we listen to you, the happier we make you. It's been proven time after time.

No, you haven't found the world's greatest housecleaner. But yes, you have found the world's greatest housecleaning company!

What About Your Pets?

We hear the question almost daily. How will you handle my pets when you're cleaning my home?

We see mad cats. We see big dogs. We've even seen nasty looking snakes. And in each case, the answer is the same.

Our employees love your pets. We know this because we don't hire anyone that doesn't love pets. One of the most important questions that a potential employee must answer is this simple question:

Are you pet friendly?

And if the answer is no, we don't hire that person.

Of course, that doesn't mean that you can let your pet snake crawl around while we're cleaning. And your dog may love you, but your dog has no idea who we are. In addition, those loud vacuums can sometimes create some wild reactions from your cat.

So the best course of action is to speak to us directly. We'll come up with a solution. In some cases, our solution is to just keep the pets in a kennel or empty room. And in other cases, we just deal with it - especially if your dog or cat is very friendly. Each homeowner has different needs, so there is no one end-all solution. But one thing is for sure...

Our employees love your pets.

The Constant Pursuit Of Customer Satisfaction

Customer service is the backbone of our company. We think customer service is what separates us from everybody else. From our Pay For Satisfaction Plan to our constant desire to listen to our customers, we really think we've cornered the customer service market.

But then again, we're far from the best in the world. Check out this article about Zappos, a shoe company that knows their business is much more than just selling shoes. Their customers say it best....

A Zappos customer had ordered a pair of sandals. When they arrived, she found that they didn't fit. She tried to order the right size, but Zappos was sold out of her size. So here's what the company offered: she could return the sandals (for free), Zappos would refund the purchase price and they'd send her a $25 coupon toward her next purchase. But wait — there's more! Zappos also offered to try to locate a pair of the sandals in her size from another vendor. (Hah! Sure, they will!) Fifteen minutes later, the company called my wife and told her they'd found her sandals, in her size, at another online merchant — "and," the Zappos clerk told her, "they're even cheaper at this other site!"

The article says it best, "companies don’t engage emotionally with their customers—people do. If you want to create a memorable company, you have to fill your company with memorable people."

Customer Satisfaction At The Car Wash

Wonder what this customer would pay if the car wash used our Pay For Satisfaction Plan?

A 76-year-old man, dissatisfied with the job a car wash did on his ride, allegedly rammed the wash's manager with the vehicle and backed into another car in an attempt to re-enter the tunnel for a more thorough cleaning. The manager stated that the customer was upset because his $14 car wash didn't remove scuff marks from his white-wall tires. The $14 service included a tire cleaning service and the marks appeared to be permanent, the manager said.

The manager also stated that there were cars in line to enter both in front of and behind the disgruntled customer. The manager stood in front of the customer's car and began waving other drivers in. The angry customer, who would not move away from the tunnel's entrance, then accelerated onto a piece of car wash equipment before backing into the car behind him-- twice -- leaving a scratch on that vehicle's front bumper.

In an attempt to get back into the tunnel, the customer began ramming the manager with his front bumper. "He rammed me in the knees with his car three or four times," the manager said.

The disgruntled customer said he should be given an "increased courtesy" because of his age. No charges were filed; however, a no trespassing notice has been filed by the car wash.

Customer Service From A Service Company Usually Stinks

Isn't it ironic that most service companies provide the worst service?

Take a look at the top 10 worst customer service companies from last year. Nine of the top ten companies provide services!

When you hire a service company, you expect service. And when you don't receive service, then you're not happy. That's how you think.

However, a bank thinks that it's job is to just hold your money. A cable company thinks that it's job is to just provide you with television programming. And a cell phone company thinks that it's job is to just provide you with phone service.

But that's not what you think. You already know that your bank is holding your money. All banks do that. What you really want from your bank is service. Anything less isn't acceptable.

We're paid to clean your house. And that's what will happen when you hire us. But anyone can clean your house. Our job is to make you happy. What makes you happy may not make your neighbor happy. But that's our job - to figure out what makes both you and your neighbor happy!

Of course, some service companies get it. Take a look at this story for proof.....

You Can't Be Good At Anything If You Provide Everything

Seth Godin reminds us that you can't be good at anything if you provide everything. The cleaning industry is no different. The story begins a little something like this.

You start a cleaning service. Then one of your customers asks if you know anyone that does a little painting. And then one of your customers asks if you know of a reliable carpet cleaning company. And with each question - the answer is yes.

The answer is yes because you decide to perform the work. And all of a sudden, you've become the universal cleaning company.

How silly would it be if your accountant doubled as a painter? Silly enough that you probably wouldn't hire him for either service. But it happens everyday in the cleaning industry.

The reason is simple - literally. It's simple to start a cleaning service. It's simple to start a carpet cleaning company. It's simple to start a painting business. And in many cases, it's simple to earn your business.

The best seafood restaurant in town doesn't serve hamburgers. Neither does the best cleaning service.

The Three Levels Of Customer Service

Glenn Ross recently published an article that described the three levels of customer service.

Three Levels Of Customer Service
Failure to Meet The Customer’s Needs—This usually results in loss of the customer and the revenue he or she generates for you. It frequently leads to negative word-of-mouth advertising.

Meet The Customer’s Needs—The customer has a need and you meet it. The customer is satisfied and may return to you time and time again. However, a competitor can steal the customer away from you.

Exceeds The Customer’s Needs—This is when the customer goes “Wow!” This not only increases the customer’s loyalty to you, it usually generates positive word-of-mouth advertising and turns the customer into an evangelist for you.

So how do we exceed your expectations?

We exceed your expectations by doing right what everyone else in our industry does wrong. We show up on time - every time. We'll never just quit and leave you stranded. And most importantly, we listen to you - and we prove it by letting your feedback determine our employees' paycheck. Basically, we're the opposite of almost everyone else you have ever hired before.

We're the anti-cleaning company. Not because we are against cleaning. But because we are against the cleaning industry.

Things That Don't Work And Why They Don't Work

The postal service doesn't work. It doesn't work because it's not really a business. The postal service doesn't care if you're unhappy. There's no reason to care because you need the postal service more than the postal service needs you.

The BCS National Championship doesn't work. It doesn't work because it doesn't have to work. Money is being made even when the system is broke. Why change anything when your customer base can't do anything about it? Especially if you're still making billions of dollars off those unhappy customers.

The healthcare industry doesn't work. It doesn't work because it forces the good guys to pay for the bad guys. Your hospital bill is so high because the hospital assumes that a few of you aren't going to pay for your visit. As a result, the hospital overcharges to compensate for the loss. And there's no reason to change because it's working. At least in their eyes.

The reason all of these things don't work is because there are no choices. Combine that fact with the other fact that they are making more money than ever and you can see why nothing will change anytime soon.

The only way to change anything is to incorporate choice into the equation. Choice means that competition is alive. And when competition is alive, the free market works at its best.

For example, think about the cleaning industry. You have sooo many choices when it comes to cleaning. And when there are lots of choices, you (the consumer) gets rewarded with a broad spectrum of choices. Those choices range from cheap cleanings to higher quality cleanings. You get to choose. Everyday!

Choice works.

Quantity vs. Quality

It was discussed here just last year.

The person that cleaned your hotel room probably makes minimum wage. The person that cleaned your hotel room has cleaned that same hotel room forever. The person that cleaned your hotel room hates that job.

Hotel maids have no incentive to deliver customer satisfaction. Hotel maids are expected to clean fast, not good. And that's exactly what happens.

It's safe to say that you get what you pay for. A $35 room probably should be dirtier than a $200 room. But even the $35 room could provide better service and quality. Here's a profound approach to providing incentives to an employee: pay for performance.

Pay the hotel maid based on customer feedback. Pay the hotel maid for quality instead of quantity. The same goes to every other cleaning company out there.

Talking To Your Customers

According to this article, a man called police to report that while he was at work his apartment had been cleaned.

Not "cleaned out" - simply cleaned.

The man, who recently moved into the building, left his apartment at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday and when he returned that night at 10:30, the entire apartment had been scrubbed down.

Police later discovered the apartment's previous tenants had forgotten to cancel their cleaning service. Police said the man had recently moved into the apartment and had not changed the locks.

One word: communication.

Without communication, you don't know if your customers are satisfied. And without communication, you may not even know if your customers have moved!

On Not Expecting Much........

We're not cab drivers. But this story about a Dallas based cab driver says a lot about our philosophy on customer service in the housecleaning industry.

Our philosophy: You've probably hired a housecleaner before. You probably weren't very happy. You're not expecting much out of us. But we're going to surprise you. We'll show up on time. We'll listen to you when you speak. And we'll let your feedback drive our business. Basically, we'll do the opposite of every other cleaning company you've hired in the past.



Hat tip to Maria at the CustomerAreAlways Blog.

Cleaning Services Analyzed

A newspaper in Minnesota recently published an article on area housecleaning companies. The article's intent was to inform its readers on what to expect from local cleaning companies if they needed to hire a cleaning service for the upcoming holidays. Click here for the full article.

The paper concludes that its better to hire an individual rather than a large company. The paper concludes this by hiring three local outfits. Here's a few snippets from their experiences with the three companies....

The First Company-The first company selected was Mary's Maids, which quoted her $26 an hour and estimated four hours based on her description of the home. She was told to provide cleaning supplies. A team of two arrived at 10:45 a.m. and started cleaning upstairs. She left the house and returned at 12:15 p.m. to find them both still working upstairs. They said they had to leave by 1 p.m. and wouldn't be able to get to her first floor, which they guessed would require another five hours to clean. To top it off, the upstairs didn't appear to have been cleaned. 'I could see the dust on the shutters over the bathtub,' Ratzloff says. Same with the top of a dresser and the hallway chandelier. The team said they spent 90 minutes on her shower, and Ratzloff couldn't tell.

The Second Company-Randle went to the company's Web site to request a service quote and then spent two days playing phone tag with an agent. The first available opening was nine days out. Randle explained she had $100 to work with and the living room, dining room and kitchen were her priorities. That's about all she could get, since the company charges $70 an hour (average time to clean a whole house: three hours). Randle requested a call 20 to 30 minutes before the team arrived, but they showed up unannounced. The two cleaners vacuumed and cleaned glass tables, a dining table, TV and computer very well, she says. The kitchen countertops and outside of the refrigerator were also sparkling. But an entire side of her entertainment center and baseboards were left dusty. In the kitchen, they missed mopping around the stand-alone stove. When the company followed up the next day, Randle expressed her concerns. 'I was told I couldn't expect much with the money limitation I gave them'.

The Third Company-Patterson called to schedule an appointment and was quoted a price of $99 (the company bases charges on size of home and type of flooring rather than by the hour). Patterson was told the service would include high dusting, wiping down kitchen cabinets and appliances, hand-washing floors, wiping windowsills and vacuuming under everything. One cleaning person arrived on time and cleaned the house in about 2½ hours. Patterson's first impression: The house looked and smelled great. The inside of the microwave sparkled. But upon further inspection, she discovered the kitchen cabinets and hood above the stove had not been wiped.

Several conclusions can be gathered from this informal study. But the article's conclusion that smaller companies are better than larger companies is not one of them. Here's my view of the "study".

1. To make a conclusion that smaller companies are better, shouldn't you have to at least hire one small company?

2. Your budget determines the quality of your cleaning. Two Maids & A Mop would not have even cleaned these three homes. Our one time cleaning jobs are straightforward. You either get a deep cleaning (hourly rate with no constraints) or you get a one time cleaning (two hour maximum for two maids). Our one time cleaning doesn't promise the world. It only promises time. You get what you pay for.

3. Customer service stinks in the housecleaning industry. Poor communication will almost always create a bad customer experience. All three of these companies performed awful in that respect.

Bad Apple Alert

Jerry Prola takes special care of his cream colored carpet, getting it steam cleaned regularly. So when he saw a coupon from Premier Carpet Care for a $90 cleaning, he thought he'd found a deal. But the day after the steam cleaning, he noticed streaks and blotches, and a stain.

Prola said the carpet cleaners caused the stain by not putting blocks under the furniture. So Prola called Premier Carpet Care to fix the problem. They charged him another $35 for the second cleaning, and the stain still didn't come out.

"I tried calling them for over a week, and they didn't reply, and so I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and they didn't contact them either," he said.

That's when Prola got in touch with Consumer Watch. When Premier Carpet Care didn't call us back, we found Dry Master Carpet Care in Alameda. Joe Russell, owner of Dry Master, went to work on the stains, and less than an hour later, the blotches and the stain were gone.

"He had a furniture stain, and or rust stain, and it appeared like it'd been spot cleaned, cause it kind of spread out a little bit," said Russell.

Jerry was thrilled with the results. But he has a different message for Premier Carpet Care.

"Just more anger than anything at the company for not following through, for not even returning a phone call, it's absolutely ridiculous," he said.

Premier eventually called and said it emphasizes customer satisfaction, and offered to come back out to fix the problem. Since that was no longer necessary, they sent Prola a check for $90. The tip before hiring home cleaning services, ask friends and check out the company on the Better Business Bureau website.

Full Article

It's ironic that the author states that the best way to prevent this from happening is to contact your local BBB. It's ironic because this guy called his local BBB to inform them of his problem. They did nothing. Just like his initial carpet cleaning company.

Calling your local BBB can't hurt. But the best way to prevent this from happening is to ask your cleaning company one question, How can you ensure my satisfaction?

As a side note, the first cleaning company could have done so many things differently. What do you think the first company should have done to change the outcome?

Turning Negatives Into Positives

Industry Negative
The barriers of entry are essentially zero. No start up capital is required. No education is required. Nothing except a little sweat.

TwoMaids Positive
That means that a lot of customers aren't going to be happy. When something is easy to start, it's just as easy to quit. And that's exactly what happens. A cleaning business dies every minute. And then another one starts. And all along the way, we're still here.

Industry Negative
There are no limits on pricing.

TwoMaids Positive
Our claim to fame isn't pricing. Being cheap is a business owner's last resort. You sell yourself cheap because you know you've got nothing else to sell. We sell our pay for performance plan. We sell our guarantee for on-time arrival. We sell our commitment to customer satisfaction. And our customers know that we're not the cheapest in town. And they're fine with it.

Industry Negative
Negative stories surround our industry. Thefts. Broken items. We've even heard of one customer that caught her maid sleeping on the customer's own bed!

TwoMaids Positive
Three words - pay for performance. Our employees get paid based on our customer's satisfaction level. The happier you are; the more our employees' are able to earn with our company. Our employees know that only one thing matters: customer satisfaction.

Industry Negative
Maids just aren't real professional.

TwoMaids Positive
If you're reading this, then you already know how we turn this negative into a positive. If you don't get it, click on the following links.....

The Pay For Performance Plan - Explained

The Customer Advisory Board

Three Quick Facts About TwoMaids

The Survey Says.....

A recent survey was conducted on our customer base to determine what the number one concern was when selecting a maid service. The results ranged from affordability to dependability.

Now we like to tout our strengths pretty loudly here. We like to tell people that you should select us because we'll show up on time every time. We like to tell people that you should select us because of our pay for performance plan. Basically, we like to tell people that you should select us because we care more about making you happy than any other cleaning company.

And that's all fine and good. But that's not what most of you really want. All you really want is consistency. So that raises an interesting question.

How can we better provide a more consistent cleaning? The challenges are obvious. We employ people and people aren't consistent in nature. Of course, doctors are consistent. Even a fast food restaurant is relatively consistent (that's why you go to them). And each of these industries employ people. People just like our people.

In my mind, it all boils down to this...consistency is the result of superb training and constant motivation.

So our job is create a better training program. Of course, this is easier said than done. Your house is a challenge. It's big. It's different every time. And it contains hundreds of little areas for us to screw up in. We already have an adequate training program. But maybe it needs to be refurbished. We'll be working on that in the coming months. And when we're finished, we'll detail our plan here.

The second tool that we can use to create consistency is employee motivation. Three words: pay for performance. We think that our pay for performance plan speaks for itself. You get paid based on your work ethic in our company. Our customers' satisfaction level ultimately determines our employees' compensation level. We're the pioneers in this field. We started it and now people are following our lead. It works. And it's obvious why. Money talks.

So, our job is to better train our employees. Stay tuned for our plan....

The Dissatisfied Maid Service Customer

You've hired the wrong maid. Here's one of the reasons that you're unhappy.

1. Safety Issues
No, you're not concerned about your physical safety. But you are concerned about your stuff being broken on a regular basis. You can accept mistakes. But over and over again? You're tired of this mess.

2. Theft Issues
You've just noticed that your favorite ring is gone. And you know that the only other person that has been in your house today is your maid. You're tired of this mess.

3. Quality Issues
It really started out great. Your house looked wonderful after her first visit. But it steadily got worse over time. It's gotten so bad that you have to clean when you get home now. But it's hard to complain. After all, you know how much your maid needs her job. You know this because she's become your friend over these last several months. You're tired of this mess.

4. Reliability Issues
You're sitting there again. Waiting on your maid. She's late again. Just like last week. You're tired of this mess.

5. Affordability Issues
You know that your neighbor pays less for her home to be cleaned. You also know that your house is the same size as her house. What gives? You're tired of this mess.

We know this because you tell us everyday. We're the last refuge for many dissatisfied maid service customers. And that's fine with us because we want you to be educated. You need to know that hiring a maid has little to do with housecleaning. Once you know this, call us.

On Being Cheaper....

Seth Godin says it best......

Here's what I think: Cheaper is the last refuge of the person who's not a very good marketer. Cheaper is easy and cheaper is fast and cheaper is linear and cheaper is easy to do properly, at least at first. But cheaper doesn't spread the word.

Cheaper is a short term hit, not a long term advantage. Cheaper doesn't create loyalty, because the other guy can always figure out how to be cheaper still, at least in the short run.

Even free isn't cheap enough to win in the long run. Not if other people can figure out how to match what you've got.

So, if you can't be cheaper, be better.

And that's exactly what we're trying to prove to you. We're better. No, we're not the perfect housecleaner. We make mistakes every day. We're better because we care more than your last maid. We prove it with our pay for performance plan. We prove it by begging for your feedback every day. Our claim to fame is customer service. That's what your paying for. Not the perfect cleaning. But the perfect customer service.

If you want that, we've got it.

Acting Like A Customer

If you're going to be a customer, then you need to start acting like a customer. And once you start acting like a customer, then you'll start getting treated like a customer.

Take a look at this article detailing one guy's decision on whether he should fire his cleaning lady. (Caution: contains a few inappropriate words)

He says it way better than I could ever say it...

"I don't like confrontations. I like that Krakovia feels comfortable with me. I've never shown disapproval and now that we've been together for two years, I find it harder than ever to suddenly be the boss."

"Of course I'm more frustrated with myself for not knowing how to fix my relationship with Krakovia. After Krakovia left ("See you Thursday after next, Mr. Mo!") I resigned myself to breaking up with Krakovia by leaving her a message canceling her next visit, then never calling back to reschedule. Unhealthy, I know, and nonsensical considering I was so concerned about her feelings."

If you were a customer, you could just complain. You could complain about anything you wanted to complain about. Because you're the customer. And it's your service provider's job to make you happy. But you're not a customer.

You're a friend. And you can't go back. You can't go back to being a customer. You left the world of customer service a long time ago. Of course, you did hire an individual maid.

She's not a company. No matter what her business card says. She's an individual. And this is what happens when you hire an individual.

When you hire an individual, the world of friendship always overtakes the customer service world. It's called human nature. And it's inevitable.

The Cleaning Lady vs The Cable Guy

You've been there before. You've gotten that crazy timeframe from the cable company. You know, something like "We'll be there sometime between 12-5". You hate it. It's ruins your day. But you can't do anything about it. Nothing.

You can't do anything about it because you need your cable. And there's only one choice when it comes to cable television in your area. So you're forced to sit and grumble for 4-5 hours. And then you're forced to pay your cable bill month after month.

The housecleaning industry is a lot different. There's literally hundreds of so-called cleaning companies out there. A new one is born everyday. But the cable industry does have a link to the housecleaning industry. The link - you have to wait just as long for your maid as you do your cable guy.

Of course, you don't have to wait for your maid. You could force her to treat you like a customer. You could demand that she arrives on time. And if she doesn't-then you could fire her. After all, there's more than one maid in your area.

But you don't. You keep sitting there. Same, old tired thing week after week. You do this for one of two reasons.

1. She's cheap.
She's so cheap that you're willing to overlook the terrible customer service. She's so cheap that you don't expect her to treat you like a customer. But then, you're not really acting like a customer anyway. You're fine with it as long as she keeps charging you next to nothing.

2. She's become your friend.
She's now your friend. And you can't really discipline your friend. No matter if she's late. No matter if she screws up. You can't do anything about it. You're no supervisor. You're not even a customer. You're her buddy.

Of course, you're going to hit your tipping point someday. It might be that her late arrival makes you late to an important meeting one day. It might be that her constant lack of attention irritates you so much that you just explode one day. It might be that you hear about your neighbor's housecleaning company and you get a little jealous.

Your neighbor is talking about punctuality. Your neighbor is talking about customer service. Your neighbor is even talking about professionalism. Your neighbor is talking like a customer. That's the difference.

Your maid isn't a monopoly. You don't have to keep sitting there waiting on her all the time. The choice is yours.

Three Quick Facts About Two Maids & A Mop

Fact #1- If you hire us for long enough, we promise that we'll make a mistake.

Your house is big. It has a bunch of rooms. And it has a bunch of stuff in each of those rooms. We're going to forget to pick up your rug one day. And we're going to forget to wipe down your bedroom baseboard one day. We're going to forget lots of things because we're just like you. We're human and we make mistakes.

Fact #2- We won't know that we make a mistake unless you tell us.
The best medicine for one of our mistakes is communication. If you tell us, we'll fix it. Plus, we'll document it so that we can limit the occurrence of the same mistake. But we can't know that we messed up if you don't tell us. Customer feedback is the only thing that separates us from everybody else. Without your feedback, we're just like everybody else.

Fact #3- When you tell us that we messed up, we'll fix it-FAST.

Of course, it's according to how fast you tell us about one of our mistakes. The quicker you communicate to us; the quicker we're able to respond. The bottom line is that we want to correct our mistakes - no matter how small or trivial. Because we want you to be happy. And you can't be happy if you still have dirty floors after we leave your home. Talk to us and we promise that we'll run to your house in order to make you smile.

On Buying Customer Service....

When they saw the letter from Boston Magazine earlier this month, Elias and Caroline Mavroidis thought they had arrived.

Completely without warning, their family business, South End Cleaners and Tailors, had won a "Best of Boston" prize as the best neighborhood dry cleaners. The letter came with a certificate and an invitation to a fancy party to mingle with the rest of Boston's finest.

The next news to arrive wasn't nearly as gratifying. Their landlord stopped by to tell them that he was increasing their rent from $2,900 a month to $5,000. If they chose not to pay, they had to vacate the Tremont Street property by Oct. 1.

That's wasn't all the bad news. The landlord, Wayne Doherty, also told them that he planned to open his own dry cleaners at the same location once they departed.

A similar situation happened to Sam Walton after he opened his first Ben Franklin store. The landlord saw how much money his property could generate and he wanted in on the action. Of course, nobody knows the name of that landlord today. And my guess is that nobody will know the name of this landlord either.

Customer service can't be transferred. Customer service can't be bought. Customer service can only occur when your passion meets your work. Without the passion, it's just fake. And fake never lasts.

If the landlord were smart, he would have done everything in his power to retain this customer. Because this customer was successful. And if your job is to rent business space, then you better hope that all of your businesses are successful. Because if they're not, then you're out of a renter.

Of course, this landlord doesn't have the same kind of passion for his leasing business as his renter does for his dry cleaning business. Hopefully, we'll get a follow up a few months from now. My guess is that the landlord wins this battle. But a better guess is that the dry cleaner wins the war.

Click here for the full article

The Dreaded $8 Price Increase

Two of our locations recently raised their rates. The overall increase was about 10% for each current customer. So if you were you used to paying $87 per visit, you'll now be paying $95 per visit. That represents an $8 increase.

Raising your rates can be a tell-tale sign to the overall health of your business. For some, we're the only choice. We're the only choice because they are tired of receiving the same old tired cheap maid. They're tired of the maid showing up late all the time. They're tired of the maid getting too comfortable in their home. And they're tired of hiring a new maid every month or so because the last one keeps quitting without any notice. These are the customers that we want to use our service.

We want them to use our service because they understand the importance of our dedication to customer service. Making a customer happy isn't easy. It comes at a price. The price of customer service is ultimately determined by the quality of your employee base. If your employees care, then you have a decent shot at making a lot of customers happy.

The odd thing is that we still have several customers who don't care about our pay for performance plan. They don't care about our guarantee to show up on-time every time. They don't care about any of that because they only hired for one reason anyway. Of course, the reasons are diverse. Some people hire us because we were the only company to pick up the phone. Some people hire us because they like our catchy name. Some people hire us because we were the first link in a search engine. And some people hire us simply because we were cheaper than the other guy (yes, it happens sometimes).

But something happens between $87 and $95. It's called memory loss. You forget that we were the only company that talked to you when you could talk. You forget that we were the only company that consistently showed up on-time every time. And then you really forget just how bad your other maid service company was at satisfying your needs.

In fact, the only thing that you remember about your old maid is that she was a lot cheaper. And then you tell yourself that it's only housecleaning. Anybody can do it. So you terminate our services because of an $8 increase.

But then something funny happens right after that decision. You start remembering why you hired us in the first place. And then you call us back.

And that's when $8 doesn't seem like such a bad deal any longer. And that's also when you become one of our real customers. Because you now understand the importance of our dedication to customer service.

For you seven customers that decided to terminate our service because of our recent price increase......we'll see ya soon.

To Discipline Or To Not Discipline......

The cycle goes a little something like this. You sign up a new customer. You promise that she'll be satisfied. Then you perform the work.

That's when the problems begin. One of the employees responsible for cleaning the house isn't into the job that day. It's hot outside. It's Tuesday. And it's the last house of the day. The employee just wants to get this thing over with.

So she goes through the motions. And of course, she makes some mistakes. And of course, your new customer is upset. She's thinking, "What kind of first impression is this? If they'll do this the first time, what will they do the tenth time?"

So she cancels the service. And then you get to deal with the employee. But here's your problem. You can't really afford to discipline the employee because you're afraid that she'll quit. Sure, she just lost your newest customer. But her two legs and two arms are prized possessions right now.

The reason is simple. Nobody else wants to work for you. If you discipline this employee, she may just quit. And if she quits, then you have an even bigger problem. Because you need her two legs and two arms. Without them, you're in big trouble tomorrow.

So you do nothing. No verbal warning. No written reprimand. No discipline at all. And of course, it happens again a few days later. And of course, you're forced to make the same decision.

To discipline or to not discipline.

There's an easy way out of this cycle. Give your employees a reason to care. Give your employees a reason to care about your job more than the job down the street. Because if they don't care about your job, then you can't expect them to care about your customers.

The Advantages Of Premium Pricing

A discounted price for your maid always means that you should expect a discounted maid service. Something is going to have to be a little less than stellar. Click here here to read last week's article regarding discounted pricing.

Of course, you should expect more if you pay a premium for your maid service. Here are some basic things that you should expect if you pay more than your neighbor does for a maid service.

1. We're going to be on time every time. That's what happens when you treat your maid service like a business.

2. We're going to listen to you. That's what happens when you treat your maid service like a business.

3. We're never going to reschedule your cleaning at the last minute. That's what happens you treat your maid service like a business.

4. We're never going to quit cleaning for you. That's what happens when you treat your maid service like a business.

5. We're going to raise our rates at some point. That's what happens when you want to keep treating your customer like a customer.

Yes, the last point is the same last point as the discounted pricing argument. However, there are stark differences.

An individual maid raises prices because she knows that she can get away with it. After all, all of the professional cleaning companies are already charging a lot more than her.

A professional maid service raises prices because we need to continue to attract and retain the best employees. Premium customer service has to come from some place. That place is you.

You decide what your expectations are when you write the check. For some, the individual maid is all they need. But for others, receiving premium customer service is worth the extra few bucks.

The Disadvantages of Discount Pricing

There are some things that you must accept if you're main priority is discounted pricing for your maid service.

1. She's going to be too early or too late at some point. That's what happens when you don't value your customer.

2. She's going to quit cleaning for you someday. That's what happens when you get offered more money from someone else.

3. She's going to get comfortable. That's what happens when you become friends with your customer.

4. She's going to reschedule your cleaning at some point. That's what happens when you get sick and you're the only employee.

5. She's going to raise your rate at some point. That's what happens when you know that the professional cleaning companies are charging more than you.

There's a reason we know that one of these five things is going to happen to you. The reason is because you tell us everyday. You get sick of it and you decide to pay a little more. You decide to pay a little more because you want to receive a little more.

You want to feel like a customer.

On Staying Connected....

Imagine that your favorite band is coming to town next week. You've been following this band for several years now. You know all the words. You know all the band members. You even know their story- how they got started- why they're popular now, etc.

The band is planning on playing in the amphitheatre downtown. On your way to the concert, you notice a flyer posted on a light pole. It's an advertisement for a cover band that plays all the same songs as your favorite band. And they're playing right across the street from the amphitheatre. And of course, the tickets for the cover band are a lot less than tickets at the amphitheatre.

So what's your decision? Do you save the money and listen to the same songs across the street? Or do you cross the street and see the real deal?

Only you know the answer. Economics doesn't normally get weighed as heavily when you have a connection with something. Of course, economics gets weighed heavily when you are not connected to something.

That's what happens every day with our customers. They see the ads on the light poles. They know that we're not the only game in town. And they know that our rates are higher too. What keeps them coming back is the connection.

We're connected because our customers know that we care. They know that we listen. They know that we want to communicate. That's keeps us connected.

And as long as we're connected we'll have customers. And as long as we have customers we'll keep trying to stay connected.

The Customer Application

We've always joked about the idea of forcing customers to apply for our service. Sort of like our employees have to do when they want to work for us. Of course, we've never really applied the concept to our business. But the idea isn't such a bad idea.

Here's what our customer application would like....

1. Have you ever hired a maid service company or personal housekeeper?
2. If so, what was the worst thing about each of your past housekeepers?
3. On a scale from 1-10, how important is it for you to receive the same exact cleaning crew each time?
4. How often will you be able to provide feedback on your housecleaning?
5. Why do you need to hire someone to clean your house?

There are specific reasons for each question. Think of it like a flow chart. Each answer takes you in one of two directions. At the end, you have one final conclusion.

What we're looking for in a customer is someone that has hired a maid before. She has had bad experiences in the past with her housekeeper. She realizes that we will send different people from time to time. She wants to provide feedback on our service. And she needs us because she doesn't have enough time in the day to take care of everything.

That's our perfect customer. That's who we make the happiest. Everybody else dislikes a little something about our company. It could be that they think our rates are too expensive. That's because they've never been burned by an unethical housekeeper in the past. It could be that they really want the same people in their house every time. That's because they're home every day and they critique our work too stringently. It could be that they just want to pay us to clean and then be done with us. That's because they don't really understand why they hired our company in the first place.

The customer application is still a mere joke right now. But the time may come for the joke to become reality. We want to make everybody happy. And we can't make you happy if your idea of happiness is different than our idea.

Remembering The Janitor

Who says that your cleaning company has to be faceless?

Click here for proof that you don't have to be a doctor in order to be appreciated.

Customer Service By The Book

We've got procedures. We've got rules. And we have policies related to our customer service strategy. It's all in our operating manual.

But we don't have a set answer for every customer service situation. Because every situation is different. Each of our managers knows that she has full authority to do whatever she thinks is necessary to make a customer happy.

Sometimes that means providing a discount for mistakes made in a previous cleaning visit. Sometimes that means providing a full refund. Sometimes that means going the extra mile to thank a customer for a referral. Every situation is different. And every response is different too.

The only rule of thumb that we have is that our response should always exceed the expectations of the customer. If the customer thinks she should receive 50% off her next cleaning, then she'll probably get 75% off her next visit.

You hired us to clean your house. That's really all you thought you needed. But the root of every satisfied cleaning visit starts with customer service. And there's no reason to think that every root should create the same kind of tree.

If you use us long enough, you'll see it firsthand. Because we're going to mess up. And we mess up, expect to be satisfied. Yes, you'll be satisfied if you let us satisfy you. No, we have no idea how we'll satisfy you.

We'll just wait until it happens. It's worked for us this long. No reason to change now.

Gettin' The Same People Is Important

We hear you loud and clear. We know what you want. But the truth is we want it a lot more than you do. Trust me. We want to send the same people to your house each and every time. Need proof that we really want to send the same people? Check out this customer service saga from beginning to end.

THE BEGINNING
Oct. 10, 2006 - Both Dorothy & Charlotte deserve 10. Both are great thanks for great service.
Oct. 24, 2006 - I would rate Jennifer & Kaylin 10. This was their 1st visit wish I could have same each time. Service very good.
Nov. 6, 2006 - Girls were great -Dana & Regina-Thank you for your good work.
Nov. 20, 2006 - Give both Jessica and Christi 10's. They were great. Hope I get them again. Thanks for the good service.
Dec. 3, 2006 - I am very sick. Can you schedule the maids to come any time after noon tomorrow-or any other day this week?
Dec. 5, 2006 - Thank you for changing my appt. in such short notice. Give the girls a 10.
Dec. 19, 2006 - Johnnie and Tracy both deserve a 10+. Great work and service.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Feb 13, 2007 - Please listen to me!!!! We need the same two ladies each week. This week's girls were the best yet. They should both have a grade of 10+. Look forward to still using your service.
Feb. 26, 2007 - Lisa and Leann did a marvelous job. Both 10's.
March 26, 2007 - 10+ for both Kathy and Patty. Please, may I continue to have them!!!!!
April 9, 2007 - Patty and Monica - both 10.
April 24, 2007 - Great service 10 for all three. They all 3 worked hard.
May 7, 2007 - Dorothy and Cory were just so great-10.

THE END
This is to advise you that as of today, your services will no longer be required--the reason for this is.....

1. 2 months ago or so, we asked for you to send us the same people for each cleaning. You said that would be impossible, but we know that some of your customers get the same people every time.
2. Every time you send different people it is like starting over from scratch as to what to do or not to do. It also exposes our home as to location.

We are sorry that it has come to this decision, but we feel must be made.

We hate losing customers. But the fact is that we'll never make everybody happy (who knew?). We have many advantages. But our biggest disadvantage is that we can't send the same people every time. It's not practical. People get sick. People go on vacation. People leave town. And the toughest truth to grasp is that people don't make a career out of cleaning toilets.

But it's also important to remember that when you get sick, we're able to reschedule the visit at your earliest convenience. When you need to complain, we get to perform the discipline. And when you work all day long, you know that you'll be coming home to a clean house because we guarantee our arrivals.

We're not going to get pregnant and leave town. We're not going to get married and quit working. And we're not going to get a higher paying gig and stop cleaning your house. We're going to show up. Each and every time.

You can bank on that.

Thank You

We have some of the best customers in the world. It makes me feel good to know that our service impresses someone so much that they say this.......

"The ladies that service my home were very excellent and a job well done. It was nice to come after a hard day's work feeling tired and exhausted in knowing that my place was clean, clean, clean. I was very happy and satisfied and was glad that I did not have to do a thing when I got home. I just wish that everyone would take advantage of this wonderful service that you have in the emerald coast because it is well worth it. On the scale of 1-10, these ladies are a 10 in my book."

Thank you for thanking us.

The Four Steps To Customer Satisfaction

Satisfying a customer doesn't start when we start cleaning your home. It doesn't end when we're finished cleaning your home either. Here's how it works...

Educating The Customer
Our front door can either be our telephone or computer. Those are the two places that you'll first be introduced to Two Maids & A Mop. It's our job to educate you about the housecleaning industry as a whole. It's our job to educate you about the reasons we're better than any other cleaning service that you'll call. And it's also our job to provide you with an outline of our service package.

Communicating With The Customer
Ok, you've spoken to us about our service. You know the price. You know about our pay for performance program. You know what to expect when we knock on your door in a few days. But the communication process doesn't stop with your first contact. The next step is to contact you one day before your initial cleaning visit. The goal of this step is to confirm everything that we discussed during our first contact. We want to make sure that you know what we'll be doing and we also want to make sure that we know what you expect us to accomplish.

Cleaning The House
This stage speaks for itself. But there are a few things that we need to do besides just clean house. Our goal is to provide a mistake free housecleaning. However, mistakes are bound to happen at some point. So it's our job to prove to you that our mistakes can be corrected very easily. We leave a checklist that details each cleaner's role in clean your house. We leave a card detailing the benefits of our pay for performance program. And we leave another card that tells you what to do if you notice a mistake.

Communicating With The Customer - Again
So the house has been cleaned. But our work is far from done. The next step is to make sure that you're happy. So we either call or email for your feedback. We do this every time for every customer. No matter if we clean your house once a week or once a year. We need to know if you're satisfied because our employees paycheck is 100% dependent on your satisfaction level.

This process works. But the process has to be delivered each and every time. It needs to be consistent. Consistency breeds satisfaction. Satisfaction breeds word of mouth referrals. A word of mouth referral breeds a new customer. And a new customer starts the four steps all over again.

The Little Things

Sometimes we get customers in the strangest ways. We just signed up a new customer that is set to be cleaned once a week in Panama City. Ten minutes ago, he didn't even know that we existed.

He had called the wrong number. He was checking on his car. Or at least he thought that we was checking on his car. He was trying to reach his mechanic but he called us by accident.

You can call it luck if you want to call it luck. But you can't have luck without a little hard work. We got lucky because we answered the phone. Sometimes the little things make the big things work.

The $65 Million Satisfaction Guarantee

A man is suing a dry cleaning company for $65 million. His reason: the dry cleaning company offered a satisfaction guarantee along with same day service. Neither happened. Check out the article here.

"He says he deserves millions for the damages he suffered by not getting his pants back, for his litigation costs, for "mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort," for the value of the time he has spent on the lawsuit, for leasing a car every weekend for 10 years and for a replacement suit, according to court papers.
The man is demanding $65,462,500. The original alteration work on the pants cost $10.50."

Something to consider....

The man demanded $1,150 after his suit was lost. The dry cleaning company denied him that amount. After a few years, the company offered him $3,000. He denied them that amount. What if the dry cleaning company would have just paid him the initial amount? Mistakes are going to happen. When mistakes happen, step up to the plate and point your finger at yourself. Pay the piper. You can bet that this small business owner wished that he would have done that two years ago.

That being said, don't you just love our legal system?

We Only Have Five Customers

We'll clean more than 250 homes this week alone. But we really only have five customers. If you're reading this, keep reading and you'll find yourself in one of these descriptions.

The Overworked Customer
You work a lot. You work so much that you don't have time to clean your home. That's why you hired us.

The Retiree
You're retired. Some of you don't want to clean your toilets any longer. Some of you can't clean your toilets any longer. That's why you hired us.

The Wealthy
You're rich. You have the means to hire somebody else to do the dirty work. There's nothing wrong with you. The fact is that you don't want to clean any longer. That's why you hired us.

The Mover
You're either moving in or out of a home. The house is totally empty. And it's a big job. Too big a job for you because you've got all sorts of other things to worry about during your move. That's why you hired us.

The Business
You either own or manage a business. And you need someone to clean your office during the work week and during normal business hours. More than likely, we already clean your home. You like what we do in your home, so you might as well hire us to clean your office.

Knowing who our customers are makes our life a lot simpler. We get to focus on just five types of people everyday. Sure, we could clean your rental condo on the beach. We could clean your bank late at night. We could even clean your carpets if we wanted to.

But we don't want to. We want to focus on just a few things. That gives us the best chance at doing one of those five things right.

What Would TwoMaids Have Done?

Take a look at this story about a customer in Illinois complaining to the local paper about her recent service from a maid service.

It all started when the customer called to set up a monthly housecleaning. It started getting bad when the maids were late. It started getting even worse when the maids didn't do what the customer thought they should be doing. And it got real bad when the maid service said, "shut up, we're right and you're wrong".

Now the maid service didn't really say those words. But they might as well. Here's the statement from the maid service....

"The owner said this was one of her most experienced crews. She also said that the customer didn't want a free in-home estimate which the company offers to get a better idea of how much work is involved."

The owner continued on, "She's so convinced her crew did a thorough job that they're willing to take a lie detector test. She says she's proud of her business, which unlike some cleaning services pays Social Security taxes, workers comp and unemployment insurance on its crews."

Ok, lets start from the beginning.

Problem #1
The maid service was supposed to arrive between 2-4 PM. But they were running late and they didn't call to inform the customer. The customer had to call after they didn't show up during the scheduled time. Being late is one thing. But not informing your customer about your problem is even worse. So the customer rescheduled the cleaning to the next day because the maid service had said that it would be 5:30 before they could arrive. Talk about bad first impressions. WOW!

Problem#2
The maid service indicates that they didn't budget their time properly because an in-home estimate wasn't conducted initially. That's no excuse. The maid service could have done what we do. If you can't see the house, then you need to educate the customer about your service offerings. Talk to the customer about each type of cleaning. Talk to them about your limitations. And be honest with them. Let them know that the price you're quoting is an estimate made over the phone. Here's how we explain it....

Let's say you live in a 2000 sq. ft. home and your neighbor's house is similar in size. You have five people living in your home while your neighbor has only two people. That description by itself would lead us to believe that your house requires extra time. However, what if the neighbor has lots of collectibles. What if the neighbor doesn't maintain their home in the same manner as you do? All sorts of variables determine the time required to clean your house. Size and number of people are important. But there are plenty of other things that can determine cleaning time. And you don't see those things until you walk in the front door.

So, the maid service should have spent more time with customer. Don't just set up the appointment and say "see ya soon".

Problem #3
The maid service really didn't seem to care about the customer. To make matters worse, the maid service didn't seem to care even when they found out that the local paper was investigating the situation. Talk about bad publicity. An upset customer has to know that you're listening. In this case, the maid service basically just said to be quiet. You're wrong and we're right. We would have never let it get this far.

First of all, we would have called her before she called us because we do that every day. Our employees get paid based on customer feedback. Secondly, we would have listened to her complaints. Third, we would have visited the home if the customer allowed the visit. And finally, we would have done something to make this customer happy. It could have been that we just finished the job. It could have been that we started over from scratch in her home. And it could have been that we simply gave the customer her money back. Basically, we would have done whatever the customer told us to do.

So here's our recipe. Show up on time. Educate the customer before arrival. Listen to the customer if you don't meet her expectations. Do what the customer says after you've finished listening.

Follow this recipe and your poor customer service story doesn't get published in the 2nd largest paper in Chicago.

The Top Three Reasons People Fire The Maid

It's safe to say that we are experts in our field. We talk to 10-20 people everyday that want to fire their maid. Here are the three reasons we hear most often.....

1. I fired my maid service because they never showed up on time.
It's amazing how often we hear this. It's even more amazing how unprofessional most people are in our industry. Showing up on time is the first step toward customer satisfaction. Showing up late sets you up for failure because the customer is on alert from the beginning.

Of course, we're actually glad that most people in our industry don't get it. Because all we have to do is show up on time for some people.

2. I fired my maid service because they kept getting worse and worse over time.
We've pounded this one in the ground a number of times. Read this post if you don't believe me.

But for you newbies....A person will only care if there is a reason to care. That's why some business owners work harder than other business owners. That's why some kids try harder in school than other kids. And that's why some employees work harder than other employees. We give our employees a reason to care with our pay for performance plan. Click here for more information about the program.

3. I fired my maid service because they kept sending me different people all the time.
There's a maid service company out there that's heard this same complaint about our company. It's our public enemy #1. And we can't do anything about it.

We staff more than 45 employees. We staff this many people not because we need 45 people every day. We staff this many people because we guarantee you that we'll show up on time everytime (See reason #1). Because people get sick. Because people show up to work late. Because people quit their jobs without notice. And when this happens, you never know it. Because we've got plenty of people that are ready and qualified to do the same job as the absent employee.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

The Minivan And The Maid

You were rich if you hired a maid twenty years ago. Maids were considered luxuries. In the same class as a Roll Royce. A status symbol.

Today, you need to hire a maid because most of you are just too busy to clean your house. You've got loads of work in front of you. You've got activities planed with your kids in front of you. And the weekend has become more about work than pleasure. So the thought of spending 2-3 hours cleaning house every week has taken a back seat to all of your other obligations. Today, your maid is in the same class as a minivan. A necessary evil.

The minivan is a ubiquitous symbol today. You own one if you have a family. You need one if you have a family. The minivan's biggest attribute is that it provides you with enough space to fit everybody and everything in it. But the minivan has changed over the last few years. You can get TV monitors attached to the backs of seats. You can get DVD players controlled by a remote control. You can get a big engine. You can even get reading lamps if you want them. All for a price of course.

So you buy a minivan because you need the extra space. But you pick the minivan because of all sorts of other things. Think about your maid for a while.

You hired a maid because you need your house cleaned. But why did you really hire your maid?

Rates are an important topic. In fact, that's all most people even care about when they call us for help. That's their first question. The funny thing is that consumers thought this same way about minivans not too long ago. And the only reason consumers think differently today is because the minivan industry started offering alternatives.

That's what Two Maids & A Mop is. We're an alternative right now. Our pay for performance plan speaks for itself. At some point, the maid service industry may wake up and realize that being the alternative works. But until we become standard, we'll keep winning.

Thank goodness that the maid service industry is slower than the minivan industry. It makes me look smart.

We Didn't Tell Her To Say This

But we're sure glad she did......

Take a look at what one of our customers recently said about our company.

Our first contact with Two Maids & A Mop got off to a rocky start. First, Eureka, I won a free cleaning. I was a little doubtful about the whole "free" thing so I called your office. I was pleasantly surprised it was for real. A date was set. That morning I got a call saying that the maids would not be coming after all. Can't you just hear me saying, "Figures"? Well a few minutes later I got a call from the boss who asked if she could come over. Wow! A real person came by to say she was sorry that this has happened and let's reschedule. And she brought along a voucher for three more free housecleanings to boot. I felt like a real winner!

It is this kind of personal attention to the customer that has got to set Two Maids & A Mop ahead of the competition.(I have tried a couple of others. Trust me if this is representative of you customer service, you need to be the gold standard.)

-Today I got my free cleaning. My husband and I are so delighted.
-They arrived on time (even a little early).
-They were very professional in their manner.
-Introduced themselves
-Asked if there was anything special I wanted them to pay particular attention to.
-Asked me if there was any place in particular I wanted them to start.
-Did I have a preference in cleaning supplies?
-Then began to work.
-Both Bobbie and Tracy worked the entire time they were here.
-When they finished, they even asked if there was something else they could do.
-Now, that is a definite 10.
-They picked up all the trash and insisted on putting it in the garbage can outside.
-Removed their cleaning supplies, mops, etc.
-Smiled, wished us a good day, and departed.

This experience has left me with a really good feeling and a nice clean house. I would not hesitate to recommend Two Maids & A Mop to any of my friends. Thank you for "making my day". Don't think I will have to hunt any further in looking for housecleaning. Just need to decide if I want it on a regular basis.

Thank you so much. Sorry to be so long but just wanted you to know what I would be telling people about your company, its service, and those I had the great fortune to meet at Two Maids & A Mop.

Sometimes you can turn a bad situation into a good situation by just admitting that the situation was bad in the first place.

Betsy the Perfectionist

There once was this lady. We'll call her Betsy. Betsy needed someone to clean her home. Betsy needed this person because she just didn't have the time to do it any longer. For Betsy, housecleaning wasn't a luxury. It was a necessity.

So Betsy hired a housecleaner. And she wasn't happy. So Betsy hired another housecleaner. And Betsy remained unhappy. And that's when Betsy decided to give it one more try. So she called us - Two Maids & A Mop. She hired us because of our commitment to customer satisfaction. She hired us because of our pay for performance plan. She hired us thinking that all of her past problems were over.

But Betsy was wrong. We messed up. We didn't clean everything up to Betsy's standards. And Betsy was right. We had left some things undone in her home. So we decided to really go over the top and prove to Betsy that our commitment to customer satisfaction was not just some marketing slogan. So we did three things:

1. We recleaned her home free
2. We gave her a free voucher for a free housecleaning - she could use the voucher anytime that she wanted to use it
3. We provided her with details on how we were going to fix these problems so that they didn't happen again

Betsy liked this idea. So she decided to stick around. Until about two months later. Until last Thursday. That's when we messed up again. We didn't perform up to Betsy's standards. Nor did we perform up to our standards.

We know that Betsy was upset. We know that she was upset because she yelled at us over our voicemail system. We know that she was upset because she sent a email explaining her fury about our service. And she fired us.

Which is a good thing. Because we would have fired her if she hadn't fired us. You see, we had proven that we would make good when we messed up. We had also explained to Betsy that it was bound to happen again. It was just a matter of time before we made another mistake. But we were quick to point out that we fix our mistakes just as quick as we make them. And we usually go over the top when we're fixing them too.

There are some people that don't need to hire people like us. They don't need to hire anyone for that matter. They need to clean their house themselves.

Because we can promise you one thing. We're not perfect and we will make a mistake in your home at some point. When it happens, simply explain the mistake to us. And we'll fix it immediately. And more than likely, you'll be more impressed with our company's reaction to a mistake. When we make mistakes, you usually make money. Because we give you more than just a free reclean. We give you just enough to prove to you that we're just as upset with the mistake as you are.

So when it happens.....please be patient. Nobody died because of a little dust on a countertop. Nobody was hurt because of streaks on a floor. And nobody got sick because of a dirty microwave. It's housecleaning. And we can fix it.

When we mess up, remember that we're human. We make mistakes just like you.

We're not like Betsy. Nope - not at all. We're far from perfect.

Getting The Same People Every Time

Our number one complaint that we hear from our customers is that they want the same people every time. In other words, a customer wants the same two maids each and every time their house is cleaned. The honest reality is that no maid service can guarantee the same two people every time. The honest truth is that I would want the same two people every time if I were the customer. Take a look at the two different perspectives.

The Customer Perspective
The customer is paying a lot of money for this service. Our rates exceed $100 dollars for many of our bigger homes. The average rate is around $85-$90 dollars. There's now way to sugarcoat it. That's a lot of money. Especially when you compound it over the course of a year. A weekly customer may spend more than four thousand dollars per year, while a biweekly customer may spend more than two thousand dollars per year.

The customer is hiring a maid because she doesn't have the time to perform the cleaning. The customer is busy. So the customer doesn't really want to spend fifteen minutes with every new cleaning team that arrives at her home.

The customer expects consistency. The price for her cleaning never changes, so the quality of the cleaning should never change. But she notices slight differences when the cleaning teams change.

The Maid Service Company Perspective
The company is in the maid service industry. Employee turnover is high. Extremely high. So high that the average company has a 300% turnover rate.

The company is being hired to clean the house. The customer isn't hiring two of the company's employees. The customer is hiring the company. Just like when you a book a flight, you don't expect the same two pilots every time.

The company has hundreds of customers. And they all want the same thing. They all want the same two people every time. And sometimes, the requirements for two customers gets all mixed up. For example, customer A needs her home cleaned at 8 AM tomorrow. Customer B needs her home cleaned at the same time. Now we can be at both homes at the same time. Because we have twenty employees. But both customers want the same two people. And one of them is going to get upset when they don't get who they want.

And that's where we both stand. It's a difficult situation. And a frustrating one at that. It's the number one reason that we lose a customer. And we want to fix it. After all, losing customers means losing money.

But what do you do? How do you fix a problem that's seemingly unfixable? My peers in the janitorial cleaning industry have it made. Their turnover is over 1000%, but nobody cares. Because their employees' faces are never seen. But our employees' faces are always seen. Because our faces are in your home. Right there in your kitchen.

We don't have all the answers, but we do have some of the answers. Here is what we currently do to ensure that different cleaning teams provide the same quality as the previous cleaning team.

1. The Pay For Performance Plan. Our employees get paid to make you happy. They know that you're going to rate their service after they are finished.

2. The Checklist. Housecleaning isn't rocket science. But we try to make it as much a process as possible. Each cleaning team is given a checklist designed specifically for your home. The team is instructed to initial a task after it has been completed.

3. Customer Feedback. This goes back to the pay for performance plan. Your feedback gets documented every time. No matter how trivial. And your feedback gets entered into our customer instructions sheet. It's sort of like a cheat sheet that tells us how to make you happy. Every comment that you ever made is documented in this sheet. And this sheet goes out with the cleaning team every time.

And there's loads of other small things that we do to try to make sure that you're happy every time. But I don't want to keep talking. I'd rather hear you talk now. So look below this post. There's a comment button. Press it and place a comment. Tell us how to make this problem go away. Or at least fade into the distance a little bit.

Comments are rare on this blog. I'm praying that we get some this time. We need your help.

We need your help so that we can better help you.

Gettin' Some Love

From one of our newest customers in Pensacola......

"Thanks for a wonderful first experience with your maid service. It was
WONDERFUL! I was very impressed with the service, friendliness, and
customer satisfaction of your employees. Thanks again! I'm thrilled!"

It's feel good to be loved.

Warren Buffett Worthy

Warren Buffett bought a multi-million dollar company back in 1972. The company was See's Candy. The business is still alive today. In fact, it's thriving. Buffett asked one question before he bought the business. The question, "How long do you have to wait to raise the prices"? And that's how he decided to buy the business. That quick. That simple.

Buffett states it best. "If you are an airline today and you try to raise your prices, an hour later, you will be lowering them because of competition. Not the case with a brand like See's. You can't damage the See's brand in the minds of the 30 or so million Californians. Only See's can do that. Their brand is their promise to provide the quality and service that people have grown to expect".

Think about it. You purchase gas because its cheaper than the gas down the road. You purchase copy paper because its cheaper than the other alternatives. You purchase these cheap products because you don't recognize any value in the product. The only value is price.

So here we are at a crossroads. Two Maids & A Mop hasn't increased our rates in more than two years. In the meantime, our wages have increased because the pay for performance plan only works when the top pay level is well above the nearest competitor's top pay. The pot has got to be big at the end of the rainbow. If not, there is no incentive to work. No reason to care.

Yes, we've decided to raise rates. Not a lot. Just a little bit. But not because we want to stuff our wallets. Just the opposite, we want to stuff our employees wallets.

Rate increase letters have been sent out and we've lost eight customers. And in each case, the customer didn't perceive any value in our services. We must have been cheaper than someone at some point. But the comments have been puzzling. Take a look at what they're saying.....

"As usual, the ladies who cleaned did a superb job. We were very pleased and rate them at 10. Please terminate our service."

"Thanks for all your help. You've been great, but I can't afford you any longer. I'll refer you to anyone that asks."

"I would give them a 10. I received your letter increasing my fee. I have been paying 79.00 for more than 2 years…and I do not feel that I should pay more than $79.00, so I will discontinue the service."

There's more puzzling comments, but you get the picture. Now we've got over 500 customers. And we've only lost eight since we raised our rates. So we're not about to jump off any bridges. But I just don't get it. What more could we have done to prove to these eight people that we are the best option? It's obvious that they enjoyed our service. It's obvious that they were happy. At least it's obvious to me. But apparently not to them.

The good news is that nearly 500 customers think that our service is worth a little extra money. That tells me that our service is valuable to a lot of people. For some, we're just cheap gas. But for most people we're much more than cheap gas.

What we are is Warren Buffett worthy. And that, my friends, is the best compliment a business can receive.

P.S. Click Here To Read A Recent Speech From Warren Buffett

The Need For A Little Small Talk

We contact our customers a lot. So much that some customers complain that we're always calling with the same questions. But those questions are important. Otherwise, we wouldn't ask them.

We didn't always talk to you this much. In fact, we didn't want to talk to you in our early days. We were afraid what you might say. But we rely on communication today. Without it, we're just like every other cleaning service. So get ready to hear from us if you decide to hire us. We really do need to talk to you in order to make you happy.

Besides, you don't want this to happen do you?

Click To Play The Video

Closing The Doors

No, we're not closing our doors. But there's a dry cleaning business in North Carolina that's just closed after 50 years of service.

Now, most people don't care when your business closes. In fact, some people may even be glad your business is closing. But Gene's customers are sad. Even his competitors are sad.

Click here to read the article.

An important question to ask yourself if you own a business..........

Would anybody care if I closed my doors today?

An important question to ask yourself if you are a customer.......

Would I be upset if this business closed its doors today?

The ABC's Of Customer Service

It's common knowledge that children must know the alphabet before they can ever read or write. No one questions this statement because it's obvious.

But it's not obvious to your child. Your child doesn't understand the importance of the alphabet. But without knowing your ABC's, you can't do much of anything in life.

So what happens when it comes to providing customer service? The typical scenario is for the boss to send an employee to a one-day seminar on providing exceptional customer service. Some bosses like to give their employees a book on customer service. Other bosses do nothing. They just assume that you already know how to make a customer happy.

But you don't know how to make a customer happy. Because you've never been taught how to make a customer happy. You need to know the ABC's of customer service before you can ever make a customer smile on a consistent basis. The tricky part is that every industry has its own alphabet. What works in the maid service industry doesn't work in the particle characterization industry. Customers are different. Better stated, what the customer wants is different.

So what's your alphabet? Answer these questions and you'll know.

1. Who is my customer?
2. What are the biggest mistakes that my industry makes?
3. What does my customer want from me?

And if you're wondering about the ABC's of customer service for Two Maids & A Mop......

My customer is sick of her current housecleaner. My customer is sick of her housecleaner because she shows up late, or doesn't even show up at all. My customer thinks that her housecleaner is getting worse and worse over time. My customer wants me to clean her house without her having to think about it. My customer doesn't want to wait all morning for me to show up. My customer doesn't want to get a call from me in the morning saying I'm sick. My customer wants me to correct my mistakes when I make them.

Before you can start serving the customer, you need to know what the customer wants to be served.

Put Your Hands Up

Read this letter.

Now go back in time and read this blog post.

There are people that clean to steal. That is, they get this job so that they can get access to your home. The sad reality is that you can't control everything. Some people are just bad people. It was that way yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

It's my job to weed out the bad people. Here's how I do it.

That being said, a bad person can sometimes look like a good person. So what happens if we hire a bad person and that person steals from you. Then we fix it.

We replace or refund whatever was stolen. That's what a real business does. That's what a professional does. That's what we did two different times. In both cases, we were guilty.

No, the law didn't convict anybody. No, there was no physical proof. Yes, we knew the customer. Yes, we believed the customer. Yes, we still serve both customers.

The Biggest Mistake You Can Make

The biggest mistake you can make is to only give somebody one chance. Whether it be a restaurant, grocery store, or a maid service. Anything or anybody for that matter.

If 100 people hired us today, you can bet that at least one of those 100 people wouldn't be happy. We don't do everything right all the time. It could be because we're just not that good. Or it could be that we don't know what makes you tick just yet. Or it could be that we just made a mistake.

Now does that mistake mean that you should hire another maid service? What if the next maid service makes a similar mistake? What if every maid service makes a similar mistake?

Yes, the biggest mistake you can make is to not give somebody a second chance.

A second chance gives us the opportunity to show you that we're different. We get to correct our mistakes. We get to show you that we listen to you when you speak. We get to show you that our pay for performance program works. We get to show you that we care. But only if we get a second chance.

Without a second chance, we're just another cleaning service. Because we're not perfect. And neither is anybody else. Ultimate perfection is impossible.

But that's what you're demanding if you only give somebody one chance. Don't become a serial hirer. Give somebody a chance to make what's wrong right.

Take it from a businessman from Omaha, Nebraska. Back in 1956, the businessman had just given a local man $10,000 for investment purposes. The businessman took his money back from the local man in 1957 because he thought that he could do better things with it. After all, the local man had only made a few hundred dollars with his money.

That local man was Warren Buffett. That $10,000 would have turned into more than $80 million today. They say that you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. Maybe your first impression should be to give a second chance.

The Key To Customer Service In Our Business

Sometimes in our business it seems as if nobody's happy. After all, we do ask for each one of our customers to provide feedback on their cleanings. Asking for feedback implies that we want to hear the negative stuff. And boy do we do hear some negative stuff. Negative stuff like this.

But there is a little known key to making that negative stuff go away. Just don't ask. If you don't ask, you won't ever know. You won't know that your most important customer is upset because her bathroom floor is still dirty. You won't know that your newest customer is upset because his dining room table didn't get dusted. You won't know anything if you don't ask. That is, until they cancel your service.

Providing customer service isn't easy. It shouldn't have to be easy. Doing something right should be harder than doing something wrong. Sometimes you've got to hear the negative stuff.

Because the negative stuff just might let you create some positive stuff.

Warning: Long Cynical Post Below

Let's say that you eat at the same restaurant once per week. And for the most part, you've been satisfied. Here's the restaurant's recipe for your satisfaction.

1. Consistent service. When you order, you expect your food to be prepared correctly.
2. Quality food. When you eat it, you expect it to be good.

That's it. That's all a restaurant has to do to make you happy. Here's what we have to do to make you happy.

1. Consistent service. When you hire us, you expect a professional attitude.
2. Quality work. When you look around, you expect for everything to be cleaned.

These two ingredients for success seem to correspond to one another. But they are big differences.

1. You don't expect to receive the same waiter/waitress every time. You don't expect the same chef every time. You don't expect the same hostess every time. But you do expect the same two maids every time. Consistent service really means consistent maids.

2. You don't expect your food to be perfect every time. Even when it's not perfect, you can simply send it back to the kitchen. You've been there a hundred times and you know that this week is just a bad day for somebody back in the kitchen. But you do expect your home to be cleaned perfect every time. Quality work really means perfect work.

Sorry for the cynicism. Last week wasn't fun. We lost some great customers that had used our service for years. And we lost both of them because we made one mistake.

1. For customer #1, we sent another cleaning team to their home. Never mind that we were on time. Never mind that the work was good. The people were different. And customer #1 didn't like it. And now she's gone.

2. For customer #2, we forgot to pick up the check. We also left cleaning instructions from another customer's home. The house was clean. But customer #2 couldn't live with such mistakes. Never mind that customer #2 had never been unhappy before. Nevermind that this was our first mistake. Never mind that this was, well......a mistake. Customer #2 didn't like it. And now she's gone.

The good news is that all maid service companies play by the same rules. The bad news is that the rules set you up for failure.

Mistakes will happen. If you use us long enough, we're going to do a lousy job on your kitchen sink. If you use us long enough, we're going to forget to put your rugs back in the right place. If you use us long enough, you're also going to see how much we care.

We care about your satisfaction. We may forget your check, but we will not forget how to make you happy. We work our tails off to show you that we love your business.

I wish you could be in our office when we first get your business. It's still big news. Even today, when we get 5-10 customers daily. You mean something to us.

Do we mean something to you? Even when we mess up every now and then?

Reality Bites

There's been a lot of changes since our first day. The biggest change being our pay for performance plan. As you know, it changed our business.

About the only thing that hasn't changed is our customer's biggest complaint. Everybody wants the same cleaning team every time. The reason is simple to understand. Consistency breeds quality workmanship. Our employees provide a better, more efficient housecleaning if they return to the same home week after week.

We know it makes your life simpler. Heck, it makes our life simpler. But the reality is that we can't make everybody happy. There's just too many variables. Sickness, vacation, and the dreaded turnover to name a few.

Imagine walking into your local grocery store and receiving exceptional customer service from the cashier and bagger. Is it practical to march over to the manager and request that the same cashier and bagger check you out each time? Of course it's not. But that's what everybody wants us to do every time. They want us to make sure that 42 maids go to the same house every time. It's a tough, tough situation. And one that we don't know the answer to.

This is how it currently works. Let's say that you reserve a cleaning for your home every two weeks. Your home is assigned to a particular route, which has two employees assigned to it. In a perfect world, your home will get cleaned by the same two people every time. But this world isn't perfect. Especially the maid service world.

So, we're forced to send a replacement employee or team to your home. This replacement team will be educated about your home. They'll have comments from you, notes from previous cleanings, and a checklist designed for your home. So they're not walking into your home blind. They may have never been to your home, but they're equipped to clean it.

That's the best we can do right now. We know what you want. We know what you need.

Reality bites.

The Value Of Customer Service

Here's a good read on the value of customer service in an emergency situation. Actually, you can take the word "emergency" out and the article still rings true. Customer service in the service industry stinks right now.

Click Here To Read The Article

At Least We Say Hello

If you live in Panama City and you received a Two Maids & A Mop door hanger last Friday, you got it from me. I must have walked ten miles that day. The most important thing that I learned last Friday was that I need a new pair of shoes. My feet were killing me.

I also noticed that a bunch of people hire lawn service companies. I mean tons of them. My rough guess is that at least 50 homes in this 400 home neighborhood received lawn care last Friday. And that was just one day.

What intrigued me was the fact that not one of the lawn service companies interacted with their customer. They drove up, unloaded their equipment, cut the grass, stuck a flag in the ground, and moved on to the next home. All in about fifteen minutes.

Here's a service that charges more than we do for our services. Yet they never even attempt to speak to their customer. What if they just knocked on the door and said hello? What if they just left a thank you note? What if they just tried to show the customer that their home was more than a fifteen minute stop?

They don't do any of this because nobody else does any of this. Everybody in the lawn service business does the same thing. They cut grass. That's their job.

Sometimes I think that our job is difficult. Cleaning a home seems to be a lot harder than cutting the grass. Making a mistake or forgetting to clean something is easy to do. But then, at least we get to talk to the customer. At least we get the chance to show the customer that we care. At least we get to say hello.

Serving the customer is one thing. But providing customer service is another.

The World's Most Unhappy Customer

You always here that customer service is important. Here's tangible proof that customer service is important.

Click Here To Play Video

Breaking Stuff

I was conducting an in-home estimate recently. During the meeting, the pest control guy showed up to spray the home. The homeowner let the guy in and we kept touring her home. All of sudden, we heard a crash. Something had been broken by the pest control guy.

We both ran into the living room to find that a picture frame had been broken. I was intrigued to see how the pest control guy would handle this situation. Here's what he did right:

1. He apologized for the mishap.
2. He cleaned up the mess of broken glass.
3. He offered to pay for the broken frame.

You could see the frustration wearing off on the homeowner's face. She was happy with the pest control guy's response to the situation. Until he came back with a check from his personal checking account. I couldn't believe it. This guy was literally paying for his mistakes.

The homeowner asked if the pest control company reimbursed employees for mistakes like this one. The pest control guy said, "nope". You could see that he wasn't happy about paying for the frame. And you could see that the homeowner wasn't happy about it either.

I used to work in a lab. I broke beakers, tubes, and flasks everyday. Never once did I think that I would have to pay for a broken beaker. Breakage was an operating expense for the lab because it was inevitable. People make mistakes.

Breakage occurs in your home too. We break things from time to time. When we break them, we do the same thing as the pest control guy. Except that Two Maids & A Mop pays for the breakage. Not our employees.

Obviously, this pest control company is looking to save some precious money. But, what is it losing as a result if its penny pinching?

1. Employee Morale. This guy hated his company because he had to pay for the breakage.
2. Employee Dishonesty. How many times does the pest control guy hide the breakage?
3. Customer Attrition. What happens when the customer finally discovers the hidden breakage?

A company's reaction to a minor problem usually indicates that company's major problems.

Mystery Maid

A cleaning service cleans the wrong house. The story is funny, but how did the cleaning service not catch this problem? One reason: communication.

What if the cleaning company had contacted the "right" customer to determine her satisfaction? What if the cleaning company had sent something in the mail to the "right" person? What if the cleaning company would have contacted the "right" customer before the next visit to confirm the appointment?

There's lots of other ways. The main point. Communication with your customers is the first step toward making them happy.

Scroll Down To The Next Article

If you're reading this, stop and scroll down to the next post and then come back to this post.

Ok, you now know that Two Maids & A Mop isn't perfect and we don't make everybody happy. Here's our take on the story.

1. We increased our rates so that we could afford our new pay for performance plan. Some customers thought that we just fattened our wallets. Our average wage increased from $6.50 per hour to $9.00 per hour in one week. I don't know how else to explain it??

2. If there's one certainty about our company, it's this: we will not send the same people every time. Yeah, we try to make this happen. Heck, it makes our life easier too. But it's impossible and impractical. Some of our customers receive the same two people every time. Most don't. There's certain realities that you must know. This is reality #1.

3. The customer mentioned three complaints. We messed up. We're not happy, but it happens.

4. The customer spoke to me about complaints. At the time, she was still very unhappy with our price increase. I listened. I promise you. I want to listen to you. Maybe I was having a bad day, I don't know???

5. She's found someone else to clean her house. That's fine. I understand because we're not for everybody. But I find it interesting that the new cleaning lady charges more than we do.

If you're a current customer, please keep providing feedback. We want to hear every thing that you have to say about our services. You can email (two_maids@yahoo.com), you can fax, or you can simply call us. This customer no longer needs us, but we can learn from our mistakes since she voiced her concerns.

If you're a potential customer, let this serve as an example. We need constant feedback from you in order to make the pay for performance plan work. Without your help, we're just like everybody else. This customer said it best, "The same time you had your rate increase you also initiated your grading system. This could be a good thing - if it worked." There's no reason to hire us if you don't plan on participating in the pay for performance plan.

If you're this upset customer, let me apologize. I wish that we could have done more to prove to you that we really do care more than anyone else. We failed miserably and we're embarrassed.

We're Not For Everybody

I'll prove it to you. Here's a letter from a very dissatisfied customer.

"This letter is to let you know what my dissatisfactions have been with your company and my reasons for discontinuing your employment. I have been a client of yours for 5 or 6 years - probably longer.

My biggest complaint started with your rate increase. A WHOPPING 22%. Rate increases are expected almost everywhere. I don't live with my head in the sand. All of your excuses for this size of an increase will not hold water with me. And don't tell me about dissatisfied employees - I work in a Human Resources environment.

I changed my schedule with Two Maids and A Mop from bi-weekly to monthly. I used to have the same people every time. Then you started sending different people every time. For the last year I have probably had the same people (or one of the two) who had been here before two times all year.

In July 2006 I told the 2 who were here that morning that I had company coming and they should do a really good job in the living areas. I came home to find they had not touched the den. I had to get my daughter over here to do the den floors for me .

In June your good cleaners did the same thing with the kitchen floor. I have scatter rugs in the kitchen and they had not been moved - vacuumed - or shaken out. I also had to change all the lightbulbs in the chandelier because the duster they used got burned on the hot light bulbs. This really made my house smell good!

Then there was the time one of these ladies asked me for a tip!!! I understand she is no longer with your company but after that I started hiding the tray I toss coins into.

The same time you had your rate increase you also initiated your grading system. This could be a good thing - if it worked. The first time I called with a rating of less than perfect I was given the third degree by the gentleman I was talking to. My impression of this conversation was that I must have done something that would have caused this rating - it certainly could not have been any of his employees. There after my complaints were almost non-existant.

It has been a long time since I have seen evidence of anyone from your office coming to critique the crews work. Perhaps your monthly clients don't rate this service.

Your company was very good about having the crew at my house before 7:30 AM.

I have been very unhappy with having a new crew every month. I feel your company has not been trying to keep me as a client since I complained about your 22% rate increase.

I have hired someone else to do my cleaning and will no longer need the services of Two Maids and A Mop. Yes, I will be paying more for their services - however - I have seen her work and she knows how to clean a house!!"

Bachelor Of Maid Service

Way over in China there's an university that actually offers a degree in maid services. The school teaches such subjects as preparation of Western food to general knowledge about the outside world.

If my university offered a maid service degree, I'd only teach one thing: customer service. Cleaning a bathroom or bedroom shouldn't be that difficult to train. But teaching someone how to react to an upset customer takes skill. Most cleaning companies do the same thing. They care more about cleaning the toilet than they care about serving the customer.

Picking Up The Garbage

I just got my garbage picked up. That's all that the garbage company had to do to make me happy. Just pick up my garbage.

Sometimes I wish all we had to do was just pick up somebody's garbage. Cleaning homes for a living isn't easy. The only thing easy about cleaning a home is the ability to make a mistake.

No matter how much you train. No matter how much you care. People will make mistakes. Because people are, well, people.

But our customers are people too. They pay a lot of money for our services. And they don't like mistakes. They like their house clean. That's why they hired us in the first place.

So, what's the owner of a business that relies on people making other people happy supposed to do?

Well, one way is to make the job real easy. Like picking up my garbage. But that's not what we do. We do a lot more than just pick up the garbage.

The other way is to prove to your customers that you care about your work. If you care, customers will accept mistakes. If you don't care, then customers don't care either.

We care. Our pay for performance plan proves it. Our Customer Advisory Board proves it. Even this silly blog proves it.

The fact that we care means that our customers will allow us to make mistakes. When they happen, they tell us. When they tell us, we listen. After we've listened, we fix it. And the cycle repeats itself sometime again in the future.

We're not perfect. Everybody knows that. But we're as good as we can physically be.

And that's how our people make other people happy.

Shoddy Service In Your Home

Domestic service companies provide the worst customer service. The reason is simple. Domestic service companies have limited barriers of entry. Basically, they're too easy to start and just as easy to stop.

Here's a great article that describes the current sad state of domestic service companies.

Make sure that you read the last sentence twice.

Customer Feedback

Customers select our company because we pay our employees based on their performance in a home. Our customer's level of satisfaction directly determines our employee's level of compensation. This system works only if we receive customer feedback.

Last week, 1 out of every 4 customers solicited feedback to us. That's not good. We need your input. We need your help. Without your feedback, we're just like everybody else.

If you're a prospective customer, don't forget that we need your opinion in order to make our services effective. Give us feedback as much as possible.

If you're a current customer, remember why you chose us in the first place. You liked our pay for performance plan. Start measuring our performance.

Our system works. It has been proven. But it only works if you hold up your end of the bargain.

We currently either contact a customer by telephone or email. If you have a better idea, please don't hesitate to tell us. As usual, your feedback is important to us.

Interview With A Customer Service Guru

Two Maids & A Mop is serious about customer service. We work hard to prove to our customers that we are the most customer friendly housecleaning company in the world. We learn more and more everyday about how we can improve our customer service experience. We're not perfect yet, but we're working on it.

We recently interviewed Glen Ross. Glen is a customer service expert and he publishes a blog called Customer Service Experience. Here's what Glen had to say about customer service.

What prompted you to start a blog about customer service?
Stupid managers at a national department store. A little over a year ago, my day job included staff training and development as well as helping our division phase in Constituent (or Customer) Relationship Management. Having a background in sales and sales management, I have long had an interest in customer service. Standing in line one day at a major department store, I witnessed extremely poor customer service. I don’t blame the employees, I hold their managers responsible. The light bulb went on and several days later I launched my first blog.

What is the worst customer service that you have ever received?
Oh hey. I’ve been a customer for more than 45 years ever since I used to buy nickel Cokes at Ragland’s Drugstore in Tutwiler, MS. The brain has a marvelous capacity to forget pain. But the most blatant was the manager of a big box electronics store telling me he wouldn’t give me a refund because he’d have to take a $160 markdown. This after I’d spent more than $5000 in his store.

What is the best customer service that you have ever received?
I’ve had several marvelous experiences shopping at Nordstrom’s. I received very professional service from the staff at Dale Carnegie. I’ve arranged several conferences at the Omni Hotel in Las Colinas, TX near DFW airport. Yesterday the teenager at the fast food restaurant drive-through window did not screw up my order.

Have you ever hired a housecleaning company before? If so, what was your opinion of the service?
No, I haven’t. In my home, we consider dust to be a furniture preservative. The problem with housecleaning is, once you do it, six months later you have to do it all over again.

If you owned a housecleaning business, what is the first thing that you would do to improve customer service?
I’d apprentice to you for a year or so. But since you live in Florida, and I don’t, I think I would talk to customers and potential customers to identify their expectations. Then I’d work up a strategy to exceed them. That might require examining the skills my employees would need and then hire people with those skills.

Why is the worst customer service usually found in the service sector?
I wasn’t aware that government was part of the service sector. Poor customer service in the service sector probably results from employees hired for their ability to perform tasks, not hired for their ability to relate to people. But management ultimately bears the responsibility because they’re focused on areas other than customer service.

Will customer service be any better 20 years from now?
Darn right it will be! My blog, Customer Service Experience, will be the most widely read in the blogosphere with people rushing away from their computers to implement every idea they’ve found there. Couple that with the fact that Two Maids And A Mop will have spread worldwide (or as you’ll like to say, “throughout the known universe”) as professors at Harvard Business School compare your influence in the service sector to Microsoft’s in the software industry. (I could go on, but I’m a humble guy.)

Measuring The Intangible

Somebody always wins a baseball game and somebody always crosses the finish line first. In each case, the winner is measured by real results.

Customer service is not real. It's imaginary and subjective. What one customer thinks is good service, another thinks is bad service. How can anyone place a value on the level of customer service?

It's simple. Just ask each customer to rate their satisfaction on a scale from 1-10. Calculate an average of each customer's response to account for subjectivity. Then correspond the average to a sliding scale.

That's how you measure the intangible. That's how we roll.

The Parallels Of Industry

I have a friend that works in the home mortgage business. He originates loans for people trying to buy a home. He charges a lot for his services. So does his competition. Mortgage origination sounds complicated and difficult. Not just anybody can do it.

But anybody can just do it. You don't need a degree at all. You barely even need a license. Basically, all you need is customers that will pay you.

But customers don't know this. My friend's customers think he's spent years learning how to originate loans. They think that he knows a lot more than they do. And he does. To some extent. But only because he works in the field everyday.

Basically, originating a loan is no different than cleaning a house. Both fields require the same two things. Basic knowledge of the business and superior customer service.

That's how my friend makes a living. He's a glorified customer service specialist. Just like me. If he doesn't provide timely quotes and fast turnaround on loans, he loses business. If I don't provide consistent quality cleanings, I lose business.

Industries are different. I couldn't become a doctor tomorrow. I couldn't even become a mortgage originator tomorrow. But all industries are the same to some degree.

Provide lousy customer service and you have a lousy business. Provide great customer service and you have a great business. Think about it.

Laughing At Bad Customer Service

People don't expect great customer service. Too many businesses do it wrong. Bad customer service is more common than good customer service. On the flip side, really bad customer service can sometimes be really funny.

Here's your proof.

Customer Service Tip

Read on book on customer service over the weekend. Here's an interesting quote from it:

The best way to provide exceptional customer service is to think, "You're the customer- you pay my salary!".

What a novel idea. Don't you think?

How To Lose A Customer

Here's the situation.

Suzie hires a cleaning service to clean her home. Suzie isn't happy after her home is cleaned. Overall, it's ok...but it's far from a thorough cleaning. After all, the cleaning service did promise to "deep clean" her home. Suzie calls the cleaning service and speaks to the owner. The owner promises that the next visit will be better. He documents the mistakes and reduces the rate of the next cleaning. The owner sends two of his best people to Suzie's home the following week. You guessed it. Suzie still isn't happy. Suzie contacts the owner and the owner comes out to see for himself. It's true, Suzie's home is still dirty. The owner apologizes and refuses any money. Meanwhile, Suzie's had it. She's lost her patience and she's finished.

That company is Two Maids & A Mop. The self-proclaimed "most customer friendly housecleaning company in the world". That owner is me. The self-proclaimed "czar of the cleaning world".

What should happen next. Should I dig a hole and hide? Should I cut my losses and chalk it up to experience? Or, should I work even harder to prove to Suzie that we are different?

I think you know the answer. Suzie isn't paying for another housecleaning for at least six weeks. That's right. Suzie owes us nothing. She's already paid us by giving us another opportunity to prove ourselves. After six weeks, Suzie will understand that we are different. Right now, we just seem desperate. Maybe we are. But I'm embarrassed and I hate being grouped in with other cleaning companies.

Mistakes happen. We're not perfect all the time. I accept that fact. But I still don't have to like it. My pride means a lot more to me than my money.

Focus

We have a new customer in Panama City. She's recently fired her other cleaning service. The other cleaning service showed up late too many times. The other cleaning service also sent people who couldn't communicate with our new customer. The other cleaning service didn't do many things right.

Turns out, the other cleaning service cleans all sorts of things. They clean carpets, condo rentals on the weekend, businesses at night, and homes during the day. They're the universal cleaning company. You can't be good at everything.

We concentrate on one thing. We clean homes. We'll clean your office if you want us to; but our focus is your home. Our employees are trained to clean your home. Our pay for performance program is designed for your home. Our focus is on your home.

And that's why people keep selecting us. We get to concentrate on one thing everyday. Meanwhile, the universal cleaning company can't concentrate on anything. They're too busy cleaning everything.

The Art Of Customer Service

Read this. It's taken from another person's blog. That person is the famous Guy Kawasaki.

Here's the challenge. Read Guy's top 10 and then go to our website. Compare.

My favorite is point #2.

"Put the customer in control. The best kind of customer service happens when management enables employees to put the customer in control. This require two leaps of faith: first, that management trusts customers not take advantage of the situation; second, that management trust employees with this empowerment. If you can make these leaps, then the quality of your customer service will zoom; if not, there is nothing more frustrating than companies copping the attitude that something is “against company policy."

Three words: pay for performance.

Charging Extra For Customer Service

That's what the airlines want to do. They want us to pay them for a pillow. Click here to see what I'm talking about.

They still don't get it. They still don't understand that we're willing to pay more for air travel if they're willing to provide more than simply air travel. Traveling doesn't have to be normal. Click here for proof.

You can sell complex scientific instruments or you can sell simple bags of potato chips. In the end, every product or service must provide some type of value to the consumer. Without value, you have a commodity.

Charging extra for a service people already perceive as a commodity doesn't win the game. It just prolongs the demise. Eventually, somebody's going to get it. Somebody is going to figure out that the plane ride doesn't have to be about the travel between point A and point B. It's about the experience between point A and point B.

It took us a while, but we figured it out too. People need their house cleaned. But, people don't choose us simply because we clean homes. They choose us because we provide value. We meet the consumer's needs. Paying our employees based on customer satisfaction proves that we're serious about customer service. Of course, we don't need to say it. Pay for performance speaks for itself.

Customer Evangelism

A happy customer is more valuable than any investment that you make in your advertising program. One happy customer could turn into multiple customers. It's called customer evangelism.

On the other side of the customer coin is negative customer evangelism. Here's an example of one customer that's created a community of unhappy customers. Sure, this is a little extreme. But, it happens everyday in neighborhoods and workplaces across America.

A busy work day brings lots of stress and problems. The most important thing that you should do everyday is make your customers happy. The other stuff can wait. It just doesn't seem like it at the time.

Everything has an equation:

Happy Customer + Network of Friends = Word of Mouth Advertising

Best of all, word of mouth advertising is free.

The Unhappy Customer

Perfect delivery of your service is impossible. However, perfect delivery of your customer service is very possible. Consistent customer satisfaction is achieved when a company's culture is centered around the customer.

This customer expected a clean house. Instead, he got a headache. And he let the whole world know it. What should have the cleaning company done to provide better customer service?

Several cleaning mistakes were made during the first visit. Every cleaning company in the world makes cleaning mistakes. You can teach and preach all you want, but humans make mistakes. Mistakes don't occur just once; they occur over and over again. That's what we humans do. We repeat history. So, why not have a plan of action ready for all of your most common mistakes? I know a little, tiny maid service company that does it this way.

The customer in this example didn't feel like the company cared. Sure, they sent out another cleaning team to correct the initial mistakes. But, that didn't help because the second cleaning team made just as many mistakes. People accept mistakes. People don't accept laziness. This cleaning company was lazy. It tried to fix the problem without actually putting forth any effort.

It all starts at the top. A company's culture is defined by its leaders. The little guy only cares if the big guy cares too.

An employee needs to be empowered in order to make a positive contribution. An employee is empowered when you give them responsibility. We empower our employees by letting them write their own paycheck. They know that customer satisfaction is the only thing that matters in our business.

Customer satisfaction is produced when management acts like a leader and when employee's feel like they are a part of the business.

On Losing

We lose customers. We lose customers because they move out of town. We lose customers because they can't afford us any longer. We lose customers for all sorts of reasons. However, the most common reason that we lose a customer is because we failed to let them know how much we care.

Mistakes happen. Problems arise. Poor work ethic even occurs every now and then. But, we can erase each of the failures by simply letting the customer know that we care. Most customers can accept failure as long as they know you care enough to make the failure right.

I used to get sick to my stomach when we lost a customer because of our actions. I hated to think that someone classified us in the same manner as the rest of the cleaning industry. I still get sick today. But, I've learned something along the way. Instead of feeling sorry myself, I educate myself.

What went wrong? Why did the customer not recognize our high level of caring? Losing isn't easy, but it can actually turn into a strength if you let it.

Losing can go in two directions. The negative response is to do nothing and keep losing. The positive response is to change something and quit losing in that manner.

I used to choose the negative response. It sucked. I now choose the positive response. It helps.

It's The Little Things

Customer satisfaction normally gets measured by the smallest things. We've had customers select us because we sounded nice on the phone. We've had others select us because we simply contacted them after their housecleaning was completed. And we've lost customers before because we returned a phone call too late.

It's the little things that count. Here's proof that little things can make a big difference.

Taking The Blame

We make mistakes quite often. We're not proud of them, but they do happen. We don't promise perfection, but we do promise that we'll provide better customer service than any other cleaning company in the world. There's a bunch of reasons that we claim to be the most customer friendly housecleaning company in the world.

Some say it's because we have a pay for performance plan. Some say it's because we have great customer service systems in place. But I think that the real reason is because we hold ourselves accountable. We take the blame when something goes wrong. We take the blame because it's our fault. Some of our customers decide to leave our service once a mistake occurs. However, the vast majority recognize that we're different.

The norm is to not take responsibility. Remember Enron. Remember the band Great White. People aren't used to other people taking the blame for something.

The great Seth Godin writes about taking the blame today in his blog. I'm not sure where he's going with the last part of his article, but his account of terrible customer service with a chocolate company proves the point.

Most people will accept mistakes as long you accept responsibility for the mistake.

Making Customer Service Your Strength

For the most part, customer service is dead. It's a lost art for today's modern business. It's much easier to blame declining sales on bad marketing. It's also much easier to blame declining sales on your high prices. Don't fret, your sales are telling you something. You need to start providing more than just a product or service. You need to start providing an experience for your customer.

Take a look at how this restaurant makes customer service a strength rather than a weakness. Notice how the author points out that the restaurant's prices are the least important advantage that it has over its nearest competitor.

Exceptional customer service isn't born overnight. You can ask our customers from the early days and they'll confirm that it takes time for a customer service oriented culture to evolve. Yeah, it's easier to just price your stuff lower. And, it's easier to just change your advertising strategy.

But, who told you that it should be easy?

Customer No-Service

Here's a guy that lays into a company that provided terrible customer service.

Consumers, it's your choice. The supply and demand curve only works when there is a demand.

Do you demand customer service?

Customer Experience

I told you that customer service is important. Some people think it's more important than others.

Check out this guy.

Customer Service In The Classroom

Forbes recently ranked The Dartmouth Business School as the number one biz school in America.

I'm a big fan of business, so I wanted to see what they were teaching our future business leaders. It's the normal stuff - leadership, marketing, financial reporting, management, economics, and technology. There was one subject missing: customer service.

I couldn't believe it. The soul of every business lies with its level of customer satisfaction. You can't report financials if your customers aren't happy. You can't lead a team either if your customers aren't happy. This was astonishing to me. So, I checked other leading schools. Yale, Harvard, and the legendary Wharton. Still no sign of customer service.

As a consumer, I'm worried that customer service is only going to get worse. As a business owner, I'm excited that my future competitors are in the dark.

I'm sure that P/E ratios and regression analyses are important. But, I learned the alphabet before I learned how to read. Customer service is important. Just ask our customers.

Customer Service Is Dead

Businesses have quit. They've quit trying to make you happy. Customer service is dead.

It's been dead for a while. You just haven't noticed because you forgot about it. That's what happens when you lose something that you don't value.

You thought that you wanted to bypass the receptionist and push buttons. You know now that you were wrong. You thought that you wanted to get rid of paper and communicate by email. You know now that you were wrong. You thought that you wanted to order food quicker through a drive-thru window. You know now that you were wrong.

You know now that customer service is valuable. The only way to bring customer service back to life is to value it.

Hire service oriented companies for your home projects. Purchase goods from service oriented retailers. Buy food from service oriented restaurants. Eventually, businesses will bring customer service back to life. You are the consumer. You dictate the direction of the business world.

It Starts Out Good, But

I hear it every day. "My old cleaning service started out great, but it got worse and worse over time. I complained, but things never got better. "

I know why this happens. The ugly head of employee turnover rears its head after about four cleanings (sometimes less). It goes a little something like this.

You're a new customer. You want to schedule the service once per week. The cleaning service manager knows that your first cleaning is crucial in order to secure future cleanings. So, she sends out her best team of cleaners. You're extremely happy, so you agree to weekly service. A new cleaning team arrives for your next cleaning. The cleaning is not terrible, but not nearly as good as the previous week. Mistakes happen, so you chalk it up to people being people. The third visit isn't so great. Mistakes are obvious, so you contact the office to voice your concern. They listen and they offer to correct the mistakes. The mistakes are corrected, but the fourth cleaning doesn't get any better. You contact the office again and you don't receive a return phone call. You give up and call Two Maids & A Mop.

That's how you see it. This is how the cleaning service manager sees it.

You're the priority that first day. It's her job to make you happy. She's got a handful of people that she really trusts. She sends them and they make you extremely happy. A week passes and its your turn to be cleaned again. Four people don't show up for work that day. She's overbooked now because she doesn't have enough qualified people. She can either cancel an appointment or she can send out unqualified people. She needs the business, so she's sends out the unqualified people. This same problem repeats itself every day, not just your cleaning day. Running a cleaning business is all about survival from one day to the next day.

That's the ugly truth. Turnover in the cleaning industry makes it impossible to create customer satisfaction. For most people.

The key to a successful cleaning business is employee turnover control. There's lots of ways to make this happen. For us, it's the pay for performance plan. An employee of TwoMaids can make more than $10 per hour if the employee makes a lot of customers happy. Customer satisfaction means employee satisfaction. Employee satisfaction means low turnover.

Low turnover means that it starts out good, and stays good.

Create Value

The consumer price index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in prices over time in a fixed market of goods and services typically purchased by consumers. It covers about 80% of the nation's population.

A recent news article stated that the November 2005 CPI dropped more than any other month during the past 56 years. That's good news for consumers. You are paying less now for stuff than you were in October. But, is it good news for a business?

Not if your business operates as a commodity. A commodity has no specific advantage other than cheap prices. Look at the nation's commodity markets. Traders pay more or less for a good based on its expected price increase or decrease. Nothing else is analyzed except price fluctuation.

A business was not designed to operate solely on price. This has become the norm because business owners forgot how to compete. It was easier being cheaper than the other guy. Times are changing. A business needs more than just a low price today. A business now needs to offer something that provides value to the customer. A business is destined to fail if no value is created by the purchase of its goods or services. You can't always be the cheapest, but you can always be the best at something.

Need an example? Would you rather pay $350 per night for a room at the Ritz-Carlton in Manhattan, or would you rather pay $90 for a room at the Howard Johnson in Manhattan?

There's a lot of people that would select the HoJo. However, there's just as many people that would select the Ritz. It's called a market. A market has supply and it has demand. In this case, a cheap hotel has a demand. So does a hotel that provides you with unbelievable views, plush rooms, and tons of amenities.

A business can't serve everybody. Some people want you, others don't. Start creating value out of your goods or services. If you build it, they will come.

Provide Something Extra

We're required to purchase an occupational license each year in order to legally hire an employee. I just searched all year-to-date occupational licenses for the janitorial/cleaning industry and found that just over four hundred licenses were granted. The alarming thing is that I only searched one county. We compete in four counties.

Think about that for a minute. Four hundred cleaning businesses have been in existence at some point this year for just one tiny county. I should restate that. Four hundred "legal" cleaning businesses have been in existence. There's probably a few thousand "illegal" cleaning companies out there.

In contrast, only twenty-six accounting firms were granted a license this year. Fourteen liquor stores. Seven boat dealers. One amusement park.

We compete against a lot of people. It's an easy business to start. A few bucks at the dollar store, a few flyers in a neighborhood, an inexpensive occupational license, and you're in business. It's easy to start, but difficult to maintain. That's proven time and time again. Check out your area Yellow Pages if you need tangible evidence.

Highly competitive markets are typically the least efficient markets. Businesses tend to take the easy way out and attempt to capture market share by being the least expensive option. It's harder being better.

The problem is that you can never be the cheapest provider in a highly competitive market. Somebody will always beat your price. Think about the airline industry. There's not four hundred airlines, but there might as well be. The cheapest provider gets the customer. When is the last time that you paid a higher price for air travel? If you have paid higher, then there is a reason. That airline gave you something extra.

The cleaning world better wake up before it's too late. You better start providing something extra.

When Price Doesn't Matter

There once was a time when I thought that we could be the most affordable cleaning company in town. I don't think that any longer.

Our original employees were paid poorly. They performed poorly.

We were cheap. As a result, we had no problem finding new customers. The problem was that we had trouble keeping those new customers. We signed up new customers just as quickly as we signed up new employees.

It was painfully obvious that we needed to raise our employee's wages. There was only one problem. We also needed to raise our customers rates in order to afford our employees. Try telling an unhappy customer that he needs to give you more money so that you can fix the problem. It wasn't a fun time, but it was essential for our survival as a business.

It hit me one day while in a department store. I was searching for a stapler. There were plenty of staplers to select from that day. About five if I remember correctly. What intrigued me was the price deviation from stapler to stapler. The really cheap stapler cost about $5, while the most expensive stapler cost just over $125. They each did the same thing, they stapled.

I thought, "Why would someone purchase anything but the $5 stapler?" I was intrigued, so I asked a store employee. What she told me was alarming. The $5 stapler was the most popular item, but the $125 stapler wasn't far behind. I still didn't get it. I pressed on. According to her, the expensive stapler belonged in a classy office setting. Professionals use the expensive stapler, while everybody else uses the cheap stapler. That's when it hit me.

People are more than happy to pay more if they perceive the higher price results in more value. I was scared to be the most expensive cleaning company in town. I preferred being cheaper because it was easier. Higher rates meant that I needed to provide more value.

We not only needed to raise our employees wages, we needed to increase our value. We did it and our customers are glad we did it now.

Your product or service must provide more value than any other available option. That's when price doesn't matter.

The Maid Man Gets His Hands Dirty

My wife and I kept waiting and waiting for our food. Thirty minutes passed before we realized that our waitress wasn't coming back. The manager had just informed us that she had quit during her shift. He also said that she had never placed our order and our food wasn't close to being prepared. He looked beaten and embarrassed. We left the restaurant. We never returned.

I've told that story a lot over the years. It gets a good laugh every time. Today, we had an employee quit during a housecleaning. She walked out; no notice, no warning. My story doesn't sound so funny now.

Right now, I feel like that beaten and embarrassed manager. Try explaining this to one of your best clients. Try explaining this to a brand new customer. I'm not a good liar, so I told the truth, just like that manager.

The brand new client sighed and declined to be rescheduled for another housecleaning. One of our best clients sighed and declined to be rescheduled for another housecleaning. Just like me several years ago.

Why am I telling you all this? Because there is something to be learned here. At the end of the day, we have rescheduled those two clients. We've turned a terrible situation into a great experience. We've shown both clients why people rave about our company. What did we do?

We did two things. Number one - we told the truth. It wasn't the most politically correct thing to say, but we told the truth because that's what we believe in. Number two - we showed the customer that we care. They know that we care because we proved it by our actions. We cleaned both houses, me and my wife. We were a little slow, but we did it. We made two families happy today. Of course, neither customer paid for today's service. And, they wont' pay for another cleaning this year. They hated us at noon and loved us at 5.

I'm better at leading a team. I'm better at marketing. I'm better at selling our services. I'm better at a lot of things, but I cleaned today because I had to do it. There is no such thing as absentee ownership.

Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty.

You CAN Make Everybody Happy

The easy way out is to say, "You can't make everybody happy". It's an escape clause. No excuses needed. People will be people, right?

I say no. I say there is a way. I say even the most challenging person can be made happy. The recipe is simple.

Give a hoot.

It's obvious that most people don't give a hoot. Bad customer service occurs so often in our lives that we barely remember them. Of course, the good customer service experiences are so rare that we always remember them.

The housecleaning business is designed for failure. We've yet to perform the perfect housecleaning. If you look hard enough, you'll find something. Most people understand this. Some people don't. And that's ok. Our goal is to make everybody happy, one way or the other. We follow the "give a hoot" principle with every customer. Customer complaints never go unheard. You cry and we jump. Our customers know that we care about them because we jump higher than anyone else when they complain. From broken items to missed areas, we fix it all with ridiculous speed and urgency. We care. They know it.

An unhappy customer reacts with either anger or sorrow. Your reaction to the problem defines the level of satisfaction from that point forward. You can make it worse by yelling back. You can make it worse by not doing anything. Or, you could just give a hoot and show the customer that you care.

Mistakes are forgiven when you give a hoot. Even downright subpar performance is forgiven when you give a hoot.

It's take lots of patience and lots of great employees, but.......you can make everybody happy.

Do What You Say

I had been in the cleaning business for about five days when I figured it out. It was a day after my first in-home estimate. I had spent about 45 minutes talking about my new company with the potential customer. I spoke about our cleaning abilities, our rates, and our arrival times. The customer liked what she heard and agreed to a one-time cleaning.

We arrived the next day and cleaned her house. No big deal. Just another house. We did our job and took the money. We called her the next day to see how we did. That's when it happened. She was amazed. Really amazed. She couldn't believe the level of professionalism that we had shown. Uhh?

She praised our cleaning team for arriving on-time for the appointment. She praised our manager for calling to receive her feedback. And she praised me for spending so much time with her. That's when it dawned on me. Nobody else did it.

Nobody did what they said. Was it really this simple? You bet it is.

Doing what you say goes along way. The vast majority of service companies don't adhere to this policy. It's a lost art. Everybody's too busy trying to make more money. They all want to make the next sale.

The first step in making a customer happy is simple. Do what you say.

Pizza Hut's Out Of Pizza

I stumbled across an article detailing a man's trip to his area Pizza Hut. Yes, you read the headline correctly. They were out of pizza. Apparently, they ran out of dough.

Talk about horrible customer service. It doesn't get much worse. What could have been done by management to correct the dough shortage?

- The easy answer is to stock enough dough so that you are NEVER out of dough.
- Did the manager ever consider calling other area Pizza Huts?
- Go buy the dough at a grocery store.
- Close the restaurant so that you don't look stupid.

None of these actions were done because Pizza Hut is too big. Big, large franchises make a manager think like this......The manager probably orders his dough based on last week's or last year's comparable sales so that costs can be controlled. The manager probably can't call other Pizza Huts because he's not motivated to think independently. The manager probably can't purchase from a grocery store because that's prohibited in his employee manual. And, the manager probably wanted his work hours so he kept the business open.

Two Maids & A Mop can't evolve into this kind of a business. We can't be the normal large company because we've got a reputation to uphold. We're the most customer friendly housecleaning company in the world.

Most of all, we can't because we don't want to let you down. We're growing because our customers love us. We owe it to you.

Loving Your Customer

The magazine, Fast Company has ranked the nation's top fifteen most customer friendly businesses. The rankings were tabulated based on actual customer feedback. Check out the nation's most customer friendly companies.

Click here for the list...

These companies all share one common attribute: care. They care about making people happy. Yeah, they make mistakes and they don't make everybody happy. But, their customers sense the caring attitude because they hear it and see it everyday.

These companies don't have any real competition because no one else in their industry stresses customer service in the same manner. Providing excellent customer service can't be accomplished by setting policies or rules. Customer service only occurs when an employee feels like their work performance determines the future success of the company.

The Three Phases of Housecleaning

Phase One.

This is the learning phase. This is where we do our homework. Preparation for a housecleaning is essential if you plan on meeting a customer's needs. Bring the correct supplies/equipment, understand the customer's priorities, and make sure that previous mistakes are not repeated. You can't make someone happy if you don't know what makes them happy.

Phase Two.

This is the cleaning phase. This is the phase that most of our competitors work in. They concentrate on the details of cleaning. They only know mops and buckets.

Phase Three.

This is the service phase. This is where we earn our money. This is where we receive our customer feedback. This is where the customer really understands why we're better. A two minute phone call. A short letter. A quick email. That's all it takes to prove our commitment to customer satisfaction.

Cleaning a house is just that for the rest of the housecleaning industry. There are no phases. There are no customer experiences. It's all nuts and bolts. Here's a mop, go clean.

People pay higher rates for our services. They pay higher rates because our experience is different. Yeah, we clean. But, we do more than just clean. We serve the customer.

What's Your favorite....

restaurant? It's probably not a chain. It's probably a local, family owned restaurant that has served your area for some time. It has a great reputation for awesome service and excellent food. You refer it to as many friends as possible.

hair salon? It's probably not a chain. It's probably a local place that has been referred to you by a friend. It has a great reputation for staffing the best hair designers. Plus, all the cool people go there.

landscaping company? It's probably not a chain. It's probably Bobby, who works in your neighbor's yard. He's friendly, punctual, and he does a great job.

consumer electronics store? It's probably Best Buy. You buy from them because they stock everything you'll ever need.

computer? It's probably Dell. You trust them because everyone you know has one.

auto manufacturer? It's probably one of the big ones. You trust them because you see there cars on the road everyday.

Notice a trend. People purchase products from big, established companies and they purchase services from small, local businesses. The difference is service. People expect better service from a smaller business. A product has limited amounts of support, while a domestic service depends heavily on service for its success.

We have an uphill battle against society if we plan on growing past our current count of two locations. People will begin to lose trust if we lose our focus on customer service. Each customer of a service related business wants to feel important. They want personalized service that only a small business can provide. That's our goal. Get big, but act small.

There are role models to follow. Starbucks is the nation's most popular coffee house. A person would rather go to Starbucks than go to a local coffee house. Starbucks acts small, but they're very big. Chick-fil-A is the most popular chicken restaurant in the southeastern U.S. Nobody competes against them because they can't compete with their food quality or customer service. Chick-fil-A is very big , but they act very small.

Getting big is one of our goals. Staying small is another.

Big Doesn't Always Mean Worse

The common theory is that getting bigger means getting worse. Think about it.

Boston Chicken was a great little chain serving family-style chicken. They went public, received a bunch of money, and started expanding very quickly. They changed their name to Boston Market and started serving meats other than chicken. The business started to deteriorate until it eventually fell into bankruptcy, only to be saved by McDonald's.

Krispy Kreme was also a great little chain. It originally only served the southeastern U.S. It was much different than any other doughnut company. The doughnut was good, but the experience of buying one was even better. They went public, received a bunch of money, and started expanding very quickly. The expansion created pressures that upper management had never experienced before. They had never cared about quarter to quarter growth or market saturation. The business has deteriorated to levels so low that bankruptcy is a viable option today.

What happened to these once unique businesses? They got greedy. Gordon Gekko may think that greed is good, but it is evil. Greed only ends once you have nothing else to be greedy about.

So, I ask myself, "Are my expansion plans greedy? Will expansion make us generic?"

Each new location will be in a new market. We won't saturate anybody but our competition. We won't lose our competitive spirit because our systems create a culture. We'll keep that culture just as long as we keep receiving customer feedback.

I don't make us different. Our name doesn't make us different. Our cleaning supplies don't make us different either. Our customers make us different. Customer feedback is the heart and soul of our business. Without feedback, we're Johnny Anybody. The great thing is that our customers want to help us get better. They want to rate their service and they want to recommend improvements in our services. Simply put, our customers make us different.

We're going to buck the odds. We're different today and we're gonna be different tomorrow. In our case, big means getting better. Our first customer will receive the same level of service as our millionth customer. All because of one five minute idea: pay-for-performance compensation.

The Problem With Domestic Services

We all need them. Plumbers, painters, carpenters, and of course, housecleaners. A home needs constant attention and most homeowners don't have the time or skills necessary to complete every project. So, we hire someone else to do it for us.

The biggest complaint that people have with these types of businesses concerns customer service. They don't return phone calls, they're late for their appointments, they don't correct mistakes, and some decide to just not show up. How can an industry that is entirely dependent on customer satisfaction be so bad at it?

Because there's a lot of great carpenters out there, but not a lot of great managers. A domestic service business is born everyday. John loves to fix things. He's so good at it that his neighbor hires him to do some side work. He repairs his dishwasher, unclogs his sink, and even paints his office. John's neighbor is thrilled with the work. He's so thrilled that he tells everyone at work. Of course, everyone at work has had terrible experiences with previous handymen, so they all call him for help. He agrees and the tree starts growing pretty quickly. This is where it happens.

John can't keep up with the work. But, the money's good and he doesn't want to turn it down. So, he hires a friend and starts delegating responsibilities. The friend does a decent job, but the work keeps pouring in. Finally, John has so much responsibility that he can no longer spend a day in the field working. Instead, he spends his day estimating jobs, purchasing supplies, coordinating work schedules, answering phone calls, paying bills, hiring employees, resolving problems, and supervising everything. He's now become a full-fledged manager.

Is John ready to become a manager? Does he have the skills necessary to create customer satisfaction? Maybe, but only time will tell.

This happens everyday across America. People are fed up with their current service provider and they want something better. It's a crazy cycle. These great tradesmen have to become great managers overnight. The vast majority can't handle the responsibilities and that's why most people complain about their domestic service provider.

I didn't know how to clean anything before I bought this business. Ok, the secret's out. But I learned pretty quickly. I did know how to please a customer. My number one goal from the first day was to create a great customer service experience. I think that we have a great model right now. We make mistakes. We know that. But nobody can claim that they work harder than we do to create 100% customer satisfaction. My roots are in customer service and that's why we excel in that area.

I wonder how different things might have been if I had great carpentry skills?