Speed Cleaning (13 page)

This is a tough one. Most services can and should have a bond to cover employee theft, usually for a fixed dollar amount. The problem with bonds is that most require a conviction before the bonding company will pay a claim, and the evidence is likely to be circumstantial: You didn’t see anyone take it, and there’s no physical evidence that the housecleaner did it instead of a neighbor or a burglar.

It would also be nice if the cleaning company had liability insurance to provide for relief in case a Ming vase is broken or, heaven forbid, the housecleaner somehow manages to set your house on fire. Many cleaning companies don’t have liability insurance to cover these disasters.
We carried it at The Clean Team for the first five or six years we were in business. Each year our rate spiraled higher and higher even though we never had a claim. We finally canceled it the year that the annual premium would have nearly equaled our total net pay.

There is a solution. Many homeowner’s policies will cover damage done in your home by household workers. Call your insurance agent and ask.

From what we hear, the most common complaint about cleaners is that they don’t show up on their appointed day. You’d better talk to prospective housecleaners about this one. They will say they’re reliable. But ask them what happens if they don’t show up on the appointed day. Will they guarantee one free cleaning as a recourse?

This same problem, as viewed by your housecleaner, arises when you cancel cleaning visits. If you call and cancel the cleaning on short notice, you have taken one giant step toward ruining your relationship with your housecleaner.

If a genuine emergency does arise, at least try to reschedule the cleaning for the next day or two. Housecleaners will appreciate your trying to protect their income by rescheduling rather than skipping a visit entirely. We have clients that use us even when they’re on vacation: They can ask us to substitute some chores for the regular weekly
cleaning—like washing windows or stripping floors—and we can also help keep the plants alive. This kind of loyalty shown to one of our teams by a client seems to motivate that team all year long.

Lateness is usually a problem only if you’ve been unable to find a way to arrange access for your cleaners. (They have no house keys, in other words.)

The most common “breach of security” in homes with housecleaners is not theft—it’s breakage. Who pays for it if the housecleaner breaks something? Ask. Your prospective housecleaner or cleaning service should have a policy for taking care of such events.

Our policy is that if we break something, we’ll pay for it up to $500. Above this amount the client needs to depend on homeowner’s insurance. There are two exceptions. If the item was already broken, we don’t want to be held responsible, and we would like the client to tell us about it before we even touch it. (Make sure to tell new cleaners about your home’s booby traps. Like that lamp shade that falls off a particular lamp if you look at it cross-eyed. Everyone in your family knows it, but when the unsuspecting housecleaner turns on the lamp to be able to clean, the shade comes crashing down. Even worse, it lands on several other items that weren’t broken before, but they certainly are now.)

The second exception is when we clean something, using standard
accepted methods (“due diligence”), and it still breaks. For example, we dust a picture hanging on the wall with a feather duster just as we’ve done many times before. This time, however, it crashes to the floor, which breaks it and our nerves. If the client hangs the picture with a thumbtack, the client pays for this type of damage.

Tell the housecleaner about any items in your home that are so valuable to you that if anyone ever breaks them, it had better be you. Many items are valuable for strictly personal reasons that no one could ever guess. Tell your cleaner not even to touch them—that they’re very precious to you and you will clean them yourself. You can use the same rationale to protect other frail objects, heirlooms, artwork, or expensive stereos. Why give trouble an engraved invitation? It will usually invite itself in anyway.

Federal laws on working conditions say that if your housecleaner is your employee, you may not charge him or her for breakage unless you can prove gross negligence or a willful or dishonest act. The law is specifically written so that the burden of proof is squarely on the employer.

Some people think there is exactly one way to clean a house—their way. If you have tendencies in this direction, try not to complain about your housecleaners’ methods when their actual results are acceptable.

But if the end result isn’t satisfactory, any housecleaner or cleaning
service should have some policy for handling complaints and ensuring your satisfaction. When you inquire, have strong doubts about hiring the services of someone whose reply is something like, “Oh, there’s nothing to worry about. We never have complaints.” Really?

Your housecleaner or cleaning service should handle your complaints the same way any other well-run business does. You should receive an apology and an offer to make it right. The Clean Team offers to come back the next day to correct any oversight. If customers don’t want us to do that, they may reduce the charge for the next cleaning by an amount they feel is appropriate. Finally, if the customers are so upset that they don’t want us to return, we offer a full refund.

If you’re generally satisfied with your housecleaner but suspect he or she has overlooked something, you’ll find you get better results if you fully consider your complaints. Before you accuse, stop and think. Maybe the floor that doesn’t seem clean was an ungodly mess from your party the night before. Maybe the housecleaner cleaned it, but missed a spot or two. Accusing conscientious housecleaners of skipping something is tantamount to calling them a liar. If you sincerely think a complaint is justified, ask before you accuse.

But don’t be afraid to mention something that needs more attention or that’s not quite up to your standards or expectations. This can be done in a positive and beneficial way, if you’ll just give your words some prior thought. The antidote to anger is gentleness. If your complaint
is presented in an appreciative and supportive manner—“We’re working on this together”—it will generally be quickly solved.

It’s a good idea to state your complaint right away. If you wait until it’s happened over and over, you’ll weaken your own credibility. Would you like be told you’d make a mistake over and over? Wouldn’t you rather be told the first time so you could correct it right away?

And try to balance a request for more or better effort with a few kind words about something else that is being well done. It’s easy to begin to take consistent hard work for granted.

Here are some notes from one of our clients who does a good job of getting the very best from us. (She’s actually complaining, but it’s just about painless, and it gets the job done.)

“Maybe it’s just that time of year, but there seems to be more dust around than usual. Would you give it your critical and special touch this week?”

“I’ve moved a few pieces of furniture out from the walls to make it easier for you to get into those hard-to-reach corners that seem to love dirt and grime.”

“We would appreciate it so much if you could give some thought or ideas on how to remove the grease build-up around the top of the stove and the stove pipe. What do you think? Should we try a better cleaning agent? Do you have a preferred favorite? As always, thank you for your help.”

Just as you need to be able to complain, so should the housecleaners. You will make giant strides in positive motivation if you make it clear that you are open to feedback also. Keep communication open.

If you provide your cleaner with lunch, the cleaner should eat what you offer. Whether or not you should offer lunch is an easy problem to solve. Just ask. The housecleaner’s expectation will be made very clear to you. Until you discuss it or make an offer in one of your notes, the housecleaner should not raid the fridge. Offering something refreshing, a soft drink, for example, may enhance motivation, is appreciated, and isn’t very expensive. And we’ve gotten notes from dieting customers who have a supply of cookies or cake on hand that is tempting them too much: “
Please
eat
all
the cookies.”

Also, consider whether the cleaner is welcome to turn on the TV, stereo, VCR, or the like. It is somewhat startling to turn on the stereo (which you had left tuned to the easy-listening station) and be blasted halfway across the room by acid rock. But most people do enjoy listening to music while they work. If it’s all right with you, but not all right with your spouse, make some decision on the subject and discuss it with the housecleaner. (The discussion beforehand with your spouse
is important. It’s demoralizing to the housecleaner to get chewed out by the husband for something the wife explicitly said was okay.)

The Clean Team supplies everything—mops, polish, cleaning cloths, cleansers, two vacuums, everything. We don’t want to waste time looking for your supplies. As long as you don’t object to particular supplies, it saves you time and money if the cleaners bring their own supplies. Careful: Two cleaning services may charge about the same, but one brings its own supplies and the other expects you to buy them. That’s really a big difference in effective cost.

The cleaning service probably works Monday through Friday. This means they need to clean about 20 percent of their accounts each day and can’t clean everyone’s house on Friday. In a city the size of San Francisco, we can’t afford to clean for someone on a certain day unless we’re already in the neighborhood. To drive across town to clean one house would often take longer than the housecleaning itself. Besides, if the housecleaners come soon after a weekend instead of just before it, they can clean up after the mess made over the weekend, you’ll enjoy your clean house for a much longer period of time, and you’ll end up with more for your money.

There are ways security can be breached that go beyond leaving keys.

I remember a client, a doctor, who had brought home some original patient files, test results, and X rays to study at home. These items weren’t supposed to have left the hospital. She smuggled them home in a paper bag. After she was finished with them, she replaced them in the paper bag and set the bag on top of the small wastebasket next to a desk. Naturally, we threw them away! And as fate would have it, the garbage was picked up before the doctor got home.

We’ve thrown away rings that had been mixed in with the cigarette butts left in an ashtray. We’ve heard of a cleaner who diligently stacked and straightened all the papers on an accountant’s desk just as she did every time she cleaned. Problem was, on that particular week the papers were tax records and expense receipts for several people. Once they were neatly stacked, it was almost impossible to figure out what belonged to whom.

Even when you completely trust your housecleaner, don’t leave things lying about out of place. Besides the obvious temptation, you’re asking for other headaches. The housecleaner might drop a ring left on the kitchen counter into a cleaning apron pocket, intending to put the ring on the bedroom dresser where it belongs. By the time he or she gets to the dresser, the cleaner has forgotten all about it and then
tossed all the “trash” from the apron at the end of the day. An honest housecleaner, but you’re missing a ring.

Like any normal household, you undoubtedly have a secret or two that you hope and pray absolutely no one will discover. English author W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) has said, “There is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.” Human nature being what it is, you might want to be sure that certain items are returned to the back of the dresser drawer, for example. Or that certain papers (especially financial ones) are replaced in the locked desk drawer. Certain pictures or videos should be put away. You get the idea.

Let’s say you know that the instant your housecleaner turns on the vacuum cleaner, your cat will head straight for the hall closet and will stay hidden there long after the vacuuming is finished. So tape a note to the closet door saying “
DO NOT CLOSE.
” Your house is not the only one your housecleaners work in. Especially on the first few visits, don’t rely on their memory of everything you mentioned the first time you met. We all forget instructions occasionally, and most of us appreciate friendly reminders and warnings.

Other changes in your household from week to week may have little

to do with security, but if handled incorrectly can make you feel as if
something
has been breached. A new puppy in your home or a school project in the middle of the living room are examples. If you were doing the cleaning, you would certainly know what to do about each of them. The housecleaners may not. Don’t leave it to chance. Tell them.

Since the housecleaner performs a personal service (like a haircutter, waiter, or cab driver), tipping is appropriate when deserved. A few customers leave a small tip each visit or for a special project or effort, but most leave something at Christmas. Some leave gifts like food or wine instead of cash. But a gift of cash—and not a check—is preferred by most housecleaners. One guideline is to leave an amount equivalent to one month’s cleaning charges. This amount would be split if more than one person does the cleaning.

Training is a very touchy subject when it comes to housecleaners, particularly if they’re in business for themselves and are not your employees. They already know how to clean and may not be the least bit interested in learning how to clean any differently than they now do—especially any faster if they are working by the hour.