As a long-time cleaning company owner, life during COVID-19 was stressful due to all the unknowns and risks present at the time. Loss of income, reducing staff, and changing all my safety protocols at a moment’s notice to ensure that I was healthy and to protect family, staff, and clients created a real balancing act that could never have been planned for.
The good news is that we are past the immediate threat of the pandemic, and we are all trying to get back to “normal,” if there is such a thing. Running a business will always have benefits and challenges. The key is, can you adapt to the new way cleaning companies are doing business?
As a service industry that provides onsite services, how we did business 5 years ago has completely changed. I will illustrate this with how my day starts every morning post-COVID:
7:00 a.m. – I wake up.
8:00 a.m. – I start sending texts to all the scheduled clients for the day with our ETA for the day. Prior to COVID-19, we were in our first client’s home by 8:00, but with the client now working remotely, that has become difficult.
8:15 a.m. – The reply texts start streaming in with thumbs up emojis and thank you’s from my clients, or the occasional “Could you come later? I had a meeting come up,” which will cause me to start scrambling to find a client that is willing to let us come earlier. Ugh.
Currently, 60% of my clients are no longer going into the office. They are now at home, working remotely, which means navigating around their Zoom meeting times can present a challenge when there is vacuuming or other similar tasks to do.
Five years ago, all homes were empty after 8:30 am, which meant we had free rein to work our cleaning magic free from distractions. The homes have now become offices, which means we must accommodate the clients’ work meeting schedules and not vacuum, or ask what area would be best to clean first.
There are ways to help ease your stress in this new work environment. First, I usually suggest we clean the client’s office so we can be out of their way when, actually, they are now in our way. They really love that!
I very rarely had clients at home prior to COVID, mostly retired people, but the new remote working model has been a lot to adapt to and keep your sanity. The importance of your staff being respectful of the clients’ need for quiet should be a high priority. I make sure to set a good example for my staff, so they see what’s acceptable.
I quickly saw I needed to put new policies in place to ensure they understand what that should look like by role-playing at the meeting when I introduced the new policy. I had to make sure that team members understood why it was now important to not be chatty with each other because it is no longer okay due to clients being home. This caused the work environment to be tense at times! I also have had to let a few clients go due to the challenge of meeting their requests.
I would suggest you have good, open communication with your client, setting out that you desire to clean, but when you have multiple staff members per home, as I do, who are being paid per hour, delays due to meetings, etc., can be very disruptive, cost more to provide the service, and delay the ETA to other clients’ homes who are also at home working.
I evaluated the cost for the additional steps I must take to coordinate. Raising prices due to extra tasks that must be done is a reasonable ask and an easy conversation when you explain it in a way that benefits the customer and you. Lastly, they like having the communication and really tell me how much it makes their day less stressful, and they see the value of compensating my company for doing so.
Daily operations have changed due to COVID, but it has not changed the essential service we provide to busy families who also must juggle their daily routines.
Go take a bite out of grime! 🧹🪣🧼
Sincerely,
Robin Crockett ✨
Founder & CEO, Heaven Scent Home Cleaning & Virtual Bid App
