Our company works every hard to establish that level of trust by the care we take in hiring, and constant supervision. We do daily training with the idea that some day the people who work with us will be able to duplicate the experience our clients have with our company. That’s how we grow the business. We, of course, feel we have a better system than most, but my question has been if we could ever franchise what we do.

All company owners are different, we all have a different set of skills. What I think is hard is finding those individuals with the drive, and ambition to take a business to a higher standard. We have noticed that with the other cleaning companies we work with, or refer people to, there are different levels of involvement, or standards of cleaning. Like I said we feel we are the best.

We’re going to have more articles about this because of couple of franchises in our area are up for sale, and one has been sold to an out of area owner. We have been getting calls from former clients of theirs, and it’s interesting to me the differences that we offer.

Well, once inside we could see it hadn’t been cleaned in several years. Our client said it was because of his dad’s illness, but we both knew that wasn’t true. This guy was a high powered executive that obviously came home, sat in one chair, and watched some TV before going to bed. In the morning he went back to work, and never considered his surroundings.

Sure there were mops, buckets, cleaning supplies, and brooms stack in different corners, and never opened, never touched. He seemed extremely successful, and maybe a little neglectful of the rest of the world. We spent four hours with three people, and we weren’t done, but it was a start. It looked much better, but there were things that wouldn’t come clean again.

The truth is that in my list of hoarder clients most are highly functional people. Many are compulsive, like shopping, that make them appear more scattered than they actually are, they are adaptive.

I’m going to write more about this in the coming weeks, it’s an important topic, for the cleaning trade.

We keep our regular rates the same, and don’t raise our one time cleaning rates the way we would for apartments, or move outs. We just incorporate one time cleanings into the schedule, and fill the holes. Over all our discount works out to be better than 20%, but the trick is to do it on your regular schedule in a geographic area.

In a two week period in the summer we can have as many as twenty openings, so I have no problem over promoting the specials. It also helps our over all advertising budget to do hand outs in the summer months, we can even go door to door to leave a flyer under the front mat. We do that in neighborhoods where we already have clients.

The summer is a great time to have promotions. We did a free bottled water give away last year that paid for itself with one regularly scheduled client. It’s great to get out in the sunshine to do some self promotion.

Then you have the grease trap that pulls out which is easy, but all the little wires and sharp edges of the stove itself are a pain to clean. You have to take your time with that, but it is easier than it looks.

Now that the pages are set up we will share them with more people. Our clients will get a hand out with our FaceBook page address  http://www.facebook.com/SeattleHouseCleaning

We’ll do our specials, and promotions through FaceBook. It is like building a community that is open to the public.

This is a great tool that we will take advantage of for as long as it lasts. As you know there are thousands of online marketing choices that come, and go, but I think FaceBook will be with us long enough to make it worth our while.

Commercial cleaning companies know that the goal is to have more suction directed at picking up dirt, and hair. Many commercial vacuums we have tried have been heavy, or give up some motor to compensate for the expense of building a sturdier chassis.

Lastly the price of vacuums has gone up a lot in the past ten years. The Dyson is $600, and other companies see that, and think they can charge the same, especially in the commercial vacuum market. A Miele canister is now $1000. It’s a good machine, but we would wear it out in a couple of months.

We did go through a phase where we bought Riccar products, and were happy with those, until they went to an exclusive Hepa Filter bag that was almost $2 per disposable bag. The other part of a Hepa Filter bag is that they clog quickly, which is something the Dyson mentions in their advertising.

Even though we did buy the Riccar commercial vacuum, it didn’t last any longer than a garden variety vacuum cleaner.

So we have been on the hunt for better vacuum technology.

We use the Sanitaire upright.

For a canister we are deciding between the Hoover,

and the Kenmore dedicated canister. We have been using the Kenmore for many years, this is a newer style,

Oreck is another alternative, which is popular for both residential, and commercial,  we are seeing more of these all the time, but they look a little flimsy.

What are your preferences?

We use microfiber to dust.

Terry cloth for cleaning floors, and heavy soil.

Bar towels are best for drying, and polishing.

Maid in the Northwest is a unique company in that they contract out house cleaners. Each cleaner is licensed, insured, and bonded. You are assigned a cleaner, or cleaning team of two, and you become those cleaners clients. You pay the company, and they in turn pay the cleaners. The company does the paper work, and advertizing.

It’s a great system that gives the client flexibility in direct communication with a cleaner that works for them, rather than the company. In other words, when the home owner directs the cleaner they are directing an independent contractor. The contractor has a direct incentive to do a good job or lose the customer, and possibly not get any more referrals from the company.

An employee works for the company, at the company’s direction. They may well be moved to other customers depending on the profiatbility of that cleaner. The customer has less control over a company employee.

This makes Maid in the Northwest one of the better alternatives for cleaning.

The competition has been a rough the past few years. People are hammered by all sides in what is the best cleaning alternative. For a while price, lower prices for house cleaning, were making for some hard choices for people. The lower price trend has worked its way out as the economy improved. We are now seeing some independent companies making up for lost revenue by raising prices well above what I consider reasonable.

Our company has held our rates for the past six years. We never lowered our rates to take on more clients when the going was tough. We lost clients, and are just now filling the holes left in our schedule. We took a deep financial hit, but we are on our way back up.

I have some posts to make about other cleaning companies that I think are good alternatives. We all have our market, and there is a great demand for cleaning services.

Number one you are dealing with contractors. That means they want a bid, and that you are entering into a contract to perform a service. You need to be specific, and prepare for every contingency. You will be cleaning everything. Be ready for there to be special requests like dusting the walls. Yes, dusting the walls; after the floors are refinished there may be dust stuck to the walls, just keep it in mind.

We don’t do windows, but we are expected to clean window tracks. If you are asked for a bid, open every door. Look for, and mention that, as a cleaner, you can’t clean anything requiring special chemicals. Paint spots are a big thing that we can not take liability for. Glues for laminates, or anything that won’t come up with Windex, should be some one elses responsibility. Make sure you note the appliances in your bid process. You can only use water, vinegar, Windex, and clean cloths. Never use scrubbers, Soft Scrub, Comet or any abrasives. Make note if appliances are already damaged. It happens a lot that the painter, or casual labor scratches something, and you get blamed.

We have for ten years referred construction clean up to another company, but they are now out of business. This will be the last of my cautionary posts, but it is worth mentioning that some work is best left to others.