You get what you pay for. It’s a familiar refrain, but especially true of the home cleaning industry. Here are five cost factors to consider when comparing price quotes from one home cleaning service to the next:
Hiring. Cleaning service providers who invest (out of pocket) in their hiring processes deliver greater value by reducing your security and liability risks and identifying only employees who really care about delivering exceptional cleaning performance. Two good questions to ask prospective cleaning service providers are: What personality traits do you insist upon seeing in new hires? And what is your process for checking references and other important background information?
Training. Everyone trains their employees, but the size of investment a cleaning service makes in training new service providers can be a strong indicator of its commitment to service quality and protection of your home. For example, a company that invests in ample classroom time, observation and structured on-the-job training and testing is likely to deliver consistently better cleaning performance than a company that relies on only a day or two of on-the-job mentoring.
Cleaning tools and solutions. There are several cost factors to be considered around cleaning tools and solutions. First, be aware that many cleaning service providers will book your business at what seems to be a lower cost, then present you with a list of supplies they expect you to purchase regularly. For service providers that do bring their own tools and solutions, several additional questions are needed:
- On what criteria do they select products? Words you want to hear include: effective, efficient, safe, scientifically researched/designed and so forth.
- Do they match specialized tools and solutions to specific cleaning tasks? If the answer is ‘no’, they may be cleaning less effectively and efficiently and risking damage to your property.
- Do they use the same solutions every time they clean? If the answer is ‘no’, they may be sacrificing quality, cleaning effectiveness and safety for whatever happens to be on sale at the time.
- What precautions do they take to avoid cross contamination both among and within homes? For example, do they segregate tools used to clean your bathroom from tools used to clean your kitchen? Such measures may cost a little more, but protect your family’s health, which is invaluable.
Quality control. Familiarity breeds complacency. The cleaning service company that works hard to impress you in the beginning may let its standards slide over time, eroding your total cleaning value. To avoid this, look for cleaning service providers with: clearly articulated cleaning standards, processes and people dedicated to maintaining those standards, convenient customer feedback mechanisms and satisfaction guarantees.
Good business practices. People who run their businesses strictly legally and above board – pay all their required taxes, carry appropriate types and levels of insurance, and so forth – have higher costs compared to those who do not. And, while they may need to charge a little more for their services to cover those higher costs, their customers are exponentially better protected from a host of risks and liabilities, including injuries, property damage, theft, and taxes.
