Small Business Notes – Page 5 – Singing about Cooking

17 Clean April Fool’s Pranks

Posted on April 29, 2014September 17, 2026 by singingaboutcooking

You know cleaning is a serious business when April Fool’s pranks like these keep us laughing for years.

Stephanie Harden
House Calls, Cincinnati, OH

Working for a builder in Cincinnati performing Final Cleans, our company was hired to perform maid service at the builder’s home. On April 1st quite a few years ago, myself and co-worker were nearing completion of his service, and it hit me! I called the owner on his cell and proceeded to explain that after I had completed his top floor and headed down to the main level, I walked into the dining area and his ceiling had dropped to the floor in the area of the Jacuzzi tub in his master, and water was gushing everywhere; we could see the bottom of the Jacuzzi above us.

It must have been at least a minute before I finally asked, “Josh, are you there?” A few more moments went by until I heard a very low and drawn out, “What!” I waited another 30 seconds and said, “Josh?” …a few more seconds…he answered in the same tone “What?” I REPLIED, “APRIL FOOLS!”

He made several attempts to repay me. On one occasion, he called our office after we performed a cleaning for him that day and proceeded to let me know in no uncertain terms that we had closed his cat in the master closest and the cat had freaked out and s&%t all over floor, walls, clothes and shoes!!! And “when were we coming to take care of the mess!!!!???”

It took me a few seconds with my response of, “Won’t work, Josh!” He mumbled under his breath and hung up.

Mike Rathbun
Freedom Cleaning Services

One April Fool’s Day several years ago, I posted on our Facebook page an elaborate story about opening a new location in Billings, MT (my home town). The story mentioned that we would be transferring most of our staff to Billings to help the new location get up to speed.

I had a couple of resignations, and words that cannot be repeated here, that morning when the staff gathered. I think that was the last time I pulled an April Fool’s joke on my staff.

Brenda Stankus
Classic Touch Cleaning

The funniest prank was when a customer lifted one of her toilet seats, both parts, and stretched saran wrap over the porcelain bowl and then put the seat and lid back to normal. When we put product into the bowl, it all just sat on top until my employee realized what was going on. The children were outside the door watching and giggling so then she caught on. It was fun and we all laughed about it at the office too.

Brad Smith
Mr. Carpet Cleaning Company

Liz Trotter

American Maid Cleaning Service

One year I did a bunch of small stuff:

Cotton balls in everyone’s shoes so they were tight
Turned the office’s computer screens upside down (In Control Panel, enable Rotation; then use ctrl, alt, up/down arrow to switch)
Switched the keys for our cars on the key rings
Changed the language on the company phones to French
Changed the covers on everyone’s cells so they all had the wrong ones
Switched cabinets in the kitchen
Hid in my closet so when they came in I wasn’t there
Wrote funny things for them to do on their work orders, like scratch the dog for five minutes and use a brush to clean all baseboards by hand, especially behind furniture.

Here are some of the more complex April Fools pranks I have pulled on my staff:

All of our people leave the keys to their cars when they leave in the morning. I moved them all around; the ones that were far away I moved up close and vice versa. It was funny how many people walked out to where their cars always are and thought their cars had been stolen.

I called a team and told them that one of their clients had cameras on in the house yesterday, and I was giving them a chance to tell me what happened before I take further action; call me when they were ready. They called about an hour later and said that two of the girls had switched bras, but they never would have done it if they thought the client was watching! So weird!

TC called me to prank me, and said she had just spilled Shooter (a chemical) on our client’s $25,000 rug. Her voice just sounded weird, so I told her I’d call her back. I decided to prank her back and called back really upset sounding, saying I can’t afford this and it will actually potentially bankrupt me, so I needed them to roll it up and bring it back to the office right now; we’ll throw it in the dumpster and pretend we have no idea what happened. She was dumb-founded and broke into tears! I felt a little bit bad, but she did start it! We all got a good laugh.

One day I called the teams around mid-day and told each one of them that we got this huge job added on that we couldn’t pass up. They would be working until about 8:00 pm, and I would bring them Taco Bell to get by. They weren’t happy, and I learned a valuable lesson about throwing jobs on and expecting people to just do my bidding!

Once I changed all the clocks in the office forward an hour. After we got about four people here, I got them all in on the gag and they would all hide. When the next person would come in, I’d act surprised and say, “What are you doing here? I already took you off the schedule.” It would last until the next person got there and they’d join the hiders who were listening. This was funny.

Internet Spring Cleaning
In 1997, an email message spread throughout the world announcing that the internet would be shut down for cleaning for 24 hours from March 31 – April 2. This cleaning was said to be necessary to clear out the “electronic flotsam and jetsam” that had accumulated in the network. Dead email and inactive ftp, www, and gopher sites would be purged. The cleaning would be done by “five very powerful Japanese-built multi-lingual internet-crawling robots (Toshiba ML-2274) situated around the world.” During this period, users were warned to disconnect all devices from the internet. The message supposedly originated from the “Interconnected Network Maintenance Staff, Main Branch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” This joke was an update version of an old joke that used to be told about the phone system. For many years, gullible phone customers had been warned that the phone systems would be cleaned on April Fool’s Day. They were cautioned to place plastic bags over the ends of the phone to catch the dust that might be blown out of the phone lines during this period.

Originally published on April 29, 2014 at CleaningBusinessToday.com.

3 Declining Metrics You WANT to Have

Posted on April 16, 2014September 17, 2026 by singingaboutcooking

Sometimes, when things are looking down, it’s time to smile. The lower you can get these three metrics, the faster you can reach those higher goals.

As a society, we are well conditioned to focus on “up is good; down is bad” as a general rule of judging measurement, especially when talking about business. You know what you want to see going up: Revenue, Profit, Number of Clients, Visitors to your Website, Followers on Facebook.

But there are three key metrics that give you an even better understanding of your business’s health. And with these, the lower the number, the healthier your business and more successful your efforts.

1. Client Attrition or Loss Rate
Your Client Attrition rate measures how many customers you lose over a specific period of time. Most businessesreport retention as a monthly percentage, but all businesses that are committed to developing a high level of customer loyalty and are putting in the time and effort are measuring this number weekly – sometimes daily.

It’s simple: How many customers cancelled service forever today? Now answer that question every day from now on. At the end of the month divide the number of customers on the last day by the number of customers on the first. That’s your Client Loss Rate – and you want that to be as low as it can be. Why? Because when it’s high, the next metric climbs, costing you money.

2. Cost of Customer Acquisition
You probably know that to figure up your profit, you have to subtract your supplies, labor expenses and overhead from your revenue; but did you remember to also subtract the cost of your marketing, advertising, lead nurturing, the estimator’s time and travel? All of those expenses went in to helping you get that customer to agree to pay you for your skilled services. You need to make sure you aren’t spending more than a customer is worth.

This is another one that is often reported as an annual figure, but tracked and measured monthly. Add up all of your marketing and sales expenses for, say, a one month period: email service subscriptions, cost of prizes given out as incentives, add agency fees, television spots, flyer and business card printing, etc. Then divide that by the total number of new customers gained during that month. Compare the dollar figure month to month. If it’s going up, something’s not working in your favor; if it’s going down, keep up the good work.

Note: if you track the referral source of each lead and new customer, you can also figure up the cost of acquisition for each separate marketing tool. This can help you know which campaign to scale back when it stops working for you.

3. Website Bounce Rate
One of the most misunderstood metrics in all of online marketing is the bounce rate: how often website visitors are leaving your website after seeing only one page. The goal of online marketing is to get people to click through to your website. The goal of your website is to give them a reason to click around to the different pages and learn things that will make them call or email or book service right online.

The great part of this metric is that Google Analytics will tell you what your bounce rate is. Even better, Analytics lets you set up time period comparison so you can see how you’re trending. And even better than that, Analytics color codes the rate to remind you that a downward angle in green is a good thing.

Why do you care? Well, if visitors are leaving your site before they get to the good stuff, then your website isn’t doing a very good job of convincing a lead to do something: click for more info, download a freebie, ask a question in your live chat bubble, share an article from your blog, or anything else that requires them to click on something on that page. The interaction stopped, robbing you of that lead and potential customer.

Metrics tracking doesn’t have to be hard, but as the saying goes “What gets measured gets improved.” ~Robin Sharma, The Greatness Guide: Powerful Secrets for Getting to World Class

CeCe Mikell is the Editorial Director for Cleaning Business Today, coming to the cleaning industry from a 15-year career as a college professor of communication and business. She also works with several cleaning business owners on business development projects.

Originally published on April 16, 2014 at CleaningBusinessToday.com.

Published Writing, Small Business Notes

Stop Asking the Wrong Questions about Pricing Your Service

Posted on April 15, 2014September 17, 2026 by singingaboutcooking

Each company’s pricing sweet spot is different, so dig in to the full complexity of figuring up your perfect service price for your market.

Yes! Yes, there is a WRONG question to ask about pricing your service. You know it already. You’ve seen it a million times on LinkedIn boards, on Facebook, in listservs, at conferences. And it comes in a couple of variations:

– What do you charge for your services?
– What should I charge for my services?
– What is the industry average rate for cleaning services?

What! You didn’t know that was the WRONG question? That’s okay. You’re not alone.
Benchmarking your prices against those with similar sized businesses and in similar markets isn’t a bad idea. But even benchmarking doesn’t help you sort out why you’re having a hard time turning a profit if you haven’t answered three basic questions. Cue the math lesson!

1. What does Getting the Customer Cost You?

This question popped up on the ARCSI LinkedIn board just last week, with most responders citing anywhere from $200-$600 spent for each customer acquisition. To recoup that cost, you need to be able to account for it as part of your price. Calculating the cost of customer acquisition is pretty simple:

Total Cost of Campaign / Total Number of Customers Gained Through Campaign

Keep both the cost per campaign and a running total to inform your Marketing Plan and your overall business budgeting decisions each quarter.

2. What Does the Cleaning Cost You?

Of the three questions and calculations, the cost of a cleaning is a lot more complex that it seems.

If you’ve never calculated the cost of a cleaning before, start with the simplified version to get a baseline: (labor*hours) + supplies and equipment. This calculation is useful and reasonably accurate for companies with no office or support staff.

When you’ve got the hang of tracking the cost of each cleaning job, you can begin to run an overall average as well as averages based on zip code, neighborhood, square footages, number of rooms, frequency or any other way you’ve chosen to segregate the various types of jobs you book.

3. What Does Keeping the Customer Cost You?

Also called Customer Retention, the cost of keeping a customer long-term is a combination of service delivery, following up with the customer on a regular basis, and adding value the longer the customer is with you. Use this video to begin calculating the cost of customer retention and compare the value (or savings) of retention over acquisition.

So while that classic but “wrong” question is direct, the answers you get are not useful to you unless both you and the other companies answer those questions above with almost the exact same answers. But even then, your goals and timeline are likely different, as is your market; both of those factor in to what you eventually decide to charge.

Lucky for you, ARCSI recently published an industry benchmarking report for residential cleaning services. The report is available for purchase by non-members and is free to members.

Finding the Sweet Spot for Your Price Levels
Here’s the good news. Research into how customers perceive price differences indicates that, in general, the first number in a price is perceived as the most important and gets the most priority when two or more prices are compared. For example, people tend to think of $4.99 as being more closely related to $4 than to $5.

How does this work for your pricing levels? Well, most cleaning companies expect to earn the most revenue from customers who schedule more frequent cleaning jobs, namely weekly and biweekly. Those customers who schedule monthly or “special” cleanings may pay a higher one-time price – always nice in the bank – but you lose out on the build up from recurrence. So set your higher frequency cleaning rates in the lower bracket ($20s or $30s) and the lower frequency cleaning rates in the higher bracket ($30s or $40s).

Remember, the research shows that the first number is more important to the consumer in influencing the buying decision.

To Publish or Not to Publish Your Rate
Armed with real numbers from inside your own company, you are now in a much better position to judge where your rate will fall within the commonly cited $25/hour – $45/hour rate range for residential cleaning (or per room or per square foot, whichever you determine is most effective for your operations).

But making your rate “fit” in that range isn’t a magic pill for getting more customers, especially if you aren’t publishing your hourly rate as several newcomers are doing: Homejoy is proud for all to know that it charges $20/hour, and smaller online cleaner referral services encourage cleaners who register with them to publish their rates by the hour, by the room or by the job. Beyond that, lead generators like HomeAdvisor and RedBeacon are collecting data from every estimate provided through their system and show shoppers what they can expect to pay for various home services, nationally and in their local area.

There’s something to be said for price transparency. For many consumers, it’s a point of trust; if they can’t replicate your estimate in some reasonable fashion, then there must be something fishy about how you’re coming up with their rates.

For cleaning business owners, price transparency seems scary. Why? Ask even the multi-million dollar cleaning companies, and they’ll tell you that margins are small and labor costs more than they want it to. And telling the competition what you’re charging seems to give them an edge, either in figuring out what your costs are or even just flat out undercutting your prices to take business away.

But the precedent for price transparency in cleaning services is being set even as we track this week’s revenue. Start small. Use open-ended phrases like “starting at $29.99/hour.”

CeCe Mikell is the Editorial Director for Cleaning Business Today, coming to the cleaning industry from a 15-year career as a college professor of communication and business. She also works with several cleaning business owners on business development projects.

Originally published on April 15, 2014 at CleaningBusinessToday.com.

Published Writing, Small Business Notes

Insider Voices: Leading the Support Staff Inside Your Cleaning Business

Posted on March 19, 2014September 17, 2026 by singingaboutcooking

Three internal leaders/managers talk candidly to owners about being the “middle child” in the cleaning industry.

It should not be surprising that with more than 30 years’ experience between us with our current cleaning business owner/bosses that we’d say that our current boss is the best leader we have ever worked with. Who are we? We are the leaders of the support staff for three of larger cleaning companies in their markets:

Rachel Farquer
Leader: Derek Christian, My Maid Service, Cincinnati, OH
Current: Owner/Operator of My Maid Service – Dayton, OH
Previous: Technician, Customer Service, Trainer, General Manager for My Maid Service – Cincinnati, OH
Tenure: MMS-Cincinnati for 7 years; MMS-Dayton launched February 3, 2014

Mindy Stewart
Leader: Liz Trotter, American Maid Cleaning Service, Olympia, WA
Current: Office Manager
Previous: Team Member, Coach, Trainer, Customer Service, Office Manager
Tenure: 15 years

Orvetta Treasure
Leader: Tom Stewart, Castle Keepers of Charleston, SC
Current: Office Manager
Previous: Technician, Customer Service, Office Manager
Tenure: 12 years

And we want to tell you want it’s like to become a leader in someone else’s company.

Oh, and the answer to your burning question is “Yes” – you will see glimpses of owner/leaders Derek, Liz, and Tom in this article, but they are not who this article is about. This article is about US – the support staff – and how we became leaders.

Being the “Middle Child”
If you have three or more children or have read the traditional profile of a “middle child,” then you know that the person stuck in the middle generally ends up being a balancer, a negotiator, a diplomat. Why? Because that middle child has to be both a follower of the older and a leader to the younger. That’s where we are coming from: the support staff that owners need to follow them in turn provides leadership to the cleaning technicians.

Ronald Miller, Director of Career Development at Francis Marion University, describes how a support staff manager/leader feels like this: “I’m not a leader. I’m one of the guys who gets things done and keeps the place running so the leaders have something to lead.”

It’s not uncommon for a newly promoted support staff member to feel like she’s not a leader. The fact is that she’s probably not. What’s worse is that the other staff don’t see her that way yet either. In this new role, we all had to prove ourselves not to just one person – our bosses – but to the staff whom we now lead.

Think of it this way: yesterday, before being trained to work in the office, we – my fellow technicians and I – were equal; today, we’re not and no one knows what it means or what to do. So it ends up looking like this:

· We are seen as the winners in a brown-nosing contest, power-hungry, and snobbish.

· Our job in the office is not seen as real work, as if what we do is not as important or deserving of an assumed pay raise.

· Staff who are older in age or who have been with the company longer constantly challenge us based on that fact alone – not performance or achievement – but a factor unrelated to our skills.

· We aren’t respected as leaders or managers by the cleaning technicians, a fact often illustrated by their attempts to bypass us and go straight to the owner with minor problems…or worse, playing us and the owner against each other on the same problem.

· We’ve been trusted with an owner’s heart and soul, something that owner has put love, sweat, and tears into (and probably still does); that’s a lot of pressure, something we might not have learned to the skills and strategies to manage yet.

· We’re responsible for knowing the company culture, living it, and coaching others to live it; there’s another area where we have a passion and desire to make it work but not always the strategies.

Some of these are challenges you’ve already faced down during your days at the single leadership level, but your role as the owner offers you special protection that doesn’t extend to us. But it’s the ways our various leaders have treated us that gave us the most confidence in becoming the leaders we are today.

Empowering Support Staff into Leadership
You might be wondering how this happened – how we grew to be leaders in our own right. Well, the first thing you should know is that we’re still not the leaders we know we can be and that our bosses know we can be, even though we collectively have been on this journey for many years.

Create a Safe Place for Us to Mess Up
Even when you’re lucky enough to hire or promote someone with a business/management degree or some experience from a previous career, we need to know that we can mess up and learn from our mistakes. We need that support, encouragement and sometimes a sharp poke in the ribs to try something new, push beyond what you know we can do or even what we think we can do.

Provide Personal Coaching and Goal Setting
Every boss does this differently and at different times in an employee’s tenure; but if you really want to build a leader who’s going to embrace your company the way you do, you have to make it personal. Work with leaders-in-training to tie our life and professional goals to achievable milestones within the company. And then loan us your network and your time in mentoring to help make it happen.

Open Up Leadership and Management Training to Us
It seems so simple to remind bosses to provide training, but as we’ve met “others like us” in the industry, we know basic leadership skills aren’t taught, practiced, and reinforced. We might get an article or a 1-hour free webinar once in a while, but a focused, concentrated effort is rarely part of the package. Change that. Between community colleges and online universities, good basic leadership and management training is available and a necessary investment if you want a competent leader in your office.

Get Out of the Way
Along the way, we like that you’ll stop and teach us something new and ask us to gradually take charge of that part of the business routine or even a whole project. But at some point, you have got to stop hovering and let us do it. Especially when it comes to our role as a leader to others in your company, we need to be seen as authoritative at least in the areas we’ve been given. And remember, we’ll mess up, so we encourage you to follow the Praise in “Public; Correct in Private” model not only for our own growth but also for reinforcing our role publicly within the company.

Be open to learning things from us.
This may be the most important thing you can do. We have had to teach our bosses some things about themselves. All bosses have some common behaviors that they can sink into that really stress out everyone: micromanaging, tracking your activities (as if they don’t trust you really did them), expecting genius on a moment’s notice, things like that. The trick is once again to get out of the way – this time out of your own way, bosses. Let us tell you what the specific behavior is, how it distracts us from actually doing what you need/want, and what we can say or do to alert you to the behavior before it derails a day or a project. (Whew! That last part was the hardest to get out.)

And at the end of the day, always remember that we – your support staff and internal leaders – follow because we believe in you and you have given us a reason to believe in ourselves. You have given us trust, an open mind toward change, clear expectations, and tools for improvement. But most of all, you have given us a model to follow, as the leader we aspire to be.

Originally published on March 19, 2014 at CleaningBusinessToday.com.

Published Writing, Small Business Notes

Strength in Numbers: Virtual Maid Service Marketplaces on the Rise

Posted on March 17, 2014September 17, 2026 by singingaboutcooking

Two of the biggest names in e-commerce are getting into the online marketplace.

The virtual maid service movement is coming into full swing with eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) and Angie’s List (Nasdaq:ANGI) moving into the online marketplace – connecting consumers more directly with maid service providers, including the ability to book and pay online.

In 2013, eBay tested its new marketplace eBayHIRE for service providers in the UK and has launched its beta version in the US. Similar to its product-based marketplace, eBay would provide its platform to service providers and enable consumers to shop for providers in their neighborhoods. Currently, eBay is reaching out to business owners with a 0% commission trial offer; it is expected that once formally launched, eBay will charge business owners listing services a commission similar to the one in place on the products platform.

eBay is preparing to go head to head with Angie’s List, who in late January 2014 announced its new integration with the mobile tool vWorkApp. This app allows the businesses listed on Angie’s List to do more than just build a robust profile, gain reviews and offer deals. With vWorkApp, businesses will be able to book a job and take payment right then and there.

The Angie’s List news follows announcements from similar lead generation-turned-referral agency enterprises like Homejoy, Care, Home Depot’s Red Beacon, TaskRabbit, and Exec. These online platforms all promote some variation on one-stop and economical shopping for home service providers; Homejoy originally launched as Maidjoy with a focus on providing inexpensive maid service providers to homeowners.

What we learn from this activity is that major online hubs that currently support consumer needs and activity are looking add to their repertoire; that is, they are adding direct services. Said plainly, they are getting into the maid service business too…adding a radically new player to the competitive field.

Originally published on March 17, 2014 at CleaningBusinessToday.com.

Published Writing, Small Business Notes

Leaders Defining Leadership: Cleaning Business Owners Sound Off!

Posted on March 4, 2014September 17, 2026 by singingaboutcooking

Cleaning industry leaders talk about people, places, and mistakes on their leadership journeys.

The cleaning industry – in fact, all industries – abound with leaders. Cleaning Business Today has been privileged to feature some of them in our Success Stories column in the past year, and we look forward to continuing to do so.

A leader is too often identified as the person who appears to be in charge—because she is visible, vocal, opinionated, sometimes demanding, the center of attention. Leadership is both much simpler and more complex than that: “[l]eaders develop a vision, mobilize others, take responsibility, and make changes that benefit others,” according to business leadership expert and coach Dr. Earl Walker. Leaders can be quiet yet attentive, creative and missionary, equalizers or dividers, all to achieve their goals. But above all leaders touch something in others that makes them want to act.

We can read books and articles about leaders, defining leadership, outline activities designed to teach specific skills that empower leaders, and we’ll find something pretty similar to these Top 10 Actions or Mind-Sets of a Great Leader:

Encourages and motivates the team members
Actively listens – to their staff, to their clients, to their communities
Explains to the team how its job is important and how its job is aligned with the overall mission of the organization
Stays open-minded when receiving criticism and constructive when offering criticism
Is persistent in applying these characteristics and behaviors in every area of his/her life
Maintains high ethical standards and practices and is a role model for those behaviors
Gets the team the resources it needs
Runs interference so the team can more readily achieve its goals
Builds trusting relationships through the appropriate use of feedback and self-disclosure (sharing your thoughts and opinions and mistakes with your team)
Creates a fun, positive work environment where the team’s successes are celebrated and recognized.

But leadership is much more personal than the lists experts derive from the tales of the leaders themselves. So we asked cleaning industry leaders what it’s like to be “that” leader, what they’ve learned from their mistakes, and what they have on their “to do” list every day that helps them become an even better leader.

Enid Tate-Shephard, Enid’s Cleaning Service
In the early years of my business, I’d have to give credit to each of my clients for inspiring my leadership, especially the difficult to please clients I worked for. My clients also taught me another lesson I pass on: “Every person has a story; it’s up to us to read it and understand it.” I was very socially backward and basically afraid of life. Through this business, I have learned to meet all kinds of people who vary from easy going and friendly to difficult, grumpy and critical to name a few. I’ve taken the time to understand my most critical clients to see what makes them the way they are. Once I can understand, dealing with them and pleasing them is a piece of cake! They also seem to really enjoy that I stick around and they treat me/us much better knowing we will stay and work at making them happy.

Greg Macchia, Clean Conscience
My mother is the leader that helped shape me in to the leader I am today. She raised 5 children on her own. She had a full time job, she volunteered, she cooked, she helped with homework and she did it all gracefully. She was a grinder!

A great small business leader has to plan. It’s not uncommon for a small business to experience double digit growth year after year. In order to maintain this pace you must plan for it. And to plan for it you’ve got to live and breathe the numbers. Like the old saying, “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” We have twelve metrics that I look at on a regular basis that we refer to as the dirty dozen. They are a snapshot of the health of our business.

It can be lonely being the leader of a small business. Small business leaders often don’t have a management team or an advisory board around them to share ideas, dissect fiascos or celebrate victories. You have to grind every day….the troops are counting on you!

Laura Barnard, Grakei Maids
As a leader, I encourage a work environment where people feel free to speak up and be proactive.Being receptive to my employees’ suggestions has proven to be extremely important when it comes to improving job performance and customer service. My leadership style involves putting the tools of success in everyone’s hands to meet the objectives I establish year after year. I understand that one half of leadership is inspiration and guidance, the other half is giving the employees the resources to attain the proper success within the Company.

Kristen Hadeed, Student Maid
I was a 19-year-old college student when I signed my first cleaning contract for 1000s of apartments…with only three cleaners. In the five years since then, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and from them I’ve learned that there are five main things every leader must do to be successful on a basic business level but also to be able to grow that business into more:

Create a vision for the company and share that vision with everyone in the company; make it clear how each person’s job connects to the daily activities toward achieving that vision.
Live the Core Values of your life and your company; this can be particularly difficult when you first develop those Core Values because it might mean you need to remove friends from your life and staff from your company.
Adopt a Tough Love approach; be willing to hold your staff accountable, even when that means having the tough conversations. Always remember that your job as a leader is to make people better.
Nurture relationships with everyone, from the day you hire them and through their career after they leave you; when I interviewed one of my first cleaners, I had no idea that going to her wedding five years later would lead to the connection I needed to expand to a second location.
Step back to gain Perspective; see, own, and share your failures. Too often leaders forget that failure is an opportunity for improvement, not an obstacle to success.

Alison Palmer, Custom Maid
My role model as a leader was my dad. He had more integrity, more confidence, more compassion than anyone I’ve known. I recently met an ARCSI member who said to me thatintegrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. I like that definition. I think a leader has to be firmly grounded in integrity whether leading a team of employees or a group of clients…or your kids.

The worst leader I have known is a boss I had for many years. Let’s call him “Joe.” An example of his leadership style was to expect everyone at work every single day no matter what. He threatened to fire a woman whose infant son was in the hospital if she stayed with the child. I used to cry before (rarely) calling in sick for fear of my job. When I started my business and an issue would come up that I hadn’t dealt with before, I would ask myself, “what would Joe do?” and I would do the opposite. Look where that got me!

Amy King, 2 Green Chicks
Find a mentor; that person will be your best tool in becoming a great leader. When I worked in the corporate world, I had a manager Darren Lyons who encouraged me to pursue my dreams of becoming a consultant with IBM. I had doubts and apprehensions about taking that huge step, but with his help, I did it and I never looked back. Starting a family and deciding to leave corporate America was another challenging transition, but with the support and experience I had gained working with Darren, I was ready to open and manage my own company. It’s this same mentoring that I try to give to my employees. And beyond having a positive and healthy relationship with your employees, you should also be a leader in your community. Being involved in community events, clubs and meetings allows me to not only focus on growing my business, but it helps to grow others in my community as well. It just feels good.

Stephanie Nesseth, Absolutely Clean
The leadership and success that I know is a life style. It’s who you surround yourself with, the discipline you have in your day to day life. Success becomes who you are, and it’s not necessarily about the paycheck. It’s a value; we are not ONE person on the clock, and another behind closed doors. We surround ourselves with people who support us with understanding and “how can I help?” mentalities.

I look for and see leadership in young people; they influence me to be all that I can be because I know that in order to truly lead, they must WANT to follow and WANT to walk in our footsteps. Each year, my company organizes a large carnival fundraiser for our foundation, and we have started pulling in young people to help. The leadership that comes from them is truly inspiring. They influence their peers and are making a difference. Leadership isn’t about the titles or the money in the bank. It’s how you inspire others to make a difference as well.

Originally published on March 4, 2014 at CleaningBusinessToday.com.

Published Writing, Small Business Notes

Trending for Cleaning Business Success in 2014

Posted on December 10, 2013September 17, 2026 by singingaboutcooking

In an uncertain business environment, key business moves to improve your marketing in 2014

Since cleaning businesses find success in areas with high concentrations of their target consumer, it should be no surprise that the “urban uprising” identified by Moen’s department of consumer and market insights is a good thing for the growth of the residential cleaning industry. But it still won’t be easy marketing to the different groups of inhabitants in this new urbanity.
Moen identifies three primary groups, with different ages and origins, but ultimately similar needs when it comes to a clean home and work environment:

Urban Nesters (ages 49-67)
Single Gen X’rs (ages 36-48)
Upscale Gen Y’rs (ages 18-35)

All three of these primary urban market groups share a key element of the buying mindset: they are all looking for ways to improve their life experience, no matter the size of their home space.

Let’s look at business trends emerging in response to that growing demand.

Steady Growth in Demand for Chemicals and Sustainable Choices
Despite the use of the general term “chemicals,” the Industrial & Institutional (I&I) Cleaning Chemicals Forecast for 2014 and 2019 (prepared by the Freedonia Group) indicates an increase in demand for the various types of chemicals used to clean and sanitize homes, offices, healthcare, multi-family and industrial dwellings.

The sale of disinfectants and sanitizers is the fastest growing area of the industry in the constant battle against viral and bacterial threats in food preparation areas, restrooms, and healthcare settings. General purpose cleaning agents remain the bulk of the product in demand.

One of the more sustainable chemical choices for cleaning continues to see growth in consumer and manufacturer demand. US demand alone for enzymes is expected to rise 4.8% annually to 2014. While the use of enzymes in a cleaning procedure requires a reworking based on the time it takes for the enzyme to work, the long-term sustainability of the results seems to meet the expectations of the “green” consumer well. Enzymes can also be used to contain and remediate industrial bio-chemicals that threaten the environment, like those used in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill of 2010.

What does this mean for the cleaning business owner or BSC? First, it means that more space is being cleaned, proof that the market for the cleaning industry is strong and growing. However, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily growing in your local market.

Second, higher demand for products often leads to slightly higher prices, especially for more specialized products used in cleaning procedures. Businesses specializing in “green” or “organic” cleaning will want to budget more for supplies to accommodate higher prices. Alternatively, specialty cleaning services should revisit equipment investments that could reduce supply costs in the long-run.

Automating Your Sales Process
Automation is leading the wave of consumer response products, with continually more streamlined buying procedures, especially online and mobile-enabled options. So what does automation look like for consumers shopping for a cleaning service? A no-fuss estimate for service, usually acquired online without having to go through the extra steps of dialing and waiting and listening to someone’s sales spiel. Home services referral sites like Homejoy and Care.com have really embraced the online quoting and booking demand and provided consumers with a one-stop shopping location.

For business owners, a first step into automation may be using available cloud services to make the marketing and early sales process a (mostly) hands-off procedure. This frees up more time for the phone and face-to-face sales representatives to do their work – the close. This is another way automation can help a business improve the customer’s life experience.

Advantages:
Several online estimating tools exist and several are in testing to empower a cleaning business to customize and offer this price-shopping option to website visitors. Such a system helps to weed out the price-shoppers (aka bargain shoppers) and educate those who aren’t. Just think, after 3-4 online quotes that all come in pretty similar, the common price shopper is likely to either adjust her thinking about the value of home cleaning and place a call or stop shopping for services she can’t or won’t afford.

Disadvantages:
Beyond the sales and scheduling process, automation is now encroaching on the services themselves. Leading retail automation experts at AVT have developed a new system for Rug Doctor to facilitate carpet cleaning equipment rental at stores:

Now, instead of waiting for a store employee to assist with a carpet cleaning rental system – which hassles both the customer and the worker – now anyone can get the machine with a simple swipe of a credit card. A door opens up, the machine is accessed, the customer is happy. Returns are equally as easy. This automated system has fundamentally changed the way people rent and return carpet cleaning equipment.

This is becoming an increasingly common way to empower the Do-It-Yourselfers, especially if it’s hard for them to get the services priced and scheduled using the existing traditional methods.

Image-centric Marketing Generates Higher Response
Question: have you looked at Facebook’s 5:1 rule for ads and promoted posts? That’s the ratio of graphic to words allowed on a paid ad on Facebook. The reason is simple. Facebook’s internal metrics show that that’s the kind of advertisement (aka marketing) that consumers are responding to. Facebook enforces their rule because it makes them more money even while it’s leading more money-spenders to you!

So here’s the short of it. In everything you place in front of consumers, focus on a “less is more” visual appeal:

Revise your main webpages, email marketing, even printed marketing pieces to emphasize the visual – more pictures, fewer words.
Begin designing your marketing with the graphic – for cleaning services, a “before,” “after,” or resulting life experience graphic is likely to do the trick.
Expand your outreach to one or two of the more graphic-focused social media outlets: Pintrest, Instagram, Tumblr. This has the added advantage of helping you create more backlinks to your website, which further strengthens your SEO and website rankings.

Perhaps an article by Forbes about trends said it best: “There is a sense that from the hyper-connectivity of our highly-digitized lives to the bright, flashy, complicated sensory input we’re fed everyday, there is no way to continue at this pace.” This movement forward creates space “where the most successful marketing strategies will be ones that are not only simple in nature, but promote goods and services that serve to simplify the consumer’s life, or even just their customer experience.”

Originally published on December 10, 2013 at CleaningBusinessToday.com.

Published Writing, Small Business Notes

Cleaning Up Your Networking Plan for Convention

Posted on November 12, 2013September 17, 2026 by singingaboutcooking

Networking – like any other business activity – requires a plan, measurement, and correction/improvement if you’re to be successful at it.

With over 16,000 people to meet at the annual ISSA/INTERCLEAN Trade Show and associated conventions for ARCSI, BSCAI, and IEHA, your post-convention tasks can stack up pretty quickly. It’s easy to get bogged down in turning new marketing strategies into a marketing plan for the next year. It’s even easy to make a list of all of your products, prices, and long-term costs and make some supply switches. But what usually gets lost in the melee is your follow-up networking. After all, the people you meet are the most constant and the most concrete resources you’ve acquired at the convention.

Networking is perhaps the single most effective tool you have toward meeting your business goals. Whether you are trying to buy a business to expand your empire, sell your business, add divisions and specialties toward diversification, solve a problem or exploit an opportunity, a healthy and thriving network offers you the opportunity to talk to experts on any issue you might have, especially business owners who have “been there; done that.”

Now before you begin to craft a networking plan, know upfront that networking is money-cheap but time-expensive. As you create your plan and work through each step, be careful to make choices that clearly benefit your business. Your time is expensive, and you want to be able to measure the ROI of your networking.

1. Start networking before the convention

Yes, your networking starts before you actually meet anyone. All of the organizations convening in Las Vegas next week provide a list of others who are exhibiting and sponsoring various events.

The key here is to think of the vendors not simply as suppliers. With many having more years in the cleaning industry than the average cleaning business, these vendors are rich resources. They work closely with cleaning contractors on a daily basis and spend their time developing solutions to custom projects and unique problems. And they are also humble; if they can’t give you the insight you are looking for, odds are they will know someone who can.

Of particular value is the ISSA app where you can browse the list of more than 690 vendors who will be showing at ISSA/INTERCLEAN. Using this app and the online schedules from the other associations, you can review vendors and presenters you’d like to meet. Reach out to them NOW and make appointments to meet, even if for only 15 minutes.

You may also be able to review a list of association members who are registered for the conventions; take a look at those names, think of who has been a thought leader on LinkedIn or other professional discussion boards, and reach out to make plans to meet those people as well.

2. Organize those names and contact information

Between business cards, flyers, presentation handouts, and random notes on napkins, receipts, and tiny slips of paper, sorting through the collection of new contacts can be daunting.

With each contact you gain, jot down a note on their card about how you think you might work with that person now or in the future at the time you meet him/her.

Later, you’ll be able to make priority piles based on when you think you’ll want to work with them: 3 months, 6 months, 12 months. A twelve month pile is as long as you want to go because, if they’re still around in 12 months, you should see them again next year at the convention.

3. Send each a personalized message

Set a schedule for sending out personalized messages to each of those contacts. For your 3-month pile, make it a priority to get that message out about 10 days after the convention ends. Why delay? You want to avoid getting caught in the pile of emails that stacked up while you were all at the convention together.

It’s equally as important to follow up quickly with the folks in your longer-term piles. You’ll want to establish and nurture a good relationship with those new contacts so that later when you’re ready to initiate a project together, you’ll be ready to hit the ground running.

So what should you write in these messages? Business writing expert Lynn Gaertner-Johnston offers a simple formula for that first message, one that is designed to promote continued dialogue:

Mention the meeting and conversation – to jog their memory
Refer to something specific from that conversation, especially something you want to make a mutually-beneficial activity
Suggest a way to continue the conversation – a meeting, phone call, site visit, etc.
Attach an article or include a link that supports and strengthens your connection
Tell them what you will do next in relation to your connection

Click here for examples.

4. Connect in a variety of methods

It’s easy to get stuck in the electronic mode – connecting by email – but don’t forget that phone calls and even face-to-face with local representatives can lead to even richer networking opportunities.

Enter the contact into your address book – whether that’s manual or electronic
Connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other shared platforms
Sign up for each other’s newsletters – yes, encourage even the vendors to sign up for your business’s newsletter to give them a way to keep up with your business without always having to call you and ask what’s going on.

What happens from there is largely dependent on the success of that first follow-up communication you sent out. Be sure to track those messages and continue to reach out when at first you don’t succeed:

Did the recipient respond?
Did the recipient respond in the way you asked or expected?
What is your next move?
Did you put it on your to-do list and your calendar with a deadline?

As with all business activities, a clear, decisive plan of action, a method for measuring success, and the opportunity for course correction and improvement are essential for networking to be successful…until next year’s convention when you’ll add a whole new group of new connections to your network!

Originally published November 12, 2013 at CleaningBusinessToday.com.

Published Writing, Small Business Notes

There’s no such thing as a “green” disinfectant, says the EPA

Posted on October 15, 2013September 17, 2026 by singingaboutcooking

There’s no such thing as a “green” disinfectant, according to the EPA. Disinfectants are designed to kill and so do not meet “green” expectations.

Except for the EPA-established TANCS system used exclusively in the Advanced Vapor Technologies Ladybug…the only EPA-recognized disinfection device to date and which meets both the EPA standards for disinfection AND all green expectations! The TANCS system is the ONLY device that the EPA has validated as a disinfection device!

Even more important from this article: the EPA will not accept green-certified products for registration as disinfectants, nor will the EPA allow green certifications of products to endorse product claims about disinfection.

Lesson: there’s a HUGE difference in being an EPA-registered disinfectant and “meeting EPA standards for disinfection.” Make sure your company’s marketing claims don’t overstep their bounds!

The following appeared in various research studies and reports through May 2011, as reported at CleanLink:

Disinfectants are designed to kill, hence, they are not considered “green.” Disinfectants, however, are necessary in specific applications, such as an operating room. This is where product usage and facility priorities come into play. The BSC needs to work with the facility to identify what kill claims are necessary and determine what types of products carry those claims. From there, the BSC can try to find the “greenest” product.

The “greenest” option may include a neutral pH (safer for the worker than something highly alkaline), low or no VOC (improves the indoor air quality for building occupants), or no phosphates (that can be harmful to aquatic life).

BSCs should also consider the intended product use. Infection control through disinfectant use is important in high contact areas (door handles, faucets, etc.). Low contact areas, like floors, may be better served with a good cleaner. The BSC should be willing to discuss these alternative cleaning options, as well as alternative chemical options, with the facilities they service.
— Rebecca S. Kaufold, chemist, Spartan Chemical Co., Inc., Maumee, Ohio.
Even though in the United States there are currently no green certified disinfectants (as not allowed by EPA), BSCs should review and compare the following attributes in disinfectants and advise their customers of that fact and why they are using a particular disinfectant.

First, look for disinfectants that do not contain Nonylphenol Ethoxylates (NPEs) or octylphenol polyethoxylates (OPEs) and have a pH value close to 7. Second, compare level of detergency (cleaning ability and more is better). Third, look at the parts per million (PPM); the higher the better. Fourth, look to ensure the disinfectant has any required kill claim. For example, if the customer is concerned about swine flu (H1N1), ensure that specific kill claim is on the label. Lastly, look for a disinfectant with very broad kill claims.

More importantly, advise the customer that you will not be overusing disinfectants (just because they are usually less expensive than a quality cleaner), and when you do use them, it will be with proper procedures — pre-clean, apply disinfectant, allow required dwell/wet time, rinse or wipe dry as per label instructions.
— Mike Sawchuk, vice president, Enviro-Solutions/Charlotte Products, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

The US EPA office responsible for registrations is not allowing certification of disinfectants or sanitizers by organizations such as Green Seal or EcoLogo. Similarly, they are not letting companies claim their disinfectants are “green” or “environmentally preferable.” The reasons are complicated and are based in the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The bottom line is companies can’t claim their products are green due to FIFRA.

BSCs should use the right product based on their needs. Killing bacteria, viruses, and mold is an important part of a sustainable cleaning service. Work with your supplier to get the right product for the job.
— Dan Daggett, Ph.D., manager, Corporate Sustainability, Diversey Inc., Sturtevant, Wis.
Interestingly enough, a recent article published by Infection Control Today, indicates the mechanical removal of germs was more important than the chemical or actual disinfectant, when cleaning hard surfaces. Even when disinfectant and/or sanitizing products are used, the proper dwell time isn’t allowed. Nothing can replace a good general cleaning program and choosing safer cleaning products with low VOC’s with a minimal to no impact to the user and environment is the best solution.
— Brent Crawford, president, Core Products Co., Canton, Texas.

Originally published October 15, 2013 at CleaningBusinessToday.com.

Published Writing, Small Business Notes

Case Study: Handling Sexually Explicit Incidents

Posted on September 23, 2013September 17, 2026 by singingaboutcooking

How should you respond when your employees encounter sexually explicit situations? Our experts examine three real-life incidents and weigh in on how a Houston cleaning business owner handled them.

The Backstory
Julie Parish has owned a successful cleaning company, The Home Keepers, for more than 18 years. Her business is located in Houston, Texas. Recently, her cleaning technicians encountered three separate incidents of sexually explicit behavior or materials at three different homes they were cleaning. These unsettling encounters raised many questions about how to handle such situations as a business owner whose employees have been put in highly uncomfortable positions. “What do you say to a client when these things happen? And how do you prepare your employees to deal with these incidents?” asks Parish. “There’s a lot of grey area here. How do you know when you should drop a client? What’s the law on these situations?”

Here’s an overview of the three incidents. The first problem occurred with a new male client. It was The Home Keepers first cleaning at this client’s house. He was at home when Parish’s two, female cleaning technicians arrived. After having been closed off in his master bedroom by himself for quite some time, the client asked the women to clean his master bathroom. As they walked through the master bedroom to access the bathroom, the women realized that the client was watching pornography on his computer. One of them stepped away to call the office and report the situation.
“I told them to pack up and walk out, and don’t say a word,” says Parish. “The man had not been easy to deal with from the start. He’d cursed at one of my employees a few times over the phone and had been extremely rude to me as well, so I chose not to call him about the incident. I waited until he called me, which he did a few days later. He said, “The cleaning ladies told me they were going to their car to get something and never came back.” He asked why they had not returned. I explained that because he was watching porn, I had instructed my employees to leave immediately. I told him that I would not subject my employees to those kinds of things. I told him we wouldn’t be able to clean his house again. As for payment for the hours they’d worked, I told him we’d just call it even. Because of his past behavior, I thought he was going to write a bad review on Angie’s List. Instead, he just said, ‘That’s fine.’ We never heard from him again. We were lucky that time, but it’s difficult to know how to handle these situations with clients.”

The second incident happened only a few days later at the home of another new client. This encounter was much worse. In this case, a long-time client hired Parish’s company to clean her daughter’s home. Three of Parish’s female cleaning technicians showed up at the daughter’s home where they found her with her young daughter and six men. About ten minutes into the cleaning, the female client asked five of the men to go outside to the backyard with the child.

One of Parish’s cleaning technicians was working in the master bathroom when the female client came walking into the master bedroom with the sixth man. She was saying that she was horny and taking off her shirt. The female client and the man began engaging in sexual activities while the cleaning technician was working in the master bathroom. The technician turned on the vacuum cleaner to make sure the couple knew she was still in the bathroom. This changed nothing. In the minds of the cleaning technician, the female client clearly knew they were in the bathroom when decided to engage in sex anyway. After all, she’d asked the other five men and the child to wait outside. The cleaning technicians felt highly disrespected. The technician was so angry and humiliated she gathered up her stuff and walked through the room hollering in Spanish, “We’re leaving! We’re leaving!” The other two cleaning technicians followed her lead, left the house and called Parish from the car.

Parish recalls, “The moment I found out what was happening, I told my employees to come back to the office. I also called the mother – who was actually the person who hired us. I was embarrassed for the mother and didn’t tell her any details. I simply said that my employees were very upset and I needed her daughter’s phone number so I could speak with her directly. I called the daughter. I was just shaking, I was so mad! I told her that I had instructed my employees to leave her house immediately! I explained that they were extremely upset by what she was doing in front of them. I told her that what she did was SO DISRESPECTFUL and that we were ALL extremely upset! The customer apologized to me a couple of times, and asked me to please tell my employees that she was sorry she’d made them feel bad. I believe she was genuinely sorry. My thoughts at the time were, what the heck is happening in this world!”

The last incident was the mildest of the three, but still disconcerting. One of Parish’s cleaning technicians foundobscene pictures of two men engaged in sexual acts. The photos were lying across a bathroom countertop. The employee took a snapshot of the photos and sent it to the office. Despite the extremely graphic nature of the photos, Parish’s female technician handled the situation calmly. She gathered the photos, stacked them all together, turned them upside down and moved them to a corner of the room.

“We kept this male client as a customer,” says Parish. “I didn’t know if this was a one-time incident where he’d forgotten to remove the photos. I did not say anything to the client. The cleaning technician didn’t get upset. But what happens if this type of thing happens again. What’s the right course of action then? There are many smaller incidents that my cleaning technicians have to deal with on a regular basis. They find inappropriate things when cleaning bed sheets or bathrooms. I think that sort of problem is fairly widespread. What can a business owner do about those types of smaller incidents? And if you decide that a client has crossed a line and you don’t want to clean for them anymore, what do you say to them?”

Mel Kleiman, president of Humetrics
“Training is crucial for these types of situations,” advises Mel Kleiman, president of Humetrics, a company which has been helping employers standardize and systemize the way they recruit, select and retain frontline hourly employees and their managers for more than thirty years. “You need to prepare your employees to handle a wide variety of uncomfortable problems, from the inappropriate magazine or photo left in plain sight to the most egregious client behavior encountered by Parish’s employees.”

He adds, “Cleaning technicians are going into clients’ homes. They’re bound to stumble on intimate items. The question is: where does a company draw the line? I think the cleaning technician needs to be part of that decision-making process. If a cleaning technician feels truly uncomfortable in a particular client’s home because of that client’s behavior or items found in that client’s home, then that employee should have an outlet for communicating those concerns. I’m not a lawyer, but it will be interesting to hear what a legal expert has to say about Parish’s problem. My understanding is that sexual harassment laws have to do with how an employee feels in any given situation. With this in mind, company owners should have a process in place for employees to report “inappropriate” client behavior. If an employee feels truly embarrassed or uneasy about the working environment at that client’s home, then that process should enable them to request reassignment.”

Elizabeth J.V. Speidel, Attorney at Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A.
This employer handled the situation well. She told her employees to leave these homes immediately, which was exactly the right thing to do. Sexual harassment laws apply not only to employers, but to third parties, such as service providers and independent contractors. If an employer allows its employees to be harassed by a third party, that employer may expose itself to substantial liability and litigation.

Employers with fifteen (15) or more employees are required to comply with Title VII and to adopt non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies. For examples of such policies, I highly recommend that employers visit the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) website to read the exact legal definition of sexual harassment. Generally speaking, sexual harassment is behavior by a co-worker, supervisor, or even an outside contractor that is pervasive, ongoing and unwelcome. Further, employees who experience such unwelcome conduct have an obligation to report the behavior to their employers.

There’s no doubt that cleaning technicians are going to see private things in client’s homes. Sexual harassment laws are not designed to protect the faint of heart. Just because an employee is easily offended, doesn’t mean that he or she has a legitimate legal complaint. However, employers need to make sure they have a reporting process in place for their employees.

For example, let’s talk about how to handle the client watching porn. Yes, that’s really tacky, but unless he has asked the cleaning technicians to watch with him, I don’t know that this would meet the legal definition of sexual harassment. Anytime an employee encounters an incident like this and feels uncomfortable, though, he or she should have a way to report this behavior to his or her supervisor. The supervisor then has a record of the incident and can decide how to handle it in the moment or in the future if the behavior is repeated.

If an employee does make a complaint of sexual harassment, the employer has an obligation to conduct a prompt, thorough investigation into the complaint. No matter the result of the investigation, the employer should then follow up with that employee and tell him or her how it is going to deal with the situation. And, of course, an employee cannot be disciplined or terminated for filing a sexual harassment complaint.

Further, if a cleaning technician witnesses illegal activity or items such as pornographic pictures of children, drugs or physical abuse, he or she has a legal obligation to report this to a supervisor.

I also strongly suggest employers include language about sexual harassment and termination clauses in their contracts with clients. The EEOC has some sample language that employers can use in writing their contracts and terms of service.

Marilyn Suttle, Customer Service Trainer, and bestselling author of “Who’s Your Gladys?”
It can be alarming for cleaning staff members to run across sexually explicit materials or behaviors. From a customer service perspective, there are specific things you can do to maximize positive outcomes when handling challenges like the ones Julie faced. Keep these things in mind:

Document the process you want employees to take in your employee handbook. Sharon McRill, owner of the Betty Brigade, a company that cleans and organizes homes, has a written an outline of specific actions for her staff to take when feeling uncomfortable, including calling a supervisor, and quietly leaving the home.
Organize periodic sensitivity conversations. Employees can learn from you and each other so they develop discernment between over-reacting when finding a “toy” on a bedside table, or under-reacting to disturbing materials or illicit behaviors.
Calm down before phoning the customer. Otherwise your odds of escalating the problem go up. Replace “judgment” words like disgusting or filthy, with a description of the situation. Sharon McRill had to phone a regular customer who decided to wear a robe, minus underwear as her staff worked on his home. They phoned Sharon and were told to leave the home. Once she gained her composure, Sharon phoned the man. She could have said, “That’s creepy and I won’t subject my staff to that.” Instead she said, “It’s not acceptable for my staff to be in your home when you’re only wearing a robe. Our clients need to wear pants.” By remaining respectful but firm, she was able to get her point across and salvage the client relationship.
Clients who repeatedly act inappropriately toward you or your staff members, or who refuse to follow the necessary processes that allow you to do a good job for them, may need to be removed from your client list. Don’t let a customer’s disturbing behavior or lack of integrity adversely affect your business. Politely encourage such customers to move on to your competitors. An explanation as simple as, “Our business relationship is not a good fit for either of us” can keep the customer relationship respectful, even when it’s ending.

The information contained in our Case Study article has been supplied by the participants whose names are mentioned. The editors at Cleaning Business Today have collected and reported the statements of the participants, but have not attempted to verify the accuracy of the information supplied. Accordingly, Cleaning Business Today does not make any representation, warranty or undertaking expressed or implied with respect to the information contained in this article and no responsibility is accepted by Cleaning Business Today as to the accuracy or completeness of that information.

Originally published September 23, 2013 at CleaningBusinessToday.com.