Is This Standard to Wash Dishes and Do Laundry at a Client’s House?

Clients Expectation

MagiCleanMaid dish washing 300x200 - Is This Standard to Wash Dishes and Do Laundry at a Client’s House?A lot of times clients expect professional cleaners or maids services to wash the dishes and do their laundry. And you don’t know if it’s expected or not. How did you make an agreement with the client? So in case you’re going to clean somebody’s home, and their expectations are not quite the same as yours, there is a huge issue. The problem is; When you went to do your initial walk-through with a client, you did not specify the difference between daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly chores. So there’s a whole different set of chores based on the frequency of when they need to be done. So when you’re showing up to someone’s house what is it, they’re expecting? Are they expecting to pay you to do their daily chores? Which include washing dishes, washing the laundry and doing all these things? Or are they paying you to do by weekly chores which are the dusting the baseboards, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning out the toilet and all those other things? So as the business owner you get to decide. You get to decide when you show up what chores that you’re going to be doing. So make sure that you make an agreement with a customer. On an initial walk-through always try to go through the details. For example stop at the kitchen sink and look if there are any dishes. If there are no dishes in the sink at that moment, tell them. I noticed that there are no dishes in the kitchen sink today, is this the way it’s always going to be when I come here? Or there will be days when you are going to have dirty dishes for me to wash. If yes, are you now paying me to do those dishes? Since the job that I’m bidding you today doesn’t have dishes in the sink. But if I show up and there are dishes, do you want me to leave those? Or do you want me to do them? Because I need to build in a little bit of extra time if you expect me to do those when I come.

Unexpected Chores

What do you do if show up to the house and there are a few dishes in the sink, do you do them? Did you agree to do them? If you did not agree to do them, you did not do them. What happens is the entire house will be immaculate. It’s sparkling. It smells nice. The house looks fantastic. And then there are a few dirty dishes in the sink. “Okay, my house cleaner didn’t do my dishes.” No. You didn’t because you said you wouldn’t. You agreed on day one you would not do those dishes. So guess what? Don’t do the dishes. That will only happen once or twice. Because you send a message to your customer, I’m not fooling around here. I can’t just go ahead and do the dishes because they’re only six. What happens is this; there are six dishes today, next time there are 10. Next time there are 20. Two weeks from now, or a month from now, you get there, and there are spaghetti all over the kitchen. There are crumbs from the garlic bread. There is stuff leftover, and the fridge is open, and there’s just stuff piling out. Because you’ve trained your customer then no matter what you said on day one, you would do whatever they left you. House cleaning isn’t an easy job and we work as house cleaners on a deadline. There is a very specific allotment of time for that house. Okay, so if you get to that house and it’s not like it was the day you bid the job, where there are no dishes in the sink, and the kitchen is already clean. The kitchen is super messy, and there’s stuff strewn all over – that’s going to take a whole lot more time, that you did not allot for. So you have to be very crystal clear right up; What are the daily chores? What are the weekly chores? What are the by weekly chores and the monthly chores? Which of these chores are you paying me to do?

Life Experience

MagiCleanMaid laundry 300x200 - Is This Standard to Wash Dishes and Do Laundry at a Client’s House?We had a lady who said, “I really do want you to do all of my laundries.” Sure, we can do that. But it’s going to cost more money, and it’s going to cost more time. Even though we can rotate the laundry and be recycling the laundry while we’re cleaning other parts of the house. At some point, we have to stop and sort through the laundry. We have to spray the stains. We have to fold the laundry and put everything away, that’s going to take more time. That costs more money.
That’s why right in the beginning you have to specify what the chores are, then you can agree on a price. And then whatever it is you decided, that’s what you do.

Extra Mile

Don’t go the extra mile and do extra things you’re not being paid to do. Unless it’s a Mulligan. But for the most part, you don’t want to set a precedent that says; I will do all these extra things that you left me because I’m just a nice person. Business doesn’t work like that. When you go to the auto repair shop, and you have your car fixed, they say we’re going to replace your tires. We’re going to balance them. We’re going to change the oil for your car. That’s it for this price. That’s what it costs. When you get your car in there, and they find out that a gasket broke, that’s what they’ll call you up on the phone. And they say; “You have a gasket that broke. That’s going to be an extra $30, and it’s going to take us an extra half-hour to put on, or an extra two days for the part. Do you want to authorize that?” And then you have to make an educated decision and say yes, I do, or no I don’t. So, it’s the very same with house cleaning. You don’t just throw in the gasket for free. Who does that? This is a cost of doing business. So when you get to a client’s house do exactly what you agreed on, and everyone wins. The guarantee that you are providing on the work you do, is based on the agreement you made, on day one. Please share this article if you liked this tip. Have any questions or comments? Please share them in the comment section below!

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