What I want to do is get everyone confident in the business processes. Specifically, with selling, recruiting and coaching. Today we start with selling.
There are three things that I would like to mention regarding sales.
Number one is customer engagement. Make sure before you walk into any sales meeting, you feel in a position to listen because we are all about solving problems. You must be inquisitive; this is where your conversation will derive from. It is all about where you come from. Before you go into a sales meeting always make sure that you feel bright, interested and open.
Number two is how you come across. 70% of your impact is made up of how you look. We always have a visual impact wherever we go. It is all about making sure you polish your shoes, brush your hair, the little things make a difference. I went on a sales meeting and it is rather embarrassing, I went to some offices in Cheltenham, I did not get the contract due to the fact my boots were unzipped. The whole time the client was looking at my shoes, making a judgement based on my footwear, as most people do.
Mel pointed out that she pulled up to a client’s house in an uncleaned car and speculated weather the state of her car would make an impression on her clients. It is very true. They will be looking out for any sign of lackluster work.
When you are ordered and tidied yourself, it gives you a mood boost. How you come across is so important, you should always be thinking about ways that you can do that. Perhaps make your skin glow, put a bit of blusher on, I may be difficult to do whilst sporting a mask. There are some customers who may not like the masks and ask you to remove them so be prepared for that. (As long as you are in a situation where you can). Some clients may have already had the coronavirus and therefore will be fine with you working without one. If you are not putting yourself or anyone at risk. As housekeepers we are always encountering others so be extra certain that you are not contaminating others. Also make sure to air the rooms.
Number three is showing love, how do you do that?
We do that by 1, understanding company values. This can be making a difference. To make help somebody with their home can not only make them feel better but also yourself. If you want to make a difference you begin looking around the house to places where you can be of significance. Mel will tidy and reorganize things as she is working in order to make a visual impact on her clients.
2, we go the extra mile. Occasionally working for a few extra minutes to make sure that you have completed your task. We are all for time management, but it is all about the spirit of the pacing. For example, a potential client said that his housekeepers kept asking him for a deep clean for triple the hours, but he was not able to see a difference in his home. He said that the only extras they would do is hoover which is the absolute bare minimum. These cleaning companies are trying to do as little as possible; they are not looking after their customers and obviously have no sense of pride. They are getting told off for doing too much, Neli worked for another cleaning company previously and got in trouble for giving up a few extra moments of her time to go the extra mile. In this scenario you cannot use intuition or make a difference. Whereas clients would be grateful for you doing those small extra things like hanging the washing out, the things that they do not expect. Never just leave something dirty, if you are there to do a specific job but you see something else that needs cleaning, do your best to make time for it.
Jo went to the trouble of taking down a ladies Christmas tree. This poor lady couldn’t reach the top of her tree to take the lights down and was waiting for her son to visit to help dispose of it but because lockdown was still imminent, she was forced to wait. Jo made her day with this tiny action that took less than 10 minutes. Most cleaning companies would see this as extra work they have not been asked to do. Going the extra mile comes from the spirit within you, it is a positive attitude. We are all about providing a service to be proud of. To give us a good name.
3, Understanding the client. Everyone is slightly different. You might use a certain technique with one person but with others they may not like things done in such a way. I had one client who hated when we would fold the little triangles in their toilet rolls because she thought we were wasting our time doing it. You will find little things that each client might like or dislike. Another client likes all her blinds to be the same length in each of her rooms which makes a huge visual effect. This links back into our core cleaning technique of zooming in and out, to make sure everything is ordered and nice. Sometimes people will not understand why a room looks so good once a housekeeper has finished cleaning, it’s all about the aesthetics.
4, show care. Neli was asked to clean a lady’s car because all the valet services are closed due to the pandemic. Her client had large dogs that she had been transporting in her vehicle which had made it muddy, furry and smelly. Unfortunately, that day it was raining so she kindly declined with the promise of cleaning it next week which she has since completed. Again, most cleaning companies would decline, saying that it is not part of their job. We are different, we are all about sharing the love. I just met with a client who is a lawyer and musician, he recently let go of his previous housekeepers. I asked him why he is looking for new housekeepers. He told me how upset he was that whenever he asked his previous cleaners to clean something for him, they would give him lots of excuses as to why not and give him a lot of attitude around it. Whereas if one of our housekeepers met him and was asked this we would respond positively and find a way to make it work for him. We come from a place of care. Care and service which to us means love, you give yourself to the job and always give you absolute all. Your client would much rather hear “yes, let’s see what we can do and give this a real go” than someone saying, “Not so sure, I can’t do that.” Mel is the perfect example of why a positive attitude works every time as she has just had a part time client ask for her full time. Unfortunately, she is fully booked but this will not stop her from training someone up to be of the same high standard as herself. Another thing to note is that clients get attached to their housekeeper. Which will be more noticeable as you train more candidates.
The one thing we need to be is problem solvers. We must always be willing to say yes, we can handle that. Housekeepers need to have their clients back, which really resonates with us as a housekeeping company. You don’t necessarily have to always be saying yes but at least go as far as, understanding their requirement and finding a way.
Finally, often people ask what our written service agreement is. Often, we are asked if a client is not satisfied and they want to terminate their contract what should they do. It’s very simple, they just let us know they don’t want us anymore. We won’t go back, we won’t ask for payment, there is no notice fee. This is because never in my years working as a housekeeper and running a cleaning company, we have only ever had one person ask us to cease cleaning for them. This client requested a test clean. The housekeepers we sent to do this did an incredible job, they worked 2 hours each, were really happy with their end result. Once they had finished, I was sent a picture of a few hairs left in the sink, the client said that she wasn’t satisfied. To which I replied, with hand on heart, we apologize if there was a hair but it does not represent who we are. On the first clean in a new home there are bound to be a few things missed this is not a reflection of our housekeepers it is normal. The client insisted she wasn’t happy and didn’t want us anymore. So I told her that’s fine, she doesn’t have to pay, we just won’t come back again. About a week or so after this I found out that she was doing this with other companies in order to get her house cleaned for no money. This has only happened to me once in 20 years, it’s a very rare occurrence. We work on trust, that’s part of the client housekeeper relationship. Once that trust is broken there is no need for that associate. Usually when you do that first clean, working with a team, you tend to go back and check on each other’s work to make sure nobody has missed anything. This way you are working on feedback from one another. It also works when you are dealing with a client who will only complain to get out of paying.
Cleaning is a canvas, it’s like writing a book. Once you have finished writing you will go back and proofread. There will always be times when you go into automatic mode and may miss something. Some even set an alarm on their phones so a few moments before the end of their clean they can spot check their own work and make sure they have done a good job.