Once you have gone through the first three stages you will get to the point when you might like to give your housekeeper a trial. I recommend that is exactly what you do.
If you like the person and you think they have grasped your needs, I recommend you get them to do a trial clean for you. This is useful not just from your prospective, but also from theirs. They can check out whether they can work with you, communicate issues etc, and you can work on that together and work things through.
Housekeeping can take two or three months before you can get into the rhythm you are both happy with. Communication is important – but I will cover that specifically in my next tip.
After the trial, obviously check how good the level of cleaning was – check the surfaces, kneel down to the surface level and make sure that the dust has been removed consistently. If you see that the cloth has gone through the surface but has not been thorough, then you know that your housekeeper either needs more training and feedback or maybe this person just isn’t right for you.
Make sure that the person turns up on time. Sometimes housekeepers who have multiple jobs during the day may not start at exactly the time that was arranged.
If you housekeeper is paid for the hours they are there, obviously you want to be confident that person is there for the whole duration agreed. I do know from clients I have spoken to in the past that they were disappointed when a housekeeper would leave half an hour early and felt they were not getting the service.
It is important that you feel confident that the housekeeper is there – or you may have a different agreement, which is that they are there until the job is done. That can be tricky to manage, because sometimes the jobs can take longer than expected. What I tend to do is engage housekeepers for a period of time, and then when I see that the finish the jobs early I give them extra jobs to really blow the client away.
It could be that the place was left very messy and it took them 20 minutes to tidy up before they could actually clean the room. If that is the case, it would be nice to have some communication from them explaining that this week somebody will have to be missed, for example.
It is all about trust.
You need to ensure that your housekeeper knows how to do the job, which you can ascertain by doing spot checks at eye level of surfaces, kneeling down to look at the floors and the corners, making sure that all the little pieces of dirt have been picked up. It is lovely to know that they have done that but also to make sure that there is no damage in the property. Make sure your housekeeper takes care whilst using the equipment they are given (vacuuming etc), using appropriate attachments so they don’t leave scratches on the walls/ceilings when removing cobwebs.
You want to have real confidence in your housekeeper and a trial is a great way to find out whether you can work together. It may not be perfect in the beginning but as long as you feel that you can communicate and move forward that’s more important than having a perfect job on your first trial.
Remember that your relationship with your housekeeper can be a journey – as the will need to learn how to look after you and your home. It is an important decision to make.