New Breed of Cleaners

With my recent problems with finding quality subs, I'm starting to wonder what happened to work ethic in this industry? Are all new cleaners just chasing a buck and don't want to have to earn it?

I've gone through 6 subs over the past year and they were all the same, none of them wanted to actually work. All they ever want to do is cut corners and encap everything....and charging premium prices to boot. All I ever get is "Well, it didn't look that dirty, so I just touched it up" or "I don't work weekends" or my favorite "I just like to scrub in some encap and be done with it". Hell, not one of them owns a vacuum.

Is that what is coming up in the ranks now? If it is, then a quality cleaner should double their rate, because he is a very rare breed and about to go extinct. Maybe we do need more immigration...send me some people with a work ethic please.

(Rant over)

-rant- that's not a rant; now Joe is one that could rant.

You should try the talk to text app. Can really get some looooooooong comments posted.

Never the less....... I hear ya.

Matt; My carpet cleaner wrote:-rant- that's not a rant; now Joe is one that could rant.

You should try the talk to text app. Can really get some looooooooong comments posted.

Never the less....... I hear ya.

Thanks Matt, I needed that!

Its not just cleaners straight encappin its franchises. Ever heard of Oxifresh they CRB everything and their target market is residential.

I had a customer hire me a few years ago that wasn't impressed. She said they were spraying the carpet with a pump up and instead of a spray it was a stream. She asked him about it and he said it would be fine.

Oxi-fresh hit this area about a year ago. Drove around in little cubes and advertised the hell out of there method of cleaning.

They held an auction a few months ago to unload the business.

There is a skill to using encap as a cleaning process, but the industry is filling up with cleaners trying to make beer money and that is making things tough for the professionals. They act like it is some kind of magic dust that you can spray onto carpet and then bang, everything is clean without having to perform any work.

I believe that you earn your money through brains or brawn and seeing this generation in the work force act like they deserve money for nothing just irritates the heck out of me.

Good grief what is this world coming to, I'm getting ready to go hit a couple of spots that came back from 1 month ago of encap/bonnet clean at a nail salon. Fortunately she told me the carpet still looks great, don't want a bunch of ladies upset.

What a LOT of these new breed of cleaners don't know is customer reviews or ratings are NOT just from quality cleaning service, I've seen a whole lot of bad reviews in the Internet around here in LA from customers saying their cleaners are late and no show. I'm not saying quality is not important but quality alone is not going to get you to where you want to be or where you should be, showing up when you're suppose to show up is equally as important as doing quality work.
Last year we were late to customer's home less than 10 times ( the whole year ) and we didn't show up a total of 0 times. I'm not bragging about us, just simply showing cleaners that are willing to learn about responsibilities to not waste anyone's time if you don't want them to waste yours.

We know things happen, flat tires, equipments break down, etc, that's why we always call ahead of time to update the ETA, if they're scheduled between 10 - 12 and we know we'll be there closer to 12, I always try to call them as early as possible and let them know because it seems like when I'm 200% sure we'll make it on time, there's always things that prevented us from getting there on time.
You might say oh I'm a solo cleaner with no back up van / machine, there's always ways around that, buy a portable, or network with other local cleaners in your area, they need your help as much as you need them, it may not be with work, it could be with parts if your local supplier is far, I've helped a local cleaner that bought my TM with a couple of parts when he's in a pickle and he helped me with great advices when I need them.

brianbenaiah wrote:Good grief what is this world coming to, I'm getting ready to go hit a couple of spots that came back from 1 month ago of encap/bonnet clean at a nail salon.  Fortunately she told me the carpet still looks great, don't want a bunch of ladies upset.

 Sure they cam back

Great referral opportunity though. Ask if you can leave business cards

Good point DP there have been a lot of quality cleaners that have gone out of business doing quality work should be a given.

If you go into a home and make the lady of the house uncomfortable by your lack of people skills, bad attitude, creepiness, she will not call you back no matter how good of a job you did.

Mo wrote:Good point DP there have been a lot of quality cleaners that have gone out of business doing quality work should be a given.

If you go into a home and make the lady of the house uncomfortable by your lack of people skills, bad attitude, creepiness, she will not call you back no matter how good of a job you did.

Oh so true!  I can normally tell when I'm in that situation when they say to clean everything, except the master bedroom.  People get very uncomfortable with a stranger working in there.......well, maybe it depends on the definition of "working",

Like Dp said, you are evaluated not just on the cleaning quality, but the entire experience.  Your personality, equipment, punctuality, appearance, quality,, everything.  That is why you change your shirt between jobs, keep your tools clean, wash the van, fix the vehicle leaks, etc.  It is all part of the show....I do think the personality / charm is the biggest one that a cleaner needs, but the rest is also important.

Yup, I said it.  Personality / charm is probably your most important asset in a service business.  The customer has to be comfortable having you in their homes and like the experience.  Just look how many people don't see a dentist regularly...it is not a great experience, so they don't go unless they have to.  You don't want to be called only when they "have" to.

Mo wrote:

brianbenaiah wrote:Good grief what is this world coming to, I'm getting ready to go hit a couple of spots that came back from 1 month ago of encap/bonnet clean at a nail salon.  Fortunately she told me the carpet still looks great, don't want a bunch of ladies upset.

 Sure they cam back

Great referral opportunity though. Ask if you can leave business cards

The morning went great, stains came out. She was so happy that she kept texting me to leave my business cards on her desk. I through in a complimentary bonnet clean on all the area rugs and walk ways which really got 2 more jobs.

Fantastic....sounds like a good circle for referrals, should keep growing.

In my experience, referral in carpet cleaning industry works to some extent, I wouldn't give too much free work to my clients in hopes for referrals, this is valid for salons which I heard work great for carpet cleaners referral.
I would make that exceptions if they gave me referrals, then I will give them discounts or throw in small things for free.
That's just me though.

immigration probably needed.

mexican - american exchange program

take one lazy bum who drinks 96oz big gulps of fructose corn syrup and eats themselves into disability, which personally I dont think should qualify them as being "disabled"

and drop them off in mexico to fend for themselves with no magical check in the mail each month

bring in one hungry hard working Mexican, 75% of US problems solved boom


I have some overweight family members so not meant to offend anyone but its true... were the only country in the world that will just dish out free money to anyone who chooses to gain enough weight and you better believe theres people in every city playing this angle. Free retirement? never work again? sounds like they hit the lotto

why on earth would we not at least regulate the food they can buy? oh thats right big pharm companies get rich off of the whole deal, they love it when they need 5 pills a day to stay alive.

rant over

I'm with you AC....you hit clear notes.

ACpower1 wrote:immigration  probably needed.    

mexican - american exchange program

take one lazy bum who drinks 96oz big gulps of fructose corn syrup and eats themselves into disability,   which personally I dont think should qualify them as being "disabled"    

and drop them off in mexico to fend for themselves with no magical check in the mail each month

bring in one hungry hard working Mexican,    75% of US problems solved boom


I have some overweight family members so not meant to offend anyone but its true...    were the only country in the world that will just dish out free money to anyone who chooses to gain enough weight and you better believe theres people in every city playing this angle.     Free retirement?   never work again?    sounds like they hit the lotto

why on earth would we not at least regulate the food they can buy?    oh thats right big pharm companies get rich off of the whole deal,    they love it when they need 5 pills a day to stay alive.

rant over

Wow, I missed this, couldn't have said it better, hats off to you AC !!

Now when people run out of unemployment they go and file a disability claim saying that they are depressed because they can't find a job. There are even lawyers that will help get peoples claims through. Then we have true American hero's coming home from wars and can't get the benefits and care that they earned. I don't see much hope for this country.