Selecting a Cleaner (First World Problems)

Pixie5740

I'm in the market for a cleaner and I've narrowed it down to a choice of two. Out of all the cleaners and companies I contacted they were the only two who wanted to see the place and discuss what I was looking for before giving me a quote.

There's not much difference in price, both use their own cleaning products and equipment, both are insured, and both accept bank transfers so it's not all cash-in-hand so how to choose?

I asked both for references and one gave me a list of people I could contact (I checked on Facebook to make sure they were just friends giving references.) The other said there were reviews on her Facebook page and there are and not just from friends but that's not quite the same as being able to contact someone directly and ask them questions.

One is a family run cleaning company. After speaking to a reference it sounds as though the father drops the cleaners off and checks for any notes because the cleaners themselves don't speak very good English. Her mum (who came out to do the quote) joins the cleaners every few weeks to make sure the cleaning is being done properly. The reference also said the cleaners change frequently. I guess I'm just worried that I'll be inadvertently hiring a company that employs trafficked humans (I'm probably being paranoid). Although I did look up the owner of the company and she is a nursery teacher so you'd like to think she's a good egg.

The other cleaning lot are 3 friends who clean together whilst their children are at school. Again I did a bit of Facebook stalking and that seems plausible.

Who would you choose or would you choose neither and keep searching. (Yes I know cleaning and ironing my own home is an option too.)

silvercar

I would go for the first lot, sounds like they are experienced and have a good set up.

The other group of mums could hit problems in school holidays or when the kids are ill at short notice.

Pixie5740

I am veering towards the first lot mostly because I was able to contact their references directly and they all had good things to say about the company. One lady I spoke to has been happily using them for 6 years so they must be doing something right.

AylesburyDuck

I'd be going with the second lot, i'm afraid i wouldnt be comfortable with the high changeover of staff and would dislike new people coming in all the time.

casper_g

Different people have different views on what constitutes a high turnover of staff. A customer who'd been using them for 6 years might perceive a couple of changes of personnel in that time as a high turnover, whereas actually retaining cleaners for a couple of years would not be an indication of problems in my opinion.


Can you get a better idea of what "the cleaners change frequently" actually means?

Pixie5740

AylesburyDuck wrote: »

I'd be going with the second lot, i'm afraid i wouldnt be comfortable with the high changeover of staff and would dislike new people coming in all the time.

That is a positive for the second lot. However, I was wondering how long that would continue for once the business grew and there was too much work for the 3 of them on their own.

The first lot started off as a mother & daughter team and has grown from there. The reason I got rid of my last cleaner is because she ended up with too much work for just herself so started giving work to her friends and the person I thought was coming into my home and cleaning was no longer the person coming into my home and cleaning. I only found out because I ended up working from home one day and got the fright of my life when some unknown face walked into my home.

Pixie5740

casper_g wrote: »

Different people have different views on what constitutes a high turnover of staff. A customer who'd been using them for 6 years might perceive a couple of changes of personnel in that time as a high turnover, whereas actually retaining cleaners for a couple of years would not be an indication of problems in my opinion.


Can you get a better idea of what "the cleaners change frequently" actually means?

Having spoken to some of the references "frequently" can be a change every year although it has been known for someone to start (usually there are 2 cleaners at a time) and if they aren't cutting the mustard are (presumably let go) replaced with someone else.