Ask a House Cleaner, Tip the Owner, Savvy Cleaner

Tip the Owner Of The Cleaning Company?

Tip the owner of the cleaning company? Some cultures believe in tipping their house cleaners. But not the owners of the cleaning service. Some say you should tip your cleaning specialist no matter who it is. Which is correct? Do you tip your maid even if she owns the house cleaning business?
 
Today on Ask a House Cleaner we dig deep into the psychology of tipping. We look at ways to tip your cleaning service provider when you don’t have money to give. And we’ll even show you how you can thank your house cleaner in a way that is memorable and will bring them more business.

.

Podcast Rss Spacer Savvy Cleaner

Listen: Should You Tip Your Maid if They Own the Cleaning Company?

YouTube Spacer Savvy Cleaner

Watch: Should You Tip the Maid if They Own the Cleaning Company?


Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer.

Ask a House Cleaner DIY Question Spacer Savvy Cleaner

Question: Should I Tip My House Cleaner If She Owns The Business?

 

Today’s question comes from a homeowner who has hired the woman that owns the house cleaning company.

So the woman that actually shows up to her house to clean is the owner of the company. And she wants to know, “I know in some cultures, it’s not considered appropriate to give a tip to the owner of the company. So should I skip giving this woman who cleans my house a tip? Or should I give her a tip?”

That’s the question.

Ask a House Cleaner Answer Spacer Savvy Cleaner

Answer Comes from Speaking With Thousands of House Cleaners Over 25 Years

This is an awesome question because there are cultural differences where some places you do leave tips, and some places you don’t.

hand of money giving tip, vote with your moneyI’m going to step on a limb and I’m going to give you a really bold, brassy answer where you cannot go wrong.

The woman that is cleaning your house works for a living. She’s trying to earn money to pay her bills.

That’s just the root of and the bottom of what’s going on.

She’s making a living, just like everybody else. If you give her extra money, I promise she will not be offended.

She will not say “No, no, don’t give me tips, I’m the owner of the company, that’s inappropriate.” If you ask her she may say that you are not obligated or expected to give tips. But if you give them to her, she will be grateful.

How Much Money Should You Tip Your House Cleaner?

It depends on so many things. But go with your heart. How much can you give? If you want to give her an extra ten,  twenty-five or fifty bucks. God bless you.

It’s not going to be weird and it’s not going to be inappropriate.

In fact, I do recommend that if you like the service you’re getting, that you reward that behavior.

Reward The Behavior You Want to be Repeated

We know in psychology 101 the behavior that you reward and pay attention to is the behavior that gets repeated.

There’s a really twisted version of that but here’s how it works.

In our society, when people get sick, we call them up on the phone and we say, “Oh Jenny, I’m so sorry that you got sick. I’m praying for you. I hope that you feel better.” You say all these things with good intentions and with sincerity. family visits Mom in hospital

Then if Jenny gets really ill and she has to go to the hospital, we take time out of our schedule. “Oh, I must go see Jenny at the hospital.”

We don’t go see Jenny when she’s well.

But we pay attention to her being sick.

We go to the hospital, we visit Jenny, but because she’s deathly ill, we take some flowers, and maybe a little teddy bear to cheer her up.

And we’ll even stop by the gift shop and buy a “get well” card.

So now, she’s got balloons, and flowers, and a teddy bear and a get well card. That say “Oh, we are sorry that you are sick.” 

Feeling Bad Never Feel So Good

And do you know what you’ve done? You’ve just given Jenny all this amazing attention. And accolades for being ill.

And there’s nothing, I mean she gets nothing for being well.

So the next time she wants to feel needed and appreciated and important, what happens is she is going to get sick.

3d characters celebrating sickness

And then we are obligated to go through all these rituals and routines all over again. Because we paid attention to that behavior.

So instead of paying attention to, (and it’s not bad behavior,) it’s just unfortunate that our society places so much value on being sick and ill and having surgeries.

The benefits are so great that people even at an unconscious level become sick and recreate the scenarios that brought them love and attention.Just so they can feel valued as a person.

Twisted. Totally twisted.

Questions 6 Spacer Savvy Cleaner

Don’t Pay Attention To The Behavior You Want To Stop

So pay attention to the behavior you want to be repeated. And don’t pay attention to the behavior want to go away.

If your house cleaner screws up something, don’t pay attention to that. Because guess what? If she wants to get even with you. “Oh, I’ll show you!” And she’ll do more of that. We all know about hot buttons. You don’t want your house cleaner to know what your hot buttons are because you don’t want to be manipulated by them somewhere down the road.

It’s like a nagging spouse. “Why didn’t you do this? Why didn’t you do that?” And if you’re the one being nagged, you’re not inspired to make a change.

If you want to inspire people, catch people doing things right.

If your house cleaner does something right, and you pay attention to that. You give them a tip, you encourage them you say “Oh my goodness when I came in today my kitchen looked amazing.” You don’t have to say “My bathroom looked like crap, and you skipped a few things.”

What happens is they are like “Wow, I did a really great job in the kitchen, I’m going to try harder next time on the bathroom. I want her to say that about the bathroom too.”

Like Spacer Savvy Cleaner

Positive Reinforcement Is An Awesome Tip You Benefit From As Well

Woman jogger running from cupcakes, repeating behavior rewardedIt’s like when you start to lose weight.

And you go to school or you go to work or wherever you go and people are like “WOW. Are you losing weight? You look amazing.” And you’re like “Yeah, I guess I am. Thanks for noticing.”

And now it comes time for lunch and you’re like Wait a second, I’m not going to eat that. I mean, you know people are noticing. They’re thinking that I’m looking pretty good right now, I should probably continue my program.”

So, if, you want more good house cleaning, pay attention to that. Yes, give your house cleaning lady a tip.

Leave a Rating & Review – It’s A Way Of Saying Thanks

cartoon hand leaves rating and review as tip for job well doneIf you’re broke and you don’t have the money, and you’re scraping by to try to come up with enough money just to get your house cleaned, you can leave her a rating and review.

And I encourage everybody to do this.

If you have a house cleaner, get on yelp. Give them a five-star rating. And let everybody know “how pleased you are with the service.
Get on Nextdoor leave a rating for your house cleaner.

Get on MyNeighborhood.com leave a rating and review for your house cleaner.

If you have a neighborhood Facebook page. I know that my neighborhood has a Facebook page that is exclusive for my neighborhood.

Leave a review that says “By the way, I got Charice coming over to clean my house on Tuesdays. She’s out of this world. She’s outstanding, she’s amazing. If you need a reliable, reasonable house cleaner, give her a call at: 123-456-7890″

And when you leave that, guess what? It not only gets back to Charice, but she gets a lot more business as a result of your recommendations. 

A Rating and Review is Another Form of a Tip

Tip your house cleaner by leaving a thumbs up on referral sights

referral spacer Savvy Cleaner

And Send Referrals

 You have neighbors. When you talk to your neighbors, let them know about your cleaning service provider. If she has any openings or a wait list your neighbors can get their houses cleaned too. 

Referrals are another way you can tip your house cleaner.

So, should you tip your house cleaner? Yes, you should.

hands collecting money, tip for the owner

You should pay attention to everything that your house cleaner does correctly. Because you want more of that.

And so, it sounds really silly, but house cleaners are human. A lot of them live alone. Some of them have small children. Some of them are in relationships that are not very healthy or encouraging. And so, when they come to your house if you’re the person that gives them Atta boy’s and encouragement “hey this looks amazing.”

They are going to trip over themselves, and they are going to go out of their way to try to do more of that.

And so, if you have a chance, I mean it’s entirely up to you, but if you have a chance, and you want to tip your house cleaner – absolutely.

If she’s the owner of the company and that’s inappropriate – big whoop. So, you broke a part of culture, but you know what?

She feels appreciated and she’s going to go home with a bounce in her step. Maybe she’ll buy something nice for herself, maybe she will use your tip to pay bills, but guess what? She looks at you now as a different type of customer.

You’re now a customer who appreciates her. And when you are a customer who appreciates your house cleaner, suddenly you just went into a whole new level and you are treated differently.

Choose to bless the lives of those who bless you.

5 Stars Spacer Savvy Cleaner

So that’s my tip for today. If you found this tip helpful, please leave me a rating below. Let me know what you think. 

And until I see you again, leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.

0 Savvy Cleaner Spacer Savvy CleanerDisclosure

During the shows we recommend services, sites, and products to help you improve your cleaning and grow your cleaning business. We have partnerships with these companies to provide you with discounts, and savings. By clicking on and buying from the links in the show notes, we may receive a commission which helps pay for the production costs of the show.

Support the show so we can continue to bring you free tips to improve your cleaning and help you grow your cleaning business.  THANK YOU!

About the Show

Learn how the show came to be, interesting facts about the show host, and other frequently asked questions about the show.

Resources For This Episode

 

 

Permissions To Share

You Have Our Permission To Share This Episode

Show Sponsor

SAVVY CLEANER – House Cleaner Training and Certification – https://savvycleaner.com

HOUSECLEANING360 – Referral database of the world’s most prominent home service providers and the homeowners they serve. https://housecleaning360.com

Scroll to Top