“What do I do if the house cleaner makes me uncomfortable, am I stuck with them? Will you send someone else to clean my house?” It’s an all too common fear for new customers looking for a hire a house cleaner.
So, what happens when a homeowner wants to hire you after you to bid a job and… they’re scared you won’t return?
Listen: House Cleaner Makes Me Uncomfortable
Watch: House Cleaner Makes Me Uncomfortable
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. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.
House Cleaner Makes Me Uncomfortable
What if the house cleaner makes me uncomfortable, am I stuck with that house cleaner? Or can you send someone else? This question is all about what happens if you go to a customer’s house, you’re bidding a job and then they love you and they want to hire you.
But they’re afraid. What if you’re not the person that comes back to clean their house? So, they say, “Are you the one that’s coming back? Are you going to send someone else?”
You Will Eventually Send Someone Else to Clean
The answer is, “I’m probably going to send someone else. At some point, as my business grows, I will be expanding my business and there will be other people coming with me. So, it is possible that I may come. If I call out sick, it is possible someone else will come in my place.”
And then they say, “What happens if the other house cleaner makes me uncomfortable? Do you have another house cleaner you can send as a replacement? Or am I stuck with that house cleaner?” Which is a fair question.
And it’s not always about discrimination. Now, I know in many Facebook groups, it’s easy for people to get all hot-headed, upset and angry, because they think in the back of their mind, that what this is all about, is someone making a judgment that they don’t want any men in their house or that they don’t want any tall people in their house.
They Probably Have a Good Reason for Being Uncomfortable
They make them uncomfortable for some reason. Well, it’s possible that there is someone and it could be a particular person, it doesn’t matter who the person is. It could remind them of their ex-spouse, and you send that person into their house.
Although they’re an excellent house cleaner, it might only have something to do with their mannerisms, their quirks or the way they respond that sets them off and reminds them of why they got a divorce. Then they get angry and they don’t like that person at all. There are people we don’t get along with for whatever reason.
Some Cleaners Make Me Uncomfortable
I met one woman who came to me for a job interview. When she came in, I instantly did not like her. And I did not trust her. And I don’t know why. She gave me no reasons whatsoever not to like or trust her.
It was something that was going on with me. But immediately I did not like her. And she sensed that. She said to me, “You don’t like me, do you?” I said, “I don’t, and I don’t trust you. And I don’t know why I’m so sorry.” And I couldn’t hire her. We were not a good fit.
It is possible that you’re going to run into that in house cleaning. And it’s not necessarily about discrimination or about anything else. It could be something you don’t understand. And so, you have to be very careful and you have to play this very, very, very cautiously.
Explain That You’re a Non-Discriminatory Company
So, if you’re bidding a job and the homeowner asks you this question, you have to say, “Hey, listen, we are a non-discrimination company and an equal opportunity employer. And so, we hire all types of folks and they’re all trained and all professionals and they all know how to clean your house. So, when we send people, we send our best people to you because there’s no benefit to us to send not the best people to your house, right? We want you to become a lifetime customer with us. So, I’m going to lean on you. You to help me understand if there’s a particular glitch with one of the house cleaners we’ve sent you, I don’t know what it is. And I don’t need to know what it is. But if that house cleaner does not gel with you, for some reason, I need you to call me personally. Okay. Don’t take it up with the house cleaner. Don’t bring it up to anyone else, call me personally. And let me know that you have an issue, and I will help you try to resolve that issue.”
Tell Them to Have a Private Conversation With You
“We’ll see if we can’t talk it out, we’ll see if we can’t work it out. And if we can work it out, I might have to hire someone else, or we might have to part our ways and you got to go find a new house cleaning company. Okay? So, if, if that is the case, let’s talk between us.
It’s a private conversation with respect and understanding. And the fact that we know that whoever we’re sending to your house are our best people. They’re are perfectly qualified for the job, and they have families that they’re trying to put food on the table for. And so, if we can come to that agreement right now, I don’t think we’ll ever have a problem.”
And then the homeowner will usually say, “Okay, that’s fair.”
I Have Had to Move Some Cleaners Because They Made Clients Uncomfortable
Now in all the years that I’ve been cleaning, there are a couple of scenarios where we’ve had to move a new house cleaner off of a job, and quietly move another one in. The house cleaner that was removed from the job never knew the reasons why, and the person that was moved in never knew the reasons why.
We kept it completely on a professional level. So, we shuffled the schedules around a little bit, and they never needed to know that they made that homeowner uncomfortable, for whatever reason.
We don’t need to know the reasons why we just need to know if it’s not working. And we will jump through hoops if possible, to make the homeowner comfortable with the house cleaner.
We Want to Provide the Best Customer Service
You want to do your best to provide the best customer service. That’s what this is all about. So, there are lots of people that have things that have happened in their past. That there’s something that triggers it.
So, if we send somebody to your house and they trigger some moment of sadness or a horrific moment of fear, you don’t want that person in your house. We don’t either. We want you to be comfortable with the person that you hired, and if you are going to be at home, or if you’re watching this person on the home security camera, and this is causing you fear and anxiety, it’s not the right situation for you anyway.
As a company, we want to send in a person that can bring you joy. And when they leave, your house feels exciting and you’re happy that they came, and you will send us the referrals.
Help in Any Way You Can to Make Them Comfortable
So, we will help you in every way we can, but it comes with ultimate discretion and the understanding that we are going to try to work it out to the best of our honest abilities.
So tread lightly with this one, because there are so many things that can malfunction and you don’t want it to malfunction for you, but we want to serve everybody, including the house cleaner.
I don’t want a house cleaner in a home where the homeowner feels uncomfortable and they’re made to feel uncomfortable or disliked. I don’t want them in that situation. So, to protect your homeowners and your house cleaners, we have to be incredibly careful and cautious and kind.
Resources
These good karma links connect you to Amazon.com and affiliated sites that offer products or services that relate to today’s show.
Customer Empathy: A radical intervention in customer experience management and design – https://amzn.to/2W4BQYm
The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything – https://amzn.to/2vFZAbT
Intuition on Demand: A step-by-step guide to powerful intuition you can trust – https://amzn.to/2IrLzRq
Conversational Intelligence: How Great Leaders Build Trust and Get Extraordinary Results – https://amzn.to/3ar7PHB
At Personal Risk: Boundary Violations in Professional-Client Relationships – https://amzn.to/3bxXdqp
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