Why I Got Fired From House Cleaning – Warning!

The Ask a House Cleaner Show and Podcast with Angela Brown

Why I got fired from house cleaning are the same reasons you and every maid will get fired from #cleaning. House cleaners don't have job security. you don't own clients. Anyone at any time can undercut your price and you get laid off. Angela Brown, The House Cleaning Guru gives some cleaning advice for every maid service. "Audition for the job at every cleaning. Fight for the job. Do your best work with pride.

Why I got fired from house cleaning are the same reasons you and every maid will get fired from #cleaning. House cleaners don’t have job security. you don’t own clients. Anyone at any time can undercut your price and you get laid off.

Angela Brown, The House Cleaning Guru gives some cleaning advice for every maid service. “Audition for the job at every cleaning. Fight for the job. Do your best work with pride.

Listen: Why I Got Fired From House Cleaning – Warning!

Watch: Why I Got Fired From House Cleaning – Warning!

Why I Got Fired From House Cleaning – Warning!

Hi there, I’m Angela Brown and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask your house cleaning questions and I get to help you find an answer. If I don’t have an answer, I probably know somebody else who does. I am connected to the best and the brightest minds in the house cleaning industry.

Now I’ve been professional housecleaner for 25 years, and I’ve made all the mistakes so you don’t have to.

So how do you ask a question? Well, you go over to Askahousecleaner.com over there in the bottom right-hand corner is a little blue button. When you click on that button a little microphone pops up. You put in your headphones with the little microphone recording thing on the side and you ask a question. When you ask a question, it sends it to me here at the show and I can help you find an answer.

Today’s Question – I Got Fired. Why?

Okay, so today’s question comes from a girl that just got fired from her account. And she writes in and she says “I’m really freaked out because I just got fired from my job and the woman says that I’m not being very thorough. And so how do I continue cleaning houses and not take that kind of stuff personally? I am my business.”

Why I Got Fired From House Cleaning – Warning!

Okay, that’s a great question because yes, in fact, you are your business. So, if you get fired from a client it’s going to hurt. There’s no way around that. You are the business.

You as a person go inside someone’s house and you clean. So, it is your skills your knowledge your information and your physical ability to clean house. That’s what they’re paying for. And so, if you’re not being very thorough you have nothing to lose because you’ve already lost the customer. They’ve already fired you.

Be Humble When You Are Replaced

So, this is a really great opportunity for you to reconnect with that customer. It’s not to be comfortable because in the beginning because you’re going to say, “well, they didn’t even fire me in person. They just texted me.” Well, that’s just terrible. And I’m sorry that happened. But you’re the boss and if you go forward into the next 20 years, and you never find out what you did wrong – your business is going to be a revolving door of people firing you without you ever knowing why.

So, you need to get really comfortable going back to the customer that just fired you.

Find Out Why You Were Let Go

I know, it’s like asking some who broke up with why. Right? And they go “It’s not it’s not you, it’s me.” Okay, no. It is you. It is you. You are the reason you got fired. So, you have to go back to the customer. And I suggest you do it in person or on the phone. Get in front of the customer and say “listen, I really appreciate your hiring me for this job. It enabled me to pay my bills or it enabled me, in my case it enabled me to pay for my braces, or whatever it is. And then you let me go. And I’m trying really hard to get better at what I do. Can you share with me a couple of ideas just one or two, that I can do to improve so that I don’t get fired in the future?

Now, they’ve already fired you. So, they have nothing to lose. So, they’ll probably be really honest with you, and they’ll probably say “well, here’s why I let you go. And the reasons that they give you are probably the real reasons. Some people will beat around the bush because they don’t like confrontation. But the truth of the matter is there are a lot of things that you are doing that your customer will never tell you. And until you ask them they will not come out and just say “hey, by the way, you’re probably trying to improve your business. And I thought I’d give you a couple of pointers.” They’re not going to do that.

You’ve Already Been Fired from House Cleaning

So, you have to ask them “what can I do to improve?”

Now for me specifically as I was getting started, I went to every customer in the beginning.

I’d cleaned their house once or twice. And I said “hey listen, I’m trying to improve. Can you give me one or two pointers?” And they hadn’t fired me or anything so they’re like “Sure. Here’s what I would really appreciate. And so, from then on, I incorporated all those little things at every single house.

Pay Close Attention To The Details

Now they were foolish things. One guy would say “I will know that my house is clean when the combs on the fringe carpet are all combed, and they are all facing the same direction.” That is how he would know his house was clean.

And I would ask my customers “How will you recognize that I’ve been here?” “How will you know your house is clean?” There was one lady who said, “The slats on my blinds will be turned backward instead of forward and that’s how I will know as I walk in that my house is clean.”

Okay. Then I started doing that every house so I would know just walking in the house, well I already dusted those blinds. Oh, I’ve already fixed this carpet because I’ve already combed all the fringe.

And so is a series of little tiny things that you incorporate this says without a doubt Angela was here. The places immaculate. She did an amazing job. This is a way to provide excellent customer service. There are 20 little things that are different from every other housecleaner that I’ve ever had come to my house.

Don’t Get Fired From House Cleaning

So, it is your job to go back to the customer and find out what is important to them. Because what is important to one customer may not be the same thing that’s important to another customer. But you need to make sure that if it’s important to one customer that you’re doing it to all the customers.

There was one lady who said, “I will know my house is clean because my house will smell clean.” Okay, well, between you and me clean does not have a smell. And so, unless I’m using some probably toxic chemical or something that has lots of fragrances – your house is not going to smell like anything. Okay? Clean does not have a smell. It’s smell-less. So, for her, I would put a cap full of Pine-Sol in her toilet when I was done cleaning the house.

Strategy Prevents Getting Fired From House Cleaning

And then I started doing in all the toilets in all of the houses. And when she walked in she would smell the clean scent, flush the toilets and then the rest of the house was clean. Because I had cleaned the rest of the house. I didn’t just put the Pine-Sol in and then bolt. I actually cleaned the house.

But that was away, just a small signal to let her know that “yes, in fact, this meets your criteria.

Okay so if you’re getting it fired – and it’s going to happen because the house cleaning industry is a revolving door. You will get fired. And I’m really sorry that’s the case. I just have to let you know right up front, you will get fired. But as you get fired, use that as an opportunity to go back to the client and find out what you can improve.

This is your business and you are responsible for moving it forward.

That’s it for today and until I see you again until we meet here, leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.

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