How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner, Angela Brown, Savvy Cleaner

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner?

How do you qualify a house cleaner? Residential cleaning isn’t a magic bullet, and there are no easy answers.

But there are lots of ways to find a local house cleaner when you want to hire a cleaning service. So, how do homeowners who want to pay a living wage to find a legitimate maid

Podcast Rss Spacer Savvy Cleaner

Listen: How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner?

YouTube Spacer Savvy Cleaner

Watch: How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner?


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.

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner?

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner, Angry Woman on ComputerHow do you qualify a house cleaner to make sure that they pay fair wages and that you’re not getting a random off of Craigslist? One house cleaner had this question.

I live in the Chicago area and I’m looking to hire a house cleaning service. I want to make sure that the folks I hire to pay the workers a fair wage. Or are a small independent business where they actually get to keep all the money.

But I also want to make sure that they’re going to do a good job and not hire some random person off of Craigslist. How do you suggest I find a quality housekeeper and make sure that I pay them a fair wage?”

There Isn’t an Easy Answer for This

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner, Confused Man CleaningUnfortunately, there isn’t an easy answer and you can’t wave a magic wand and say, “Poof, here is the answer.” There are as many different types of cleaning companies out there. There are house cleaners and there are customers and so there’s no magic wand.

But there are a couple of common things that are consistent with every single hiring process. So, if you are a homeowner and you have house cleaners, you are going to have a house cleaner for a very long period of time. Or at least while you’re a homeowner and you own that house.

And so, this is not a random process where you’re going to pick up the phone and call the first person that’s there.

We Live in the Social Proof Age

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner, Men TalkingWe live in the age of social proof, which means you get to ask your neighbors, who do you use that you like? And if you ask five or six of your neighbors, you’re going to get a pretty good answer from people that are “Eh, they’re okay.”

Or you’re going to find somebody that’s like, “Oh my goodness, I’ve got the most amazing house cleaner ever.” Okay, what you’re looking for is the most amazing house cleaner ever, and they’re not cheap. So, you have to be willing to pay the prices.

Now the second thing, mentioned is that you wanted to pay a living wage. So that is a question you would build into your question when you interview or ask a company to come over and give you a job estimate. “Tell me how you pay your employees. Do you pay them by the hour? Do you pay them for the job? What are the qualifications on which you pay them and do they make a living wage?”

Find Out the Rules of the House Cleaning Company

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner, Many House CleanersFind out what the rules are because if they don’t pay a living wage, then you’ll know upfront and you won’t hire that company. Another thing that you could do is to check their online ratings and reviews. Do they have ratings and reviews? 

There are a lot of ratings and reviews that are one-star reviews that come from employees who feel like they’ve been jipped by the company. So, if they are not for any reason satisfied with their work situation, a lot of them will go on and create bad reviews for the company that they work for. It’s interesting!

But what happens then, you can read between the gaps and say, “You know what, that sounds like an employee.” Call the company up and say, “Hey listen, was this posted by one of your employees?”

Ask the Employees How They Like Working There

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner, Woman on LaptopIf this is a major company, you can ask the employees. Throw it out on Facebook, on Instagram, “Is there anybody that works for this company that would like to share with me your personal experience? How are you treated by this company? How do they make you feel? Are they supportive of you? Do they pay you fair wages? Do you enjoy working for this company and is there anything else you’d like to share with me?”

And you will oftentimes find there are house cleaners that will give you information about the company that they work for.

Lots of them will endorse the company that they work for and say, “Oh my goodness, I worked for this company and they take very good care of me.”

Most House Cleaners Love Their Company

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner, Happy House CleanerTell me about the company that you work for.” And they may say, “Oh my goodness, I’m indebted to them for the rest of my life.” She said they paid for my college education and I was like, “Oh my goodness, that’s amazing.”

When she got pregnant and she took maternity leave, she said they hosted a baby shower for me. I was like, “Oh my goodness, that’s amazing.” And so, the way that they made her feel special, she’d been there for 22 years because they took care of her as one of their own. And so, there are house cleaners that will jump in and they will give you the feedback that, this is my family, these are my people.

Okay, you want to hire people that feel like that because they’re bringing that company culture into your home.

Employees Don’t Want to Work if They Feel Jipped

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner, Sad House CleanerIf it’s a company that their employees feel jipped and jilted by the company that they work for, they’re not going to do the best job for you. There’s no incentive. “Why am I going out of my way for this customer when my boss doesn’t have my back?”

So it does come down to how the employee feels about the business. But you have to ask lots of questions and so on the walkthrough. You can figure it out on the phone, to see if it’s even the right company and you want to spend your time doing a walkthrough.

But what you can do is you can ask a series of your own questions like, “How do you handle this, what is this process that you use? What are the cleaning chemicals that you use? What is the problem-solving solution or method that you use when something like this happens?”

Give Them Scenarios to Solve to Qualify Them

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner, Confident Woman, No Problem I Got ThisAnd then you give them scenarios and let them answer those questions for you. Because everyone that’s been in business for a while has their own way of resolving problems. And if they have no idea what the problems are, then that’s a problem.

If they don’t have a series of solutions and they reinvent all the answers as they go, that’s also a problem. But if they say, “Hey, listen, here’s the six-step formula that we go through. This is how we solve our problems. We have an accountability program. And we go back to the customer, we make sure that it’s resolved, and then we verify that it’s done. And then here’s our six-point checklist or whatever.”

If they have some rules and regulations, that’s a good company. That’s a company that has already thought through their problems and they know what the answers are at the other end.

Get In the Weeds to Qualify a House Cleaner

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner, Women Talking on CouchSo, get in the weeds on this because you’re inviting someone into the privacy of your own home. And as they come into your home, you want to make sure that you have a person that’s going to stay with you for the duration. Because there’s nothing more exhausting than training someone. Showing your style of cleaning and having them learn your home and all the nuances of your home and then they leave.

Then you have to go hire and train and find somebody else every couple of months because they didn’t work out. It’s just exhausting. And it’s one of the reasons why house cleaners get a bad name because they do a sloppy job and then somebody has to come in and do a cleanup job after them.

And then if they get sloppy, there’s another company that comes in to do a cleanup. It’s a mess. So, if you find somebody that’s good, stay with somebody that’s good, but it depends on finding the right person.

Take Your Time Qualifying a House Cleaner

How Do You Qualify a House Cleaner, Two Women Talking on CouchFirst, take your time, and ask all the questions you want to ask. Go through different scenarios with them, have them role-play with you, and say, “Hey, here’s the … if this were to happen, how would you handle this?”

Have them go through some of that stuff with you so that you then get a good feel for, oh, this is how this company operates. So just ask lots of questions so that you get your questions answered. You want to have a good feel for the type of company that’s coming into your home. Hiring a house cleaner can be a really good thing for your life, so you want to make the right choice.000 Savvy Cleaner Spacer Bar 2020Resources

These good karma links connect you to Amazon.com and affiliated sites that offer products or services that relate to today’s show. 

96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire – https://amzn.to/3cakpMS

Interview Strong: An Insider’s View and Player’s Guide – Easy Steps to Winning the Interview and Getting the Job – https://amzn.to/3c7WL3l

The Ultimate Small Business Guide to Hiring Super-Stars. A New Formula Guaranteed to Find the Right People for Your Business – https://amzn.to/2YIOH58

Million-Dollar Hire: Build Your Bottom Line, One Employee at a Time – https://amzn.to/2SF9Vxc

Words That Change Minds: The 14 Patterns for Mastering the Language of Influence – https://amzn.to/2zasa6I

Permissions To Share

You Have Our Permission To Share This Episode

Show Sponsor

Savvy Cleaner Training – House Cleaner Training and Certification

My Cleaning Connection – Your hub for all things cleaning.

HouseCleaning360 – A hub connecting homeowners with house cleaners

Savvy Perks – Employee benefits for your employees.

Turnover Cleaning Tips – for Vacation Rental and Airbnb Hosts

Scroll to Top