How to Talk a Customer Out of Firing You

The Ask a House Cleaner Show and Podcast with Angela Brown

How do you talk a customer out of firing you? If you are a house cleaner or maid and have that feeling "I think I'm getting fired" get of your comfort zone. Find out why.

How do you talk a customer out of firing you? If you are a house cleaner or maid and have that feeling “I think I’m getting fired” get of your comfort zone. Find out why.

Listen: How to Talk a Customer Out of Firing You

Watch: How to Talk a Customer Out of Firing You

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 to Talk a Customer Out of Firing You

How do you talk a customer out of firing you? Many cleaners wonder this when a client that they have rejects them but they need the job. A house cleaner wrote in with this question:

“I have a client for about two or four years, and now they want to have a party and they want to cancel my service. I think they need me more than ever because the party is going to be huge.

What I can say to them to let them know that they still need me, that it’s a good idea not to cancel for a while?”

How to Keep the Job for a While

How do you talk a customer out of firing you or not firing you for a while? That is an interesting idea. Okay, so you’ve worked for them for two or four years. So, they know you, they know your systems, they know your processes.

Yet, for some reason, they decided to fire you before this enormous party that they’re having in their home. Why is that? You have to stop and ask, why did they fire you now?

Are they bringing in a team of people to help with the party? Are they firing you just for the party or are they firing you for all time?

How to Talk a Client Out of Firing You if They Like Your Service

A client that lasts two to four years don’t last if they’re dissatisfied with your service. They would have fired you after a couple of months if they weren’t happy.

You know them, you’ve been cleaning for them for two or four years. Go back to them and say this. “Hey listen, I’ve been working with you for two to four years here. I’m a little bit concerned that you are letting me go right before this huge party where you need my help more than ever. I’m curious, is it something I said? Is it something I did? What can I change to make my service better?”

Because if you don’t find out why you were fired, when you go back into the marketplace, you’re going to repeat the same errors again. You’ll work for another customer for a couple of years and then they might fire you before their big party. You want to find out what it was so that you don’t repeat the same errors.

Be Prepared to Walk Away if They Say No

Now having said that, be prepared to walk. They might say, “We have not been happy with your service for a long period of time. We don’t like what you did and we felt we needed to hire someone new.”

If that’s the information you get back, don’t get offended. The first thing as house cleaners is we get offended when we get this feedback because it’s our heart and soul. We’ve put our labor into this job.

We think we did a great job and we want to please our customers. When they’re not pleased, it breaks our hearts. We did our best but they didn’t like it.

A lot of Customers Don’t Like Confrontation

Then what’s even sadder is the homeowner continues this for a period of time and then they don’t tell you. Lots of homeowners do this because they’re afraid of confrontation.

They string things out a little longer than they should, and that is not helpful at all, right? If they’re not happy with your service, something should happen.

I tell my customers on the walkthrough, “Hey, this is a relationship of communication. If at any time for any reason, if you’re not happy with my service, I’m going to expect that you will come to me and you will let me know what the problem is.

Come to me first and let me make it right because I’m here. I’m growing, I’m getting better every day, and I want to provide you excellent service. Is that fair?” Homeowners will say, “Yes, that’s fair.”

Talk a Customer Out of Firing You by Having a Window of Communication

When there is an issue because you don’t fall into someone’s home and clean how they like, right? You have your own energy and your own process, and it might go against the grain with one or two areas in their home.

There are a couple of things that might bother them that they don’t feel like they can tell you. They need to have that window of communication open so they can jump in and say, “Hey, I’m not happy about how you cleaned the oven.”

Then you go, “Oh, okay great. I can fix that.” That should be your answer. Don’t make them feel bad because of their feelings, effectively communicate with them about it.

Take Criticism to Keep Clients from Firing You

Any time for any reason, somebody comes to you with a complaint, it’s not like, “Oh my goodness, wow, this is horrible news. My life is ruined because of this information I received.”

It’s not like that at all. It’s like, “Great, you helped me get better. Thank you so much.” You reward the behavior you want to be repeated. You want the customers to come back and share things that you can do to improve. It’s not a complaint, it’s criticism.

They’re helping you grow your business. Then they’re going to turn around and tell their friends. When they do hit social, here’s what they say, “Well, my house cleaner had a couple of little glitches and whatever, but we totally talked it out. She fixed the problems and she’s the best house cleaner in the world.”

Talk a Customer Out of Firing You By Asking Them Why

When you go to the customer and you say, “Hey, it looks like you’re trying to fire me, what did I do?” Ask them. When you ask them, stand up tall, don’t be like, “I’m afraid that you’re not happy with my work,” no.

Stand up straight, look them in the eye, and come off confident, like, “Oh my goodness, you’re about to fire me. And that is devastating to me. Tell me what on earth I did. How can I fix it? How can I make it right?”

Oftentimes when you ask, they’ll come back and they’ll say, “All right, well, here’s, let’s fix this. Here’s what we can do differently.” They will give you another opportunity. What do you say? It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. It’s what you do with the information once you receive it.