Why do cleaning professionals often not get the respect they deserve?
Sometimes people don’t have respect for people below their perceived station in life. We all have jobs to do and preferences for our work, some people do jobs that others do not want to do. That should not qualify them for any disrespect or condescension.
There is also often a perception of class or the thought ‘if I can pay you for this service I am better than you’. In addition to classism unfortunately racism also plays its part.
In my opinion this is a miss-guided perception to take as the services offered by cleaning professionals ensure that your space is sanitary and healthy and often requires great attention to detail, time management, specialist knowledge and physical investment to get right. These are skills that take practice, hard work and dedication to perfect and cleaning professionals take pride in their work.
Who does not like to come back to a beautifully clean and well organized space to relax in after a day doing whatever it is you fill your days with. I know it’s something that I value a great deal after spending a day invested my chosen area of focus (be it family life, a job or leisure).
We are all working for the same reasons with common human objectives in mind. To care for ourselves, families and to support our daily lives. To put our children through school or higher education, to invest in housing, interests or business ventures. All professionals work towards these goals.
How does it make you feel when you are not appreciated or valued?
I can tell you my personal opinion on this. It makes me feel unhappy and demotivated! It also hurts my feelings when I feel that I did my best and no one even noticed. I am not saying that I need approval as much as my Labrador (dog!) who needs a pat, treat or praise almost every moment to keep her going. But I do appreciate it when I am thanked for a job well done – when deserved.
We are fortunate to have some really lovely clients that our Fab Crew team have been to provide our services to. They have been so appreciative of them. Via words of encouragement, praise, posting great reviews and even sometimes treats or tips (thank you so much for doing that). I can tell you that when they get back to the work van at pick up they are so excited and post pictures and comments celebrating each time in our group chat. It gives them a sense of satisfaction to be appreciated and motivates them to keep delivering @fabcrewsuperheroes service for you.
As an employer we have developed a culture of mutual respect that seeks feedback from our crew to improve our policies, practices and processes to improve our service delivery along with a bonus scheme that spans customer feedback, 0 complaints to more practical aspects related to daily work flow. Even though we are getting some great feedback so far we still have room for improvement and are committed to working hard to always do better.
What job satisfaction do cleaning professionals get?
It makes me feel good when the house is looking great and my customer tells me she is happy. I work hard to provide for my family back home.
Anirah
When I am told that I did a great job and I get a regular booking it makes me happy.
Jen
I really enjoy making sure the space is clean from top to bottom, I look 360 around the room clockwise to check all is done. I am a top rated cleaner and proud of it. I like getting my bonus.
Mary Ann
Moving onto the other side of this discussion – building trust is a two way street. Why are our cleaning crew members sometimes shy about asking for guidance or feedback from our customers?
Sometimes our crew members are a little worried or shy to ask for additional feedback or guidance as they feel that they should already know the answer or that they don’t want to disturb you. Going into someone’s home, especially for the first time can be a bit daunting. It is easy to put them at ease with a friendly introduction and invitation to ask questions if they need you (if you are home).
To help communication of expectations we are introducing a check sheet that your crew member will leave for you that you can fill out ready for our next visit. On that you can mark areas of focus and any notes. We hope this will be especially useful if our crew come when you are not home.
Our customer support team are on call ready to assist if you feel that anything has not gone according to your expectations and plan. If reported at the time of the visit we can then ensure that what you need is delivered or the feedback can be taken on board for next time.
We are working towards building a relationship of trust with our team, so that if something goes wrong during your service they are confident and not afraid to bring it to your attention or to ours. We are working towards the below best practice on how to build trust in your workplace and with your employees. It’s a journey not a race but our intention is clear…
What it takes to build trust in a workplace:
This diagram is adapted from an article on Achievers.com
Loyalty and trust come from mutual respect and are the foundations on which all winning team relationships are built. Teams that have loyalty and trust will go above and beyond for each other and achieve extreme performance
Robyn Benincasa is a CNN Hero, motivational speaker, thought leader, world champion adventure racer, founder of Project Athena, and author of the New York Times bestseller How Winning Works.
Where can it go wrong?
- Lack of clear communication between our crew and our customers
- If a miss match of expectations for the service to be delivered occurs
- If our customers feel that something has been hidden without a transparent intention to communicate
- If our customers’ expectations are not met and they feel like they are not being heard and respected
- Changes to scheduling and planning disrupting our customers plans. Cleaning is a service that is supposed to make life easier and should not be a source of any stress!
- Not following up on your requests for crew members, areas of attention of other guidelines
- Not delivering a high quality and detailed focus result!
Did I miss something that we need consider here? Open to your thoughts in the comments or please do email me [email protected]. We are not perfect but we truly care about what we do.
What do we need to do to earn your trust? What does good customer support look like?
We post our customer reviews on our website and online in order to be transparent about our service offering. We often ask for feedback from our customers after their clean is completed in order to improve anything required.
If something does slip then we take ownership of the issue and will work hard to correct any oversight or error on our part. The most important thing to us is your satisfaction.
Our customer service aims to:
- To treat each customer as an individual
- Timely response (via whatsapp, email and phone)
- Knowledge of the situation and service
- Ability to solve problems with a positive approach
- To offer a personalized service
- To consider any request from the customers point of view
- To actively listen to understand the query
- To follow up and take agreed actions
- To be proactive and helpful in solving any issues
Our aim is to build a solid relationship with our customer’s long term and to cultivate that relationship by delivering services that meet your expectations. We really appreciate all of the feedback you give us positive and negative and promise to keep working hard to deliver @superheroservices for your home.
If you have any feedback on what I have shared this week I would be happy to read your comments below, or if you would like to email me personally ([email protected]) We are always open to your notes.
Thank you for reading.
Sarah
