Cleaning Business Life

Episode #53 - Hilarious Cleaning Mix-Ups, What happens when your cleaning tech cleans the wrong home???

• Shannon Miller • Season 2024 • Episode 52

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Ever waltzed into the wrong party and realized you're not the only one dancing off-beat? Join Kimberly Gonzalez and I (Shannon Miller) , as we share some side-splitting stories about cleaning crews with all the right moves but the wrong houses! 

From sparkling clean surprises for unsuspecting homeowners to the bewildering quandaries facing our diligent but directionally challenged technicians, we chat about the importance of organization and professional poise in the face of these merry mix-ups. 

Whether it's navigating the complexities of ADHD or the artful dance of compensating your team while charming both accidental and intended house cleaning clients, we've got tales that will sweep you off your feet.

But wait, there's more than just laughter lurking in the suds. 

The second act of our cleaning carnival takes a turn towards the serious business of safety and security.  And why you need it for your crew and your house cleaning clients.

Picture this: a cleaner, a bathrobe, and a lawsuit waiting to happen—sounds like the setup for a joke, but it's just another day in the life of the house cleaning industry. 

We'll reveal why real estate lockboxes and garage codes aren't just for agents and how these tools can keep your business out of hot water. 

And for the grand finale, I'll let you in on a client's almost-impossible key-hiding escapade that's as entertaining as it is enlightening. So please encourage your clients not to do this...

Lock in with us as we mop up the mess and polish off the episode with practical wisdom for passing on peace of mind to clients and cleaners alike.

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Questions? Feel free to reach out!

Shannon Miller: cleaningbusinesslife@gmail.com

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See Shannon's latest courses: www.KleanFreaksUnversity.com

Shannon Miller:

This show is brought to you by the Maid's Network. Want to get serious in your cleaning game? Join my group. It's one of the larger Facebook groups just for cleaning business owners. I look forward to seeing you there. Hi Shannon, hello, long time no see.

Kimberly Gonzales:

How was your weekend so far?

Shannon Miller:

Oh my gosh, just craziness. That's my first get it done week, so we're getting it done.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Yay, and you're staying on task.

Shannon Miller:

Staying on task, accomplishing a lot. It's fun, but it's their work, that's for sure, getting it done.

Kimberly Gonzales:

I got back on my ADHD medicine. It's been like out of stock forever and I'm like a crazy lady trying to run around and stay organized. And I'm back on it and I'm like I could get this done. This is organized, I got this down to a T and my husband's happy and the world's happy, so I'm like I'm getting stuff done too.

Shannon Miller:

That's awesome. I love it, absolutely love it.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Well, welcome everybody to cleaning business life with Shannon and me, Kimberly Gonzalez. Thank you guys for joining us on your busy day.

Shannon Miller:

We have a fun podcast today it's like Charlie Brown's teacher.

Kimberly Gonzales:

No, there's no alcohol in my water. We have a fun podcast to give to you guys today and it's like when cleaning takes the wrong turns, I'm like we know this all too well. So what happens when a cleaning takes the wrong turns? So, shannon, I know you've had this and I'm sure you've got some funny stories, like you know. Did this really happen when you've cleaned the wrong house? Has this happened to you before?

Shannon Miller:

It has. It's actually sometimes it even makes the national news. You don't want that kind of. I mean, any form of advertisement is great advertisement, but I don't know if you want that type of advertising for your cleaning business. And it's always amazing to me. What's most impressive is how many people leave their doors unlocked, Like the door right at the end of their mat like the normal spot, like right.

Shannon Miller:

Like, wow, they just walked in and cleaned the house. Can you imagine coming home and having your house sparkly clean and you're like you call your husband or your significant other and say, oh my God, did you clean the house? Or like no, and they're like, well, the house is really clean. Is cleaning fairy really real? The cleaning fairy showed up, thank God, I need more of those in my life. Right, where can you get the cleaning fairy to come all of the time? Right, so and for free.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Right, Not payment, Like man my toilets look really clean.

Shannon Miller:

So today we're talking about what happens when you're cleaning tech or tax go to the wrong house, clean it and don't clean the right house. It is a scenario that does come up, probably once a year Not with me personally, but I hear things because I know a lot of cleaners and you have to be able to handle it the right way. Some people still feel that they should be paid because their house got cleaned. You have to eat the money and send it off as a blessing to the universe and hope for the best Right, because if the local news catches it, it's a whole can of worms. What about?

Kimberly Gonzales:

you, kim, have you had?

Shannon Miller:

that experience.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Luckily. No, I'm very thankful for that. For all the years that I've owned a cleaning company, I am not going to be very thankful, but if that did happen to me, I think I would kind of look at it like a blessing, because I've heard stories where they've gone and they've cleaned the wrong house but then they ended up getting a new client because they loved it so much. So it's like I'm going to go both ways. It can kind of be a blessing, right, but I'm lucky I didn't happen. That's never happened to me. I'm very fortunate.

Shannon Miller:

And I don't know why it always ends up being a special circumstance and the reason why they're having the house cleaned is because they're having guests arrive the next day or they're having a party or there's some sort of event. And then when they get home, they don't even get a chance, when you answer the phone, to get a word in edgewise, because they are hot. They're coming in hot and they're on fire and they can't figure out why you're so incompetent and you're like what's going on? And then when you reach out to your cleaning tech, they're like, yeah, fix it in the house. What's the problem? And then you're like you have to kind of you know, did you clean the right house? What was the address that you cleaned? And they're like it was the blue house. You know, dah, dah, dah, dah dah. And they're like, well, this house is gray, well, the blue.

Kimberly Gonzales:

The key said it was underneath the mat and it was right there. That's the most normal spot for it. So you have to.

Shannon Miller:

You have to use some grace when these types of situations happen. There's been lots of questions over what should happen if you were to clean the wrong home. In my professional opinion, if your crew inadvertently cleans the wrong home, you still need to pay them. You don't need to punish them. They still worked really hard making that home sparkle, even though the items that were on your list were not in the home. You're not going to charge that homeowner for the free cleaning that you gave them. Hopefully, if you are working remotely, your crew is smart enough to take before and afters and you can at least get some advertisement value out of it. That's a great area too, because you technically don't have permission because they didn't sign your paperwork. Use caution so you're not ruffling the bedspread, so to speak, too much by the before and afters. I'm sure it's a stark contrast from having their house, because we all have different standards. Cleaning companies have different standards and homeowners on what is clean and how to clean them. Make sure that you are giving a lot of people grace.

Shannon Miller:

We haven't had it happen in a very long time. I want to say about five or six years ago there were two cabins up in the mountains. That looked exactly the same. They were built by the same builder, they were the exact same color and they were the exact same layout. Each cabin was a three bedroom, two bath with a loft. They were built exactly the same. It could have been twins. Same coloring on the inside. The only difference was the fact that one driveway went over to the left and one went over to the right. That had to have been one in a million.

Shannon Miller:

We ended up having to send over because they were having a party the next day. We were all out there at six o'clock at night. There were eight of us. We all went in there and I went with them. We all went in there and we gave it a spiffy so that they could have their party the following day. Of course the neighbor was excited and we did get them for regular service and they would wave to the girls hey, thanks for cleaning my house. It ended up being a good thing. You know how it goes, yeah.

Kimberly Gonzales:

I designed these a la carte cards, I think I told you. But I also designed these cards for when I did it with my business, for my cleaning company, and I left it. It was a little note that we would always leave. It was a cute little card and it was branded and I'd write little notes or cleaners with bright notes Like, hey, thank you for letting us clean your house. We did this and we gave your dog fresh water, whatever, played with them, and then on the back of it, ed had our logo and it had our business information, like phone number and email address, like when to contact us and web address, and so when you have those and you leave those, if you happen to leave it at the wrong house, it's a good way to mark it and get another client to know how to contact you.

Shannon Miller:

We used to leave magnets on the refrigerator and that's usually how they tried to figure it out Like did you leave that magnet there? And they're like no, did you leave the magnet there? Magnets sit on refrigerators for a lifespan of an average of eight years. So if you are considering to go down that path and give it away as part of your onboarding package, it is a great way to mark it because it sits there for years before anyone does anything about it. And I love the card. It gives a little extra added touch and the branding element plays into the whole thing. So your magnet and then the card and then anything else that you want to give away. I know some people actually leave like little you know home when you sell a home and the real estate agent gives you this package of vendors that they like. I've seen that done as well. But obviously you know if you're cleaning the wrong house you don't have to leave all of that stuff, but some people contact If you're leaving the wrong house.

Kimberly Gonzales:

yeah, I never know. So, like, if you're in the wrong house, you have that marketing put in place there and they'll call and be like hey, did you guys clean our house on accident? It's a yeah, it's a right cut off to, like you know, if you did end up cleaning that house, that could be, like you know, right off, it was a gift.

Shannon Miller:

Definitely so. Have you ever had that happen with your crews when you were up and about doing your thing?

Kimberly Gonzales:

Just what? Have someone cleaned the wrong house? No, I lucked out. I honestly just lucked out Like 100% lucked out. I don't know how we lucked out, because I feel like it's supposed to happen in your business at least once, and over the six years it never happened. So I'm Christine. I've dealt with other crazy things in my life with my cleaning business, but this was not one of them.

Shannon Miller:

So I'm like thinking this I remember the story and you might recall it. It happened during COVID in 2020. And it was a cleaner who showed up at the wrong house and decided that they weren't going to really clean, that they drank all of the alcohol inside the house. Did you hear about that story? So a cleaner and this happened.

Shannon Miller:

I believe it was in New York City or one of the larger cities, and it was an apartment, a loft, one of those types of situations and she walked right into this condo. It had great open spaces, it was absolutely beautiful, it had a great city view, it was up on an upper level and the cleaner arrived at the wrong place and proceeded to clean and then realized that there was lots of alcohol because there was a full bar, and then took a little sippy here and a little sippy there and drank so much she ended up passing out and there were some awful pictures of her, because the homeowner came home and she's got to rule and thankfully, nothing bad happens, but she proceeded to get intoxicated at this house, didn't do any cleaning and had made a mess. It was actually in worse condition than when she started and I told her a company I believe she was an independent company. You know those cleaners, and maybe she got confused, I don't know. But she ended up in this person's house and they were not happy that she had drinking all of their alcohol and had a good old party by herself.

Shannon Miller:

But she, I guess, snacked throughout the day. She was there the whole day snacked, entertained the dog. She had a bathrobe on. I'm sure she didn't arrive with a bathrobe, so I don't know. I don't even know if that story is still on the internet, but it was an interesting story. So if you end up finding it, please send over the link. I'd love to share it on the show notes. But it was, it was pretty bad.

Kimberly Gonzales:

I know and I'd love to hear your guys' stories. So if you guys have cleaned the wrong houses, please, like Tag Shannen and I and the groups you know like, we would love to just see these stories or hear them. Yes, it's always fascinating. Since I never experienced it, I always love hearing everybody else's stories.

Shannon Miller:

But that was her story. And then there was some sort of like they were going to sue for the use of the alcohol and I don't. I don't remember what the end up story being if she ended up replacing the, the party that she had, or what, what ended up happening. And it could be, I could be that I'm commingling two separate stories. That could be a reality as well, because I do talk to hundreds of people every week. But I remember it was a loft, it was in the city and it was a bathrobe and alcohol and she was a cleaner so I'm hoping that I've got the story correct for those.

Shannon Miller:

And I believe it happened to another cleaner and they had reached out on what to do and I had to kind of walk them through and it was a house. The builders, you know, they build in segments, right, and it was similar to what we did with, you know, two houses that looked similar, but one house was actually yellow and the other one was beige and there were other identifying markers. I guess the person had sent over photos and the number was just one digit off. So instead of being 4449, it was like 4448 or whatever. It wasn't and it wasn't. Maybe it wasn't a, maybe it was seven, because we know that some streets one side is even and the other street is odd. So it was really close digits. So it just happens.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Definitely. And I would say, like when you guys do your your interviews with your future clients, you know I always recommended a real estate lock box that you have the code to. Obviously, you can either buy one and they can like you get a batch and you leave, yep, or they can purchase it and keep it. But I recommend doing the lock box so that way you know when you do go to the right house, if they have the lock box, I recommend a garage code. So getting a garage code if they have garages and then if they say, well, we want to hide a key, then definitely don't put it underneath your mat. Look at that.

Shannon Miller:

I'm ready to put it on the mat. Everybody puts it on the mat.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Or a rock.

Shannon Miller:

Or a rock, right a rock, it's by the flower pot Underneath the rock. That's over to the right, not the rock to the left, and you're like well, what's under the rock to the left?

Kimberly Gonzales:

You know I had this client and we've talked about this client before that I had he. I remember when we first started I'm like he didn't want to do a lock box, so I was like okay, and he's like hiding it under his door mat. I'm like no, we can't hide it under your door mat. So then he gives me this long. I felt like and this just tells you how old I am, but family circle. I felt like the family circle when they do that comic, when their little feet prints go all over the place. He was like giving me this long old like list, like a map to follow to find this key. And I'd be like go out in the backyard, go through the gate and then you have to go over to the grill part. And then it was like then you have to look under this part of the grill but then you have to remove this part of the grill to get to the key. And I was like like a whole flipping, you know scavenger hunt for a key.

Shannon Miller:

So I recommend lock boxes. Why don't you just get the key in there and then you start a barbecue? I mean, what happens then? No, and then I had to put the key back.

Kimberly Gonzales:

So I was like kind of doing this whole thing of like going back and then taking a picture to make sure I showed him where the key was. You know, like I put it back. But no, like lock boxes, you guys, I highly recommend the real estate lock boxes. It's a great investment and it'll help you prevent from going to the wrong house.

Shannon Miller:

Definitely and remember that in some states if you were to lose the key, hypothetically speaking, you have to pay to have their whole house rekeyed, especially if they have different locks, like if it's not one universal key that fits all the doors. Having a locksmith come and rekey a house can be very expensive. So the lock box and it can be an insurance thing too, right. Some insurance companies won't even assure you if you take on homeowners keys because of the whole theft thing. So be careful in knowing what the laws are in the area that you're servicing and if you have a person who wants to give you a key and you don't want the responsibility of having to manage keys, because at one point I believe we had like 350 keys for homes in the area. It was all coded and locked and the whole deal, but it was an extra thing to manage. I'm like who didn't put key number blah, blah, blah back and no one would know what the key was. I'm like, oh, right.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Make your job easier and don't have to be. Let them have the keys and no-transcript, so make sure that you are.

Shannon Miller:

If they're apprehensive over the lockbox, tell them it's a security thing and they're in control of it. If it's a cost thing, you can add it into their initial cleaning. They're like they used to be 29 bucks. I haven't looked to see how much they are recently but you can just pad your bill in an extra 29 bucks plus tax and shipping, and boom, it's there. That way you're not having to chase around a lockbox from a homeowner who's now mad at you and doesn't want to give the lockbox back because they're trying to have control over whatever went down. And then just it's cost of doing business right, Just in and out, and then you're not having to manage another thing.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Easy peasy.

Shannon Miller:

Easy peasy, and I can tell you many times when real estate agents wouldn't give me the code to the lockbox until they arrived, just like, oh my gosh, seriously, like you can't go into the house until I'm there. I'm like, why Are you seriously going to make me wait 30 minutes for you to arrive? Yes, I want you to wait there 30 minutes for me and don't go in the house. I'm like, well, I would have come right when you arrived. What time are you going to be here? Right, I can't wait around. I'm going to charge you for that time that I wait around, right? It's just this whole dynamic of you know control, so don't put yourself in those situations either.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Shannon. Look, we learn from all this Like um, communication is key.

Shannon Miller:

Right. Communication is key. If you now we're more, we have the technology so you can actually go onto Google and you can Google the address. You can screenshot the address, jump it into your digital calendar system. We use get jobber and then they have a view of the house and they look at the address. If they, after they have all the bells and whistles and they don't call you and say this house doesn't have this extra bathroom, where is it, then you can go? Where are you at? There's no grand piano in this one. Where is it supposed to be? Do not touch, do not strum keys.

Kimberly Gonzales:

You'll be lucky like me and never had that happen. It's communication.

Shannon Miller:

So usually um clinic texts. When they arrive on site and they're newer, usually the ones who've been with me a while, I don't. I don't actually hear from them unless there's an issue Like there's a dead body on the floor. We can talk about that later. Um, we have, we have a lot of seniors and sometimes you know that happens. Um, but just to make sure that you are following some sort of communication protocol checking in, I always just to make my clinic text checked in, especially when going for distances. We've talked about security before on other podcasts where you know I required a photograph ID from whoever they were servicing 70 miles out. I don't know who this person is. Right, I'm responsible for this individual. I don't want anything to happen to them. So if something were to happen, I at least have your ID.

Kimberly Gonzales:

So I want to CRM to have like the little check in like I know for the one I used, you know my employees had to put fuck in, like when they started the house they had to say start house. Or when they arrived to the house they clicked it and it let the customer know that we were there.

Shannon Miller:

Right, and that's great too, if you, if your CRM has it. If you were low tech, then you have to have them physically check in with you while you're figuring out what CRM you're going to use or not use, or whatever you decide to do what's best for your business. But yes, checking the box is really important. There's a, there's even um, what is that security thing that Jamie is talking about? And I forget she has it for her girls for safety reasons, and I can't think of the name of it. But, um, there's software that you can do to track your cleaners too. If they're not, maybe they're out in the forest and you're working rule and you want to keep track of everyone, just for safety reasons.

Kimberly Gonzales:

I know I use life 360 for my kids. I think that's what it is. It is.

Shannon Miller:

So that's something to look into as well. So, yeah, communication is key. Making sure that they're reading the list. I mean I know sometimes cleaning texts think that you're just giving them way too much information. They just want to get on with it. But there is a reason why you're putting notes in for each customer, so make each other reading. You know, like I said, they're like sometimes you'll have one go. Where's that third bathroom? I don't see it. And you're like this one only has two bathrooms. Where are you at? So you just never know Definitely. So yeah, that's the short version of what should happen if you're cleaning tax in the wrong home. Hopefully it won't happen to you.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Yeah, if you guys have podcast ideas, shannon and I always love to hear them, so send them our way and let us know if you guys want to hear something that we'd like to talk about.

Shannon Miller:

Articulation. It's just been one of those days. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for tuning in. We appreciate your presence and taking the time to listen to us go on and on, and on.

Kimberly Gonzales:

We're here to share about our podcast and then like it and reviews.

Shannon Miller:

We love our reviews, so beautiful, beautiful, still looking for sponsors If you know of anyone who is interested in chatting it up with us.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Yes, we love sponsors. Reach out to us, Shannon. How can they reach out to us?

Shannon Miller:

Oh, you can contact us through our official Gmail account at cleaningbusinesslife at gmailcom, and that's C-L-E-A-N-I-N-G Business life. I can start singing, but it'll just be an awful experience. Let's skip it Anyway. I'll see you guys all later. Thanks for tuning in. Bye.

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Jamie Runco

Host
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Shannon Miller

Host
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Kimberly Gonzales

Co-host