Commercial, Janitorial and Residential Cleaning Service

Q. Describe the most common types of jobs you do for your clients.

A. Commercial, janitorial, and residential accounts in the Pittsburgh and surrounding areas. For commercial clients our full service company will provide floor stripping, waxing, scrubbing, and buffing as your need arises. Commercial accounts can be set up on a weekly, several times a week, bi-weekly, or monthly as needed. Commercial accounts can be scheduled during your normal working hours or during off hours. Residential accounts can be set up weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or one time as needed.

Q. What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A. Hire only insured companies or you put yourself at several types of risk.
Get to know the owner as much as you can. You should have access to the owner when you have an issue that needs addressed.
Do not expect cleaning perfection. No company can give perfection. Beware if a company promises perfection.
Be kind to your cleaning technician, you get better results by being nice. A tip is appreciate and shows you care about the person doing the work.

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. Franchises often shift accounts around from one franchisee to another for business reasons. They usually subcontract the work out to independent cleaners and know very little about those cleaners and have little control over how the cleaning technicians perform. A privately owned company will generally perform a higher quality of service because in the training program they have in place for the staff and because they have more control of the staff that they personally hire. Some companies are not paying their staff legally as required y the state. These kinds of companies can offer lower prices because their insurance is less if they even have insurance. This type of situation creates risk for you the client. Green cleaning is not going to give you the best cleaning possible. While taking care of the environment is important to all of us, the truth is green certified cleaning products, at the time of this writing, do not provide disinfecting properties. If keep your staff healthy at the office or keeping your home as germ free as possible then green cleaning is not your best option.

Q. What questions should a consumer ask to hire the right service professional?

A. Do you do site inspections? How long have you been in business? Are you fully insured? Will you give us a copy of your insurance documentation for us to keep on file? What kind of guarantee do you provide? Will you give us a written proposal of our agreement? Will we be able to schedule additional services as we need them such as floor stripping, waxing, buffing and carpet cleaning? Do you want or need a written specifications list from us? How do we manage cleaning days that fall holidays? How often do we need to pay? Will we get the same cleaning technicians each time? Do you provide training for your cleaning technicians?

Q. What important information should buyers have thought through before seeking you out?

A. What is our monthly budget? How often and at what times during the day or evening do we need a cleaning service? What are the reasons why we are looking for a new cleaning service? Have we researched the company we are considering? What is most important to us as far as a cleaning service is concerned? Do we have our own specification list of what we would like done and how often. How can we reach the owner or a decision maker when something goes wrong? For commercial accounts: If our cleaning needs change will the cleaning contractor allow us to change the specifications during the contract period? Does the cost of the cleaning proposal include all supplies?

Q. Why does your work stand out from others who do what you do?

A. Read our testimonials on our web site at
www.mr-maid.com to see what our clients have said. For residential clients, we usually send out one maid each time. Once a cleaning maid is accustomed to your home she or he will be able to provide a higher quality service. Each cleaning technician that works alone knows that they are fully responsible for the job they perform. In the past, when we sent a team of 3 or 4 cleaning technicians, we discovered that when somethings was missed nobody seemed to know who was responsible. Our company culture has changed quite a bit since we first began in business. Our staff are paid very well to perform for our clients. Staff who under perform are given a chance to be retrained. If they continue to under perform we replaced them with people who value their career with us. We seek career minded employees not someone who is just looking for a paycheck. Our employee turnover is much less than most of the cleaning companies.

Q. What do you like most about your job?

A. Most businesses need to maintain a certain image to attract clients and grow. I understand that our cleaning service will effect the bottom line by helping to do our part in maintaining your company image. I have never considered cleaning to be something taken lightly. I was taught the importance of cleanliness when working for a food store many years ago. For residential clients that are too busy working or physically unable to keep their home clean, I enjoy the satisfaction that I get when hear so often how much our staff is appreciated. We also offer free cleanings for women undergoing treatment for cancer. One cannot put a value on helping others who are truly in need at such a dramatic crisis time in their life.

Q. What are the latest developments in your field? Are there any exciting things coming in the next few years or decade that will change your line of business?

A. Unfortunately several large franchises are coming under fire from the government and several class action lawsuits. They have been operating illegally for many years by reporting their cleaning technicians as independent contractors to allow them to keep insurance costs lower than what the market will bear. The definition of an independent contractor says that the person performing the work must not be supplied with any tools or chemicals from the owner or company to perform their cleaning tasks. Also, the independent contractor must not accept instruction or training from the company that hired them. By avoiding the normal hiring process these franchise companies have been able to offer rock bottom prices which upset normal marketing factors and cause the entire industry to suffer. Clients have been receiving inferior services because of rock bottom prices. Low balling an account translates into poor quality staff that does not have good work ethic. Some franchises have also shifted accounts from one franchise to another using the excuse that the company receiving the service was not satisfied with the service. These accounts have been paid for by the franchisee who must now start all over again buying new accounts. This practice allows the franchise to make more money by double and triple charging for accounts.

Q. What are you currently working on improving?

A. We constantly research the market to learn new cleaning concepts. Our industry is always changing with the supply companies coming out with new chemicals, tools or equipment. Not too long ago micro fiber rags were the rage. Magic erasers are another newer addition to the cleaning industry. Carpet cleaning equipment has improved both in its performance and its ease of use. Machines are now able to lay down solution, scrub, and vacuum up all in one pass. Improving our hiring process is always evolving. We can administer tests which help to predict how well a new hire is likely to work out. We recently improved our pay structure to reward our staff who perform work to our high standards. Our web site has constantly undergone change to help you our client.