Emily's Maids Blog

What Mediocre Maid Services Don’t Want You to Know!

February 15, 2023 by emilysmaids

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A Business Owner’s Inside Secrets on Finding the BEST

With all the cookie-cutter maid services in Dallas, how do you know which one to pick? Here you’ll learn how to easily ferret out the junk from the gems with just a few questions. After years of growing a top-notch maid service in Dallas I’ve discovered what you should ask to find the best. I hope this will be helpful for you in finding the best maid service in Dallas, sparing you wasted time and money.

The four questions to ask a maid services in Dallas are 1) “Do you send the same team to clean out house?”, 2) “What is your annual employee turnover rate”, 3) “Why are your people the Best?”, and 4) “Do you have employees or independent contractors?” After covering these questions, I will share a couple of questions not to ask. These are common customers inquiries that at best are not useful and may cause you to choose a mediocre maid service.

Question 1:

“Do You Send the Same Team to Clean Our House?”

First, does the maid service in Dallas send the same team? This is very important for four reasons: 1) consistent quality, 2) a sense of ownership by the cleaning professional, 3) less breakage, 4) and the peace of mind of knowing who is cleaning your home.

Having the same team clean allows that team to learn how to clean your house more efficiently. They become acquainted with what each family wants, allowing them to tailor the cleaning according to customer’s needs. As time goes on, cleaning is consistent and might become better as the professional house cleaners learn the layout of the house finding a routine that best gets the cleaning done.

The professional house cleaner gains a sense of ownership of your house. Your house is now their house, their responsibility. Indeed, once they have a house, they prefer none of their peers to service “their” house for they do not know what the quality will be. They want you to be happy, for if you are happy, they know you will pass on praise to their supervisor when they call. They want a sense of accomplishment. And those maid services in Dallas that know how to find individuals that feel good from a job well done are the professionals you want.

As they learn how to clean your house and have a sense of ownership/responsibility, there is less breakage of valuables. Much, much less. With different teams cleaning your house, they fumble through, having more of a chance of breakage. Of course the maid services Dallas should be insured for at least $100,000 to cover any breakages/mistakes, though breakage is something we all want to avoid. Some sentimental items you cannot replace. You cannot place a price tag on an old family heirloom or even a wedding ring. My maid service, Dallas Maids, didn’t hesitate spending near $500.00 to professionally fix a $20.00 tea cup because it had sentimental value; it was a gift from the customers deceased grandmother. Please ensure they are insured and send the same people. Anyway, it is good to know who is cleaning your home.

It is always a good idea to meet the ladies that will be cleaning your house the first time, to see them work (If they talk on the phone as they work, smell of smoke or just smell, are slow, or any other thing that makes you feel uneasy, fire that service!). Theft should NOT be a concern when hiring a service, though it does happen, more so with some maid services than others and especially much more so with individuals. (We have heard horror stories of individuals, one of which where they cleaned out – and I am not referring to dirt – a house then flew out of the country for an early retirement). If you know who is cleaning your home, there is probably less chance of sticky fingers. With a service, they would have done a thorough background check. And if something does happen, you know it is covered.

Question 2:

“What is Your Employee Turnover Rate?”

This is a question that you would not think of asking, but is very important for two reasons: 1) make sure the lady cleaning your house today will be the one there next year, and 2) Dallas maid services with a high turnover rate have a broken system. First, as outlined in question one, you now know why it is important to have the same person to clean your home. Having a high turnover rate also is a symptom of a defective business system, or lack thereof. The company is unable to retain their people. Or maybe they are playing the numbers game trying to find a star while playing Russian roulette with their customer’s home. From what I have read, the average cleaning industry employee turnover rate is around 300%. This is NOT good nor should it be the average. It is an indication of the number of ineffectual house cleaning services there actually are. The rate you should be looking for should be closer to 0%. A good follow up question is “How Do You Find and Train Your Employees?” They should try to find the best at the beginning. With proper hiring procedures they should pick maybe 1 out of 50 job applicant inquiries. My maid service is even more selective than this, choosing 1 out of 120. Finding the BEST people has made all the difference! Criminal background checks, driving records (we require driver license), reference checks, along with a thorough interviewing process should be used. As for training, my service strongly prefers those with years of experience. We need the best from the start. Extended training, high employee turnover rates, lack of quality job, breakage, low moral, along with countless other problems caused by the inability to find and retain the best talent are very expensive. As a result their customer’s are charge more for less service. With a low turnover rate you can be confident their people are staying because they are treated with respect, are good at what they do, and generally the maid service Dallas is running the business effectively and efficiently, providing you with the highest value, the biggest bang for your buck.

Question 3:

“Why Are Your Professional House Cleaners the Best?”

There should be no hesitation on their part when you ask this question. The maid service representative should be able to rattle off why their people are the best, what awards and recognition they have earned, good stories on how their people responded to problems, etc. How selective are they? Any cases of theft? Do they send the same people? Another way to tell the integrity of the professional house cleaners is to know the integrity of the manager or owners. Everything filters down from those that manage the professional house cleaners. This is why it is important to know the company is doing all that is legal and good. Do they use contract workers (which is illegal and huge red flag for checking the integrity of those that will be in your house) or actual employees that pay taxes, that the company are more responsible for.

Questions 4:

“Do You Have Employees or Independent Contractors?”

Now, some less scrupulous house cleaning owners will try to skirt the law by hiring independent contractors instead of employees. This may allow them to charge less and/or add to their bottom line but this is breaking the law. It is illegal for maid services to hire contractors in the State of Texas. So, do ask the company if they hire employees (W-4 forms) or independent contractors (1099 forms). And other than being a case of tax evasion, there are some fundamental reasons why you should avoid these cleaning companies like a dirty toilet.

You want a maid service that has employees, not contract laborers because the company has more control over the employees, thus able to more effectively execute total quality management through performance bonuses, performance review procedures, ability to direct employees to follow procedures to maintain quality, etc. Employees also enjoy benefits that increase moral and motivation to a great job such as gas allowance, paid vacation, company outings, Holiday bonuses, etc. These build moral, loyalty, and motivation to provide top notch service.

Again, it’s also the law. Many maid services owners use contract labor because they are able to evade taxes and write off labor as an expense, escaping even from more taxes. This may work for a while though its against the law and the IRS will come a-knocking one day. I knew from the beginning everything had to be conducted correctly an ethically because it’s not only the right thing to do, it’s necessary to set an example to the professional house cleaners and the office managers. When the IRS came a-knocking, Dallas Maids passed with flying colors after the audit. Paying taxes is our patriotic privilege. It’s an honor to give back to America, a country that has given us so much opportunity!

With these four questions: “Do you send the same team to clean out house?”, “What is your annual employee turnover rate”, “Why are your people the Best?”, and “Do you have employees or independent contractors?”, you should be able to find a gem among the many coals out there. With barriers of entry low where almost anyone can start a maid service in Dallas, it is important know how to find the best house cleaner. Your home is where your personal possessions are, where your family sleeps. Protect it. Don’t let just anyone in.

Now for the QUESTIONS NOT TO ASK…

Don’t Waste Your Time with These Questions

There are a couple of questions that customers have asked that do not provide them with sufficient or misleading information. First, is “Are you bonded?”. Rather ask “How much are you insured for?” Second, “What is your hourly rate?” can be misleading for one service may hire much slower workers, having a lower rate, though costing more due to the time they take.

Useless Question 1:

“Are You Bonded?”

Being bonded is not bad. It is an assurance that if anything comes up missing due to theft it will be covered up to a certain amount. Though it is not nearly enough for it only covers theft and usually does not cover more expensive items. What you want to ask is if they are insured. Insurance not only covers theft but also breakage, injury, or most anything that can go wrong. Instead of just being covered for a couple or few thousand with a bond, insurance usually covers $1,000,000 and up. Since it is much more expensive than being bonded, individual house cleaners do not usually have it. Indeed, some professional house cleaning services do not have it or do not have enough of it. Currently the coverage we offer our customers is one million dollars.

Useless Question 2:

“What is Your Hourly Rate?”

Is $30 per hour a better value than $50 an hour rate? Depends on the quality of the worker. A $50 per hour professional house cleaner that can efficiently clean your home in 2 hours, making it sparkle, is a better value than a less skilled cleaner that charges $30 an hour yet takes 5 hours to clean your home. I think it is safe to say that most would prefer an outstanding job at $100.00 rather than a mediocre job at $150.00. I’ve seen cases like and worse!

Conclusion

Asking “Do you send the same team to clean out house?”, “What is your annual employee turnover rate”, “Why are your people the Best?”, and “Do you have employees or independent contractors?” will go aid immensely in your search for a great maid service. Hope this helps you and your family find the perfect maid service in Dallas!

P.S. The following video, “How to Find a Good Maid Service”, was inspired by an earlier version of this article: