We saw an elderly prospective client a couple of weeks ago and as is my way with the elderly and vulnerable i spend as long as it takes for them to fully understand the way that we work and how our charges are paid.
After telling me that he already had a cleaner I asked what the problem was. “She is a young lady and she is allergic to dust” funny you may think, but then he insisted on showing me around and when we got to the separate toilet I opened the door and he said “she doesn’t do toilets, maybe she had a bad experience in the past” I was stuck for words and thought well here goes I’ll lift the lid, guess what? The loo was spotless, not bad for a gentleman in his late ninety’s. Anyway back to the cleaner, she was charging him £10 per hour with no insurance; he rang us up the other day and asked us to find him a cleaner, which we have so the only person not happy is his previous cleaner.
The lesson here is to go to a reputable company with insurance and not just pick a number off a notice board, you don’t know who you might end up getting!
Susan and Alan Marshall who operate the Dolly Char Bradford & West Leeds domestic cleaning agencies have recently released the video below describing in depth the cleaning service that they provide locally in and around West Yorkshire.
Dolly Char domestic cleaning agency offers the public a regular domestic cleaning service in and around the Bradford and Halifax area, with the same fully vetted and insured domestic cleaner on each visit. All Dolly Char Bradford cleaners are fully vetted and reference checked prior to them starting to clean for their domestic clients. Dolly Char Bradford offer regular weekly and fortnightly cleaning at a very reasonable price. Builders cleans, Spring cleans and one off cleans we are always pleased to quote you on. For further information please visit http://www.dollychar.com/domestic-cleaning-Service-Bradford.htm
Dolly Char (UK) Ltd is proud to release its first video podcast. We must thank Susan Marshall from Dolly Char Bradford for kindly accepting to be interviewed for the production of this video.
You can view the podcast also on Youtube by clicking on Franchisedirect
Dolly Char (UK) Ltd is pleased to introduce to you our latest franchise Abraham Apaw who is now operating is own Dolly Char Domestic Cleaning Agency around the Westminster area of London.
Abraham comes from a background of accountancy but diversified into cleaning science. With his vast experience in domestic, commercial and industrial cleaning; He is professionally reliable, efficient and competent who ensures clients satisfaction as his top priority.He has worked with several cleaning companies and blue chip clients.He is currently an accredited member of the British Institute of Cleaning Sciences (BICs) and a member of British Chamber of Commerce.
Abraham is now proud to be the local face of the national Dolly Char domestic cleaning team and regularly meeting new Clients. He is now offering a first class domestic cleaning service in and around the Westminster area.
Chris Smith was born in Holmfirth ,West Yorkshire, a small town on the edge of the Pennines made famous by the long running TV series “Last of the Summer Wine”
He is a keen sports fan and has spent much of his working life as a betting office manager. He came to the South of England in1993 and in 1999 married his wife Jackie who has a wealth of experience in the domestic cleaning sector. Together they started their own domestic cleaning business in 2007 and have built a healthy mutual respect with their customers due to their reliability and willingness to provide a domestic cleaning service which is tailored to the customers needs.
Chris Smith is now proud to be the local face of the national Dolly Char domestic cleaning team and regularly meeting new Clients. He is now offering a first class domestic cleaning service in and around the Brighton and Eastbourne areas
Quality assurance, reliability, cost effectiveness and trust are what make a valued service of any description and these are the values held by Steve Lamb in being the local face behind a national Dolly Char domestic cleaning network. Steve’s working life has always involved working with people, providing people with services that they value with the commitment and quality that he himself would expect from others. Going that extra mile to provide a quality service, sometimes even ‘beyond the call of duty’, is what people appreciate, remember and really should be able to expect from a professional organisation.
Steve Lamb has lived virtually on the border of Staffordshire and Cheshire with his wife and children for a number of years now and considers himself to be so fortunate in having the best of both counties. “Living centrally to the area I serve means that I can provide a genuinely local and personally managed service” says Steve, “Wherever I go in my local area, be it Stoke on Trent or Macclesfield, I am never more than 10 minutes away from beautiful greenery or stunning scenery”. In his spare time Steve loves to spend time with his family at home or on days out together. He likes to travel around the UK but also likes to see as much of the world as possible, he and his wife have a particular soft spot for Canada and get there whenever they can.
Steve Lamb is proud be the local face of the national Dolly Char domestic cleaning team and regularly meeting new Clients. He is now offering a first class domestic cleaning service in and around the Stoke-on-Trent and Macclesfield areas
A few years ago when Alan and I ran a carpet, upholstery and cleaning company, I went along to help him with the carpets (fill the carpet
shampooing machine up and move furniture etc)
It was a very big job and of course very tiring. We had obviously quoted an acceptable price and the gentleman was very pleased with our cleaning work. However when Alan had moved the carpet shampooing machine outside and went in for his money the ‘gentleman’ tried to barter him down by quite a lot.
It was pointed out that: -
a) He had agreed to the price and
b) He was satisfied with the work done.
But no he wouldn’t budge and after nearly half an hour we were getting nowhere and tempers were getting shall we say a little frayed round the edges.
Then Alan disappeared and I thought he was leaving me to it but no in he came from outside with the LARGE bucket still containing the dirty, sludgy water from his carpets.” Now sir” he said, “you have 2 choices, either pay the money agreed or the water goes back on your carpet” The look on his face was priceless and I have never seen a wallet opened so quickly in my life. Suffice to say we did get our money. As to whether Alan would have carried out his threat!
In the UK, the domestic cleaning market has grown substantially over the last few years, and is thought to be worth around £2bn. Although it is hard to pinpoint the exact number of people of working within the industry, the industry itself is vibrant and is always looking for new cleaners. As a society, we are more house proud than ever. Increasingly, we spend a higher proportion of our household income on domestic services and the cleaning products market alone is worth over £500m.
Finding a cleaner is one of the major issues affecting the domestic cleaning industry. In the old days, a local cleaner may have serviced a number of houses on a ‘cash in hand’ basis. Increasingly this is not the case and many households also want a service that is professional and cost effective. Being cash rich and time poor has resulted in an increase in demand, but also an increase in the standards of service demanded.
Every household has their own individual requirements, but recruiting someone who can fit around those requirements is very hard.This is one of the reasons behind the growth of domestic cleaning companies. Such companies offer clients the piece of mind that they need, by pre checking cleaners to ensure that they are suitable and trustworthy.
The Dolly Char cleaning franchise was launched in 2005 to service the growing demand for domestic services in the UK.Dolly Char offers its clients a very professional regular domestic cleaning and ironing service.
Dolly Char (UK) Ltd is owned and run by a husband and wife team Robin and Carol Harrison. According to Robin, the business offers a great service to many people who don’t have the time or the inclination to clean their own homes. ‘Many people now have lifestyles that are becoming increasingly cash rich but time poor. In addition, more people are making the positive decision that they don’t wish to spend their precious weekend and evening leisure time carrying out basic domestic chores – they want to employ someone else to do that. The Dolly Char service provides cleaners on an agency basis which means that we help our clients recruit a suitable individual in line with their specific needs. If at some point in the future their domestic help leaves or the client is unhappy with any aspect of the work then we help to find a replacement. This takes away many of the problems associated with employing people’ says Robin.
With an increasing number of households looking for domestic services, the industry is growing at a rapid rate.The key issues for many people are quality, reliability and cost. Dolly Char offers a competitive pricing strategy that means their services are affordable by a wider range of people than many other professional cleaning services. Dolly Char is looking for people who can manage a domestic cleaning business that is friendly, local and dedicated to high standards of service.
Robin Harrison is the managing Director of Dolly Char (UK) Ltd. Dolly Char (UK) Ltd is one of the fastest growing domestic cleaning franchise companies in the UK today giving people the opportunity to work from the comfort of their own home.
We once had a client who we had provided a domestic cleaning service for around about six months with absolutely no problems, until one day our domestic cleaners came back saying they couldn’t gain entry to the property. A man that our domestic cleaners had never seen before had slammed the door in their faces saying he had never had or wanted a cleaner.
Upon further investigation it appeared that the lady of the house had signed our domestic cleaning agency agreement and not informed her husband. She had led him to believe that she was keeping the house spotless herself. She was paying us the domestic cleaning agency from her own bank account and supposedly he never saw her statements.
If there’s anything I have learned from this experience it is that if at all possible when I go out on a client visit I try to make sure that couples are always together!
It has being a very eventful and busy start to the New Year 2009 here at Dolly Char with several new faces joining our team of friendly local franchisees.
I feel certain that everyone would like to join me in welcoming, Philip Todd (Cleveland), Philip Docherty (Sheffield), Richard & Megan (Wakefield) and Ysanne Seddon (Warrington) aboard.
Robin Harrison is the founder and managing Director of Dolly Char Ltd and also Dolly Char (UK) Ltd, which specialises in offering domestic cleaning franchise business opportunities throughout the United Kingdom. Dolly Char Ltd specialise in providing a domestic cleaning service within Lincolnshire.
My business is very home based and for the past 8 years I have classed myself as semi-retired. The life style my business as given me and my wife is one of relaxation with plenty of time for enjoying watching our family grow up.
I got my nick name Rocket Robin from my days as a pool and snooker player. I was once an England "B" player and also captained the Lincolnshire County side at pool for three years. I also played for the East of England team. I was a member of the professional pool players association also for a few years playing regular on their weekend circuit.
At snooker I got to the Pontins junior Semi-final in 1977 before losing in a very closely fought match against Jimmy White, having knocked out Neil Foulds in the Quarter finals. I was also very privileged to sit and have dinner with the late great Joe Davies once whilst playing in Wales.
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around and when we got to the separate toilet I opened the door and he said “she doesn’t do toilets, maybe she had a bad experience in the past” I was stuck for words and thought well here goes I’ll lift the lid, guess what? The loo was spotless, not bad for a gentleman in his late ninety’s. Anyway back to the cleaner, she was charging him £10 per hour with no insurance; he rang us up the other day and asked us to find him a cleaner, which we have so the only person not happy is his previous cleaner. 
