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
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!
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!
A good few years ago I worked for a cleaning company that amongst other things did environmental cleaning and I will never ever forget the first clean that I did for this cleaning company.
Just before entering the customers property one of my collegues gave me some flea spray to use on my arms and legs plus also a facemask and at the time I thought it was going a little bit over the top. How wrong I was the house was absolutely filthy, fleas and both animal and human excrement were all over the place.
No one prepared me for what I witnessed and for the first hour I did absolutely nothing but retch, and I bet the cleaning company got a good price for the clean despite paying us just the minimum wage!
A couple of years ago Alan and myself were fortunate to live in Spain in a small village just outside Granada. The first night in our new home was absolutely freezing, however on waking up at 8.30ish next morning (we had been driving for 36hours) we were met with a great sight. The female neighbours were out flicking dust from the grills on the windows and sweeping both their own entrances and ‘their’ part of the road. Every other day they hose piped their part of the road down thus keeping the whole street exceptionally clean.
After a few days i got into the habit of being outside at 7.30 in the morning to do my spot of road sweeping and gained a great deal of pride out of it, what with that and the dustbin men emptying bins every night seven days a week the village was kept very clean and I can’t help but wonder how our villages would look if we adopted this same practice
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. 
