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When you care about your home, you want to chose the
right domestic cleaner or contract cleaning company.
At the start you have two options, individual housekeeping
domestic cleaners or a contract-cleaning firm.
Individual house cleaners are generally local private
cleaners and are difficult to find through local advertisements
other than cards in your local shop windows, whereas
professional contract cleaners would generally have
websites and should be easily searchable.
In both cases, you are letting unknown people into
your home so trust is paramount. Networking is a good
way to find the right cleaner for you, by talking
to friends and neighbours and discussing their cleaning
arrangements, you could get some valuable referrals.
These are like automatic references. Never be embarrassed
or shy about asking for references and always follow
them up. Don't take a 'To whom it may concern' letter
as face value, pop around to the address, assuming
they are local or call them. Verify the reference
and ask why the cleaner left their employ.
Professional contract cleaners are used to providing
references. Always remember in both cases that they
they'll never provide a bad reference and disputes
do happen between cleaners and clients. This doesn't
detract from how good they clean your house.
| Individual Cleaner |
Cleaning Company |
| Not so easy to find |
Relatively easy to find |
| Personal service |
Corporate profile |
| Flexible cleaning routine |
Fixed schedule and job list |
| Same person cleans your premises |
Higher staff turnover, different cleaners |
| Cleaning takes longer |
Faster cleaning time |
| No replacement if sick |
Backup staff available |
Taking the above table into consideration and you
opt for a private house cleaner, keep a back-up company
handy in case your cleaner is sick. An individual
my also accept additional work such as laundry and
ironing, whereas the contract cleaners may not have
ironing services or laundry as part of their remit.
A contract cleaning company may survey your premises
and write up a schedule that both parties agree to.
Bear in mind that some things or areas may require
cleaning each visit and others may require cleaning
at intervals. If you choose an individual private
cleaner, ensure you write a schedule and each keep
copies.
Things may get broken, ask about insurance or agree
on what will happen in the event of breakages and
add this as part of your schedule agreement.
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