HomeMaid Domestic Cleaning In the press....

In our interview with Tony Whittam we learn about what it takes to run a successful domestic cleaning company, some of the traps to avoid when marketing and how good employees are essential to success.

Tony Whittam and Jude Chamberlain run HomeMaid Cleaning Services in the North West of England. HomeMaid Cleaning Services focuses on domestic cleaning and services regions around the Blackburn Burnley area.

Tony can be contacted via email.

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Thanks for being on TWISB Tony. Can you tell our readers who Elaine was and how she helped get you started in the cleaning business.

Elaine is a very good friend who was my cleaner/housekeeper; Elaine took some of the essential chores, such as cleaning and ironing off my shoulders, whilst I got on with my IT Sales Career.

Elaine made the house tickover so much easier. I have to confess that I hadn’t fully appreciated how much help she gave until she retired! It was the nightmare of trying to find her replacement that some time later would inspire me to start HomeMaid.

How would you describe the growth of the business over the years, has it been slow and steady or an up and down roller coaster ride ?

Its been pretty steady after a somewhat slow start and as with any industry there are some seasonal fluctuations. We have however enjoyed month on month, year on year growth from day one and I hope that’s still the case in three years time!

You have customer testimonials prominently placed on the HomeMaid Cleaning Services website. How important do you think third party endorsements are for a small business ?

They’re essential! I think everyone expects you to sell your service, product or company in the best possible light. Its no different for us at HomeMaid! However, when clients give you such glowing feedback consistently you know you are delivering on your promise.

Potential customers can see that existing customers, just like them, are saying very good things about a service that they may never have heard of before. It helps reassure them that we are not a fly-by-night operation or someone who’s cleaning in-between jobs.

We’re a professional cleaning company, take pride in our work and delivery consistently high standards and our customers agree. Gold dust!

Homemaid specializes in domestic rather than commercial cleaning. Are there any special challenges for the domestic cleaner ? and have you ever considered adding commercial cleaning as well ?

I think we’ve faced challenges with recruiting the right kind of people to our team. We work to very high standards and that requires a certain sense of pride in your work. We’ve found that insisting on CRB clearance for all staff has seen candidate applications more than halve!

We didn’t used to advertise the fact we CRB check staff in our job ads, however, we found that a high number of “potential candidates” declined our job offer when they realised we would carry out a CRB check on them. It’s now very prominent on all job ads and sales literature!

We have some commercial work already although it’s not an area we have pushed for as yet. The dilemma is that a lot of businesses are used to paying low rates because “cleaners are ten-a-penny” and miss the point that really good cleaners are hard to find and are absolutely worth paying a little extra for. Value is more important than cost, many understand the costs, but not the value in our service.

Can you tell us about some of the marketing methods you have tried and any comments you would have on their effectiveness. Have you used print ads, radio ads, flyers etc ?

I don’t want to give too much away here (for obvious reasons!) however, print ads just haven’t worked for us in any guise; we were fortunate enough to be invited to write a number of articles for a local magazine with a huge circulation, covering at least half a page although sometimes a full page.

The response was, well underwhelming to say the least. We’ve tried local paper ads without success, so its something we avoid doing now. Flyers are a numbers game and to get any worthwhile feedback you have to think in terms of 5-10,000 drops as a minimum; our initial run of 80,000 at the launch produced 25 clients, a poor ROI short term, but consider 90% of those original 25 are still with us today and the long term ROI is evident.

I have to say that by far the most productive and effective marketing has been via the web; getting yourself on Google page 1 is a must and being in the top 5 is something you should be aiming for.

Are there any advertising traps or mistakes you would warn new cleaning operators to avoid ?

I have fallen foul of a number of scams myself from operators using very “sharp practices”, I could name a few, do check forums and blogs such as www.scsf.co.uk or www.blagger.com if someone rings you up offering “No.1 in Google” or “more clients than you can handle” – they cant, its nothing but BS to make you part with your hard earned money. Don’t fall for it, ever. I’ve wasted more than £3000 and it’s a bitter lesson, so please don’t repeat my mistakes.

Any marketing you do use, needs to have a unique identifier on it e.g. “quote Ad1234” when calling or emailing for a XX% discount so you know where the lead has come from. Always ask when anyone calls you “where did you find our number/contact info?” and record the results. I can tell you at the end of everyday where my leads come in from and how many convert to clients. How else will you know what works best for you?

You have a great website at www.uk-cleaning-services.com, how important is it for bringing in new customers ?

This is key, as I mentioned earlier, its practically the only marketing we use and that produces results everyday of everyweek. The new site is designed to carry more information than ever before and allows more ways to communicate with our clients and them with us. The new blog page will be up in the new year and we’re already adding articles in the news pages. There will be more information about the services we already offer and the new ones we’ll be implementing in the near future.

All this information shows to any visitor how committed we are to providing quality services and at the same time gives them a voice – they can comment in the guestbook and contribute on the blog pages. I think its essential to listen to customers and prospective customers alike so we can understand their needs and what’s important to them.

How important is building trust for a domestic cleaning company and how do you make it easier for your customers to trust you ?

Trust, is a small word with huge implications; lose this and you’ve lost your client forever. If you cant engender trust in potential clients, you’ll never win their custom.
Its so very personal cleaning someone’s home, its their lives, their families and loved ones private space and you have to respect that at all times. For us it starts at selecting the right staff who must pass a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check. I am still astonished that there are no local companies to me that CRB check their staff, it seems very foolish not too?

We then take those staff and spend 4-8 weeks training them in our proprietary cleaning methods, something we call “ExpertMaid”; a system of cleaning and cleaning products that are both effective and efficient. We’re so confident of this system we guarantee every clean, every time. This is reassurance to clients we know we can do a good job regardless of their property size or style.

Finally we have something called “Fidelity Bonding” which is over and above Liability Insurance (which is just accident protection). Even though we have a thorough and in depth recruitment process, we have Fidelity Bonding (its really a dishonesty insurance), to absolutely protect our clients from a member of staff doing something dishonest, from using the clients phone to call Australia or even identity theft. Any company without this cover is leaving their customers exposed to dishonesty and where most home insurance cover doesn’t protect them, exposed to serious losses.

As you can see we’ve put a lot of thought into recruiting and training which allows us to guarantee HomeMaids services, and should the worst happen, we’ve got that covered too. No other local cleaning company has this level of protection or guarantees

HomeMaid is a family run business, so both you and your partner are involved ? Some people recommend not mixing family and business. Do you have to be careful in this regard or has it been smooth sailing ?

It works really well for us, we have different skills and comfort zones, I’m very technical and look after the website and so on, where some of Jude’s strengths are people skills and sales. We also discuss things from a male and female perspective, how to present our service and so on, we are after all similar biologically but emotionally very unique, and given what we do, we have to embrace these differences.

We sometimes have very different ideas, which helps us look at things from different angles, some less obvious than others and that really adds to what we do and how we do it. We don’t always agree on things, but better that, than one if us just agreeing with the other all the time. Its been key to our success, so I’d recommend it.

You are active in some online cleaning business communities, is this sort of networking with other business owners valuable ?

Its essential from the outset to tap into these kinds of resources, they are packed with an incredible amount of useful information and differing ideas. You will find good people who know what its like to be struggling to get going and know the pain of expansion too. You can learn from others mistakes and incorporate ideas that are proven to work, into your own model. You will encounter problems along the way and its nice to know you can call upon real people, running real businesses just like yours for help and advice.

If a new cleaning business operator was struggling to find new customers and considering throwing in the towel what advice would you give them ?

There maybe many reasons for failing to attract new clients, so there isn’t an easy answer here or any kind of panacea I can offer. I mentioned earlier about monitoring all your marketing, to see what works and what doesn’t, do more of what does and less of what doesn’t. You’d be amazed at how many don’t follow this basic rule.

You must however, embrace the web and get yourself on googles front page without this you will be pounding the streets delivering leaflets (or should be) to tell customers you’re there and its cold often wet miserable work!
Tap into the industry forums, anything you can think of will of almost certainly have been tried before; find out if it works, before wasting your time and money.

Is there anything else you would like to say to new business operators in general or cleaning business operators in particular ?

Your staff are the most prized asset of any cleaning business, take the time to recruit the right people, train them and reward them for their good work, They’ll pay you back in loyalty and reliability in ways you don’t yet understand. Good staff will make your business so much easier to run and grow.

Thanks for your time Tony, I know our readers will find this interview useful.