Train Your Clients

I host an accountability & mastermind call every Monday for the SMART Cleaning Tribe. We are a family of cleaning service owners with teams (that used to be solo). I'm the architect of this group of amazing people, always looking for the 1% that desires to set monthly SMART goals and be held accountable to their achievement. Check out the episode "The Accountability Roadmap" to learn more about the 1% club.

We had an interesting discussion this past week on the topic of client scope creep. This is when your original housecleaning scope of work increases with the changing dynamics of the family or home. We went around the group sharing how we each deal with this. Toward the end of this discussion, one of our members hit a home run. Kate Sloan is the owner of Chicka Chicka Broom, which services Montgtomery, MN. She said. "I train my clients." Obviously, I could not let that slip through the cracks and asked her to explain. Kate contrasted the typical house cleaner to the perceived in-home experts such as electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and HVAC technicians. "Why are they viewed as experts and get expert-level prices and many devalue cleaners wanting to pay the minimum?"

The answer is simple. Most clients are moms with cleaning experience. They can clean, therefore they don't see our craft as a specialty. Plumbers and electricians do work that the mom cannot do, therefore they are experts and can charge expert prices. One of the best ways to level-up as a cleaner to an expert or specialist is to acquire specialized knowledge. One example is taught in my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". If 90% of our clients are disinfecting incorrectly and we know how to do it right to protect their families, our value increases. This is the process to becoming the expert and separating from the typical cleaner.

One further point on mastery comes from Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" book. He claims that it takes 10,000 hours to acquire expert status at any task. If you clean 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, you can achieve mastery in 5 years! Many of us have achieved this. Not many moms have, no matter how long they've been cleaning. What if they clean 2 hours per day and 6 days per week? It would take over 16 years to reach mastery. Some moms have achieved this and most have not.

Make sure to study this episode as it holds a vital key in pricing to start earning you top income as a solo cleaner.