The house cleaning relationship and the potential pitfalls!
What type of relationship do you want to have with your Northampton house cleaner? On the surface that seems to be a simple question to answer. You want a relationship that is built on honesty, trust and integrity. However, the relationship you have with your house cleaner is actually much more complex then that.
Why would someone want to hire a private individual? Two of the big reasons are price and control. Clearly with a private individual someone can save a great deal of money vs. working with a house cleaning company. They are not paying payroll taxes, generally don’t carry the needed insurance and bonds and are only making money for themselves. It becomes much easier to charge less per hour for all of the reasons just listed.
As far as control, there is an idea that you can get more from a private individual then you can from a house cleaning company. Is this true? In most cases house cleaning companies offer customizable cleanings tailored to each individual clients needs. There are certain things due to insurance restrictions that an individual might be able to do that a cleaning company can’t, but overall, what the client is looking for can be done by both an individual and a house cleaning company.
So other then the flaws we’ve looked at previously (lack of insurance, lack of bond, needing to pay the IRS taxes for hiring a household employee) what are the problems with a potential relationship with a private individual?
One of the things that might seem strange is the relationship you build with the private individual might actually be closer to a friendship then a business relationship. I’m sure someone reading this is saying, how is that a problem? No matter how much you try, when you have a relationship with someone, not everything can or will go well all the time. There is bound to be bumps in the road. What happens when something is broken, damaged or the cleaning is not done well? How do you approach your private individual who you are so close with, you now feel like they are your friend? It is really hard to criticize someone, because you end up feeling bad or don’t want to hurt their feelings. So what do you do? You actually say nothing, let the sub par cleaning continue and then are paying for something and not getting what you are paying for. All because it is hard to approach this person, because you won’t want to hurt their feelings.
How does this relationship differ with a cleaning company? It is important for potential clients to build a high level of comfort with both the employee doing the cleaning, but also the company they work with. You can actually build a similar type of “friendship” that you have with a private individual with the employee of the cleaning company, but you have the backing of the company which provides additional safety, security, knowledge and support. You don’t actually have to go to the employee themselves you can go to a company that can make sure you are receiving what your paying for.
In the case of a bad cleaning, you make a call to the office, let them know the cleaning is not being done well enough. If you are working with a good company, they come out, supervise the cleaning and fix the problems. You get what you’re paying for and still maintain the relationship with the person cleaning hour house. You don’t have to feel bad about calling the office. It is no longer and issue of you vs the cleaner, it is as simple as the cleaner not meeting company standards.
Another area that people overlook in this situation is in most cases, clients having their homes cleaned are put into a set schedule and really look forward to the day they are going to have their home cleaned. What happens if your private individual gets sick, has a long term medical emergency, decides cleaning is not for him/her or just doesn’t feel like going to work? While house cleaning companies have employees who have those same sort of life issues, they have additional employees available to fill in and make sure your house cleaning does not have to be pushed off. Invariably these types of situations happen when you are having that all important dinner party and you need someone most.
These are just a few of the many potential pitfalls that can come into play when working with a private individual vs. a house cleaning company.
Photo Credit: Flickr: Aidan Jones
