Hi there, I'm Angela Brown and this is Ask a House Cleaner.
This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question,
and I get to help you find an answer.
Now, today's question comes from a house cleaner who wants to know
"If I'm building my house cleaning business, what one thing should I focus on learning
to improve my skills this year?"
Now I love this question because I am guessing that you think I'm going to say something
like "learn how to clean shower walls better," right?
But what I am actually going to say is: work on your communication skills.
And the reason this is important is because all of your interactions with all of your
customers require communication.
And so, this means you being able to understand what the customer is saying
and you being able to articulate what you need in return.
So, if a customer has a series of requests, and you don't understand those series of requests,
or you think you do, but you haven't clarified.
Then it's really important that you bring in all of your communication skills.
And you're able to ask the customer "now, please, could you clarify that?"
or "I didn't quite understand what you were saying, could you rephrase it and use different
words so that I can understand exactly what you mean?"
Because you want to make sure that the picture that you have in your mind is the same picture
your customer has in their mind.
That way, the two of you are playing on the same page and you can expect the same kind
of job is going to be done.
Now, as your business grows and you hire employees, communication is also huge.
Because you have to communicate what the customer needs to your employees.
And you have to make sure that they understand in a way that the customer and your employee
are playing on the same page.
So, communication skills are paramount as a house cleaner.
It's easy to get caught up in "Oh, I'm just going to clean houses".
And just do a really great job cleaning houses.
But with the communication element lacking, when something goes wrong you don't have a
way to communicate that information to the customer.
And so, we have reverted as a society, to texting.
Something malfunctions.
You get locked out of a customer's house, you text them a message.
Something happens in your schedule, you can't show up, you text them a message.
Now, the old-fashioned way was to pick up the phone and actually call them.
And say "Hey listen, something has come up."
I know a lot of house cleaners are private people. They're introverts, they don't like
phone calls and they never call their customers.
But we have to go back to the moment where the customer hired us.
The customer did not hire a cleaning service they hired you.
They hired you because they like you as a person.
And there are opportunities in the house cleaning business to pick up the phone and to reconnect
with your customer.
And sometimes that's really necessary in order for you to keep your job.
If something malfunctions let's say you break something from a client's house, it's unfortunate
and it happens in this business.
And in those moments sometimes it's best to pick up the phone and offer a sincere apology.
And that is one of those communication scenarios where you're now reconnecting on a human level,
not just a bland text.
So, there are times for texts.
Like a quick reminder "Hey I'm coming tomorrow at 10 a.m. just wanted to give you a reminder."
That's okay.
But if there are important issues then those need to be addressed via telephone.
And if a customer is at their house when you arrive it's an awesome opportunity to spend
just 60 seconds and reconnect eye to eye, face to face, and say "Hi, how's it going?"
While you're putting on your gloves and your shoe covers in saying hi to the dog and all
those things.
So, it's a chance just to remind them in a short moment why they hired you.
Because people hire and they keep people that they know, like, and trust.
And so every interaction with your customer is another opportunity to reconnect.
So, if you're going to work on one thing this year, my suggestion would be to enhance and
improve and up level your communication skills.
You can do this by joining a Toastmaster Club.
You can do this by learning about the elements of communication which are things like eye
contact.
And hand gestures, and vocal variety and speaking in sincerity and explaining, things that may
not be easy to understand.
Sometimes you might use a big word.
If it's a child that you're speaking to that's at a customer's house, you may want to say
"and what that means is…" and then explain what you just said so that it makes sense
to the child as well.
Because there are times as house cleaners we are inside customer's homes and we have
to ask the children "can you run in the other room?" just for their own safety.
We don't want them around our cleaning chemicals.
And if it's a tiny child, we might want to encourage them to go play in the other room.
And we have to say that in a way that the child wants to go in the other room.
So those are all communication skills.
And if you learn communication skills, and for some reason, you decide the house cleaning
business is not for you, and you move on with your life and you go find another profession.
You will still use all of those communication skills for whatever you do
for the rest of your life.
Communication skills are nothing but an investment in you and your business.
But that is one thing I would recommend focusing on this year as you improve your business.
Alrighty, so, that's it for today.
And until we meet again,
leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.
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