Cleaning Service Compared to Marriage-Say What??

 How can having a cleaning service be like a marriage?I heard someone compare having a cleaning service to a marriage and I started thinking a lot about it!  There is quite a few comparisons one can make between the two.   Here is what I came up with.  Having a relationship with your cleaning service requires certain basics and here are just a few…

1. Really good communication.  If something is not right with your cleaning, please tell us. We have to know about what it is before we can fix it.  Perhaps the deadbolt isn’t getting locked, or the trash under a particular sink keeps getting missed, maybe we are putting the trash in the wrong spot, or the pictures are crooked after they are dusted.  Whatever the concern is, please don’t hesitate to send a quick email to communicate about such things. I often hear people say “I don’t like to complain”, but we would rather try to fix the issue instead of having a bunch of small things build up and having a really frustrated customer (on the verge of divorcing us). The worse thing is when we lose a customer but have no idea why!
2. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I think trust is actually more important than the cleaning itself.  Of course we strive for both, but how great can a cleaning really be if you don’t trust the people cleaning your home? We try to be a company that is totally trustworthy, transparent and that our customers feel very comfortable with.
3. Grace and forgiveness. These two things go a long way in a cleaning relationship just like they are a necessity in marriage and in life! There will be the occasional accident when a toothbrush holder slips out of a slippery glove or maybe something falls off the wall when we are dusting.  As much as we try to prevent accidents, they do sometimes occur and find relief when we have a forgiving customer. A good cleaning service will always try to fix anything that goes wrong when it is our fault just as a good spouse will try to change what is hurting the marriage!
4. Focus on the positive. As in a marriage, it’s very important to focus on all the items that are going well and not just the bad things. Such as do we show up the day we are supposed to, do you trust who is cleaning your home, is everything going great most of the time? If there is a fingerprint that was left behind or a lone stray hair left in the shower, perhaps it is something out of the ordinary? While we really do want to know about these things (especially if it is happening often), if it is an “out of the ordinary” thing or a rare occurrence, it is good to maybe let the really small things go until they are happening in general or often.  While we always strive to make our customers 100% happy, if you really look at absolutely everything, there will always be one or two small things that may get overlooked when dusting or cleaning. While it is probably very difficult to get 100% of absolutely everything, we will try for at least 98%! It’s the same with a spouse.  It is easy to take a really good marriage and focus on the small things are aren’t so great and think the marriage isn’t so great when it really is going very well if you look at it as a whole!
5. You might find the same issues in another cleaning service. I’ve been fortunate to know some people who leave their marriages to find a better spouse, just to find a different spouse with different problems. Many times I hear they wish they had just tried to work it out with the first spouse.  Now, I’m not saying there are not times when a new cleaning service is definately necessary for some reasons, but at times when I go to give an estimate and hear the person’s complaints about the previous service, I explain that we would be happy to clean for them, but we may have some of the same common problems I believe each cleaning service might have.  I think the key to this is how the cleaning service responds to the problems, not necessarily the problems themselves unless they are real big problems that cannot be fixed!

I suppose all these things can be summed up neatly under really good communication and trust. (That can cover an awful lot since there are whole books written about these two things!) With every problem anyone encounters, I think of it as an opportunity to grow!  While the first reaction may be one of defense, after that, I always ask “What can be learned from this?” All problems can be turned into an opportunity to have a better relationship whether it be at work or in marriage!