How should I go about hiring a maid service?

Upfront let me state that I am in the house cleaning business. While that doesn’t necessarily make me an expert in how to go about hiring a maid service, it does give me a perspective. One that allows me to see how people go about doing it, and in many cases observe how poorly they do it.

The first thing that people seem to do incorrectly is to budget too little time to the process. They want an answer (typically as to price) without providing much information. It’s difficult to give a customer a price without you going into some level of detail about how large your home is. How many and what types of rooms do you have (kitchens and bathrooms take far longer t clean than than living rooms for instance). And how do you live in your home can be equally important. If you have the time, invite the cleaning company to come to your home. Many items on the list can be answered by simply viewing your home.

How should you choose your vendor once you have an estimate? Here are several suggestions:

1. Save price for last. It’s always provided, but shouldn’t be your first or only means of choosing a maid service.
     
2. How long has the company been in business? Longevity is a good measure in a service oriented business. It’s very easy to start a house cleaning compay, it’s much harder to keep it going for a long time. You have to be good a hiring and training people, satisfying customer requirements for cleaning and to be realiable.
     
3. Does the company provide a sound reference base. There are two ways to look at references. One is to request names from a prospective company, although this can lead to very biased results. The second is to use ratings web-sites. Google Local and Yahoo Local provide an area for reviews. These are self submitted by folks and require a web address which is tracked by Google and Yahoo to ensure validity. The second area for gathering ratings is through sites such as Angie’s list and Yelp. If a company doesn’t have a lot of listings they either haven’t been in business long, or aren’t providing memorable service (good or bad).
    
4. Is the company bonded and insured. House cleaning involves people, and people aren’t perfect. Insurance provides a good measure of a company. If they are a poor risk and have a lot of claims, the insurance company won’t keep them for long. Also many small independents don’t have insurance, either because they can’t get it or because they don’t make it part of their cost structure. What will happen if your prize vase is accidently broken?  

Finally, get a sense for the company by listening to how they answer the phone and how quickly they get back to you if you have to leave a message. Are the people that you have spoken to listening to you, or are they telling you how they do business. House cleaning is a very personal service, and you should be comfortable with a company before you move forward with them.