Latest / Cleaning Business Life / CBL EP 192 Free Cleaning Gone Wrong: When “Exposure” Destroys Your Business

Transcript

CBL EP 192 Free Cleaning Gone Wrong: When “Exposure” Destroys Your Business · Cleaning Business Life

• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone, Shannon Miller here, Cleaning Business Life.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk a little bit about free cleanings.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, I want to talk about this lady who got a free cleaning and she was not satisfied with the free cleaning and then went all over the internet for likes and whatever.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Bad Mouth, this cleaning business, who gave away her time and resources.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And there were a couple of glitches in the cleaning, from what I could see, and it didn't sound like there was a lot of communication.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: But the girl was so miffed over the not getting what she wanted, she had the audacity to come out here online and just bash anyone and everyone in her way.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I am here to let you know that this is unacceptable behavior.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Not only is it unacceptable behavior, we're training by giving a free cleaning, we're inadvertently training customers to learn to behave badly.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um we see this a lot in the Airbnb industry.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Someone comes, they rent an Airbnb, it's on the beach, and they go, Oh my god, there's sand inside here.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: I want a full refund.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then Airbnb goes, Okay, okay, I'll give you, I'll give you a refund.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Or the the place is in the woods.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And there's bugs in here.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there's bugs because it's in the woods, even if it was just cleaned.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: So when we start to do free cleanings, there has to be the same policies in place that you would have for a regular cleaning so they understand the terms and conditions.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: This poor, and I'm gonna call this person out.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was Michelle's cleaning company, and I believe you're in Houston.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you happen to catch this podcast, please reach out to me.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I want to fix your problem so this doesn't happen to you again.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely free.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't want to see one of our own being taken down by someone who is so disgruntled and unappreciative and ungrateful.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: I can go on and on and on about what she received.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Granted, it probably wasn't perfect.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: It probably wasn't even to her expectations.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: But the person who gave the free cleaning away spent her time and resources, whether her resources were in chemicals or products or whatever was going on.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was one of the things that the cleaning the owner was stating that she didn't even bring her own stuff.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that wasn't the terms and conditions of the free cleaning.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure that you have a contract in place.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot reiterate this enough.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've done 20,000 move out cleaning since the inception of my business, 16 years.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And all of those voyages to completion have created what I have created today.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the contract that I have in the move out cleaning system packet is something that's been used 20,000 times.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's been to court several dozen times.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it's to keep you guys out of trouble.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: I want everyone to be successful.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see the whole industry shift in the direction it needs to go.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the only way to do that is to prevent situations like this.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So poor Michelle, I'm assuming the person's name is Michelle, was trying to get some some likes and maybe a couple of good reviews for her Google business profile.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Decided a great way to do that was to promo her stuff.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then the homeowner proceeded to bash this poor person until Kingdom come.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even, I got, I didn't even watch the whole video because I was absolutely disgusted at this behavior.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: I get that when you when you get something from someone, you need to be appreciative.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Does it always go smoothly?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I constantly am reminding people that if we could walk on water, we would, right?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then some people will actually jokingly say, Well, I don't know if I want to walk on water.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's that's a lot of pressure, right?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the situation that I see, and this isn't the first one, this is one of a dozen that I've seen in the last like six to eight weeks.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it keeps happening, it's not just cleaning, it's everywhere.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we we see the car detailer, we see the landscaper, we see the the laundress, we see the dry cleaner.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's this whole I'm gonna pitch to my my my peeps out here in Never Never Land about how disgruntled I am over something that I got for free.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't want the free cleaning, don't take it.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's a hundred people after her that would have loved to have had the cleaning who would have been so grateful to have gotten the free cleaning, but instead we were forced to watch this person rant in three separate videos, like two to three minutes each time.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was just like, this is wild.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not an influencer program, free cleanings.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's a systems problem.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So this poor person didn't have a contract in place, it sounds like, and didn't deliver it or however, it just sounded like it was a just big boo-boo.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: There was no communication, there was no contract in place.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Even for free cleanings, I recommend them so that they understand what scope and expectations are.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: It also sounded like the homeowner in this particular case was not even ready for cleaning and wanted a lot of extra add-on charges.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you guys hear me talk about it all the time.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Add-on charges are inside of ovens and refrigerators, wall washing, window washing, doing laundry on site is guess what?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's an add-on charge.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Wiping baseboards doesn't happen in regular maintenance unless it's a bathroom, but it very well could happen in a top to bottom, or it could be an add-on charge.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: It just depends on the scope and the dynamic of your job, right?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I just took on a 5,000 square foot deep cleaning, but she had a budget of 650.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we went through the list to decide what we could do.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you know, I don't want to eat up your money, but if you want the oven and your refrigerator clean, it's gonna eat up because she had wolf appliances and sub-zero.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, no, that's gonna eat up your budget at 650.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So something to think about.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So let's walk through what the scenario is.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm assuming that Michelle's cleaning company was advertising in this particular area, an influencer reached out.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the business will reach out, and then a deal is simple, right?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: You think it's just gonna be easy peasy, and that wasn't the case with this one.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, we'll give you a service free for in exchange for some exposure.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm assuming that this person was an influencer who was complaining about the free cleaning.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm making an assumption if I'm wrong, drop me a comment, I'll be more than happy to, you know, tiptoe back through the roses.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I I'm assuming that this person is an influencer, not just a concerned citizen.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it sounds harmless, right?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: It it doesn't seem like it's gonna be that big of a deal.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a free cleaning, and it's no big deal.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I've seen a lot of blunders happen since late last year.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're a cleaning influencer or not, and you're giving the free cleaning, and or you know, it there's this whole dynamic that's happened because they're trying to make it cool when free cleanings is teaching people how to have bad behavior.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So there was no clear scope, it sounded like on this job.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: There was no written expectations, definitely, on this job.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: There was no agreement on what gets shown versus not shown.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to have a waiver to say I'm allowed to tape.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not tape, but video, you know, on your phone.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's no boundaries around feedback.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you are not satisfied with your cleaning, it doesn't give you the right to disparage another cleaning company online because you felt that you didn't get enough.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's not how it works.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: It makes everyone think that you're entitled.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And what does my 10-year-old say?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: A Karen.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I had to have someone explain to me what a Karen was, right?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: There is there's whole channels on Karen attitude and adjustment and how they treat people.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I didn't know it was a movement, right?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the truth that most people don't understand.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Free cleanants are the most expensive cleanets you will ever have.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things that can go wrong because there's no investment.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: This person who got the free cleaning didn't have any investment and decided to go to the internet on TikTok and on Facebook and on Instagram and tell everybody how awful it was.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: They shouldn't even give the person an opportunity to fix it.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: So when there's no investment, there's no ownership on the outcome.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so what happens is they they expect perfection.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: They don't communicate like a normal client would.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if something fills off, they go public instead of private, right?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't give the person an opportunity to fix it.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: As we all say, and I've said this before, if we could walk on water, we would, right?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then some people will say, No, I don't want to walk on water, there's too much pressure.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to decide which baseball camp you're in, right?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So they they're just they're not trying to look out for you and your benefit, like, oops, I made a mistake, or I'm sorry, this was a miscommunication, or this is beyond the scope of the four-hour cleaning that I'm giving you.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've never seen, excuse me, I've never seen a deep cleaning go for four hours ever.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we've done almost 20,000 of those as well.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I think it was just like a laundry list of or a punch list of things that she wanted done that weren't realistic, and the cleaning business owner didn't say, hey, this is beyond the the four hours.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And and then when you start start to feel rushed, then you're you're not you're not giving your best work.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let me be very clear.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Drama performs better than satisfaction.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: We've all been there, right?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: We've all seen it happen.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: If someone is or if if some I can't even talk, articulation, it's been a long day.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: If so, if something is slightly off, you are now part of the content.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we're at a part in our society where if someone genuinely has a medical episode or needs help, most people I would like to believe would step in and assist that other human.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm seeing or what's promoted on the internet is not that.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: What I see on the internet is the fact that, oh, this person is in some discomfort or having an emotional meltdown, or not even here.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it happens in other countries too.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen the videos.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: They don't offer assistance like, hey, let me console you, make you feel better, whatever's going on.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: They videotape it for their social media channel, and there's like there's no emotion.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like they don't care that this person is having a meltdown and isn't capable of fixing their problem and they're looking to others to resolve it.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's just this is what our society's become.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be part of what our society has become.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I see it all over the internet, and it absolutely is disheartening because I know that there are humans out there that would not do that.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's easy to say that influencers are entitled or they shouldn't do that, right?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not the business conversation that you need to have.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: The business conversation is why did you allow the situation where expectations were undefined?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that goes back to having a contract for your free cleaning, right?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: If she if she had had a contract, that person wouldn't have been allowed.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: She could have been sued, right, for disparaging your business or defamation of character, all of those things liable can happen if things don't have any truth to them, right?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: You work it out in court and someone pays.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So no scope of the job equals chaos, no agreement for the job equals chaos, and no having no clear boundaries also equals chaos.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And chaos always shows up publicly at some point, always.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: It just wiggles its way out there and goes, I tada, right?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're gonna do any type of collaboration like this with yourself or with others, because I see that the big thing now is to do the really awful cleanings with others.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's been interesting to watch too.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you've you've heard me in the past with the other podcast episodes, it needs to be structured like a paid job.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Every job is the same, every job, every person gets the same treatment, every job is treated exactly the same.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you do one, do it for one, you have to do it for the other.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure we've all heard that.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Period.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that means scope of work, what's included and what's not included, before condition acknowledgement, so before and after, approval or review expectations before posting.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I typically when we film, because we did 106 free cleanings last year, and I you didn't know that I did 106 until I said, hey, by the way, we did 106 of them.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: If we and we did film in every single one of them, and I do have that content, but I was specific about excuse me, not taking video of anyone's personal life.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't skim any of the children's photos, I didn't skim any of the fine art, I didn't skim any of that.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: I uh and and I watched the video to make sure, and we we put, they have the filters now that you can cover people's faces if something gets shown on accident.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: So use discernment in your own badge best judgment to make sure that you're going above and beyond and that you're not exposing children or people who are vulnerable to unnecessary exposure on the internet.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I wouldn't necessarily get review expectations before posting.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: They they sign a release, a media release.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, it's a it's a written agreement.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Cut and dry.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Every single job that we take on, it has a written agreement.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we're gonna do.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: You agree that by accepting this, you agree to do that.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because exposure is not a contract, and it leaves a whole can of worms for you to be punished on later if someone misinterprets what your intentions were.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the part that might surprise you.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Most of these situations go bad because not because of the cleaning, they go bad because of misalignment.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, from what I saw in the three videos, she was wanting wall washing, she was wanting baseboards, she was wanting this and that, and that's not something that you can do in the size home that she described in the four-hour increment of time that this person blessed her with.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And she ended up getting crucified and paying a huge amount of time on it.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna say something that might not be popular.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, but it's real.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Influencers are not your ideal, influencers are not your ideal client.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And there have been several episodes where, you know, you have to sign a waiver or a non-disclosure agreement when you take on a baseball player or a football player or whatever.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's different layers of influencers, but having regular internet influencers, I would keep those boundaries nice and tight so that things don't get all wobbly and wonky.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that they're bad people either.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: It just means their business model is different than yours.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta protect what's the whole point of doing all this craziness is so that you can sell your legacy or gift it away to family so that everyone has a future.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: It means their business model is different than yours.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just said that, I apologize.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And your business is a service, their business is for attention.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: So keep that in mind should you decide to give away free cleaning to an influencer.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're stepping into the world without structure, you're gambling with your reputation for a maybe, and I don't like maybes in business.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that's true.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like maybes in business.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I like everything to be structured in and out.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we're doing, this is not what we're doing.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I want you to take from this.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Stop doing free work without structure.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Treat every collaboration like a paid job.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Define your scope very clearly, no guessing.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: If the job requires PPE, make sure that you are wearing PPE and you have backup PPE.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm tired of seeing that too, since I'm griping to you guys.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Protect your business before you try to promote it.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, not all exposure is good exposure.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: This poor girl didn't get any good exposure.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I reiterate: if you were out there and you catch this video, Michelle's cleaning company and you're in Texas, reach out to me.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm happy to fix your problem.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because WebBat posts can undo a lot of work.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, if someone is willing to tear down, tear you down publicly after you gave them something for free, that was never truly a client.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually liability.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And your job as a business owner is not to chase attention, it's to build something that actually lasts.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Legacy.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: You'll hear me talk about it all over the time.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: If this episode hit for you, make sure you subscribe to Cleaning Business Life.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you're building your business and you're tired of guessing, this is exactly what we fix inside of Clean Freaks University.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: We focus on systems first.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so you stop learning the hard way.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to my rant, and I'll talk to you guys soon.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.