I feel so stupid!

[chevygirl57]

So my problem client, but also the one I have right now that I get the most money for... I slept in and should be at her place right now cleaning. She called my house & cell numbers and left a message.

I feel like such an idiot. I set my alarm and everything. Woke up at 6a.m., re-set it to get up at 7 since I was still tired and didn't have to be there until 9... appartently I must have gotten up when it went off again and don't remember or didn't actually set it as I thought.

So, I woke up at 10:30a.m. instead.

I feel bad but am going to drop her once I pick up a few more clients anyways because of the times she's pulled crap on me.

I know I need to call her and am going to. Now I really don't feel like cleaning over there but we'll see if she wants me to still come over. I am going to offer it to her for free though.

Edit:

I just called her and apologized and said I feel really bad and I am discounting her next cleaning. She seemed slightly annoyed and said she would call me back to maybe set something up this weekend. I am really not looking forward to working on a weekend, but I might have to do it since I am the one that screwed up.

At the same time, I don't feel like I need to feel too bad about her since she's been a crappy client. I just need the money right now and don't want to burn any bridges here.

[Kevin]

Well you could have used the old " One of my other larger customers had an emergency situation that required my immediate assistance or maybe any other common cleaning excuses such as I tried to call you but


Top Excuses
Waiting on supplies from the distributor

The equipment had a mechanical breakdown on the last job, so its getting a complete overhaul.

Our work vehicles all had the tires slashed, we believe its our competition as they are upset our prices are so reasonable, and our work is so good.

Governor (add your gov. name) called this morning, and the Capital is receiving the Ambassador of Israel today, and there cleaning crew walked out last nite, ( while using this have a friend hum the star spangled banner in the phone)

Weird.....I was at your house this morning, actually early because I bought fresh made muffins, and a couple of cappuccinos from the (your coffee shop name) and nobody answered the door..oh my gosh, were you in the shower?

Maam, clearly on our master schedule calendar your date is scheduled for next Friday

Seriously, we all make mistakes, honesty is the best policy, you did the right thing!

[shiny]

Hey, don't feel bad. I think what you did was admirable offering to clean at a discount. We all make mistakes, but don't beat yourself up because of ot. I know there have been times that I have freaked out because I overslept and was late for work or getting my kids off to school. Funny thing is, I found out that my CAT will jump up on my night stand and shut the snooze off!! lol........ The alarm must drive her crazy.Well anyway, good luck. I hope everything works out for you and that you pick up more clients.

Sherri

[russo]

ROTFLMAO!!!! ;D

[Kevin]

Oh I forgot that excuse, the cat is sick or dog is sick emergency... People understand animal problems. Sherri your cat is welcome in my house anytime. I would love to have a trained cat to step on my snooze button, would pay for and take care of a cat that does that.. (lol and I really don`t like cats that much)

[shiny]

admin said:

Oh I forgot that excuse, the cat is sick or dog is sick emergency... People understand animal problems. Sherri your cat is welcome in my house anytime. I would love to have a trained cat to step on my snooze button, would pay for and take care of a cat that does that.. (lol and I really don`t like cats that much)

;D Well, ya know....I have NO idea how she figured out how to turn my alarm clock off. She just keeps walking all over the clock until she hits the right button. I still have a problem with her doing that. You may borrow her for a while if you like ;D

[chevygirl57]

You know what really stinks about this is I am taking my dog in to get his teeth cleaned Monday and my SO and I are splitting the costs. I was counting on the money for my portion of the bill.

Hopefully the woman calls back so I can get there and clean asap and at least get some money for it.

[Pages Personal Cleaning]

Nicole
We have all made our share of mistakes, but remember, in this buiness it's very important to be responsible, even if you don't care for the customer, she is still your customer and your customers are the ones paying your bills. What I am trying to say is, it can give your company a bad name and when you do something wrong word spreads fast. I have an employee who would say its only one customer, she didn't understand how much damage one unsatisfied customer could do.
Patti

[logan5127]

One unsatisfied may tell hundreds. One satisfied may only tell 3 or 4.
I try my best to have only satisfied customers. But we all do have things happen.
I never make up an excuse. I tell them exactly why I was late.
I think the hardest one is calling and telling them you forgot about them. I have had to do this a couple of times. I have never lost a customer over being honest to them. I have also gave some discounts due to my mistakes. But not to much. On the other hand do they offer to pay you more because they where late letting you in because they got up late and was in the shower when you arrived or they forgot to leave a key in the hiding spot and so on.

[chevygirl57]

logan5127 said:

One unsatisfied may tell hundres. One satisfied may only tell 3 or 4.
I tyr my best to have only satisfied customers. But we all do have things happen.
I never make up an excuse. I tell them exactly why I was late.
I think the hardest one is calling and telling them you forgot about them. I have had to do this a couple of times. I have never lost a customer over being honest to them. I have also gave some discounts due to my mistakes. But not to much. On the other hand do they offer to pay you more because they where late letting you in because they got up late and was in the shower when you arrived or they forgot to leave a key in the hiding spot and so on.

This lady has never offered to pay me extra. I think everyone will remember, but if not here is a refresher:

First time cleaning there I was standing around waiting for her for almost an hour because she went to the bank and took a detour to buy some clothes. I was waiting to get paid.

Same day she also wasted about 2 1/2 hours of my time while she was trying to get the daycare kids to sleep. I was unable to do any vacuuming or clean any of the rooms the children were in while they were "Sleeping"

And third was last Friday when I found out she cancelled on me after I arrived & unloaded all supplies and wasted gas and time getting there. I even told her it wasn't a problem that she cancelled on me last minute (although it was).

I think I have been way to nice to this person actually, but at the same time I know I need to be because I know bad word spreads faster than good word and I need the money and experience.

[chevygirl57]

indianagirl said:

Nicole
We have all made our share of mistakes, but remember, in this buiness it's very important to be responsible, even if you don't care for the customer, she is still your customer and your customers are the ones paying your bills. What I am trying to say is, it can give your company a bad name and when you do something wrong word spreads fast. I have an employee who would say its only one customer, she didn't understand how much damage one unsatisfied customer could do.
Patti

One unhappy person is never good. I try my best to satisfy all customers to the best of my ability. Even when I don't like them, I try.

I wish more people realized how important it is to keep all customers happy and on their good sides. The happier the customer, the more future customers.

[Kevin]

I would like to go into detail on this subject a bit more. On happy customers, and the rate if you have an unhappy customer. I have seen this in many business books. I am wondering do you all think that it applies to a janitorial service or cleaning service in a large metropolitan area.

First one unhappy customer tells anotheror seven or a hundred? If there is a million people in your service area, what are the odds of you losing any business over one unhappy customer?

Please do not take this post wrong, I believe in 100% customer service. I have always wondered in depth of this equation.

[chevygirl57]

admin said:

I would like to go into detail on this subject a bit more. On happy customers, and the rate if you have an unhappy customer. I have seen this in many business books. I am wondering do you all think that it applies to a janitorial service or cleaning service in a large metropolitan area.

First one unhappy customer tells anotheror seven or a hundred? If there is a million people in your service area, what are the odds of you losing any business over one unhappy customer?

Please do not take this post wrong, I believe in 100% customer service. I have always wondered in depth of this equation.

Me too now that you mention it.

[Kevin]

As stated i`ve seen this in many business books, and it has transfered from book to book over the years. Created probaly back in the 40`s when towns had a couple thousand people in them. We get alot of jobs from word of mouth,(Happy Customers) and over the years we have had customers that were not completely happy with our work.

I guess if you look at the odds, a happy customer brags to a friend "look how good my house looks" and there friend comments who does your cleaning? The happy customer replies Purity and your information might be passed along to that friend. Now a unhappy customer telling a friend my house is terrible, the cleaning crew did not do a good job. Very unlikely.

With this in mind though you are more likely to receive more work from a satisfied customer, I still don`t believe the unhappy customer story will spread like a wildfire. There are just to many people now. The ratio of you finding new work far outweighs the distance of the unhappy customers comments.

How many times have you had a bad experience at a commercial reasturant, lets say Mcdonalds or Applebees, or the question may be how many times has anyone had a bad experience. I personally went to the mcdonalds once and my fries were cold, When I went next week things were fine. But if i made a personal campaign that things are so bad there and told all my friends would they stop going there??? I dont think so, and at the same time there are new customers that are going to mcdonalds just today.

If you concentrate on new customers every day, you will far outweigh the words of a customer who is unhappy. Your advertisements alone in one day have spread the word faster than an unhappy customer can talk.

By all means though take care of those customers, even if there unhappy you might not get anymore work from them or extra work. Finding the customers is the hardest part.

[jnjclean]

I really love these, I will have to remember them!!

Top Excuses
Waiting on supplies from the distributor

The equipment had a mechanical breakdown on the last job, so its getting a complete overhaul.

Our work vehicles all had the tires slashed, we believe its our competition as they are upset our prices are so reasonable, and our work is so good.

Governor (add your gov. name) called this morning, and the Capital is receiving the Ambassador of Israel today, and there cleaning crew walked out last nite, ( while using this have a friend hum the star spangled banner in the phone)

Weird.....I was at your house this morning, actually early because I bought fresh made muffins, and a couple of cappuccinos from the (your coffee shop name) and nobody answered the door..oh my gosh, were you in the shower?

Maam, clearly on our master schedule calendar your date is scheduled for next Friday

Now, regarding this customer: I would not worry too much. You have made ammends with her the best you can do. Why worry about things you can't change? Everyone makes mistakes, I will give you my most recent catastraphy...

Two weeks ago I went to clean this account I have. It is a machine company & I clean their offices. Now the week before I was shown in detail how to disarm the alarm several times. Well I set the alarm off, had to call my client at home. It took me 10 minutes to shut it off. I thought oh well, 30 minutes into my cleaning the police show up.I was so embarrassed that I took 15 % off the bill. They laughed about it.
Here is one more, but it is a courier position, same company, I deliver parts for them. We have Nextel two-way's, I was on my way to pick up a part & kept getting stuck behind people who dont know how to drive. Well I must of hit the two-way button and direct connected to my client because they heard me complaining, ( to myself)somewhat cursing about the guy in front of me. they listened to me the whole time I was on the interstate, they were all in the break room laughing when I arrived, Robby( the plant director) informed me of the button on my phone being stuck!! This all happened within a months time. They give me more business than any other company. So keep your chin up!!!