On The Most Recent Nonsense.....

The recent turmoil centered around an unhappy customer has created quite a bit of interest. Just scroll down to the next post and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Throughout the saga, there's been lots of name calling. Trash talking. And even some rude and character defaming comments. It ends now.

Two Maids & A Mop was contracted to perform a deep cleaning for one customer. The hourly charge was $75 per hour for a team of two maids. The fact is that we needed more time to completely finish our job. Yes, there's a chance that we made mistakes. Yes, there's a chance that we fast forwarded through some areas. And yes, there's a chance that - given time - we would have produced a sparkling, clean home. But nobody can concretely say yes or no to anything at this point.

That's why we refunded the customer $324. That's why we were willing to lose money on this job. That's why we apologized privately and publicly. And that's why changed our procedures so that this saga never gets repeated.

We've begged for forgiveness and yet - our business continues to get trapped in the line of fire. Please stop the nonsense and move on.

The smart thing to do would be to eliminate any history of this mess. But the professional thing to do is to address the issue. Our customers know that we're not perfect. And our customers also know that we care more about our reputation than a silly dollar.

At the end of the day, we feel comfortable knowing that we've done the right thing. We refunded 60% of the customer's money (at the customer's request mind you - and yes, I know I negotiated for $25 more dollars). We apologized countless times. We accepted responsibility. We learned from our mistakes. And we've never once lowered our ourselves to the point of name calling or character defamation.

We're all human. Let's all now start acting a little more humane. Please.

The REALLY Unhappy Customer

Two Maids & A Mop has finally done it. We've made one person EXTREMELY upset. Take a look at this blog and you'll see how unhappy she is......

What Happened:
1. For a deep cleaning, we charge $75 per hour for a team of two maids. We typically provide a rough time estimation for the deep cleaning and that estimate is correct 90% of the time. We make every attempt to tell the prospective customer that we don't know for sure how long the cleaning will take - after all, we're just talking over the phone. But history usually serves as the best example - so we use historical examples of similar sized homes as our guide. We're correct about 90% of the time; which means that we're wrong 10% of the time. That's why we strongly suggest that the time estimation is just that - an estimation based on our best guess.

In this case, we needed two days. Yet, we stopped after just seven hours because the work day had ended. However, we were more than willing to arrive the next morning to continue our work. Unfortunately, we weren't called by the customer until 9 AM the next morning (the day before Thanksgiving). That left us in a bind because all of our employees time had been allocated for the day. In addition, the problem was compounded by the holiday because we were not open Thursday or Friday.

2. The fact is that our deep cleanings are SLOW. They should be slow and we will not ever change the pace of our deep cleanings. The very definition of a deep cleaning infers the pace of the cleaning.

3. This cleaning cost a lot of money to the customer. No doubt about it. In fact, it may be the most costly cleaning ever since our inception. When I heard about the cost, I was immediately concerned because I knew that someone had just paid a ton of money and their house was still not completely cleaned. The perfect recipe for disaster.

What Should Have Happened:
1. Once we saw the mountain that we had to climb, we should have informed the customer that we were going to require at least two days of cleaning. That was our fault and we accept responsibility.

2. We should have responded to this customer's complaints well before today. We can blame the holiday, but the real blame lies with me. I should have checked into our email system periodically over the break just to make sure that everything was ok. It wasn't.

3. We should have been open and honest with the customer about the cost implications and the time requirements. We can defend our time quote, but once inside - we should have alerted the customer to the possibility of an extremely expensive cleaning.

What We Have Learned:
1. We will no longer charge by the hour for a deep cleaning. Too many people think we're working to simply inflate our price. Too many people think our pace of cleaning is slow. And too many people just sit there calculating the final total. This isn't the first time and it won't be the last - so from this point forward - we're going to charge flat rates based on the number people living inside the home and the home's total square footage. This should alleviate this problem forever.

2. We need to check our email during holiday breaks.

What We Will Do To Make This Customer Happy:
1. We'll do whatever she wants us to do. It's a hard lesson, but we're willing to learn from our mistakes. We've never claimed to be perfect and we'll probably make another mistake just as serious as this one down the road. But for now, we've learned our lesson. And we'll pay for it.

This won't happen ever again. The formula for this type of disaster is now dead.

P.S. There's a reason our customers selected us for this award. And this one too.

Testimonial From Gulf Breeze

"I cannot say enough great things about the ladies. They continually go above and beyond my expectations. They even clean the cat dishes and make the baby's crib up! As a single parent with a husband in Afghanistan their little touches make such a difference.

Keep up the great service!"


Kimberly from Gulf Breeze, FL

Cleaning Up By Cleaning Out

STUART, FL -- Laura Scoggins had a long criminal history, but people left her alone in their homes. Detectives say Scoggins took advantage of the freedom, going through jewelry boxes and stealing valuables.

Scoggins is a former employee of a cleaning service and is charged with taking items from the homes of clients and her employer while performing cleaning services.

Scoggins served time in prison for drug and theft charges before this latest crime spree.

And there you have it. A housecleaner with a drug and theft conviction. Which means that you have a housecleaner that is not bonded. Which also means that nobody is getting any type of monetary retribution more than likely.

When you hire a professional housecleaning company, demand that your cleaning company prove to you that each and every employee is bonded. Because you can't be bonded if you've been convicted of theft.

There's a reason you don't let strangers into your home at night. Why should it be any different during the day?

Two Maids & A Mop Radio Commercial

The Two Maids & A Mop Radio Commercial

Airing in Fort Walton Beach, Panama City and Pensacola (all the stations to the right)......

P.S. If you didn't click the link, you are missing one heck of a deal. Two Maids & A Mop is offering $100 gift cards at rock bottom prices of only $50!!!

For only $50, you can receive a $100 TwoMaids gift card - a 50% savings!!!

You can purchase the gift cards at this website. (The Two Maids & A Mop link will not be ready until Thursday, November 20th)

Green Cleaning Your Home

Even Government Doesn't Get It

Even government doesn't get it.....

"The council also approved the low bid of $7,800 from DK Cleaning Services from Conyers, as a cleaning service for City Hall. This bid was approved over three others of $17,400, $20,820, and $31,906."

Wait until next years budget meeting.