My cleaners have just left early, why am I so crap!

[hillyhilly]

My cleaners work as a team, we pay four hours so the three of them should be here 1 hour 20 minutes.
I am not usually here when they are but today they have left a little under an hour after arriving!
I'm such a wuss I had a friendly chat about the kids then waved them off while thinking "hang on, that's an hour at £11, we're short!!"

Help me grow a pair please! I'm inclined to text because I'm such a scaredy cat, their standards are pretty good but could be better and if they can clean in three hours then that's what we'd pay them!

Just send a text, 'Hi, hope you're alright and not melting in this weather! I noticed that it took 3 hours for the house cleaning today - shall we reduce the hours from 4 to 3? Or does it generally still take the four hours?

Thanks
hillyhilly'

Oh that's good...do not theOP's one. Friendly but no nonsense.

Excellent text! Do you think they probably knock off early usually and if so can you be there now and again? They may feel they can go if they have "done everything" so I ask them if they finish early can they wipe over doors/woodwork until time's up.

I think you need to be more assertive, if you mention the heat then they could come back and say something like 'oh yes, it was so hot today' and avoid the question of why they left after an hour.

Did they clean adequately during the one hour? Is it an agency or individuals?

This happened to me this week. My friend was in and said she basically stayed an hour and not the 1 1/2 I pay her for I reckon she does it everytime I'm not here. I need to be more assertive too

Brilliant text, friendly but to the point. It may be easier to do it via text when you can think about your responses and have a record of the conversation :-)

Great text, I actually phoned, left a message saying that I realised the time after they'd gone and would they please call back and explain why they'd done less than 3 and not the 4 hours we pay for.
They left a message back saying they'd not realised the time and it was tidier than usual upstairs and so they'd done it quicker than usual and so to change the payment to 3 instead of 4.

The standard was ok not perfect and also it's recently not as good as it used to be but I will be here more often through the holidays and will keep a much closer eye.

If it happens again I could use the text in all truth I'll probably sack them, I can't bear it when people you invest trust in take the piss.

This is why we charge a flat rate then there can be no misunderstandings, 'hourly' rates in teams are far too much trouble to even try to adhere to, in a team of three it's really difficult to clockwatch, I don't allow our teams to clockwatch or moan about how long things take, they have to complete everything on our service list to a high, professional standard no matter how long it takes them.

Very remiss of the cleaners to sell it on an 'hourly' basis and then not only leave early but not complete the service to a good standard. If the business owner sold it as 'hourly' trading standards dictates they must stay for the time sold to you even if they are reading a magazine, they MUST remain on the premises.

That's another reason we sell it at a flat rate, they MUST complete the service list and NOT hang about reading or supping tea chatting, they are paid for quality work not hanging around.

I've said it before and I will say it again, all terms need to be set out at the point of sale, including client's expectations, the person selling services must correctly describe the service level a client can expect for the price they will be paying, this should be issued in writing and then anything less than that service level warrants a complaint, straight after service to allow the business owner to correct things and re-train. Also anything beyond the scope of the original service that is asked for by the client will warrant a price adjustment.

Communication is vital in these instances.