How would you handle this situation with cleaner?

[SparkleSoiree]

A cleaner started with us 3 months ago, she's excellent. She is very popular locally and has had to take on someone to assist her recently so she can expand her business.

Since the new person started with her a few weeks ago I noticed the difference immediately in cleaning standards compared to when the owner was working alone. I didn't mention it the first few weeks thinking she was settling in and things would improve. However this weekend I'm really disappointed in the low standard of cleaning in the area the second cleaner covers in our home. These are things that should be done and what the owner used to do when she was on her own with us.

The owner has high standards usually so I'm wondering if she is not checking her colleagues work before she leaves (I'm not always here when they come) or if they are just rushing now to get to the next client. I get on very well with her (and want her to stay) but she is very close to this other cleaner and I'm not sure how to handle this with her as I don't want to muddy the waters.

I just want to convey that there are areas being missed and they need to be picked up again without offence being taken by either of them, not that I know if either would take offence. But I am known for being a straight-talking person (just want to convey the facts) which can get people's backs up, completely unintentionally.

WWYD?

Start the conversation by saying what a great cleaner she, the boss, is however you have noticed, the areas X is cleaning are not being done to the same high standard you had come to expect and this is disappointing. Ask how she will remedy the situation.

Thanks wowfudge

Yes hopefully, you would imagine that, before she decided to grow her business with staff, she would have had the foresight to realise that she would need to rely upon feedback to fully assess her employee's work as it's difficult to check other's work whilst you are still working flat out there yourself. There comes a point when you need to have faith in the employee and if that person's work is slipping then you do need to value the feedback in order to take care of the problem.

You will be helping her to improve her service by making her aware of these issues.

Hopefully she may have a complaints procedure in place already in anticipation of this kind of thing but if it's her first ever employee she may not have had time to assess how that procedure should work yet. This is going to be a learning curve for her that she may or may not have anticipated but you do need to communicate the issues for both your sakes and also for the sake of the new person so that she can have a chance to improve and become good at her job.

We always let our employees know that although we all love getting great feedback, we must also place a high value on ALL feedback as this is how we can become aware of and then iron out weaknesses within our service. They have to agree when you put it that way!

As long as a client is not unreasonable and just nit-picking (which stands out a mile from genuine concerns) then everyone is better off for the honest communication.