Now that I'm on the other side, I'm trying to make sure we actually fix those problems.
Kindly, if that's your focus, your business is doomed. The problems associated with domestic cleaning companies, staff, and service levels, are as old as the concept itself, and so far no one has managed to get it right. Luckily there are plenty of customers in this game, so finding new ones to replace customers who leave you will never be a problem. It's the staff that will always be your problem.
I worked in domestic cleaning for over 20 years, from the mid 1990s onwards. I started out doing a few houses for favours to neighbours etc, and before I knew it I was inundated, so I became self-employed and started doing it as my job. Almost all of my clients I had for years and years, many were elderly and so moved on after a while (some were very ill already when I went to them, others were with me for years before going into a care home or dying). Sometimes I worked all day every day, other times I worked a lot less - I fitted it all around my kids and home life, and even managed to do a degree because I could work around the hours in university
During that time, I made acquaintances with a good number of owners of cleaning businesses who had staff, and all of them struggled desperately to find and retain staff, not just good staff but any staff. Making enough money to employ staff and pay them properly & legally on a payroll was a difficult thing 20 years ago - it's even harder now, practically impossible at times.
The "problem" with domestic cleaning in the UK is that no one is willing to admit to the reasons why it's so hard to make it work, and that's because it's no longer politically correct to say it, so they don't. So I'll say it instead: the sector is massively dominated by women, and women who are young enough and fit enough to do the job, but then are also likely to be of an age where they have young children, and need the job to fit around them.
The best domestic cleaners will be out there working for themselves, alone, charging a decent price so as to earn a very good living, bearing in mind they pay for all of their own time off (no sick pay, no holidays), and have to sort their own pension if they want one. That isn't to say that ALL the people working for themselves (whether legally registered with HMRC or not) are the best cleaners, I am just saying the best cleaners aren't working for anyone else. And why would they? I wouldn't have made half the effort that I used to make, were it that I was being employed by someone else, and for a lot less money.
People who go to work for cleaning companies do so because they get the benefit of doing so - like sick pay, and not having to deal with the customer when they can't or don't want to go to work that day - that's YOUR problem. Theyu don't really want to be doing the job, it's just a job, and they won't share the passion you are wanting to overcome the historical problems of the industry. Cleaning companies are desperate for staff. The customers are ten a penny.
People who go to agencies for work are - in my experience of it - are the ones who absolutely do not want to clean at all. The agency finds the clients and makes the introduction, the cleaner has to be self-employed (and I will die on the hill that no one actually checks that they are legally self-employed, as there's no legal obligation as of yet for anyone to make that check), and after that it's up to the cleaner to liaise with the customer directly, and is paid pitifully by the customers as the agency sets the rate. Customers can pay more if they choose, but with the on-going agency fee to pay as well, it can become a very expensive process.
You can tell me I'm wrong, that's your right to do so. But with all the online forums, facebook groups, and trade associations out there right now, you have so much first-hand information at your disposal that you'll be able to find out all of this for yourself. I would suggest also that you do your research into what makes the top-end franchise brands, such as Merry Maids and Molly Maid, so successful. I'll give you a clue - it's got beggar-all to do with high standards of service and good customer relations. It's to do with the fact that the franchisee has pumped so much money into buying the territory, they can't back out now.
Add to that, crap as the job may be, they won't be employing staff in any way that's remotely incorrect, and as such they have to charge the highest of prices just to be able to meet the wage bill, the franchisee fees, and the sales targets (yes - they are under huge pressure to bring in revenue to the brand). Standards of cleaning and the "customer experience" are the last thing they care about - despite what the marketing material says. Look into it. I'm not wrong.