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Turning Down The Job … The Sign of a Caring Professional!
Every one of us has to be honest with ourselves
and ask if we can possibly be the best at every
facet of each professional cleaning service we offer!
I recently read a post on an industry bulletin board where a cleaner questioned whether or not he should have turned down an upholstery cleaning job.
He stated that as a result of his testing, he found the piece to be made from natural fibers, and that it had a bright colored print pattern. He was concerned about colorfastness, and declined to clean it.
To be more clear, he actually did clean it, but did so by simply giving it a thorough vacuuming to remove the hair and dander that the customer said was the main issue with which she was concerned. He didn't charge her for that service.
Many good hearted cleaners on the bulletin board suggested how he could have cleaned it, but my favorite post was from one wise industry veteran who very simply stated: “You did nothing wrong by turning it down”.
The part of this story that I found so positive was this: Here was a cleaner who cared enough about his customer, and also his own company's revenue, not take a risk.
This cleaner did a number of things right:
2. Communication: This cleaner has a strong enough self image to say what he was good at (cleaning carpet and synthetic fiber upholstery fabrics) and what he wasn't confident in doing (cleaning multi colored natural fiber fabrics). He also understood that he could satisfy her primary goal of removing animal hair and dander with vacuuming only. (He really should have charged her for that service; I believe she would have gladly paid him)
3. Focused on a Long Term Customer Relationship: I know this cleaner has a customer for life. She no doubt respects him for clearly telling her what he was, and was not, qualified to do. We have professional relationships with doctors, lawyers, insurance professionals, mechanics, etc who all tell us there are areas where someone with training or experience beyond theirs are more suited to serve us than themselves. We do not look down upon them for that advice, we appreciate and respect it.
Every one of us has to be honest with ourselves and ask if we can possibly be the best at every facet of cleaning services.
Look at this partial list, and be fair in your assessment of how good you are at the following services:
Carpet cleaning
Area rug cleaning
Upholstery cleaning
Pet Odor Decontamination
Tile and grout cleaning
Stone cleaning
Wood floor cleaning
VCT cleaning
Air duct cleaning.
Water damage restoration
Mold remediation
Trauma scene clean up
Fire restoration
If you are the “best in town” in all of these categories, congratulations. If not, then make sure you are the very best at those services that are the most important to your long term business success, and be honest and fair with your customers when they ask you to take care of something with which you are not familiar.
If you turn down enough work, you might decide to learn how to do some of these things you don't feel very comfortable doing, or you'll find a colleague that you can trust to refer such work to.
In the case of upholstery cleaning, we will be presenting a two day “hands on” training class soon that will teach you how to clean the most challenging fabrics, and help you to have the confidence to clean those fabrics for your customers.
Need more information? check here . .
Coming Soon . . .
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Jim Pemberton's
Fabric Pro Upholstery Specialist Workshop
"Specialist" Course With Extensive "Hands On" Training
Class size is very limited for personal attention purposes, so register today.
Please Join Us Here - December 4 - 5, 2025 in McKeesport, PA
How Can You Benefit From This?
Click here for complete class details
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Click Here to Register for a class
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