hard to handle customers

About the same way you do; Walk away sometimes, Put up with them sometimes!

This one line has saved me many problems....

"Ma'am, I would love to but our insurance won't cover it" That will solve ALL your problems.

Let me guess. Indian customer right? I get those too. It's a cultural thing. They like it hot and they want to save money on the electric bill. It's f**king 95 in the house and they are bragging how they haven't used their AC all year. Here is how to handle that.

"In order for the cleaning to be effective we have to turn down the a/c to about 75 and keep it like that for 2 to 4 hours after we finish otherwise your carpets won't dry properly". By the time you set up it's nice and cool in the house ;).

Don't get me wrong, I've had a couple of really nice Indian customers (some who've spent hundreds, some who've tipped $20-$50 but a good 95% nickel and dime me to DEATH! Again, it's cultural. In India they haggle on EVERYTHING.  Here is how you handle that.

"How much for the sofa?"

"$99"

"Oh, can you do it for $50?"

"No, but I can do it for $150."

"What? You're supposed to go down."

"No ma'am, you go down and I go up. I can do it for $99 or I can do it for $150. Which one would you like?"

Here is another tip. In Indian culture red ink is considered a death threat. So don't use a red pen.

I had one a few months back who was nickel and diming me on the phone. Finally I said "I'm sorry, I can't help you". Come the appointment day they call asking where I am. I told them I couldn't help them but they agreed to pay the full price. Of course, the rooms were short. When I got to the house it was a mansion with 3 BMW's 2 Escalades and a couple of Lexus'. Big stone figured at the door, marble all over. It made me sick. Not because they have that kind of stuff. More power to them, I hope I'm that lucky one day. But because they were trying to rip off a hard working guy who is out in the middle of summer cleaning carpets to make a few hundred bucks. That's what really pissed me off the most about that one.

So we do the initial walk through and of course the rooms are short. The gameroom which was 600 sq ft. was not counted. None of the walk in closets either. All together is was a total of about 1400 sq. ft. they wanted cleaned for free. The old man was trying to tell me the gameroom was part of the hallway. Yea, OK. I don't think so.

Long story short we get to the last room. Then they say  "what about the garage carpet?" (another 800 sq. ft.) I said "it's not on the ticket". He said "not on the ticket? We had an agreement you would do all of the carpet". I said "No sir, here is the invoice, this is what we agreed upon and here is your signature". He actually said "contract? we had a verbal agreement". I said "Sir, you've been nickel and diming me from the initial phone call all the way through the cleaning. I didn't nickel and dime you about your spots and heavy traffic, I quoted a price and came to do the work. I'll tell you what, I'm going to pack up, there is no charge for this half cleaned room and you can just pay me for the work I've done". Then he said "No no, it's ok, how much for the garage". "$60".

Not only did he pay the $60, but he paid the ticket in CASH and tipped me $50. It's like some type of respect was earned by not letting him nickel and dime me. Food for thought. This was months ago.


Anyway, I had a crazy today too. Empty apartment, no stains, truck mount cleaning, 2 of us. Took 30 minutes to clean. Her complaint was the carpets were "barely damp" and she didn't "feel" the carpets were cleaned well enough. Can you believe it? She's complaining because the carpets were "barely damp". I told her I'd be more than happy to soak down her carpets and not extract twice! Hahaha. When I tried to show her the 60 gallons of black water she said she didn't want to see it.

Then I asked her to point out any areas she wasn't happy with. NOTHING. There was nothing wrong. She just didn't "feel" the carpets were cleaned well enough. Then she actually crossed out the line in the invoice that said "satisfactory completion" and signed it. I said if she's not happy I'll be more than happy to do whatever it takes. There was nothing. She just didn't want to pay because she was moving out and some how she thought the cleaning would restore the broken and matted fibers.



I get a crazy about every six months or so. They usually come in threes. Had one the other day. "I just want basic cleaning". "But ma'am, you have severe pet stain and pad damage. See. Here and here and here. It's going to smell bad if we don't extract the urine with a claw and neutralize with UPT/Milgo". "No, I just want the basic".

An hour later.

"OMG! It smells in here. This is a terrible job!" I should have walked away from that one.

Let me ask you guys, how do you walk away without pissing off the customer? I never just flat out walk away but I make sure to state "well, perhaps we should wait until we can do the job properly". And when that won't work "perhaps we should just focus on some of the rooms". And when that doesn't work it's notes and a signature on the invoice.

They come in threes. I'm due for one more next. Then it's clear sailing for another 6 months!


Edited by Atlantis - 30/May/2009 at 10:25pm