contractor success The Business Of Housecleaning Marketing that you are educated as a professional cleaner can gain you respect and generate success. By: David Kiser Goes Commercial Everyone cleans: Even Donald Trump wash-es his hands. “Clean” has real value; yet, the public perception of people who clean is not on par with the value society places on the “clean” condition. People who clean homes professionally are often considered less knowledgeable and less valuable in society. The services they provide, however, directly impact the health and lifestyle of themselves, their clients and their com-munity. Cleaning properly or improperly can quickly bring on consequences — good or bad. How do we know what “clean” is and how do we know when we are “cleaning properly?” How does a professional housecleaner become trained to know? People value soldiers, policeman, doc-tors and nurses because they are folks in roles known to protect us or rescue us from danger. In essence, that is what professional housecleaners do. To engage in those previously mentioned professions, you must go through extensive training and understand the rules, behavior and the science involved in practicing those professions. When we formed the Association of Residential Cleaning Services International (ARCSI), we knew that we needed to devel-op a program of instruction and certification for technicians and that it would have to be a peer-reviewed, industry-wide accepted program. It would have to be an ongoing program that incorporates updates and refinements, as any reputable professional certification does. This would allow it to become widely known by the public at large, and becom-ing widely known and accepted is critical to success. This was discussed at great length among the original ARCSI Board of Directors in our first strategic planning meeting. We agreed to move ahead in that meeting with a certification program for professional housecleaners. After evaluating our options, we chose to approach the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning, Restoration and Certification (IICRC). They had done a great job with improving the carpet cleaning industry through their approved schools and instructors, and they embraced the idea and agreed to adopt the program into their system. E Laying The Groundwork After getting the program approved, we had to develop it, pulling information from many places. Cleaning in residential settings is similar to commercial cleaning in that best practices training is a necessity. 34 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • November 2012 Image courtesy of Diversey Inc.
CMM – Archives Nov 2012: 34
