Hello. I have been in this business for 18 years, and know all the in's/out's of what to charge. First and foremost, you may want to do some research in your area, call around to cleaning companies in your area portraying a customer. Tell them what type of cleaning service you need and ask what they charge. You want to be competetive with their pricing, but yet... maybe consider a discount on the first clean for your customers, such as: $10 off the first cleaning. Or offer something of a discount for those customers that are regular service- weekly, bi-weekly customers, to offstand the economy issue. Alot of places don't want to pay outstanding prices due to the economy issues. You want to make sure that you set a minimum of time in the home/office, usually a 1 hour minimum. This will keep you from making long trips for a 30 minute job. You need to make it worth your while.
When you get a new customer, charge an hourly rate for the first clean. Generally it's about $20-$30 per hour, per cleaning person in the home/office. If you have two people - $40 an hour for example. You do this mainly for residential cleaning, because you don't know what you are walking in to. It could be a house that hasn't been cleaned in a while, and you could be there all day. Then again, it could be a relatively clean house, and you may be there for 1 1/2hrs. Either way, you won't short yourself. Size of the home is an issue. You find out how big the house is, how many bedrooms/bathrooms, and if they have small children or pets. You may ask the customer to please put away the pets while you are in the home. Children and pets as you know... are very messy, so this may be a factor into your pricing. Find out what type of flooring they have in the home.. carpet/ tile/ wood flooring?
I have what is called a new customer sheet. It basically has a place for the name, address, directions to the home, how to gain access to the home, how many bedrooms/ bathrooms.. what type of flooring, do they have kids or pets. And on this sheet is an information section, basically for any additional cleaning requests, or comments the customer may tell you pertaining to past experiences with cleaning services, or what they are picky about. I also list if this is hourly or base priced. If it is base priced, and for example are going into a house for an hour. I put $40 charge for 1 hour on the sheet. I give this sheet to my cleaners, and they go do the account. The customer knows that they will pay at the time of service and should leave a check for that amount in the house for the cleaners to pick up. If the customer will be there, they can get the check when they are done with the cleaning. You NEVER clean an account without getting paid that day for first time cleans. When they are regular customers and do weekly/bi-weekly or monthly service, you can arrange a monthly billing with them. I have gotten ripped off by not getting payment at the time of service, so don't put yourself through that. Let them know that if payment is not there when the cleaners arrive, there will be no service, and a $15 charge will be applied to them for your having to make the trip out there. Remember, you have employees to pay and gas expense for making the trip out to these places. This can be very expensive... and this will cut down on that expense. I have only had a few that didn't arrange for payment, and us having to leave the home. I send them a bill for $15.00 service call~ it's not our fault that the customer can't hold up their end. It was explained to them before hand. Also on that sheet I will list any additional supplies that we will need for that job - such as "ladder needed for windows" just so you are prepared.
When the job is completed.. I pick up the check, and leave a check-list for the customer along with a receipt for payment. The check list is something I printed out, basically showing what duties were performed by checking it on the list. I put the date and my name on the check list. There is a main copy and a carbon copy. The customer gets the main copy and I keep the carbon copy in their file. If the customer complains I can refer to that check list, and see who the person was that did the cleaning, and the date and refer to that for answers. I can tell the customer that this person wrote that they did "clean the bathroom floor" because it is checked on the list. If the customer complaints continue, I will send that cleaner back to the home to clean it again, at no charge. Or I will go look at it myself, to make a determination. Some customers try to get away with cheap cleaning... by that I mean, you go in and bust your buns to clean the house, and they call and complain~ just to get their money back, or try to get the cleaning for free. The only thing you can do is offer to come back and clean it again, or check out the work yourself. Don't EVER offer the money back. You already provided the service and are out the costs... so you don't want to budge on that. All you can do it try to make it right. If that is not good enough for the customer, which I have had a few problems with, because they are adamant on getting their money back, and they threaten to take you to court. You have all the proof you need. I often take a digital camera with me to the sites and take pictures before and after the cleaning if it's a questionable account, or if it's really very dirty. Just to have proof because you never know.
After the first clean, set a rate for future maintaining of the home if they are interested. If they want service every week, and it took 3 hours for the first clean, you may charge only 1 1/2hrs or a 1 hr. (which is your minimum), for future cleans for say $40 per week or $80 bi-weekly. Which will seem cheaper for the customer, but once you get the initial dirt taken care of, it's just "up-keep" from that point on so the job won't be that difficult to maintain in that given time. You want to be careful here, because if it's a bi-weekly account, it can get dirty again in two weeks time..so make sure you price accordingly. If you think it will take longer, add accordingly. Usually your weekly customers get the break, because it's less time needed between cleanings. You want to let the customer know that. If that customer wants "little extra's" that are time consuming, such as cleaning the oven, or windows inside/out for example.. you charge extra for that. Windows are $2.00 per window. Slider windows I usually do for each clean anyway, but if you don't it's $5 per window. Oven's can be really bad.... so I charge $50 for an oven cleaning. Inside Refrigerators - $50. These are things that are not done on a regular cleaning. When you go in, you want to be sure of what your duties are. Dusting, vacuuming, surface cleaning, floors etc. When it gets into more personal duties such as : changing sheets, doing laundry, inside of refrigerators, etc... I charge a seperate charge for those things. If you get an overly unusual request and it seems fishy... you may want to make the trip to estimate it, just so there are no problems. Again, if you can, take pictures.
Of course once you get the appointment scheduled for cleaning... you want to do a bang up job, to show how good and thorough you are. The customer will like that, and will want regular service. So you want to send your best cleaners to the first initial cleanings. This way, you can pay your cleaners 1/2 of what you charge and still make out good. For example: you pay your cleaner $10 per hr. - the job pays $30 per hr. Of course inclusive in the price is that you provide all cleaning supplies and chemicals needed to clean. If at all possible, you do not want to use the customers supplies. Mainly for breakage, or mis-use... and they will blame you for it, and you will have to replace it. The main thing is to forsee issues like this, so your costs are kept down.
I usually ask the customer if they have a preference for cleaning supplies. Some are different with what they like, or have allergy issues. I always ask this to protect my company. Some like to use Pledge for example, I get alot of that. I don't supply Pledge. I use a vendor product. So always ask. Most say they don't have a preference, but you would be surprised at those that do. And they have no problem supplying that product for you. You do not negotiate with your price at all with this. Because you are still doing the work, and still using your supplies.
This will save you from making trips all over the place to do estimates... saving time and gas. It has worked for me, and I hope it works for you too. Good luck with it. It's a dirty world out there, and someone has to clean it up. Right? Sorry this is so long... but just wanted you to know the details, of do's and don't's and of worst case scenarios, which do happen.