Oscar Night and Toilet Talk

March 9th, 2010

Hello!  Jeremy here again.  Well, Oscar night has come and gone and I found myself as excited about it as I did the Academy Awards.  So having gone to bed early that night and getting a good nights sleep, I was thinking about how our own Sandy Robinson is the only one I know who has “how to” videos on the internet to help people with cleaning.  I’ll be looking for more, and if you know any, send me a comment.  As I contemplated how I might make the transition from Oscar night to toilet tips, many ideas crossed my mind. Then, one of my favorite albums came up on my Ipod NanoNeil Youngs, Rust Never Sleeps.  And you know what?  Sandy has a great video about how to clean rust out of a toliet.  (Pretty Smoooooth)  Check this out, another celebrity video by Austins own, Sandy Robinson, E.D.S.

Removing Rust in the Commode -- powered by eHow.com

Customer Comments that Make us Smile

March 8th, 2010

03/01/10 to 03/07/10

We get tons of comments every week through our anonymous customer survey. Since it is anonymous, we don’t know the names, but here are a few of our favorites everyone is smiling about from last week.

“The team was very professional and cleaned my home with attention to detail and thoughtfulness. As always I appreciate their hard work!”

“The quality is outstanding. Victoria is very friendly and has a good sense of humor”

“Team Leader, Debbie, is always willing to inform me of their arrival time so I can make sure the house is open for them. It it always a delight to come home to a clean house. Thank You!”

Water Spots in the Shower

March 4th, 2010

Well, that just about says it.  Those water spots just keep coming back in the shower and it can be quite frustrating to think you cleaned them, and then they reappear like you haven’t done any work.  Well, I have found a way to clean and prevent.  Here’s some more cleaning tips for you.  Wiping down shower doors with a small amount of lemon oil on a regular basis will prevent spotting.  A good squeegee on the glass will go a long ways towards prevention as well.  When water spots form from being left for long periods of time, they require an acid base cleaner, like LimeAway or CLR, to be removed.  We do not provide such cleaners as we find they can be unsafe to use and have the possibility to cause costly damage.  (However, some customers will provide them and we can use them sporadically).  Of course, having The Maids come clean on a regular basis is a pretty nice prevention plan as well.  Have a great day!

Customer Comments that Make us Smile

March 1st, 2010

02/22/10 through 02/28/10

“The girls are awesome and Olga is really great!”

“A special thank you to Margarita for the removal of mold in the master bathroom shower”

“It always feels so wonderfully clean after Debbie and Team 9 leave our house. Thank you so much ladies! We really appreciate what you do. Great job”

“I am impressed with the attention to detail by Team #15. The Team Leader keeps an eye on the entire house during the visit instead of just concentrating on her specific area.”

“Team 15 as well as our usual team seems to care about providing a professional service – the house always is cleaned completely with concern for not breaking/damaging items within the house – professional and competent”

Having Fun on a Winter’s Day

February 23rd, 2010

Hello!  Jeremy here again.  Have I mentioned lately that we like to have fun around here with each other?  I thought today went well with Sandys’ blog last week about team work.  I think these photos of the winters day here in Austin speak for themselves.  Enjoy and stay warm!

Top 5 Customer Comment Pics 02/15 to 02/21

February 22nd, 2010

We get tons of comments every week through our anonymous customer survey. Since it is anonymous, we don’t know the names, but here is our top five pics from last week. This is what keeps us motivated to be the best in Austin. We have the best employees serving the best customers.

1) I just love the greeting from this team, always happy to be here and smiling. What a refreshing feeling to have a perfectly clean house…with this team. They are thorough and Debbie always checks their work. I just want to thank them…thru this survey for their excellent work ethic. God Bless…
2) Thorough and friendly…go beyond expectations…my team yesterday did extra shelf vacuuming and helped with arrival of a recliner…very nice ..thank you
3) Team 11 is the BEST! They are very attentive and friendly and always do a great job
4) Consistently great work
5) USUAL GOOD JOB

Super Bowl, Super Clean

February 18th, 2010

Well congratulations to the Saints.  They weren’t the Cowboys, but it is nice to see a team win whose city really needed a morale boost since the devastating winds and floods of the Katrina hurricane.  Not to be confused with a moral boost, which some would argue is still coming, though I would never dream of entering that argument.  So I say yeah!  Right on Saints.  Now, we just get a hurricane in here, whisk Jerry Jones away and we’ll be looking at a Super Bowl party here in Texas. Well, I’ll probably go ahead and start the party anyway.

O.k., I know I’m a little late with this, but I got distracted handing out more awards to our teams.  Hey, speaking of hurricanes and sports teams, you can imagine I get a lot of comments about the speed of our four person cleaning team.  “They came in like a hurricane”, or “A tornado came through here and took away all the dirt” are some popular comments.  I know sometimes seeing something done so quick makes some folks nervous.  Well, I can understand that if your favorite team is someone like the Raiders, but we operate a Super Bowl worthy team here.  So while there may be a flurry of activity, it is the most surgical type cleaning systems you will ever see in Austin.  So specific that we have an error free rate of 99.5%.  Allow me to elaborate.

Our team is a group of people linked together for work.  The benefit here is the accountability to each others success.  Meaning, the performance of one, generally reflects the performance of all.  While this may appear unfair to some, it does boost ones personal standards to a higher level.  So, first of all we find the team is not only prompted to take a better look at how they’re cleaning as individuals, but also has an interest in helping each other out by spotting their work as well.  There’s an interesting article that explains further here, but this is the basic principle.

A team of people cleaning will also clean more efficient than an individual.  After years of comparison and study, I can tell you this for a fact.  Between the morale of the team (members building each other up) and the different skill sets of each of the people, the process is just plain more powerful.

Here’s a link to The Maids International that describes our team better.
The clean team website has a list of tips and rule # 13 says: “If there are more than one of you, work as a team. You’re what the biologists call a “superorganism.” If your partner gets done ten minutes faster, the team gets done ten minutes faster. And that is a wonderful thing. You can’t stop being vigilant for one moment about what will speed up or slow down your partner’s progress.” Good advice.

Yes, we get in,we clean, we get out sometimes in what seems to be like a hurricane, but the big difference is when it’s all over, the clean up is already done.

A hand few of our teams

A hand few of our teams

Top 5 Customer Comment Pics 02/08 to 02/14

February 15th, 2010

1) Thanks for coming Monday instead of Thursday this time. I hosted my book club last night and the house looked so good because you cleaned it! Thanks so much!

2) Efficient and thorough, accommodating and pleasant. I love my home when they are done.

3) Debbie first asked if we had any specific needs or wants. The ladies were very organized and paid great attention to detail. We were every other week customers till the economy turned south. We had not had a clean in quite a few months and realize how much we miss the crew. Hope to be able to be regular customers again soon.

4) Team 10 is always prompt, thorough, and does an excellent job whenever they come. Things are never misplaced and the bathroom is spotless. Thanks!

5) High quality service and a team I trust

Top 5 Customer Comment Pics 02/01 to 02/07

February 9th, 2010

1) Laura went the extra mile to sweep the leaves off my front porch as the team was leaving. It was most appreciated!

2) Team was very courteous and professional, and did a fantastic job with great attention to detail. Thank you!

3) Everyone, especially Victoria, was very helpful.

4) continuous high quality service

5) Always friendly and polite

Dependability and Quality

February 2nd, 2010

Well, it’s a new month and I am thinking about our core values and what that means to the people we serve.   As you hopefully know by now, for the past 14 plus years, I’ve been in charge of making sure our customers are receiving the highest in quality cleaning Austin has to offer.  All the cleaning tips and expertise in my brain are passed to the people working here and now I do my best to pass that to you as well.  But it’s not just the training that ensures a great clean.  It’s the dependability.  We feel quite good about having an average employee tenure right now of 3 years.  But the difference that makes in the cleaning is enormous.  I rest so much easier knowing I can depend on our team leaders to know exactly what to do.  Not just because they went through training, but because they’ve been here for 3 years with real practical experience and know how.  I trust them so much, and it’s been a joy to watch them grow through the years.  I would like to take this blogging platform I have to publicly recognize our team leaders and to say thank you. (Click here for one of my favorite videos on Joy)

Debbie

Patricia

Yolanda

Elena

Anita

Micaela

Olga

Victoria

Lucero

Nancy

Minerva

Imelda

Delores

I and all our customers thank you for your dependability and commitment.