How do you keep a customer from hitting on you?
We're going to talk about that today.
Hi there, I'm Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner.
This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question,
and I get to help you find an answer.
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All right, on to today's show, which is from a house cleaner who has this question.
Speaker 2: Hi, Angela.
How are we supposed to handle a customer hitting on us, and what do we do if the customer continues
to hit on us, and wants to invite us out on a date?
How are we supposed to handle that?
Also, how do we tell our employees to handle clients hitting on them?
Thank you.
Angela Brown: All right.
It comes down to boundaries.
How do you keep a customer from hitting on you?
When you do your initial walkthrough with a customer, and you are explaining your rules
and your procedures, that's a really good time to explain that, hey, your relationship
is just a professional working relationship.
And I love to do that on the initial walkthrough, because you spend a little bit more time on
the initial walkthrough, building rapport with your customers, and you become their
friend, and then you have to draw the line and say, "This was just the initial walkthrough,
but because I respect you, when I come to your house to house clean, I'm just going
to be house cleaning.
We're not going to be talking, and chit-chatting, and spending lots of your precious time.
I'm just going to come clean your house."
And that's also a good time, if you hint that there might be something else going on there.
"There's no dating.
There's no personal life.
It's just, from here on out, I'm just your house cleaner.
So, this was so much fun getting to know you, and I really appreciate that you have this
great sense of humor and whatever, and I will look for little snippets of that as I say
hello, but I'm going to come just clean your house and that's it."
Now, once you've established those relationships, and it's very important that you establish
boundaries with your customers and with your employees, so that your employees also know
what the rules are with the customers.
Now, if you get to a customer's house and they start hitting on you, you can say, "You
know, never mix pleasure with business," and you can make a joke about it.
And they go, "Hey, will you go on a date with me?"
"Not going to happen.
Can't mix business with pleasure."
And it might be that they're joking, and it might just be a compliment, and it might be
that they're really hitting on you.
So if they're really hitting on you, your tone needs to change, and instead of just
being lighthearted like, "Not going to happen," then you have to say, "Hey, listen.
This is making me really uncomfortable.
I'm really just here to clean your house.
So I love the fact that you're open to having me as a romantic interest, but the reality
is, I'm married," or, "I'm not interested," or, "I'm seeing someone else," or,
"I don't mix business with pleasure.
It's inappropriate.
So, thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
I know that it's coming from a place of kindness and compassion, but I ... mm-mm (negative).
Can't do it.
Thank you."
And then keep a smile on your face and move on.
What you don't want to do is you don't want to embarrass the person.
You don't want to say, "Well heck no.
I would never do that.
That's ..." you know?
Don't make them feel bad, because you're in a working relationship.
They're a customer of yours.
You provide a service.
You don't want to lose the client, but at the same time, you need to respect that these
are their feelings.
I had a guy one time give me a dozen roses, and they were beautiful, but it was inappropriate,
and I said, "Oh my goodness.
Thank you so much.
This is lovely, and I really appreciate this, because I'm not sure where it's coming from,
but thank you so much, and because these are so beautiful, I'm going to leave them here
at your house, so that you can enjoy them, and I'm going to enjoy and appreciate for
the rest of my life the kindness that you gave these to me.
So thank you so much, and I'm going to leave them right here at your place," and sent a
very clear message that we're not playing this game, okay?
This is not who we are.
I'm just here to clean.
All right, the next thing that you need to be aware of is if a customer attacks you,
or if they physically come onto you, you might have some pepper spray with you, and that
is something that you need to consider carrying with you, because there have been some incidences,
not many but a few, where customers have come onto house cleaners, and the house cleaners
have to defend themselves.
Now, in this particular situation, just saying, "Hey, back off.
Back off.
You're in my personal space.
This is not appropriate" will usually do the trick, but if not, in your apron or in your
cargo pants, if you have some pepper spray on you, that might be all that you need to
deter the person.
Now, if they do not stop, and I'm saying once you use the pepper spray run to safety.
Go get in your car.
Leave your cleaning supplies behind.
Go get in your car and go home.
And I'm counting that on your apron, on your person, or in your cargo pockets, you also
have the car key to your car.
And we do that for safety reasons as well.
If you find yourself in a bind and you have to run, leave everything behind and go,
for this reason: You can replace a vacuum.
You can replace cleaning supplies.
You can replace a cleaning caddy and your cloths, but you can't replace your life.
And if someone comes onto you and you feel threatened, or you feel in danger, just get out.
Get out and go to safety.
All right, then the next thing that we have to talk about is where are you advertising?
If you are advertising, let's say on a place like Craigslist for example, and you are trying
to drum up some business and what have you, it's possible that the person that's reading
the craigslist ad misinterpreted what it is you're actually offering, because there are
some other services that are out there, that are more than just house cleaning.
We'll just leave it at that.
Okay, so what you might do is just, in your ad.
"I'm here to clean houses.
I've got a couple of openings.
No sexual favors."
And just include that in your ad.
When we've done any Craigslist ad, we include that, for that very reason.
And we've never had a problem.
We had somebody ask us once, "Why do you do that?"
And we said, "Because we advertised on Craigslist, and there's a little bit different market
on Craigslist than there is on a Valpak ad, for example.
So you just have to cover your bases, and as far as your employees go, you need to set
the rules with your employees up front, so they know what the rules are as well.
And then, if something happens, you need to create new rules and new boundaries and then
make sure everyone understands.
All righty, that is how you keep customers from hitting on you.
Don't give them any clue that it's a possibility.
All right, and until we meet again,
leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.
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