Cleaning Service FAQs
Hello there! As you can see from the answers we have given below we mean the very best for you. All of our policies are written with our clients’ and cleaners best interests at heart. If there is a query you were thinking of that we have not answered for you below – please do not hesitate, just call us and ask and we will be happy to advise on any matter.
We are a dedicated and detailed domestic cleaning service. We do not provide any other cleaning services other than quality regular domestic cleanings. The reason for that is that, with this system, we can train our cleaners to provide this service to the premium level we expect to provide for you. We do not want to distract from the quality of our domestic cleaning for which we are known, by attempting to train out other services too, we are not a ‘Jack of all trades’ type of service. Demand for this service is always high and we believe is specialising in what we are good at. Other professionals are available for carpet cleaning, oven cleaning ironing etc. We stick to what we do the best – which is to provide you with a good solid and reliable domestic cleaning service.
Professionals Cleaning Service only offer weekly or fortnightly domestic cleaning. This streamlines our service and allows us to be better at what we do. We specialise in regular domestic cleaning work.
You can book an initial deep clean with us to get the service off to a great start and give us a clean base to then maintain, and you can choose either weekly or fortnightly regular maintenance cleans. We can also build in certain additional domestic services such as bedding change or cleaning out the fridge if these are booked and priced in too. If you are on a budget, as long as the service meets our minimum change of £36 plus VAT then we can arrange to leave out areas and tailor the clean towards your budget. We will add everything that is arranged onto your client notes and then our cleaner will visit and deliver the service that we have quote for, no more and no less. All our services are tailored to your requirements and will be priced according to the areas shown to us and the scope of the work discussed.
This is not an hourly rate service, it is our intention to provide you with a premium level of service and since we have found staff to be variable in what they can each achieve within the same time frame, due to human factors such as age, fitness and other variables like that, we price on the scope of the work rather than just time spent on the property, this way we can make sure we are getting the agreed work right for you every time no matter who attends you.
Although you will be allocated your cleaning day, we cannot indicate specific times of arrival, we can let you know of an expected time ‘window’ of arrival upon request, ie morning’, mid morning, early afternoon or late afternoon to give a rough indication of a time we will arrive. We cannot give a set appointment time for arrival as there can be no way to know how a day will pan out when providing a detailed, cleaning service and travelling to and from various accounts. There are so many variables at play, such as traffic, how each home is left for us (please see ‘preparation of home’ item), last minute cancellations, and as we are human, even hot weather can slow down our cleaning. We usually find we can reasonably aim for a ‘time window’ and if you would like a similar ‘window’ each week we will try hard to provide this for you upon request. We believe in keeping promises and we would not promise a specific time as that is not viable for our company for the above reasons.
Our office is open from 9 am – 4 pm Monday to Friday. If you contact us outside of these hours then please do leave a message for us and we will be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.
Payment is due for each service on the day of the visit.
Our clients set up a regular standing order to pay for their service. Payment should leave your bank account on the day of your clean. Otherwise you can also pay with cash. You should leave this out for our cleaning team to collect on the day of your clean. If it’s easier for you, we can collect payments from you via our Go Cardless direct debit facility.
If you forget to pay us or to leave cash out, please leave enough to cover two visits next time. If you forget again, don’t worry we will call to arrange payment and to set up a standing order with Go Cardless to make it easier for you.
No you don’t need to provide a thing! Not a sausage! As a fully-equipped service we have everything we need to do the best job for you. All we need from you is a home ready for our cleaning service to clean and a key for access, plus any alarm codes. We supply all the materials we need to deliver a beautifully cleaned home for you! We just need your house and we will do our magic in it!
We use the best products that we have found to be most effective and safe for your surfaces and items. We use Miele vacuums to ensure the best cleaning power that is also light-weight for the cleaners to handle safely and allows for less wear and tear on their bodies as full-time cleaners sometimes suffer repetitive strain type injuries with the wrong equipment.
We also supply all the fresh cloths and mop-heads that the cleaners require for the homes on the schedule for the day.
Our minimum priced regular service of £36 plus VAT covers a weekly visit in a one or two bedroomed property with few occupants that is being kept in good and tidy condition. We price up from there to quote larger properties and properties which require more labour. If you have a budget to stick to we can often tailor a lower quote for a larger home by leaving out some of the areas and just including your priority rooms in the cleans.
Just call us or email the request at least a couple of days in advance of the cleaning visit and we will be able to price up and schedule in any additional services such as bedding changed or fridge cleaned out etc. Please remember the cleaning staff are not authorised to book in work or add to the scope of the service in any way, they are not office based and will often forget to pass on these messages, which is understandable, so please do always book additional services in advance via the office.
Yes you can! Regulars only are entitled to our special of a deep clean for just double the cost of your maintenance cleaning price. On this deep clean well get behind and under all the areas we usually rotate and clean all of the rotational tasks such as window interiors and paintwork wiped down – ALL in one visit! In the ‘olden days’ this was called ‘bottoming the house’.
Of course, as these cleans take much longer than regular maintenance cleans, deep cleans are subject to availability and need to be booked a few weeks in advance to avoid disappointment as sometimes all our staff are all fully booked with regular maintenance cleans.
All our cleaners are trained to represent our service level. We are ALL the Professionals Cleaning Service and as verified by our lovely testimonials our clients do love the cleaners that we have hired and trained.
Our cleaners are fully trained and under contract to represent us correctly and our service is fully managed for your peace of mind. All new team members are to work alongside a senior member of staff during their training period to ensure they understand and can deliver the quality and consistency required, they will not be signed off by her until she is sure they are fully capable of understanding and delivering the scope of the service, their performance is closely monitored when they first go out alone. No cleaner is forced to leave training until they and we feel they are ready to deliver high standards and represent us correctly also no cleaner is allowed to leave training until they can meet our standards. Cleaners with a poor attitude towards the job will not be hired and if client feedback tells us that a cleaner is not following our training we are here to fully manage the situation for you until you have the satisfaction you deserve . The procedures we have in place ensure you will only be attended by cleaners who are fully able to represent us correctly in your home.
Although this is our aim as this is always in everyone’s best interests, and it does usually work out that way, we cannot absolutely guarantee the same cleaner every single visit, due to variables beyond control such as sickness or holiday leave and also on occasion, even with our low staff turnover, members of staff do leave us, however to manage this for you we do always ensure that your individual client notes are kept to supply to any cleaner that attends you to maintain consistency and routine. We always ask for clients to communicate their needs to us as we understand that no two clients are the same. This ensures that all notes stay up to date and any cleaner covering for your regular cleaner is on the same page and will be getting it right for you.
If you feel in any way dissatisfied with our service, then please tell us within 2 working days from the visit in order that we can rectify the situation. We will return or make sure to rectify the missed area next visit if necessary at no charge.
At the time when we come round to provide a quote for your service, we create personalised client notes for your home with information about special surfaces, pets, etc and with a section to keep a note of any special requests that are not within the standard service but that we have priced into your cleans for you, etc. Our office is also available during our ‘open hours’ to support the cleaning team to ensure they have everything they need and to make sure that they are alright.
We also all need to know that we are getting it right for you. and therefore we very much encourage your honest feedback, not just the lovely comments, that we do very much appreciate btw 🙂 but we also NEED to know if anything is going wrong as well, we encourage this open communication ensure that staff are performing duties correctly and that all of your job notes are being acknowledged. If not then tell us straight away and we promise to fully manage the situation for you.
Good question! We would always advise that you store away personal items, important items and valuables, as things will have to be moved during a thorough clean and we cannot not assume liability if these are lost if they have been left out. If you have a valuable, breakable item which is out on display (ie an expensive vase for example), we cannot not assume liability for any breakage if we have been instructed to clean such an item.
Excess clutter should be kept to a minimum on cleaning day. This enables us to clean areas more effectively and lessens confusion. We will clean accessible areas only. Excessive clutter and pick-up time incurs extra fees so please ensure the floors and surfaces are mainly clear of items and ready for the cleaning service. Although we are a ‘cleaning service’ and not a ‘housekeeping service’ we will allow teams to wash just a few pots at their own discretion and if time allows. The sink area will mainly need to be clear of washing up before we arrive as of course we do need to use the sink to prepare our cleaning water and chemicals.
We absolutely know and understand that clients are so busy, but if the house is not picked up and left ready for our service when teams arrive then we will not be able to deliver the level of service we have promised without a price increase to cover additional labour costs and you will not get the best value for money. If teams arrive to find that a house has not been picked up and requires a large amount of tidying before they can get to the clean they will do what they can within the usual time-frame but then they will need to leave to get to the next client scheduled without getting to all the cleaning, they would rather complete the clean to the level of detail that is usual for our service level and we know that clients would usually prefer the higher level of cleaning than have our teams spend the bulk of the time tidying up first. We CAN help with this kind of work for you but will need to price it into the service.
Please ensure all wardrobes, cupboards, shelves, blinds, etc are securely fixed so we can be sure our team are working in a safe environment. We cannot accept liability for any damage or accident due to unsecured fixtures.
It is not necessary to be out during service but it is something we do recommend for very best results and for best value for money for you, alternatively, if you can stay in a room that we don’t need to clean or can maybe clean last – that can work well too! Of course we cannot detail clean an area which is being heavily used by clients and we will not be able to guarantee quality of work where client activity is taking place at the same time. It is not good value for your money and also is frustrating for staff who came with the intention of providing a full and detailed service for you.
We cannot take on any liability for breakages or accidents caused as a result of client activity around the cleaning staff.
Most clients tell us that they know this is all just common sense really – and it is! We always say that kind consideration of one another will lead to best interests of both parties being met and this always proves to be the case.
Where possible, we will move furniture to clean as far as we can remove without causing ourselves strain or injury, but of course we may not move everything we can at every single visit, unless a deep clean has been booked. Also safety must come first and We will not move furniture that cannot be easily be pulled out without undue strain on a person’s body. We also will not be able to move furniture that is likely to cause scratches on certain types of flooring. We will move any items that we safely can within a rotating schedule.
Yes!! Unlike some other cleaning companies, we do include interior windows within our standard service! We will clean the interior windows that we can safely reach on a rotational basis. The cleaner who attends you will choose a couple of the windows to clean per visit and they will know where they are up to within her window cleaning schedule.
We are insured up to £1,000,000 for public liability, employer’s liability, key holding, product use and items being worked on. For any claim falling into these categories we will meet any policy excess for you to ensure total peace of mind.
All our team are fully trained and each will endeavour to treat your home and possessions with the greatest care, however in moving many items in your home, including the operation of blinds, etc there is an element of risk that items may be damaged. Our accidental damage insurance is subject to an excess of £250 and we do not provide cover for accidental damage for the first £250 of any loss. Your household insurance will usually have a smaller excess so it’s usually better to claim on this if necessary. You will always be informed if anything is ever damaged by our cleaning team. Please inform us of any items that are irreplaceable, so that we can make special arrangements.
That’s right. Here are our closure times:
We are closed during weekends and public bank holidays. If your clean falls on a bank holiday we can on some occasions offer a re-schedule upon early request but this depends upon availability as we are often running a full schedule which means this is not always possible but we will always help where we can.
We are also closed for the two weeks of the Christmas holidays so that our staff can use some of their annual leave to enjoy time with their families at Christmas.
If you would prefer to cancel whilst you are away we can do that, however most clients use the booking to have a deep clean or sometimes for additional tasks such as fridge and kitchen cupboards cleaned out, also clients feel it’s great for to have someone checking in on the home and picking up the post, water the plants etc whilst we are there too. Of course, if you do have us in, please make sure to supply any additional access details such as alarm codes etc.
If you would like to cancel your spot please give us two week’s notice so that we can use the spot to book/re-schedule other work and not just waste the place. We are usually running a full schedule and need to know about free spots in advance for bookings.
Safety must always come first. If we can’t get to you because access is too dangerous due to ice and snow, etc then you will not be charged for your normal visit. We will return at your next scheduled clean as long as the roads are then clear and safe.
Yes, you can read our privacy policy in full here.
We are so happy that you do love your cleaner, we do too! It’s great to know that she is following our training and procedures correctly and making you so happy! However we know you will understand that during the provision of our service and for a period of 6 months after any cancellation, you cannot hire any staff that are or have been contracted to us. The Professionals Cleaning Service reserves the right to claim any damages, loss of earnings, advertising costs, recruitment costs, training costs and any court costs where appropriate, subject to a minimum of £450.
Yes of course, they are available online here.