Let’s face it getting fired from any job can be jarring. As a professional cleaning company, the simple solution would be to replace the lost income with another job. But, how do you handle things with your staff or with the customer that let you go? How do you move on? Here’s what to do after being fired as a professional cleaner.
When I say the word “fire”, I’m speaking of your cleaning service business contract or agreement being terminated. However, and often, small cleaning service businesses and especially solopreneurs, will say the word “fire”.
It’s semantics.
Job loss, or rather cleaning service agreement termination, happens all the time. It’s business, and business, well, it is what it is. There’s not much you can do about it.
Your customers are just regular people like you and I. Most of their decisions have very little to do with us. The choices they make benefit their situation, not ours.
If an explanation for firing your cleaning services wasn’t offered, then ask if you really want to know.
Your customer’s decision to let you go could have been financial, or scheduling conflicts, or their personal preferences. Who knows.
There’s no harm in asking though. In fact, it may help you to understand what areas of your professional cleaning service business needs improvement. So, that alone can be a benefit. Other than that, there’s no other reason to ask why your cleaning contract was terminated.
I remember several years ago, Elbert and I were let go from 2 very profitable jobs. We even had 4 staff members between the 2 locations. Without warning, mid-month nonetheless, we were asked to leave the premises. Of course, I called the office manager to find out why. “Budget cuts.” Is what I was told.
Budget cuts! Yeah, ok. But, what else could I do. Sure, my cleaning agreement had a termination clause of a 30-day written notice. But, I was not willing to enforce that.
Why risk continuing to do the work, invoice the customer, and then, Not.Get.Paid because of their lack of funds.
After all, why would we want to be anywhere we weren’t wanted anyway? So, we left.
Those 2 jobs were 20% of our monthly income. Yeah, ouch!!!
So what did we do? We… REPLACED THE INCOME FAST!
There are 3 things you can do after being fired as a professional cleaner.
First thing to do after being fired as a professional cleaner is to REPLACE THE LOST INCOME.
As any growing business, your objective is to increase your clientele and profits. That’s a given. But if your income were to decrease by 20% or more all of a sudden, that could hurt. So then, replacing the missed income must be a priority.
Additionally, if you had staff cleaning in the location that you were terminated from, you would want to keep them busy. After all, keeping your team members employed is important for any growing business.
To keep your employees busy until you replace the lost income, think about providing additional cleaning services for the customers you still have. It can be minor things like washing all your customer’s trash cans. Or, offer large tasks like carpet cleaning.
In fact if you enter THE DEEP CLEANING CHALLENGE, you’ll learn just how to do that!
The deep cleaning challenge is not a contest. If you follow the 3 simple steps, you can make more money and encourage customer satisfaction by providing a comprehensive cleaning experience.
Second thing to do after being fired as a professional cleaner is to address the reason your agreement was terminated.
If you were fired unfairly, then it would be up to you to seek legal counsel. I would say this too, calculate your costs in hiring an attorney and/or taking your customer to court. It may not be worth it.
If you find out that you were fired for your company’s poor performance, non-compliance on your part of the cleaning agreement or anything else that you have failed to do. As I mentioned above, learn from this mistake and think of it as a lesson.
Incorporate this lesson into your business and move on. It’s really all that you can do.
Third thing to do after being fired as a professional cleaner is to send a thank you letter.
You might think that sending a thank you letter after being fired is ridiculous. Ok, fine. Really, it’s ok. See, Elbert and I have been in this industry for over 27 years now. We have experienced a lot. Sending a thank you letter, card, or text is a classy move.
I will not say that we have done this in every situation. But, for some of our past customers, yes. Yes, we sent them thank you cards and letters. It really depended on our working relationship. And we have had, and still have some fantastic customers with our cleaning business!
Conclusion:
You can ask your customer why your cleaning agreement was terminated. And, when you find out it’s your fault, deal with the mistake but consider it a lesson and move on. Send a thank you letter, after all, your customer patronized your business. Most importantly, replace your income quickly. These 3 things are what to do after being fired as a professional cleaner.
“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.”
Until next time,
Happy cleaning!
I grew my office cleaning side hustle into a ½ million-dollar corporation with the partnership of my husband and our amazing staff. In 2020, I retired my service-based business to shift my focus and passion from serving cleaning clientele to serving cleaning business owners.
Utilizing my 27+ years’ experience, I offer free and paid products exclusively for cleaning business owners and cleaning side hustlers at A Janitor’s Story® Website and my VIP Group Coaching Membership App.
I’ve served other cleaning pros by helping them to turn one time cleaning jobs into high paying recurring customers, create excellent client retention practices, develop hiring systems that really work, build marketing techniques that convert and so much more.
If this is a place you’d like to explore, I’d love to serve you too. Simply sign up to my free weekly email newsletter for tips and inspiration. I can’t wait to meet you inside.
