Every checklist you need to onboard cleaning employees

April 11, 2022 in Hiring & Training

Last Updated on August 21, 2023 by The ZenMaid Team

Have you ever found yourself staring at the phone, client on the line, sweating over what number to say? You’re not alone. One of the most common questions among residential cleaning business owners is how much should I charge for my services?

Charge too high, and you might scare clients away. Too low, and you’re undercutting your value. It’s enough to make anyone second-guess their math skills. In this article, weโ€™re breaking down industry standards and how to calculate the best price to charge for your maid service. 

Now, letโ€™s get to it. 

Hourly vs. flat rate pricing:

The debate between hourly vs. flat rate is as old as the industry itself. Many seasoned experts advocate for flat-rate pricing as the golden ticket to scaling your business. It offers predictability for your clients and ensures you’re compensated for the value you provide, not just the time you spend.

However, don’t toss the idea of knowing your hourly rate out the window just yet. Understanding your approximate hourly rate is crucial for accurately setting your flat rates. It serves as the foundation upon which you build your pricing structure, ensuring that you’re not only competitive but also profitable.

The trick is to calculate your hourly rate based on your operating costs, desired profit margins, and the market rates, and then transition to a flat-rate model that reflects the value and efficiency of your services. In this article, weโ€™re giving you step-by-step instructions on how to determine this rate. But first, letโ€™s cover some industry averages:

Industry average prices for cleaning services

The standard flat rate for cleaning services can vary widely depending on the location, the size and condition of the space, the type of cleaning required, and the cleaning company itself. Here’s a quick breakdown of standard cleaning rates based on averages from HomeAdvisor and Angi.

1. Hourly Rates:

  • Standard cleaning prices also range from $35 to $60 per hour for each cleaner. 
  • The national average cost of house cleaning is noted to be $40-$50 per hour, per cleaner.

2. Per Room Rates:

  • The rate is about $30 to $50 per room.

3. Square Footage Rates:

  • Cleaning a 2,000-square-foot home can cost about $0.06 to $0.16 per square foot, which would total $110 to $320.

4. Flat Fee Rates:

  • For a typical three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot home, the cleaning cost usually ranges from $160 to $200. 
  • A one-bedroom apartment is priced at around $80 to $110.
Cleaning typeHourly rateFlat rateSq Ft Rate
Residential Cleaning
Standard Cleaning$25 – $50 per cleaner$100 – $200$0.05 – $0.16
Deep Cleaning$40 – $100 per cleaner$200 – $400$0.13 – $0.17
Move-In/Out Cleaning$40 – $100 per cleaner$300 – $400$0.13 – $0.20
Commercial Cleaning
Standard Cleaning$25 to $90 per cleanerVaries by size$0.10 to $0.25
Deep Cleaning$40 to $150 per cleaner$200 to $500N/A
Special ServicesVaries by serviceVaries by serviceVaries by service

Additional Services You Can Charge: For residential cleaning, add-on services such as changing bed sheets, laundry, interior and exterior window cleaning, fridge cleaning, oven cleaning, etc., come with additional costs ranging from $4 to $50 per serviceโ€‹. In ZenMaid, you can easily add these extra charges to your cleaning job. 

The pricing strategy formula

Now that weโ€™ve covered some average industry rates, letโ€™s break down a bit more. Everyone likes a good roadmap, right? Here are the four steps for how to find your cleaning service rate: 

  • Step One: Find your target hourly rate
  • Step Two: Calculate how much square footage you can clean in an hour
  • Step Three: Develop a pricing strategy
  • Step Four: Use the pricing formula

How to find the hourly rate for your business

The first step to finding an hourly rate for your business starts with doing local market research. When conducting your market research, consider these targeted questions: 

  • What are other businesses charging? More specifically, what are businesses the same size as yours charging? 
  • How often do they offer services?

The easiest way to find out what your competitors are charging is when prices are listed on their website. Unfortunately, that’s not very common. So, pick up the phone and call up your competitors to ask. 

Once you know what your competition is charging, try to understand how much you can get for what you offer. 

  • Will the demographic in your area pay for a premium service? 
  • Do you want to charge the same as a franchise’s cleaning business?

Facebook groups, client surveys, and competitors are great places to find these answers. 

After you’ve done your market research, you’ll need to figure out how to position your company in the marketplace. Are you just another residential cleaning service? Or, do you offer a premium, specialized product? 

When you know the direction you’re headed, the road to your pricing strategy is easier to find. Some cleaning services like to specialize in large homes or luxury homes. Others just want the โ€˜meat and potatoes’ of a basic cleaning service. The good news is that there’s plenty of business for everybody. 

Employee pay

The next factor that influences your hourly rate is how much you pay your employees. If you want to pay the bare minimum needed to hire people, that’s going to put you on the lower end of the hourly rate. 

If you aim to offer a livable wage with benefits, you’re going to need to charge more. There are no correct answers here, but you need to understand these factors when developing your hourly rate.

The average employee pay range for cleaners is $15.30/hour. You can use this for calculating your hourly cleaning rate. 

Consider your marketing strategy

The final factor for your hourly rate is your marketing strategy. 

Are you trying to grow your business? 

Your rate will need to be competitive if you’re hoping to grow at a fast pace. 

If you need to grow rapidly but don’t want to lower prices, read this article three ways to get more cleaning customers without lowering your prices.ย 

If your business has grown to a place you’re comfortable with, or if you’re well-known in the area, you can probably charge a higher hourly rate. And you can definitely charge a higher rate if you have a waiting list of clients! 

How many square feet can you clean per hour?

After you’ve found your hourly rate, understand how many square feet you can clean per hour. Now, at first, this can seem hard to find, but you likely already have the information you need โ€“ it’s just a matter of finding it! 

It’s important to know your square footage per hour because you will use it as a baseline for all your prices.

Use data from past cleaning jobs to learn how fast you can clean 500 square feet. You’ll want to calculate an average from your recent jobs. 

  • How long did the last ten *typical jobs take you? 
  • How many employees were on the cleaning job? 
  • How many square feet were the homes?

Don’t have any recent data? 

No worries! Start recording this data for the next week and then use it to find your average.

*Several variables can affect your average cleaning rate, so use only typical homes when calculating your average cleaning pace. Your typical homes are the predictable ones that are simple to clean, requiring only your basic cleaning services. (We’ll touch on how to avoid pricing disasters in these kinds of homes at the end of this article!)

How to find your pricing strategy

The next step to nail down your pricing system is to identify your pricing strategy. 

In other words, how frequently do you hope to charge for services? We’re going to use your pricing strategy to calculate our prices based on frequency. 

Do you want your main revenue to come from weekly cleans, bi-weekly, or monthly with extra fees?

Many residential cleaning companies push for bi-weekly cleans. Offering a small discount of around 5% is a great option to incentivize clients to choose these more frequent cleans. 

On the other hand, charging more for monthly cleans is a good way to help clients choose more frequent cleans. It’s often reasonable to charge an additional 50% for a monthly clean. 

We see too many cleaning business owners charge the same rate for bi-weekly and monthly cleans. When this happens, your client has no reason to choose bi-weekly over monthly. 

Determining an effective pricing strategy is crucial and should align with your current business standing and long-term goals. Assessing your booking rates and understanding your clientele’s price sensitivity are pivotal steps.

More factors to consider:

  • If you find that your services are in high demand, with a fully booked schedule being the norm, it might be an indication that your clientele values your services highly. In such a scenario, adopting a premium pricing strategy could be beneficial. This approach reflects the high quality and demand for your services and provides additional revenue that can be reinvested into growing and enhancing your business further.
  • On the flip side, a different approach is warranted if your booking rate is lower than desired and you’re struggling to cover your operational costs. Penetration pricing, where you initially set a lower price to gain market share and cover your fixed expenses, might be a viable strategy. This can help attract a customer base and establish a foothold in the market. Once a loyal clientele is built and market recognition is achieved, prices can be gradually adjusted to a higher point.
  • Alternatively, crafting custom packages could be a smart move. By offering tailored cleaning packages, you encourage customers to engage with your services over a longer term. This not only helps cover your fixed costs but also enhances each customer’s lifetime value, thereby boosting your overall profitability. Structuring packages that provide value while ensuring profitability will create a win-win scenario for your business and clientele.

To learn more about building a pricing strategy for your cleaning business, check out this article!

How to calculate your pricing

We’ve made it to the pricing formula. After you’ve gone through all the steps above, this next step is pretty simple.

First, take the square footage of your client’s home and divide it by your rate of square feet cleaned per hour. Then, multiply it by your hourly rate. The total number is how much you’ll charge for a single job in that client’s home. 

So let’s use an easy number as an example: If a client with a 2,000 square-foot home calls you looking for a quote, divide 2,000 by 500 (rate of square feet cleaned per hour) multiplied by $50 (an hourly rate.) The total one-time clean for that client is $200.

Bi-weekly rate

Offering a 5% discount for bi-weekly cleans is a great incentive for clients. Using the $200 example above, this would mean a client can have a 2,000-square-foot home cleaned twice a month for $380 (after the 5% is applied.) This is an example of a baseline bi-weekly rate. 

Monthly rate

Your monthly cleans can have an additional 50% charge to encourage more frequent cleans and account for the extra dust and dirt the home will accumulate between cleans. Using the $200 example, a monthly clean would cost a 2,000-square-foot client $300 (after an extra 50% is added.) This is an example of a baseline monthly rate. 

You can use this formula to calculate any specialty service in your business. Just play around with different percentages and values until you come to a reasonable and profitable baseline. 

Minimum rate

No matter what kind of service you’re offering, it’s important to set a minimum rate to avoid losing money on out-of-scope services. This will save you the headache of negotiating with a client who might only want a certain room in their home clean. Or perhaps, if they have a smaller home that would only require an hour of cleaning based on your square footage cleaning rate. Set this minimum rate using the pricing calculator and the base amount required to make a profit per clean. 

Factors affecting cleaning service pricing

Sometimes, you will find people reaching out to you for a quote, but once you get to the location, you find out there are a lot of factors at play that affect pricing.

Other than the factors mentioned earlier, here are some factors to be aware of:

  • Size of the Area to be Cleaned: The total square footage or the number of rooms and bathrooms can greatly affect the time, effort, and resources required to complete the cleaning task.
  • Level of Clutter: A cluttered space can take longer to clean as it might require decluttering before the actual cleaning can commence.
  • Type of Cleaning Required: Whether it’s a standard cleaning, deep cleaning, or a specialized service like carpet cleaning or window washing, different types of cleaning have different pricing structures.
  • Frequency of Cleaning: Regularly scheduled cleanings may be priced differently than one-time or less frequent cleanings.
  • Accessibility: If certain areas are hard to reach or the location is in a high-traffic urban area, it may add to the cleaning time and cost.
  • Special Requests or Preferences: Clients may have special requests such as using eco-friendly cleaning products or working outside standard hours, which can also affect costs.
  • Pet Situation: Homes with pets may require additional cleaning efforts like fur removal, which could influence the price.
  • Parking Facilities: In urban areas, the availability of parking near the location can be a factor as it may affect the ease with which cleaning crews can access the site.
  • Additional Services: Services like laundry, dishwashing, or organizing could be additional and would affect the overall pricing.
  • Supplies Provided: Whether the cleaning company needs to provide all cleaning supplies or some are provided by the client can also impact the cost.
  • Lifestyle Factors: Does the client smoke indoors? Does the client keep surfaces clean during the week? Do they host a lot of guests?
  • Urgency: Urgent or last-minute cleaning requests may carry premium pricing.

Protecting yourself from pricing disasters

With flat-rate pricing, you need to protect yourself from pricing disasters. We’ve all been there: after quoting a home, we walk into a cleaning job that takes way longer than estimated. There are mountains of clutter, piles of dust, and floors in need of a little too much love. So what do you do?

When taking any new job, set the precedent that you may need to overcharge if any visit takes longer than planned. An example line you can add to your contracts is, โ€œquoted prices assume average-sized rooms in average condition. Extra hours needed to clean will be priced with an additional $50 per hour.โ€ When a client agrees to this ahead of time, you’ve protected yourself from being underpaid. 

Then, when you find yourself in a job taking longer than expected (which is bound to happen at some point), take a break from cleaning to notify the client that an extra fee will be added to keep cleaning. If they give you the go-ahead, you can proceed and charge extra as needed. 

If the client declines moving forward, then you can wrap up the job without any penalty. Don’t wait until you’re at the end of a job to notify the client of an extra charge. 

Wrapping up

Your cleaning business’ success starts with finding the right rates to charge. 

Luckily, finding the perfect pricing strategy for your cleaning business doesn’t have to feel like solving a complex puzzle. With ZenMaid, you can take the guesswork out of quoting and make the process as clean and simple as the services you offer. Our software comes equipped with an instant booking form feature, making it effortless for your clients to get accurate quotes online directly from your website.

Say goodbye to pricing woes and hello to a smoother, more professional booking experience with ZenMaid.

In simple terms, this process is defined as: how you integrate new employees into your business.

Onboarding is often an afterthought, but it shouldnโ€™t be โ€” we all have to onboard new employees before we can really grow our businesses. 

If youโ€™ve been in this situation before, we get it. With employee shortages and busy schedules, it can be easy to hire someone and then feel like youโ€™re finally done โ€” itโ€™s finally time to sit back and relaxโ€ฆ But wait. Your employees are one of your biggest assets which makes it SO important to have a GREAT onboarding process. 

Before you learn the tricks of the trade, ask yourself if you have the right mindset concerning your hiring process. Do you assume that your new employees will quit soon? Do you believe that itโ€™s almost a waste of your time to train them in the first place?

If your answer is yes, then youโ€™ll be surprised to find out that onboarding is no less crucial to the success of your business than recruiting.

Highly engaged employees result in a 21% greater profitability for your business. Thatโ€™s a lot of money! So why throw it away with a poor onboarding process? 

The first day of onboarding matters for your cleaning business

Think back on your first day at a new job. What was it like? Itโ€™s likely that you may have felt overwhelmed, confused, scared, or inadequate. 

If that was you, promise yourself that you will strive to create the best possible onboarding experience for others. After all, you never get a second chance to make a good impression.

The quality of your onboarding process affects your employeeโ€™s readiness to be part of a team. If you want a successful onboarding program, you need to implement these four principles on the first day of the process:

  1. Culture: Your companyโ€™s culture gives your employees a sense of what the company is โ€” its mission, values, beliefs, and systems. Itโ€™s important that you show whatโ€™s โ€œnormalโ€ in your business.
  1. Clarification: Start with your new employeeโ€™s job description. They need to understand their role in your company and all of the expectations that come with it. Even if you hired a person who worked as a cleaner before, donโ€™t assume that the company they worked for runs the same as yours. If you tell an employee that they start at 8:30 am, you need to clarify your statement. Perhaps you meant that they arrive at a residential home at 8:30 or maybe you meant that they need to clock in at 8:30 and gather their supplies for the day. Itโ€™s better to be too specific rather than not specific enough. 
  1. Compliance: This element of your onboarding process covers the legal and policy-related side of your business. During this segment, youโ€™ll cover harassment, discipline, safety, drug use, etc. This is a crucial part of your onboarding process because you donโ€™t want to wait until a drug or alcohol-related incident occurs to cover your compliance practices. Start early!
  1. Connection: This can be an overlooked part of the process. Connection is vital because your employees need healthy relationships with one another. Your new hires need to feel like they are free to ask questions and that they are accepted and respected. If an employee doesnโ€™t feel comfortable talking with other experienced employees, then they are bound to make wrong decisions. And what follows? A bad customer experience.

These four principles also help set the tone for a healthy company culture. Interested for more on this topic? Head here next!

What to include in your onboarding checklist

Once youโ€™ve set the tone for your business, youโ€™re ready to tackle your first checklist. Your checklist serves as your map. It guides your onboarding process so that you arenโ€™t forced to improvise last minute. Nothing feels better than showing up prepared, right?

Preparation Checklist

These are the steps that need to be taken before an employee’s start date. Make sure that you have these things taken care of before your employee walks through your doors because your day will flow smoothly and your employee will feel less anxious. 

  • Paperwork such as a W-4, W-9, or I-9
  • A copy of the policy manual
  • Schedule of the week
  • Time clock instructions
  • Clean uniforms and badges
  • Welcome kit (fill this with fun goodies like a gift card or a mug)
  • Assign a buddy to assist the employee and answer any questions. (This buddy serves as a point of contact and helps the new hires adjust to their new roles.)

If you donโ€™t have these things ready, your new hire might get the impression that you donโ€™t care enough about them โ€” or their job โ€” to prepare ahead of time. 

Welcome and Expectations Checklist

In this step, you need to make your employee feel at home and also teach them some basics at the same time. Make sure that you go slowly because you donโ€™t want to throw everything at them all at once. 

  •  Present the employee with a welcome kit
  • Give them a tour of the office (show them where to park, how to check out supplies etc)
  • Explain how their performance will be evaluated so they have crystal clear expectations

Policies Checklist

Youโ€™ll need to take a chunk out of the day to go over your policies. Although a lot of policies are standard because they are the rule of law, some of your policies may be unique to your business. Add your standards to your checklists such as dress code, absences, payroll procedures, breaks, holidays, performance reviews, and cell phone use. 

Safety and Position Training Checklist

We cannot overemphasize the importance of this step. Your employees may drive vehicles and use various cleaning supplies that can be dangerous if not used properly and with the appropriate PPE. Itโ€™s your responsibility to make sure that all of your bases are covered before they clean their first home or commercial space. See the graphic below for what to include in your safety and position training.

Home Tour and Onsite Training Checklist

After youโ€™ve completed the previous steps and your employee feels more comfortable, itโ€™s time to begin their practical training. 

During this portion of the onboarding process, you can show your new hire how to enter a home, what the security procedures are, what cleaning tools they can use, which cleaning products they need if the homeowner provides the products, who theyโ€™ll be working with, and if there are spaces in the house that are off-limits.

Itโ€™s especially important to remind your new hire that your business operates with a team mentality: Every person on the team plays an important role. Every person is valuable. Every person is responsible for the cleanliness of the house. 

Pre-shift follow-up Checklist

Whew, youโ€™ve done a lot of work up until this point! Take a deep breath and keep it up. Youโ€™re almost there.

Your pre-shift follow-up needs to be completed before the employee begins their second day on the job. Collect their handbook signatures, review the employeeโ€™s schedule, and meet with their โ€œbuddyโ€ to discuss any signs of progress or red flags. 

Post-Shift Follow-up Checklist

This brings us to the last part of our onboarding checklist. 

For at least five shifts, implement a structured follow-up with your new employees. Remember the four Cโ€™s that we reviewed earlier? โ€” Culture, clarification, compliance, and connection. Your structured follow-up shows that you care about your employees and that you want to make sure that they feel respected, valued, and prepared for the tasks ahead of them.

This follow-up communicates to your employees that they are still in the learning process and you (and your team) recognize that. 

  • Ask the employee how theyโ€™re adjusting
  • Review the employee’s job performance
  • Offer direction and encouragement.

Best onboarding practices for your maid service

Your checklist serves as a guide for your onboarding process. Itโ€™s fairly simple to understand yet involved. How you choose to create and use your checklist is up to you. Every business is different and you will inevitably add some of your personality to this process. 

As you create your unique onboarding processes remember to include most if not all of these into your thought process and actions:

  • Be systematic
  • Be prepared
  • Involve a โ€œbuddyโ€
  • Showcase employee and customer experience
  • Clarify roles
  • Set expectations 
  • Be comprehensive 
  • Follow up
  • Review and modify
  • Communicate culture

Next Steps

We hope you feel better equipped to hire new cleaners with these checklists from Jean Hanson. The next step to your hiring process may be to automate it! Automation is key if youโ€™ve felt stressed and crunched for time while you onboarded a new hire. Learn how to do it in this article. 

Our free ZenMaid Mastermind community, filled with other like-minded business owners, is here to answer your questions, ease the burden of onboarding, and encourage you to reach your potential. Come say โ€˜helloโ€™ and check it out!

If you found this article helpful for your maid service, you may also like:

For more resources on how to grow and perfect your cleaning business, check out the replays from the 2021 Maid Summit, hosted by ZenMaid. The summit featured more than 60 presentations from other maid service owners who shared tools and strategies to help you achieve the highest levels of success in your business. 

This talk from Jean Hanson first aired at the 2019 Maid Summit. You can watch it here.

About the presenter

Jean Hanson is the co-founder of The Janitorial Store, My House Cleaning Biz, and Marketing Systems By Design. As a true veteran, she has over thirty years of experience in the cleaning industry! Jean is an I.C.E. (ISSA Certification Expert) and a Certified Marketing Consultant with a special focus on onboarding and training of cleaning employees.

This talk first aired at the 2019 Maid Service Success Summit.

The Maid Summit is an annual online event that brings together the most successful leaders in the cleaning industry, like Debbie Sardone, Angela Brown, Courtney Wisely, Amy Caris, Chris Schwab and more. Get free access to masterclasses and workshops that will help you to grow, scale and automate your cleaning business so you can get more leads and create more profit. Make sure youโ€™re on our email list to find out how to get free tickets to the next event.

You and your maid service deserve a little peace and quiet. Try ZenMaid for free today!

ZenMaid

Amar is the founder and CEO of ZenMaid Software, Inc. He started and ran Fast Friendly Spotless, a maid service in Orange County, CA. With the help of customized software to automate work he successfully operated the service in under 30 minutes per day. He created ZenMaid scheduling software to help other maid service owners do the same.

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