2021 has been a tough year for all businesses and individuals. Things were no different in the cleaning industry. We started the year with minimal work due to the full national lockdown. But as months went by a lot changed and brought additional challenges to cope with.
First Quarter – Less Work, Staff Loss
During the first 3 months of the year, most businesses were shut down. Private clients felt insecure calling a cleaner in their home due to the health risk of infection with COVID-19. Many companies across the country lost regular customers, their revenue dropped significantly and they had to let some cleaners go. Those were the lucky ones. Many cleaning businesses simply had to close down permanently because they couldn’t cope with the financial burden.
Rise in Demand, Drop in Supply
As national restrictions were eased out, professional cleaning services were suddenly seen as a hot meal and both commercial and private clients began booking frequent appointments. One one hand this was fantastic news for cleaners who were struggling to keep running their companies, but on the other it created another issue – staff shortages. Some employees were let go during the lockdown, others simply refused to come back to work because they had made a permanent move to another town or country with their families. Till now, recruitment in the cleaning industry is really hard. Local residents rarely feel inspired to apply for the position of a cleaner and no thanks to Brexit, hiring people from abroad to do the job is now mission impossible.
Keeping the Price Affordable
No one likes price increases, but for the cleaning industry making such change is essential. Companies no longer can afford to charge anything under £16p/h as that would be barely enough to cover expenses. The average price for cleaning services, performed by a professional, trained and insured cleaner is now £20p/h. This falls in line with the continuous efforts of companies to attract new employees and offer them higher pay and better working conditions. At the same time, business owners realise that most of their private clients have had to shrink their budgets. That’s how trying to keep cleaning prices affordable amid recruitment crises in the industry becomes a real challenge.
Unfair Competition
Solo cleaners and bogus cleaning agencies have always given legitimate companies a hard time. They offer unfair low prices that make customers believe cleaning companies are just too greedy. In fact, those competitors are able to offer such prices because they don’t pay insurance, pension contributions or holiday pay. Self-employed cleaners can cover only a certain amount of addresses per week and if they are sick or unable to come, your appointment goes poof in the air.
Despite the numerous challenges and tough situations professional cleaners go through, we are always doing our job diligently and with the customer satisfaction in mind. We are more than people who scrub your toilet. We are here to bring a positive change to your living environment, protect your health and give you the gift of time to spend with the people you love or simply doing something nice for yourself.
