Who would you rather deal with?

[MikeB]

I had one of my appointments cancel this week. First time customer referred to me by a recently retired local cleaner. The woman called and said her husband wants to try cleaning it (3 rooms) himself. She's upset cause she knows better. I told her to call back if it doesn't work out and I'll be glad to do it.
My question is who do you prefer to deal with on residential? The man of the house or woman?
I find that the man is usually difficult. I don't think the typical male values carpet cleaning service as a high priority. I prefer the homes where the females calls the shots as far a cleaning services.
I actually did 3 rooms of carpet once many years ago while the husband and wife fought about whether it needed to be cleaned or not. Wife kept telling me to go ahead , it's ok ....sorry, etc.
really uncomfortable!! And to top it off her check bounced! Took me 2 weeks going through the local police dept to get paid.

[TheCleaningDude]

Maybe offer a free demo for the husband?

It seems like most of my customers are either divorced and/or single. When they are a married couple it's rare that both are home at the same time.

I agree, fighting would be awkward. I've had that happen a couple of times.

What's most annoying though is a bounced check. I had one last year. She skipped town and I never collected. Ever since then it's cash or credit/debit only. Exceptions are commercial customers (pay at completion, but check is ok. Big companies will get 15 - 30 days). I'll also take checks from repeats that I trust and sometimes first time customers that I trust, like firemen, police officers, teachers, seniors, etc.

I had one of my appointments cancel this week. First time customer referred to me by a recently retired local cleaner. The woman called and said her husband wants to try cleaning it (3 rooms) himself. She's upset cause she knows better. I told her to call back if it doesn't work out and I'll be glad to do it.
My question is who do you prefer to deal with on residential? The man of the house or woman?
I find that the man is usually difficult. I don't think the typical male values carpet cleaning service as a high priority. I prefer the homes where the females calls the shots as far a cleaning services.
I actually did 3 rooms of carpet once many years ago while the husband and wife fought about whether it needed to be cleaned or not. Wife kept telling me to go ahead , it's ok ....sorry, etc.
really uncomfortable!! And to top it off her check bounced! Took me 2 weeks going through the local police dept to get paid.

[Rob D]

I prefer to deal with women. They seem to not look down their nose at you although some men treat me like a business man not a cleaner which is cool

[MikeB]

Damon, That was my one and only bad check in over 10 years, but yeah it stinks for sure. I don't get many requests to pay by credit or debit though.

Rob, when they look down their nose (and some surely do) it bugs me too but I always think to myself "well bud, I just made $100 in an hour" ( or more ) I really like that feeling when leaving a particularly snooty clients home.

[leofry@1966]

I prefer to deal with
1.a person ( man or women) that does not act like this is the last $100 they will ever have.
2. a person (man or women) that is not going to inspect the carpet on their hands and knees.
3. a person(man or women) that has values cleaning (meaning its not been 10 years since they had it cleaned)

[prodrying]

I second that leofry.

[MikeB]

I agree Leo. I don't mean it to be a gender bashing issue, I have just noticed that when the "alpha male "of the home is involved there always seems to be a struggle of some sort.
Thanks for the input.