One of the most common questions we receive at Three Little Birds is "How much do you charge?" This is actually quite a difficult question to answer because homes can vary so much, but today we've realized our clients and prospective clients want to be informed, and we're going to make pricing our cleaning services as clear as possible.
This is what we call Integrity Pricing.
Let's not beat around the bush nor waste our prospective clients valuable time. The short answer is $51/man-hour.
This is the rate Three Little Birds bases every booked service at, whether you choose to be a flat-rate client, or an hourly client (more on this later). We believe in conducting business with integrity in every area. As a result, we have expenses that come with providing our highly regarded services and meeting government regulations as well. $51 is the amount that has been determined to be the minimum rate/hour/cleaner we can charge, yet still, maintain a healthy business model, keep our quality staff employed, and reliably provide the high-quality performance and customer service we're committed to delivering every day.
Our largest expense in this business is our labour expense. This includes paying our cleaning tech's and office support staff a fair living wage, providing incentives & rewards for top performers, payroll taxes, WSIB coverage, additional health coverage, statutory holidays, vacation time and now personal emergency leave days (paid sick days).
Further to this, while many cleaning companies will pay minimum wage or nothing at all for travel time, and often a 'per job' price on services., This is not the case with our staff. Our staff are paid from the start of their day at our office, to the time they return back at the end of their workday. As a result, our business model makes it so your cleaning team would never be motivated to rush through your service or cut corners in your home.
What do you get for paying our rate?
By hiring Three Little Birds, you can be assured you are getting more than just a cleaning tech available to clean your home.
The first service we provide will be billed by the hour. This is very common practice in the cleaning industry, as it's often very difficult to quote a home the first time with 100% accuracy. For a client's FIRST service, we would expect to require the longest amount of time, as the intent of this service to get the home caught up to a maintenance standard (surfaces fully free of residue & areas previously missed or neglected caught up).
The short answer is a fully professional service provider so you can rest easy.
By hiring Three Little Birds, you can be assured you are getting more than just a cleaning tech available to clean your home.
- You're getting peace of mind knowing all staff have a clean police check done prior to stepping foot in your home
- We have professionally trained those coming into your home with the proper tools, product knowledge & techniques to manage the various surfaces in your home (and this training is always being upgraded)
- All the proper insurance is in place to prevent you from any personal liability in the event a cleaning tech is hurt on your premises, or there is any damage or loss to your property
- You get the assurance that no toxic products are being brought into your home, as all of Three Little Birds cleaning products are 100% natural at no additional cost
- There is a full team of office support to provide you with excellent client service in the event you ever have questions or concerns about your cleaning team
- You get the reliability of your cleaning service never being bumped or rescheduled last minute in the event of unforeseen circumstances
- You get the pleasure of having our wonderful staff in your home, as we hire for attitude & character in addition to ability.
- You get a service that has quality control systems in place to ensure the quality never deteriorates, as is all too common in this industry
- You get a cleaning service that is backed by a professional organization (ARCSI- The Associaton of Residential Cleaning Service Industry). If there is an area of concern that we're unable to resolve for you in-house, we have an association of professionals available to consult.
The first service we provide will be billed by the hour. This is very common practice in the cleaning industry, as it's often very difficult to quote a home the first time with 100% accuracy. For a client's FIRST service, we would expect to require the longest amount of time, as the intent of this service to get the home caught up to a maintenance standard (surfaces fully free of residue & areas previously missed or neglected caught up).
In order to provide you with a quote, we'll want to know a few details such as:
Are you in fact in our service area? Obviously, we don't want to take up your time if we cannot offer you our services. If you're not in our area, however, we'll still be happy to help you with advice in finding in a reputable cleaning service provider in your area.
What type of service are you looking for? Different types of services will have different needs. Some of our clients are looking for a service because they are moving into a new home, or out of a home. In this case, our client may be looking for an extra focus on in specific areas such as bathrooms, kitchens, baseboards and cupboards. Additionally, they may have needs for a larger service, or specific equipment (steamer, extension dusters etc).
Others are looking for a recurring service in their home, and are looking to start for the first time, or looking to replace a current cleaning provider.
We find the "biweekly service" by far the most popular scheduling choice.
Basic details of your home? Things we'll ask to help determine the time needed in your home will include the number of rooms, bathrooms, type of home (ex: 2 story, condo, 2 or 6 bedrooms). Additionally, we'll ask about pets, and how your home is used (ex: do you have a busy home where all rooms are used regularly? Could some rooms only rarely be used?
What frequency will you be looking to have us clean? We will be trying to determine how LONG we will need to schedule your service for. If we're returning to your home on a weekly basis to clean, we would expect your home to not take as long as a home we're cleaning once a month.
Example:
On a weekly basis, you may only need 2 cleaners for 2 hours (4 man-hours)
On a monthly basis, you may need 2 cleaners for 3 hours (6 man-hours)
Common Misconceptions:
It's not uncommon for someone to assume a smaller home should take considerably less time than a large home. In some ways, this is true (fewer baseboards, windows, rooms & less floor space). There are however other things to consider. Kitchens, bathrooms & the number of items we will be working around should be considered. Another factor might be parking... Is there a driveway, or will our team be carrying supplies from a parking lot?
Some homes may even have a second kitchen. This isn't the same as having an additional bedroom, as kitchens usually require the largest amount of time compared to other rooms in a home. Bathrooms will be a very close second, so the number of bathrooms will also be a determining factor.
Flooring will also be another factor in pricing your home. Many suspect a home without carpet is an 'easier' home. While more and more homes seem to be moving away from wall-to-wall carpeting, hard surface flooring will actually require more time. When vacuuming a carpet, you are able to do so while vacuuming your way out of a room (of course after the edging is done!). With hard surfaces, it is necessary to clean the floors first of any loose debris, then go over the surfaces again to clean them. Finally, many floors with a higher gloss finish will actually require a final run over again to buff and avoid any streaking.
Finally, it's very important to us at Three Little Birds to be as accommodating as possible. As a result, we offer 2 kinds of services.
Flat-Rate Services: With these services, we're providing you with a quote to service your home on a repeating schedule, with a flat-rate price. We will come to each service and clean your whole home every time for the same price. Sometimes it may take our teams longer... sometimes it may take them slightly less time. Regardless, its the same rate, each visit and you can be rest assured your whole home will be cleaned.
Hourly Services: These services tend to be the most customizable and budget-friendly. You can think of it as hiring out our team for a contracted amount of time. With hourly services, you'll simply be billed for the precise time we spent in your home. While this type of service provides no guarantee that we are will get through your entire home in the booked time, it does have its advantages as well. If you're working on a budget, or you simply want the ability to rotate the service frequency of various rooms in your home (perhaps not all rooms need to be cleaned each visit?) then this is a wonderful option to consider. You'd simply leave our team a list of priority areas, and they will spend the contracted time ensuring they work that list from the top, working their way down.
It's Three Little Birds policy to never send a cleaning tech into a home alone. That said, you can rest assured we fully expect a team of 2 to take half the time a solo cleaner would require, thus you are still only paying for the same number of man-hours.
Ex:
2 cleaning techs booked for a 2 hr service (4 man-hours) would be $204.00
2 cleaning techs booked for a 2.5 hr service (5 man-hours) would be $255.00
3 cleaning techs booked for a 2 hr service (6 man-hours) would be $306.00
Our team are also dispatched through our mobile iPad system, which allows us to track how long our staff are in your home, down to the minute.
Additionally, you'll find we never have our staff scheduled to clean more than 6hr/day, as we have determined this we're no longer as efficient in cleaning after this point. We do this to ensure you are always getting the best out of your scheduled time.
It's Three Little Birds policy to never send a cleaning tech into a home alone. That said, you can rest assured we fully expect a team of 2 to take half the time a solo cleaner would require, thus you are still only paying for the same number of man-hours.
Ex:
2 cleaning techs booked for a 2 hr service (4 man-hours) would be $204.00
2 cleaning techs booked for a 2.5 hr service (5 man-hours) would be $255.00
3 cleaning techs booked for a 2 hr service (6 man-hours) would be $306.00
Our team are also dispatched through our mobile iPad system, which allows us to track how long our staff are in your home, down to the minute.
Additionally, you'll find we never have our staff scheduled to clean more than 6hr/day, as we have determined this we're no longer as efficient in cleaning after this point. We do this to ensure you are always getting the best out of your scheduled time.
I hope this information has provided the clarity we're hoping to give with regards to pricing a cleaning service. If you have the time to check out our reviews, you'll see what our clients are saying about us. We're especially proud of the many remarks made with regards to the quality of the service, and character of our staff.
Remember... We're here to help! If you have any questions at all, we welcome you to contact our office. Our office team looks forward to speaking with you and answering all your questions to help you determine if a Three Little Birds cleaning service is the right fit for you.
Remember... We're here to help! If you have any questions at all, we welcome you to contact our office. Our office team looks forward to speaking with you and answering all your questions to help you determine if a Three Little Birds cleaning service is the right fit for you.
You can call our office at 905-538-5046, or email at office@3littlebirds.ca
