[toggle state=”open” ]Going beyond the annual deep cleaning of homes, residents now want living spaces to be spic and span all through the year. Given the challenges of changing urban lifestyle in finding professional cleaning hands, the growing home cleaning segment holds a bright future. Anu Bhambhani speaks to a few of the service providers on the growing demand for professional home cleaning.[/toggle]
Neha Parab, the proprietor of Dial4cleanhome.com, the home care division of Spick & Span Services, which offers facility services to corporates, malls, hotels and hospitals, among others, feels consumers are moving towards professional cleaning services with trained and trustworthy housekeepers. “The Indian consumer is increasingly demanding highest service levels at par with global standards. People are relying on professionals rather than kaamwali bais, as home cleaning is perceived as a lifestyle need rather than just a regular service. Professional cleaning also helps maintain hygiene at homes, which is important if the family consists of kids or patients,” says Neha.
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Service Matters
The department of home cleaning does not work on one-size-fits-all mantra. Instead, it is customized to suit customers’ preference. The companies offer package solutions to suit all needs. These range from complete home cleaning to specific cleaning including, sofas, carpets, kitchens, chair shampooing and marble polishing. Sometimes interior designers, furniture shops and estate agents also tie up with home cleaning service companies to clean furniture or properties sold or hired by them. Dial4cleanhome.com has ‘several leading celebrities and industrialists as their clients’ besides jobs like ‘cleaning of employee flats owned by American Consulate in Mumbai’. “Home cleaning services are demanded by not only affluent households but also by middle class professionals. We see demand even from distant suburbs in Dombivali, and Vasai.”
[toggle state=”open” ]A lot many people have exclusive interiors which are delicate to maintain. Professional expertise is required to treat them with care. It also has a lot to do about occupants’ convenience. Outsourcing this job to someone who has professional experience to carry out this kind of work ensures their value for money.[/toggle]
Operating in the Delhi/NCR region, Broomberg came up on the scene only recently. The trend, is on an upward spiral, says co-founder Samrat Goyal. “People realize that hired help will never do such a detailed job of cleaning homes, as they lack the training and the equipment/cleaning agents for professional cleaning. They are open to hiring professional cleaners for deep cleaning which helps maintain homes easily. People are also aware that specialized services like sofa cleaning, carpet cleaning and floor scrubbing can never be done by maids or servants but by professional cleaners.” It also boils down to the equipment used which generally home owners would not invest in.
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Angad Luthra, Director of Clean Sweep, which has been providing housekeeping and cleaning services since 2000, now also engages in home cleaning. According to Angad, “Previously, the call for home cleaning services used to come through referral or sales calls. Now, consumers are much more likely to go online, do some research and check out reviews to find the service they want. Digital presence is very important. Consumers want to see reviews, videos and interact with you online. The good news is that this change in buying habits represents a big opportunity for companies that are engaging their consumers online.”
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“Online marketplace has increased awareness of the service and makes it easily accessible for the consumer. Further with the help of aggregators and outside funding, this segment will reach a wider audience.” – Angad Luthra Clean Sweep
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Trained manpower, the proverbial Achilles’ heel
Customer satisfaction is of utmost importance in an industry segment, since a home holds emotional value for anyone, compared to an office space or a commercial entity. That is why cleaning service agencies have to be extra cautious when they hire the staff for their projects. One major difference between professional housekeeping for commercial entities and homes is that most home cleaning companies prefer to hire manpower as and when required, instead of keeping them on rolls all year through. Therefore, the challenge is in finding the right ones when the situation requires.
Hyderabad based Rahul Balagam of Brooms and Buckets, feels it is a task to find and train passionate energetic home cleaning executives. He opines, “This is the real challenge as companies such as ours, keep training executives in customer service, personality development, career goals and such. Preparing them and educating them to help achieve company goal of satisfying customers, is a challenge. A proper recruitment system must be put in place to train and prepare uneducated youths to enter this burgeoning industry.”
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This is a challenge that seems to face the industry as a whole with both new and old trying to find a soluti
on to, but something that Luthra says will continue to haunt the home cleaning industry as a whole. He explains, “Recruiting and retaining great employees must become a core business competency for companies in this industry. Your people are your business. Luckily, cleaning cannot be outsourced to China and we have not found a way to fully automate it. Secondly, there is no certification program for the people who do this kind of work nor is it an aspirational job in India. For a cleaning company to be successful they will have to invest in training and developing their staff.” This makes sense as well-trained staff is bound to get more business, at the same time it will help people from lower income homes to find a growth trajectory for their careers. This will help them stay engaged with a company instead of running over to other companies or starting their own business with their limited knowledge and resources, suggests Angad.
Another problem this industry segment faces is from the presence of 24 hour live-in servants/maids because of whom home owners do not feel the need of hiring a professional agency. A lot many homes in the country still have access to unskilled manpower that they source from native villages or small towns. Getting business from this category of home owners is a problem which can only be addressed by disseminating knowledge about the benefits of these services.
[toggle state=”open” ]The industry players that Clean India Journal spoke to, unanimously echoed that going forward, these services will be more popular in the urban centres and tier I cities. Within a few years, with more awareness, it is bound to percolate to tier II and III cities as well.[/toggle]
Expensive yet need-of-the-hour
Home cleaning on the other hand, is an intensive procedure which goes on through the day for hours together, even though it may be an infrequent affair. Parab says, “Home cleaning is more personalised in nature as compared to commercial/ mall/ institutional cleaning. The housekeepers for home cleaning are, therefore, screened properly for their skills as well as trustworthiness. Considering home cleaning requires efforts for complete eight hours, unlike commercial/institutional cleaning, housekeepers are compensated higher compared to the others; thus, partially increasing cost base. Transportation cost for carrying machinery and conveyance expenses are other key cost heads.”
Having said that, this budding industry segment is poised to grow. The industry players that Clean India Journal spoke to, unanimously echoed that going forward these services will be more popular in the urban centres and Tier I cities. Within a few years, with more awareness, it is bound to percolate to Tier II and III cities as well. In the times to come, domestic servants may be hard to find, as their kids today have access to English education and look for better opportunities rather than work as domestic staff.
Angad sums up, “Online marketplace has increased awareness of the service and makes it easily accessible for the consumer. Further with the help of aggregators and outside funding, this segment will reach a wider audience. Home cleaning currently makes up a small share of the current professional cleaning market, but it is the fastest growing amongst its peers. The factors driving its growth are not so prevalent in small towns, this may however change as India develops further.”
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