Part 2: The Emotional Labor of Hiring Home Service Providers
Whether you’re outsourcing work for the first time or you’re a pro at this, getting to the phase of having the actual work done can take some work sometimes, depending on the type of work you’re needing done and type of professional you’re searching for (the lone wolf, gig economy, solopreneur, or full service business).
I know personally, I’ve considering hiring out for a number of services and get to a point where I throw in the towel because I’m not ready financially, emotionally, or cannot find someone to do business with that aligns with what I’m looking for. It takes work! I encourage you to be thoughtful and thorough in your initial research phase so that you find what works for you and you have a pleasant experience.
Today and in this 3-part series on The Emotional Labor of Hiring Home Service Providers, I would like to bring awareness to some of the things that you might experience in the process of searching for a house cleaner, landscaper, plumber, handy person, and so on. Perhaps, you might feel less alone in your efforts. Think of this series as a guide to help you navigate through the entire process of hiring someone. In this 3-part series:
Part 1: The Interview
Part 2 (read below): The First Impression
Part 3: The Long Term Relationship
PART 2: THE FIRST IMPRESSION
In this phase, you’re preparing and booking the work to be done and communicating your needs. If you’ve found the right service pro, things will generally go smoothly as they’ll have a framework that will naturally answer all of your questions or concerns during the booking process.
So, You’ve Booked an Appointment
You’re in! You’ve got a date on the calendar. There’s a few things you might need to know about how different service professionals work:
Arrive windows vs. exact arrival: depending on the type of service, you might receive a time window in which they’ll arrive. This is common practice for most service pro’s that work with multiple customers in one day and have varying job finish times and travel routes.
Flat charge, hourly billing, or person hour billing: a flat charge means that you’ll pay the same price, no matter how long the job takes. Hourly billing is simply by the hour. If there’s more than one person on a job, they’ll likely bill in what’s called “person hours” which is their hourly rate x amount of people on job x hours worked (INSERT IMAGE FROM HANDBOOK)
Equipment & tools: do they provide all of the tools necessary to get the job done? Or are there items you need to prepare to leave out in advance? For example, many full service house cleaning businesses bring all equipment and supplies such as our Portland cleaning services at The Tidy People. But there are some house cleaning businesses that require you to supply vacuums.
Ask for What You Need
Most service pro’s talk to many new customers on the phone. It’s important to ask for what you need, but to not give your life story. Include pertinent details of the job you need done and to continue to ask questions about what can and cannot be done.
I recommend writing out an itemized list of your project and expectations and either having that on paper for when the service pro arrives or sending this over email beforehand. When everyone is on the same page about expectations, this will improve the experience for both you and the service pro. They’ll know how to best service you and you’ll get the job done how you are envisioning.
The Reschedule, No Show, or Ghosting
Sometimes, things happen. Service pro’s are the product — which means that a variety of things can happen: sickness, double bookings, staff turnover, etc. While it’s important to have empathy when this happens as a one off occurrence, first impressions are important.
When the service pro cancelled with you, did they have clear direct communication with an action plan in place?
Sometimes, you’ll go through this entire process only to have a no show or even worse…to be ghosted by the service professional. This is highly unlikely to happen with a full service business, but it’s possible this can happen with a smaller one person show.
If there’s good communication and things aren’t “sus" when this happens, I like to give the situation 1 or 2 chances if everything else about the service pro is showing as green flags. If there are a number of red flags, it’s usually time to move on and work with someone else. Keep in mind, this is someone that you’re inviting into your home or on your property. That trust factor needs to be in place.
Follow Up Communication
Not all service pro’s do this, but I find this to be really good business practice to follow up after an initial job to understand how things went and to gather feedback from you.
I know you don’t want the be *that person* that’s a nitpicky &$!@, but if you have any constructive feedback that would have helped the job run smoother, it’s important to communicate that. It’s also important to advocate for yourself and to communicate when there were unmet realistic expectations.
