What’s More Important: KPIs or the Right Tile Brush?
At first glance, this might seem like an odd question. Some readers might instantly think “KPIs, of course,” while others might say, “both.” And some might be left wondering what in the world I’m talking about.
This comparison came to mind during a recent chat with one of my favorite clients, Jeff Marquie. Jeff and Mario run a $3.5 million residential cleaning service, Cleaning Concepts in St. Louis. Jeff has made his business a case study for his master’s degree in business, as part of his personal journey toward achieving excellence in performance. Jeff is learning so much, and I’m fortunate that he shares a lot of it with me.
We’ve been working together for over 12 years, and during this time, we’ve had numerous conversations about the value of repeat clients. In my mind, that’s the only KPI you need to focus on. Jeff has even nicknamed me the “one-and-done” coach because of my laser focus on this. There’s even a GIF to celebrate it!
When I ran my own residential cleaning service, we didn’t have sophisticated software to track every metric. My pride and joy was the day I finally managed to get Excel up and running on my PC! Back then, the only things I tracked were net repeat client count and cleaning efficiency. When I sold my company in 2008, we had a full-time admin person working 42 hours a week just to track efficiency manually. So I guess you could say we had two KPIs after all.
To me, there are two surefire ways to make money in the residential cleaning business:
· Keep your clients happy and loyal, so you don’t have to spend a lot on advertising or constantly replacing lost clients.
· Teach your cleaners a system that lets them deliver consistent, quality cleanings in a time-efficient manner. This way, everyone—from the cleaners to the business—makes money.
Jeff’s professor recently discussed the critical importance of excellence in performance for building a sustainable and thriving business. Marketing can wait—there will always be clients. But if you want them to stay, you need to ensure that what you deliver is excellent. That means having a guaranteed cleaning system that ensures quality every time. It also means nurturing your team through weekly one-on-ones and ongoing support.
I recently had the pleasure of working with Ronnie Kendrick from Colorado. Ronnie is building a cleaning business on the side while holding down a full-time corporate job. He’s extremely disciplined and takes immediate action on any opportunity to strengthen his company. This week, I trained a new cleaner for him. She had a great attitude and quickly picked up the nine-step bathroom cleaning system we use, making sure to circle the room without missing a single detail.
One day, she came to work excited, saying, “I cleaned up all the lime and gunk around the fixtures today!” Ronnie admitted it was eye-opening because his cleaners had been cleaning those homes for months but hadn’t caught those details. It was a great reminder of how crucial it is to teach the right system from day one.
Ronnie’s vision is big—he’s aiming to grow into one of the largest cleaning services in the country within three years. And I believe he can do it because he’s focused on excellence in performance.
Now, back to that tile brush. If your cleaners don’t carry the right tools—like a tile brush in their aprons—they probably won’t use it regularly. They’ll wait until the client complains or the buildup becomes too much to ignore. By that point, it’s often too late. The lime deposits around fixtures have built up so much that they’re nearly impossible to remove. And losing clients over details like this is what separates successful companies from struggling ones.
Let me tell you another story. I was training a team in Newport Beach, California. We were running behind schedule, and the clients were home, visibly frustrated. Since it was a retraining session, the cleaners knew the system, so I pitched in to help. I put on my apron—yes, over my dress—and followed the cleaning process I train others on.
The clients sat at the counter, watching me clean. They were fascinated by the structured cleaning system and especially by my waterproof apron, which I designed myself. When I took out the tile brush to clean around the fixtures, one of them said, “You just saved a client. We were about to cancel because no one had cleaned the fixtures properly since we remodeled.” Lime buildup had already begun to form, but the right tool and a consistent cleaning process saved the day—and their business.
Are KPIs Important?
Absolutely. But your company’s most important KPI is net repeat clients. How many do you have? Are you on track to hit your yearly goal? For me, it was always one net repeat client per week. If I were in business today, I’d set my goal at two per week. Ronnie? He’s aiming for three. And I’m betting on him to hit that target.
But here’s the thing—you won’t achieve even one net repeat client per week if your company hasn’t mastered excellence in performance. After 20 years in business, if you were gaining one new repeat client per week, you should be generating over $4.5 million in revenue today, with a profit margin of 20–25%. Sadly, too few companies achieve this, and I believe it’s because they lack a strategic cleaning system that every cleaner is trained on.
The Path to Excellence
After 17 years of trial and error, we’ve finally developed the perfect Excellence in Performance training kit to help you start your cleaners off with efficient, quality-driven habits. Once they’ve mastered the basics of cleaning a home without missing a single detail, you can introduce deep cleaning tasks, customer relations, and more. But without that foundational cleaning system, you’ll be missing out on the key to retaining your clients long-term.
I don’t care how great someone’s attitude is—if you haven’t taught them a process that guarantees nothing is missed, then you’ve failed them.
If you’re ready to lay the foundation for excellence in performance, visit housecleanerstraining.com and start your journey today.