There is a certain inertia associated with having tradespeople come to your house regularly. People get used to you, you get to know each other. When you run your own cleaning business this means that once you have the client you need to work hard to keep them but at the same time you will have to do something very bad to have them sack you, because of this inertia.

If you are bad at your job every time you do the clean it won't take long for them to get fed up with the poor work you are giving them. They will put up with it for a few times but then you are out. You have some leeway. Just don't do it more than once!

If you are good each time but make a mistake once that can be forgiven too. And if you are consistently great you will have a reputation with them and the other people they will tell about you and the quality of service you have. It takes effort and time to find another cleaner so the client has to weigh up the cost in finding another cleaner against the cost of keeping you on.

This all leads to the point that once you have a client they can easily be yours to keep for the long run.

In our cleaning business when we were just starting out and a bit nervous we made a terrible mistake in a very upmarket house. One of our people pulled the lounge out to vacuum behind it and when they pushed it back, they pushed it clean through the wall! There was a big hole in this specially constructed curved wall in the living room. Yes, it's funny now...

In customer service industries such as a cleaning business there is an unwritten but golden rule - Do Whatever It Takes To Keep The Client. That means if it costs you a great deal to keep them happy you need to do all of it and more to ensure they are still your loyal client. You cannot walk away from a difficult situation just because you have made a blunder and want to hide. Do whatever it takes to keep the client. What you will probably find is that for all your efforts the client will understand that you made a mistake, that you are not a bad person and really appreciate the efforts you go to in order to make the situation good.

In this instance despite all our protests they were OK about fixing the wall themselves. We didn't need to do anything or even claim on insurance. What made the difference was that we made the lady a cake in the shape of a rose and decorated it with rosewater. It made the difference because the woman was from Greece and she said it was just like the cakes her mother used to make when she was a child. We cleaned there for another 2 years after that, until her circumstances changed. Whew!

That's what I mean when I say that clients are yours to keep. It's up to you.