Here are six steps I would take If I needed to hire a good house cleaning service.

1.  Get a personal recommendation on a good house cleaning service

Of course, the first thing I would try to do is get a recommendation from a friend or family member on a house cleaning service that they use. That probably is your best bet for choosing a good business.

2.  Do A Google Map Search

If I couldn’t find someone through a personal referral, I would go to “Google Maps” and search for “house cleaning services near me.”

Why Google maps? If you do the same search using a general Google search, you’ll get very mixed results. For example, you’ll get Angie’s list, Yelp and Thumbtack. These companies help service businesses in obtaining customers. They seem like they are in business to help you. They’re not. The businesses these large, national companies recommend may or may not be a good choice for you.

With Google Maps, you’ll just get local businesses from your search.

3.  Look at the business Reviews and Ratings

In getting back to Google Maps, when you do your search, you will see a fairly extensive list of cleaning service businesses come up. You see that the businesses have reviews and ratings from customers who’ve used them.

Businesses with the most reviews and who have been in business the longest first. I’ll consider the business that has the highest rating (number of stars) and the most reviews. One business will stand out, but don’t stop there. Identify two more businesses meeting the criteria.

4.  Look at the business websites

Visit the websites of the services you’ve picked. 

I decide which business to use based on the quality of their website’s design. Site quality means how well the website  was designed. I am looking for a gentle appearing, attractive site. I might also look at how many quality pages the site has.

If the site is too busy or looks like they created it in the ‘90’s, I take a hard pass. Why? People (you and me included) decide on what website they spend time on, based on site attractiveness. If a site is of poor quality, does the business care about its service? 

As a test of this idea, I looked at two St. George cleaning services that had a lot of high quality reviews. One had a website that it was clear they had spent time or money working on. The other businesses website was a three page, poorly designed site. I would have called the first cleaning service, but not the second one.

5.  Call Them

Now it’s time to talk to the companies that you’ve picked. When you talk to someone on the phone, you can get a good feel for whose cleaners you will feel comfortable having in your home.

Who sounds the best? That’s who I would choose as my cleaning service.

Schedule a cleaning but let the cleaning service phone person know the first cleaning is a trial run. Give their cleaners a try. Then you can decide if that’s the cleaning service for you. If it is, that’s wonderful. You have hired a cleaning service that you will be happy doing business with. 

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Below is a general review of our business. Gloria isn’t comfortable using computers, so she gave us her review verbally. I had to paraphrase what she said. 

“I’m very pleased with the work that was done. Everything looks great. I also wanted to express how much I liked the two gals that worked for me today!”  

Gloria Smith, Washington, UT

How to Hire a Professional Housecleaner – Apartment Therapy