Ozhouse Clean is based in Melbourne and offers professional, residential cleaning services, including regular home cleans, as well as spring cleans. The company was established in 2005 and is a family business established by James and Nancy Anderson.
Ozhouse Clean’s key focus is providing quality services to all their customers. Key values are:
- valuing and respecting all of our customers
- caring for the environment through our environmentally friendly services
- caring for our staff through a friendly working environment
- promoting excellence and innovation in all of our business practices.
The objectives are to:
- increase the number of clients by 20%
- meet or exceed the expectations of customers
- implement best practice in cleaning operations, including environmentally sustainable practices.
James and Nancy are the Directors of the company and finance any business expansion themselves. Their daughters, Amanda and Sarah, are also Directors and manage the business for their parents who are not involved operationally. Amanda is the Operations Manager and Sarah is the Administration Manager. The company employs 15 casual cleaners (paid $25 per hour).
The target customers are people in the greater Melbourne region who want a professional, trustworthy and immaculate cleaning service. The company currently has approximately 70 regular and loyal clients, based around Melbourne inner city.These clients require regular home cleaning, either weekly or once every two weeks for 4 to 6 hours (cost of $30 per hour).
All ongoing cleaning supplies are currently purchased from Total Cleaning Supplies in Melbourne. However, OzHouse Clean does not currently offer environmentally friendly products as these products cannot be purchased from Total Cleaning Supplies.
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A recent survey of existing and potential clients shows a strong desire for an affordable eco-friendly and child-safe cleaning service. Industry information further shows that staff retention and training remains a challenge in the cleaning industry (this has resulted in very competitive hourly rates).
The Owners (James and Nancy) have met with and established a new supplier relationship with XtremeClene who supply eco-friendly and child safe cleaning products. Their products are typically 25% more expensive than regular cleaning products. New eco- friendly products include:
- Xtreme Window Clene
- Xtreme Floor Clene (option for carpet, tile and wooden floors)
- Xtreme bathroom Clene
To compensate to the additional cost, OzHouse Clean must charge $7.50 in addition to $30 per hour for a regular house clean.
James and Nancy, have asked Amanda (the Operations Manager) to:
- negotiate the price-increase for any services using eco-friendly products with customers.
- explain the new eco-friendly product approach to cleaning staff.
They have also asked her to keep all supplier information and cleaning product costs confidential when communicating with both staff and customers, but to make sure both groups understand the business’s objectives, new product option and the implications of the new product.
At a recent executive team meeting (James, Nancy, Sarah and Amanda), everyone agreed that if requested, Amanda could negotiate:
- a wage increase of $0.50 per hour for all cleaning staff who have successfully demonstrated their competent knowledge and use of the new eco-friendly cleaning product range (Sarah would be arranging training at a later stage in the cleaner’s own unpaid time).
- a 5% discount for customers who’ve regularly used OzHouse clean for more than 1 year. It was stressed at the meeting that Amanda should not negotiate unless customers/staff were obviously unhappy or if they requested it. Negotiation should not exceed the amounts agreed on at the executive team meeting and should promote customer/staff retention and satisfaction.