The Uber of Domestic Cleaning Has Arrived!

In this day & age people want instant access to services and booking online is the most convenient thing! We sat down to speak to the two pioneers behind MyClickCleaner, the brand new accessible cleaning service in Manchester and the Uber of domestic cleaning.

Could you tell us a bit about MyClickCleaner?

MyClickCleaner is an online service thatconnects busy homeowners and apartment owners, with domestic cleaners in their local area. It’s not just homeowners and apartment owners, we’ve been getting enquiries from property management companies, landlords and we’ve even jumped onto the wave of AirBnB. They’re saying that if guests go into the house and it’s a mess it’s going to reflect on reviews and they’re not going to get booked after that. So we’ve noticed that theres a big demand for a service that allows people to have instant access to a domestic cleaner.

What made you want to start up a cleaning business?

Well it’s a gap in the market really. I was living in China for four years previously and I always saw cleaning as something that was maybe elitist but going over there i’ve realised it’s more of an accessibility issue. So upon coming back to England and buying my own property I thought that I’d love to have a cleaner but how do you even get one? Peoples lives are changing and we realised that just a little help will allow people to do the things that they want to do in life. It’s not a case of – it sounds really sexist – but woman don’t just stay at home anymore. Everyones working all the time, people have got young families, why would you want to spend your weekend cleaning instead of enjoying time with your kids.

It’s a concept that not just young people can use, everyone’s internet savvy. We’ve built such a simple interface and we’ve got the new payment gateway which is new and upcoming called “Stripe” which is absolutely amazing and allows you to pay so quickly.

You lived in China for a while, did this influence the style and ethics of the business?

Probably not style and ethics, it made me realise that people do need this help. I had a lot of friends in China and they use cleaners so I came back and saw situations where people maybe couldn’t do the things they wanted to do because they didn’t have a cleaner. So the influence from China has maybe allowed me to (fingers crossed) expand the business after we’ve mastered it over here, bring it back into the Chinese market.

So you work with Coffee4Craig, what made you want to work with them?

From day one I always wanted to tie the business in with a local charity. I didn’t want to choose the stereotypical Unicef charities because they have funding from huge corporations. It’s the little charities in Manchester that need help and go 6 or 12 months without publicity. Because we’re working in the house service industry I thought how can we work with a charity that connects our business with them. We’re going to be helping them and going to be down at the soup kitchens at night with a percentage of our sales going to them in order to help homeless people get clothes food and obviously back into property.

What makes your cleaning business different from the others?

We pride ourselves on customer service. So if you have any issues we are instantly contactable. We’re not one of them companies open Monday to Friday 9-5. Instead people can always have access to us, not just through Twitter but through a built in customer service team. When you log in, you’ll have your own admin panel and once you make your initial booking you get an account where you can edit the booking, rebook it, edit the time to be at your house, etc… One of the cool things we want to build in the future is a built in messaging service so you send a personal message to the support team. It will build up a chat scenario a bit like WhatsApp where you can see the whole conversation building.

We’re making it all accessible so we’ve got our own Twitter support account because we pride ourselves on customer experience and customer service, we’re not hiding anything by doing that. We know that Twitter is one of them platforms where the good and the bad will show. We’re not afraid of that. I think if a business is absolutely perfect online you get suspicious. So we just need to show that if there is an issue we will solve it. We’ll also have a bucket list to promote what people are doing when they’re not cleaning.

We want to have an area on the website where people can post pictures on Twitter and they’ll be directed to our website. We spent about 20 minutes yesterday thinking what would be a good # for this. So we were like #insteadofcleaning *insert name* goes shopping. Something simple and catchy. The thing is we’re not re-inventing the wheel, we’re providing a service that is of current times, people want more free time and it’s a bit more modern than a woman turning up in marigolds with a mop.

Our pricing structure allowing accessibility for all, relating to breaking the stereotype of having a cleaner being an elitist thing. From home owners choosing recurring weekly bookings with added extras to students booking one off cleans following a party. Furthermore, Robert’s Mandarin fluency has seen MyClickCleaner quickly become one of leading domestic service providers to the rapidly growing Chinese population living in the UK.

What makes Manchester such a good place to start a business up?

So since coming back from China, I realised there is a buzz in Manchester at the moment. Theres  media city, theres recent trade links signed with China. It’s a big interest for me! We didn’t want to launch in London because you can just get swallowed up there. I didn’t see that as an ideal target location. It’s our back garden as well, we know it, it’s accessible to us.

We take recruitment very seriously as well. When the cleaner is going into the house we don’t want the silence, we don’t want the awkwardness of them not really saying anything. You want to hear about what they’ve been doing at the weekend, their pets, their children. Only about 8% of cleaners that apply will get to work for us. They are CRB checked, they are fully insured and they are the best cleaners in the area. We’re also going to be building something into the system where we offer the opportunity for you to review your cleaner. As the business grows it’s going to be more of an automated service. But it gives you the opportunity, when they leave, you’ll be sent an email to review your experience that gets shown on the website. You have more of a trust aspect. We want to give them the recognition, we want to give them the rewards and obviously the better the reviews the more work they will get. We know 100% that it’s going to be better for everyone if thats going to be the same cleaner every week. Because 1 – they know the house and 2 – they know you, they build a relationship.

What makes the business so relevant this day and age?

I think everything is online isn’t it, you’re not ringing up your mum to find out who cleans your aunties house. Everyone wants instant access right now. They just want to go on their computer or phone, with a  few clicks it’s booked there and then and you just sit back and wait. I firmly believe mastering the local area, that builds credibility, that builds trust factor and after you’ve mastered that, thats when you can spread out.

You can book your cleaning service here.