Paul Santiago opened the Dayton MaidPro in March 2014. Since MaidPro is already a major franchise presence, Santiago was armed with the corporate office’s recommendations for running a successful franchise, including using the Sierra backpack vacuum from ProTeam.
“MaidPro gives us the basics to start the franchise, and we have been very happy with the vacuums,” said Santiago. “They are strong vacuums. The suction is incredible.”
Santiago has a staff of eight who clean residences averaging 2,400 square feet. They use their Sierra backpack vacuums to clean carpet, hard flooring, and architectural details. With proper training, his staff learned to maneuver the backpack vacuums in a residential setting.
“The vacuums are easy to use as long as you get used to moving around,” said Santiago. “People aren’t used to having something on their back in a confined space. They have to be aware of the extra size. We train them to walk into a tight space and back straight out, so they don’t turn around and knock something over.”
In the 18 months since opening, Santiago has had many compliments from clients and few complaints.
“Our clients love the job that the girls do. I don’t think we’ve had any cancellations because of poor quality,” said Santiago. “Our attrition numbers are very low, somewhere around two percent. We get compliments from the home office quite a bit.”
When training his staff, Santiago emphasizes the cleanliness of the floors, because the floor is the first thing his clients see when they come home. The process works like this. A worker first completes all other cleaning tasks (sanitizing, dusting, etc.), and then she goes through the entire residence and vacuums the baseboards, edges, and corners. The final step is a thorough vacuuming of all flooring.
“The floors are pretty much spotless,” said Santiago. “We leave the house looking clean, smelling fresh, and feeling like a fancy hotel room, like someone has been there and taken care of the place.”
In addition to houses, the Dayton MaidPro staff also vacuums the common areas of an apartment complex with their Sierra backpacks. The complex consists of eight buildings with three floors each. Each floor has entrances, stairways, common areas, and high-traffic hallways. These hallways have consistently high soil levels and take two to three hours of daily vacuuming to keep clean.
“The hallways are very dirty. We have to change filter bags in the middle of the hall,” said Santiago. “For as much as we use the vacuums and what we put them through, they’re pretty rugged. The investment was good.”
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