Monthly Archives: March 2012

With its recent IPO and greater than $1bln market cap, Yelp has become one of the great success stories of the Internet.  It sits right at the intersection of e-commerce and real commerce.  However, the limitations of the website and its automated processes hamper its ability to reach its full potential.

A Bit About MyClean

MyClean is a NYC based residential and commercial cleaning company.  Since its 2009 founding, we have become one of the fastest growing cleaning services in the city. We distinguish ourselves through our convenient online platform and our focus on customer service.  When issues (inevitably) arise, they are handled quickly and professionally.  We place a high value on our online reputation and, more generally our reputation.  Our goal is 100% client satisfaction.

Background:

Yelp: Better Business Bureau on Steroids

At its best, Yelp provides a way for consumers to find and trust unfamiliar businesses.  Looking for a kid friendly steakhouse in the Poconos? Yelp can help you find one.  Wondering whether that pool installer’s estimate is too good to be true?  Yelp can give you a hint.

The Advantages Yelp Provides to Business Owners:

Customer Acquisition

Yelp is an invaluable resource in terms of customer acquisition.  Customers go to Yelp when they are ready to buy.  At MyClean, two of our strongest customer acquisition methods are: 1) Yelp organic results, and 2) Yelp pay per impression advertising.  Yelp even offers video production as part of its advertising package.  Yelp advertising has increased traffic to our site significantly.  Moreover, Yelp allows businesses to post responses to reviews, to help refute misleading or inaccurate postings.

The Bad

Yelp reviews tend to skew negative, particularly for commoditized businesses, like cleaning.  Whereas people may be inclined to post a stellar review for a great restaurant or bar, they may not take the time when someone simply provided a great service.  Moreover, the bad reviews will always be scathing, and the good reviews are taken with a grain of salt (in large part because of the manipulation discussed below).  In fact, early on in our business someone posted a “quick tip” that our good reviews appear to be “advertisements,” implying that we wrote them ourselves.  This is simply not true and we would never jeopardize the integrity of our business.  Nevertheless, this “quick tip” remains.

This means that the bigger and more successful a company gets, the more negative reviews it will have. Whereas it is easy for a new company to maintain a five star rating, for example, for a mature company, a five star rating is nearly impossible.

Additionally, notwithstanding the marketing advantages outlined above, advertising on Yelp is inherently risky.  If your company’s rating drops (either deservedly or otherwise), all the advertising in the world won’t bring in more business.

Further, though businesses can post responses to reviews, as mentioned above, this often provides little solace.

First, if you don’t have a writer (or in our case, a former lawyer) on staff, it may be difficult to craft responses to posts without appearing defensive or emotional (particularly when the posts are inaccurate and you may be frustrated that a client posted a negative review instead of reaching out to you to find a solution to the problem).

Second, one wonders whether the responses are even read at all.  A prospective client may think “of course the company thinks they are right,” or not even get that far; instead skipping to a company with a higher nominal unfiltered rating.

The Filtered

A Yelp rating can make or break a growing business, particularly when that business acquires many of its customers online.  Not surprisingly, this leads many businesses to attempt to “game” their Yelp rating by posting (or having others post) positive reviews, in the hopes of improving their rating.  Some may even post misleading reviews about competitors, to improve their relative rating.

To combat these realities, Yelp has instituted automated filtering procedures to limit the effect of these attempted manipulations.  Their algorithm is secret (lest it be further manipulated) but it basically filters reviews as suspicious when they are by a new Yelper or when they are posted by a person connected with the company.

However, these filters are far from perfect.  In our case, Yelp has failed to filter a false review by a fictitious customer named “Cristina F.” who accuses us of theft.  We take allegations of theft seriously, and we have NEVER had an unresolved theft claim.  Moreover, at the time the review was posted, we had never even had a customer named “Cristina F.”  Despite the obviously fraudulent nature of the post, and our repeated attempts to reach out to Yelp to flag the issue, the review remains.  We often get calls from customers asking for reassurance about theft, when we have never stolen from our clients.

Even worse, this identical review was posted on a competitor’s website and was filtered!  We are still waiting for an explanation of this (and I expect to be waiting a long time).

It is the policy of MyClean to never solicit insincere reviews.  Nevertheless, Yelp’s filters have removed numerous genuine (and positive) reviews, including some by frequent Yelpers who only know MyClean professionally.  Our filtered ratings average nearly a full star more than our unfiltered ones.

As you can see, Yelp’s automated filters are far from perfect.  As Yelp continues to progress, it will likely need to institute some type of investigation or ombudsman program, to allow a company to defend itself against misleading or slanderous reviews and ratings.

Absent that, businesses and consumers may begin to question the value of the ratings and reviews, finding them to be more arbitrary than accurate.

Conclusion

In short, Yelp is a valuable tool to help market your business.  However, businesses must carefully cultivate their online reputations to ensure that they are fairly portrayed. This means that, in many cases, Yelp ratings may be more accurate as a reflection of the business’s reputation management savvy than of the quality of the actual underlying business.

The business world will be watching to see how Yelp faces these challenges.

Home Service Company MyClean Leads the Way In Changing The Compensation Structure for Hourly Employees

The biggest single operational challenge for growing a service business, whether it’s a construction company, landscaping company, or cleaning service, is being able to attract and retain high quality employees.

One company has found a creative way to deal with this issue.

According to MyClean’s CEO and VP of Operations, during its days as a start-up, it faced significant hurdles in finding cleaners who would: 1) show up to work, and 2) do a consistently good job.

“For every great cleaner we hired, we had to cycle through several others who couldn’t meet our standards.  They would show up late, or not at all, and the quality of their work would shift with their mood,” says CEO Michael Scharf.  “In response, I tasked Kenny Schultz, VP of Operations to develop a compensation structure that would allow us to attract and retain the kind of employees that would help us grow our business.”

Kenny says:  “We realized early on that for many people at this income level, showing up to work every day, even when they have a cold, was somewhat of a foreign concept.  We had people calling out for the most trifling of reasons: ‘my ankle hurts,’ ‘I have to go to the DMV,’ or simply ‘I’m tired.’  In our business, where the cleaners generally work alone, attendance and punctuality are pivotal to meeting our commitments to our customers.  Simply requiring employees to show up wasn’t working.  First, we tried a raise in base salaries.  However, we quickly learned that you can’t create a high quality employee, merely by raising salaries.  While a higher base salary attracted more candidates for interviews, it was difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, without hiring cleaners, on a probationary basis, to see how they did.  As such, I knew incentive compensation would be the solution.

Their structure is straightforward, but groundbreaking, none the less.  They pay bonuses for weekly and monthly perfect attendance and punctuality, standby time for morning appointments, and pay further bonuses for weekly and monthly positive customer feedback.

“I’ve had colleagues ask how I could pay a bonus for merely showing up to work and doing a good job.  The answer is simple: When our cleaners miss an appointment, or are so late they inconvenience a customer, it impacts our bottom line.  The attendance/punctuality bonus aligns our cleaners’ interests with the company’s.

The customer service bonuses relate to ‘lifetime value’ of our customers.

We spend marketing dollars to bring in new customers, we want to keep them.

The only way to keep those customers is to deliver a consistent, high quality product.  We follow up with all of our clients on a regular basis.

If a cleaner goes through a week of work with only positive feedback, they have helped keep our clients happy, and should be rewarded.”

Another difference between MyClean and other service companies is that it puts its employees on a path to a career, not just job.  They do this by: 1) providing real-time and aggregated performance review, 2) paying for budgeted time, even if a clean ends early (so long as the customers are happy), and 3) showing a path to career advancement (trainer, dispatcher, etc.) to those that show potential. “Some companies think of their employees as interchangeable.  Not us! We know that no matter how well we train cleaners, no matter how good their equipment, the quality of our work will always depend on each cleaner showing up ready to do a great job.  We try to identify cleaners who deliver consistent work, and show them a path to being more than “just” a cleaner.  Because we are a fast growing company, opportunities are opening up all the time, and we try to look internally to fill them,” says Kenny.

Mike says, “At the end of the day, customers have many options to meet their cleaning and home service needs.  MyClean rises above the competition, in part, by consistently delivering trained, inspired, and happy employees to each of its clients.”

MyClean trains its cleaners to ensure they deliver a consistent, high quality clean by utilizing the MyClean Method.

The MyClean method leaves nothing to chance.  It aligns the interests of the cleaner, the customer, and the company.  How? By breaking a clean down to the essentials.  Below is a brief look at how our cleaners approach a clean.

1.  PREPARE-  Before a cleaner even leaves for work, he or she must ensure that: 1) the day’s schedule is clear. 2) electric equipment is charged, and 3) supplies are reloaded and sufficient to get through the day’s cleans.

2.  ASSESS the apartment-  This means identifying problem areas (a streaky mirror, a sink full of dishes), and finding anything out of place (a glass on the night stand, garlic on the coffee table).  It also means finding the step stool and vacuum, to ensure all areas that can be cleaned, ARE cleaned.

3.  ORGANIZE supplies-  Arriving prepared with the necessary supplies, then having those supplies at the ready ensures that each are of focus is addressed with the proper equipment.

4.  DISHES-  Cleaning dishes and running the dishwasher allows the kitchen to be properly cleaned.

5.  KITCHEN- TOP TO BOTTOM-  Cleaners clean in “levels,” top to bottom, ensuring that all dirt and grime is removed or falls to the floor (for mopping): 1) dusting, 2) high cabinets, 3) refrigerator (all sides), 4) counter level (scrubbing where necessary), 5) lower cabinets and dishwasher, and 6) trash can.

6.  BATHROOM- TUB TO TOILET- After dusting high vents and fixtures, cleaners clean the tub, from top to bottom (starting at the shower head), removing and cleaning all shampoos and soaps, cleaning the shower door or curtain, and finally the tub itself.  Next, cleaners clean the vanity, mirror, cabinets, and towel racks.    When all this is done, the cleaners turn to the toilet (where they use the rags in their hand for the last time).

7.  BEDROOMS and COMMON AREAS- 360 Clean-  Our cleaners start at the door frame of each room, and work their way around the walls and window sills, to ensure no areas are missed.  Some of the most important areas to clean (buzzer, entry table) are near the door, and should not be over looked.  From there, cleaners focus on the interior of the rooms (bed, coffee table, dining table).

8.  DRY MOPPING- A step that cannot be overlooked.  Our cleaners use their microfiber mops to ensure that all areas of the floor, including accessible areas under furniture, are properly cleaned.  Cleaners generally work with their back to the door, mopping from the baseboards (with our flexible mop head) in.  Without dry mopping, dust can turn to mud.

9.  WET MOPPING- Cleaners use wood-safe all purpose cleaner, mop with the grain of the floor/wood, and mop until solution is evenly applied, to avoid streaks.

10.  SELF-INSPECTION / STRAIGHTENING UP- Cleaners are trained to spend several minutes in each room making sure everything is not just clean, but tidy as well.  Among other things, cleaners quick fold clothes on the floor, organize remote controls, and straighten magazines.

11.  WALK-THROUGH- Cleaners offer each customer a walk through to ensure that the customer is satisfied.

12. CHECKLIST- Cleaners deliver our 50 Point MyClean Checklist, ensuring that the clean was done properly, and that any problems (broken soap dish, no step stool) are flagged for the customer.