THE KIND OF CLIENT I DESIRE

I have been reading articles, listenting to podcasts, taking master classes on the subject of THE KIND OF CLIENT YOU DESIRE. For the last few months, the following story has come to mind several times.

The picture above is the Mystic River and the Drawbridge that separates Mystic from Groton in Southeastern CT. The brown brick building in the background is an Apartment, Retail and Office building. I had a client that moved into this building in the late 1980s, her apartment was on the top floor, corner apartment with huge windows that went from the high ceilings to the floor. I would take my lunch break in between cleaning jobs to watch the ships come in and go out . . . the best memories ♥

One summer they were filming a movie in this little Mystic Village – the movie was 𝓜𝔂𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓬 𝓟𝓲𝔃𝔃𝓪. I was blessed to be stuck in Mystic for the day during one of the filmings . . . the traffic, the film crews, the cars Oh My!! At first I was pissed that I couldn’t get to my other 2 cleaning jobs – then after some schedule rearranging, I was able to say “f**k it” let’s see if we can spots some stars. My client had binoculars in every room of her apartment – she either liked watching the boats and the view like myself or she was a stalker, I never found out for sure!

I got stuck on the best day at my clients. It was on THIS DAY to watch this scene:

Okay, so I’m done rememorizing about being on the movie scene …..

I had only been cleaning in this building for about six – eight months, one day the door at the top of these narrow steep stairs the “Help” had to use was locked. I went back down the narrow, steep stairs into the lobby and took the elevator up to the floor of the apartments. The elevator stopped at a floor on the way up and two young ladies stepped inside, they looked my age maybe a couple years older. They were dressed for a day in the village . . . sorry to say but they looked “Preppy”. Me, I had on my “own version” of a uniform: beige Khaki shorts ironed with a crease down the middle, an ironed white t-shirt, work boots, some cool socks, sunglasses with my malticulously packed cleaning tote and bucket along with my best friend at the time “Ms. Oreck” (she had her own name badge…not kidding).

It was quiet in the elevator, I started humming to the sleepy elevator music. One of the young ladies turned around, looked at me up & down and said “next time use the service stairs, you people are not suppose to ride this elevator”. I said “what people?” she wouldn’t say anything, I repeated “what people?” the other girl now was checking me out up & down. I just stood there, still humming, standing proudly, standing with Self-Worth intact – because that was the soul purpose of these two . . . excuse me . . . bitches. Their purpose was to tear me down with that statement.

As they were exiting the elevator I said “Enjoy your day in Mystic ladies” and when the doors shut – I flipped them off – well I actually flipped off myself because the door on the inside of the elevator was like a mirror but it doesn’t matter I got it out of me….right? I thought to myself, I will have to tell my client in case these two ladies say something to management. Now, prior to this event I was not sure about the working relationship I had with this client – she was a little difficult to work with, I did like the challenge though. We butted heads on a few issues about cleaning, again I did like the challenge. I wasn’t quite sure how she was going to take this news of my confrontation of the other apartment tenants.

As I entered my client’s apartment she was going out, I said to her “I need to talk to you about something that just happened with a couple of tenants in the building”. I told her the story, she said “I will be right back, you can start cleaning wherever you like I’m going out for the day but I will be right back”. As she left my heart is beating, I can’t think of where she went to, what is she going to do? She was back within thirty minutes – she asked me to come into the kitchen, she had on the counter, a key (to the door that was locked at the top of those narrow stairs), a parking pass (that never expired), a sledge card (for me to take the elevator whenever I wanted to). She said she talked to management, that if those girls are the type of tenants they rent to she (my client) will not sign another years lease. I had wondered what kind of client she would be for me and my company – well I found out on that day.

SHE IS MY CLIENT – SHE IS THE CLIENT I DESIRE.

Moral of this story: don’t waste your time and effort to making sure that your clients are these “BIG TICKET CLIENTS” that will bring in a whole lot of moo-la, you need to make sure your client will stand toe-to-toe with you in your struggles, that they have the same passions, ethics, values that you carry with you throughout your day. Those are your clients, those that are willing to hold the gate open for you to a place where you can be respected and honored.

Peace ♥ Harmony

Cheryl XO