CBL Episode #117-Pink Flamingos & Trust Issues

Trust forms the foundation of every successful client-cleaner relationship, but what happens when that trust is deliberately tested? Pink flamingos under rugs, coins beneath trash cans, and objects hidden in unexpected places aren't random occurrences—they're "little red herrings," deliberately placed by clients to verify your cleaning thoroughness.

This growing trend, inspired by viral TikTok videos, represents a troubling shift in client attitudes toward cleaning professionals. As business owners who've built systems designed to deliver consistent quality, encountering these tests feels disrespectful and undermines the professional relationship we work hard to establish.

Drawing from decades of experience in retail quality control and professional cleaning services, we explore effective ways to handle these situations with grace. Whether you choose to gather all test items in a visible location, document them with photos, or directly address the behavior, maintaining your dignity while setting appropriate boundaries is crucial. For persistent testers, implementing substantial price increases often helps clients reconsider their approach—or self-select out of your service roster.

The conversation extends beyond simple cleaning techniques to the fundamental respect that should exist in any service relationship. After all, would these clients appreciate someone intentionally making their own workplace responsibilities more difficult? Probably not.

Have you encountered the little red herring phenomenon in your cleaning business? We'd love to hear your experiences and how you've navigated these challenging client situations. Share your thoughts in the comments, and remember: the right clients will trust your professionalism without setting traps to prove it.

Up your cleaning game, join over 6000 Cleaning Business Owners most of whom are located here in the United States.  

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Introduction
• 2:28 What Are Little Red Herrings?
• 3:52 TikTok Trend of Testing Cleaners
• 5:04 How to Respond Professionally
• 7:22 When Clients Cross the Line
• 10:10 Setting Boundaries and Price Increases
• 14:12 Final Thoughts on Client Respect

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:56

Welcome back. Today we're going to talk about Little Red Herrings. There used to be. For those of you who don't know, I worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art for many years. I ran the South Coast Plaza store. I took the store from being at the bottom of the tail up to the number two store. And the only reason why I never was able to beat the number one store because if anyone has ever been to New York, you go to Rockefeller Center and there is a Metropolitan Museum of Art store there. So obviously you know 100,000 square feet versus a 10,000 square foot store. There's no way to compete volume wise.

Speaker 1: 1:36

But one of the lessons I learned from the great late David Hopkins I'm not sure if he's still around is he talked a lot about little red herrings and at the time I was in my thirties I'm dating myself too I was like, well, what's a little red herring? It's a red herring is a little nudge, a little surprise to make sure that you're doing your job. So he talked about how he, when he was working in the retail level, how his boss used to leave him little red herrings throughout the store. And I'm like like intentionally.

Speaker 1: 2:10

He's like, yeah, it was just like a trap. Yeah, it was a trap, it was a booby trap so to make sure that we were dusting, you know, the glass shelves in the right order, that we were arranging things in the right order. It was to keep us on our toes. And what I'm seeing because this has a direct connection to our industry is there is a TikTok video or two going around and it's this lady talking about how she keeps her cleaner on her toes by leaving little either flamingos. I've seen ducks. I've seen coins, little red herrings, little red fish.

Speaker 2: 2:44

Or little coins underneath the rugs, or little coins to make sure you're doing your job.

Speaker 1: 2:50

And there's this whole dynamic of what to do when you come across a house like this and there's a huge conversation online. You can Google it and you can even go into Reddit, which I never do. That's forbidden for Shannon. It's too graphic for me. I'm not allowed to go there. That burns my brain. Excuse me, but there is a protocol to follow for when you come across a house with a homeowner who clearly has too much free time on their hands, who does that? Someone with a lot of time. You're hitting certain items. Our jobs are hard enough. It is to facilitate from top to bottom, left to right. You know we get an automatic. We do our thing. But when you have someone who adds in flamingos to the mix, what would you do to that, miss Jamie?

Speaker 2: 3:39

You have to know it happens as a matter of fact, my, my cleaning techs have taken pictures before and say do you think this was intentional? And I say well, you know what If it was? Take it and put it in a pile somewhere where they can see that has been moved. And yes, you're doing your job. Here it, here it is, or and and then you know to where they can visually see. And just, I did a text and said we found all your coins. Here's a whole jar full of coins for you. You know 101 of them. It's kind of giving back the in my opinion, especially if you've had this client for a while. I feel like it's a little on the disrespectful side it is um.

Speaker 1: 4:39

So they've watched the tiktok video and they're like, oh my god, I'm gonna keep my cleaner on their toes because, after all, they don't work hard, after all, they don't show up on time with a smile on their face. Yeah, no, you're making your toys and picking up your dirty laundries that you can clean at no charge.

Speaker 2: 5:07

Yeah, no, that's another thing. We I ask them all to tidy before we come over so that we can concentrate on the cleaning. That's my line, that's my script every time, and I too, if I can have that open conversation with them. But normally I have so many systems in place now I have a feedback Don't go to anybody but me and they can tell me kind of in secret, like hey, such and such miss this, and we've done a podcast on in regards to this, I handle it right then and there, whether it's me that has to stop what I'm doing and go handle it, but and there's, you know, I just I don't like. If I see that becoming a problem, then that's really I don't know if that's the client for us, because obviously you're telling me, without telling me that you don't believe you're trying to catch us up in something, to either get a free clean, which will will never happen, or extra cleaning for free, because that's what we offer. We offer to come out and do a reclean of the spots that have been missed within a certain amount of time.

Speaker 2: 6:38

Yes, yes, yes, it has to be three weeks later. Yeah, it cannot be the day before your next clean. And the reminder text that my system automatically sends out to you. Oh yeah, that's right. I wanted to talk to them about that. That is long gone. We're already showing up for the next clean. We're not going to discount the next clean, but setting these booby traps is a form of disrespect and just your client might not be the one for you, because it's them with that they obviously are being passive, aggressive. It's them with that they obviously are being passive, aggressive and telling you or your cleaners that they don't trust that we're doing as good a job as we are. I mean, I know we are you know.

Speaker 1: 7:39

Well, it's the whole thing of do unto others as they would do unto you. I mean, there are these accolades that you need to follow for a reason, and it's not mean spirited, but it is. So if you have free time, you've watched this TikTok video and you're like I'm going to keep my cleaner on the toes because I pay her a lot of money. And so you go and you take this time to like, look to see if where these pink flamingos are going to go, or the coins, when, in actuality, if there was a quality issue, you should have addressed it.

Speaker 1: 8:07

In the old days, when I was back out cleaning, I always had change in my apron. So if they left one coin underneath the bathroom trash, can I would leave several more coins with a smiley face on it, and then I would snap a photo and send it over. After a while, though, you don't have the patience for it anymore, and so you can just grab a paper towel, dump all the pink flamingos on the kitchen counter, that is, with the paper towel under them, because then you don't want, you know.

Speaker 2: 8:34

Oh my God, the counter will be dirty. You're right. Well, why did you do that?

Speaker 1: 8:39

And then you can address it, but it's over the top for someone who has too much free time. We all work really hard in our industry to generate a consistent product, which is the cleaning. Not everyone is able to do that successfully, so pat yourself on the back. And not everyone's able to run smooth running shifts. Not everyone's able to provide the training that we have all paid and learned how to do to make smooth running shifts. So you're taking someone who is disrupting indirectly your schedule and you have to decide whether you're going to keep them on or not.

Speaker 1: 9:14

After a while, though, it becomes a weird thing. Like you know, there used to be an inside joke between one of my husband's customers who became family friends and they did practical jokes to each other. It got really kind of carried away, and that's a different circumstance. I'm talking about little teeny red herrings that are just left. Like they left, you know, they would leave a penny underneath the books. Well, we're not going to normally move books unless it's a deep thing, right? Or they would leave, you know, a toy behind the dry erase board, or they would.

Speaker 1: 9:47

You know, I had someone one time who was really upset that the cleaning tech missed the spiderweb and I said most of the blinds are closed in this room 99% of the time and the light fixture has been broken for 10 months now, so the lights have not been turned on. So I'm surprised that you guys even saw it. I apologize, but it's just this whole dynamic of how could you not see that we pay you all this money, mike? The light fixture needs to be fixed Right. It's just like you can't be successful unless you set them up for success. So I'm usually typical places that I've seen little red herrings or pink flamingos the trash can, under bath mats, under dish soap, in the kitchen I've seen them. We had someone one time put some in the microwave and the person didn't see it and threw the wet microfiber in to heat it up and it caught on fire. Oh god, and I was just, and then they wanted us to pay for the microwave. I'm like that's bs, that's your fault. Yeah, exactly why would you leave?

Speaker 1: 10:50

pennies in the microwave. It says no metal.

Speaker 2: 10:54

So, yeah, be mindful of you know, if you want to take on that client and you, as the business owner, don't set your cleaning techs up like that. That comes down to a management issue and a training issue, and you, I can't train, so I have delegated that. I just I know how I want my business run and there are some people that just know how to read me without, uh, step one, step two, and they can put it to somebody else better than what I can, even though I'm the owner. That's what's so awkward about it. But even though I'm the owner, but don't don't set them up and booby trap them either. It don't feel good. It don't feel good seeing those types of things. And, yeah, just be mindful of of the clients you take on If you start seeing stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 11:57

Right, we had a client who left crumbs in the bed and expected us to vacuum the bed to get the crumbs out, and that's the stuff I'm talking about. You didn't think about, hey, I, you know, my little was in the bed. I mean, I was in between shows and I was upstairs making my own bed this morning, but I it's. It's a lot to ask of someone to spot crumbs. We're so busy and we're trying to get all of these tasks done. And then, by the way, I put all these crumbs in my bed. Can you vacuum them out? No, I'm happy to add that to your bill though. Yeah, exactly, no problem.

Speaker 2: 12:31

So yeah, and then make sure that you know if they are to start do the the big price increase for them. That's a sure way of getting you know, and if they accept, the price increase woohoo.

Speaker 1: 12:49

So, so use caution. If you have someone who has a lot of free time, who has decided that you need to work harder than you do, then you have to decide whether you want to continue to have the relationship with that individual or not. Um, it's, I guarantee if it was reverse and we went to their job to make their job harder, they wouldn't like it. Um, and it's, it's just not a nice thing to do. So, um, take heed. If you have someone who does that, put them on the thing, and it's just not a nice thing to do. So take heed.

Speaker 1: 13:12

If you have someone who does that, put them on the thing. And then, after the third or fourth time, if they keep reappearing in different spots and you keep having to pile it in, it's time to have a conversation with that person to find out what's going on and to give them their big fat price increase. And you can say you know, I'm happy to continue on with you. However, we keep finding this big pile of 27 pink flamingos. I'm gonna have to increase your price by 75 dollars per visit. Then they'll be like oh, I'm just joking.

Speaker 2: 13:45

I'm just joking, but that's what you really want to say. But yeah, I know, it's definitely there, yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:55

That's it About red herrings. Red herrings, take care, bye, bye.