Profiles in Success: Robin Kotz - Maid Brigade

The American Residential Cleaning Professions (ARCP) is an association that encourages professionalism in the residential cleaning industry. In November, 2004, the ARCP newsletter chose to feature one of Maid Brigade's own franchisees, Robin Kotz.

Robin Kotz, owner of Maid Brigade in Pleasantville, New York, is an innovative, enthusiastic cleaning service owner. She is always on the lookout for products, services, and original ideas that can help expand her already successful cleaning service.

In 1996 as a young working-mom in the corporate world, Robin tried to find a quality service to clean her own home. She was very disappointed with her options. She quickly realized that people who had services cleaning their homes usually were not satisfied with the service, and the ones who had a good cleaning person often wouldn't tell who the person was, because they feared their cleaning individual would be taken from them.

Like many others who are now in the residential cleaning industry, Robin saw a need and void in the market, thus a cleaning entrepreneur was born!

She decided to leave the corporate world, and she felt buying a franchise was the way to get into the cleaning business. Robin says she never considered doing it any other way. "I didn't know the first thing about cleaning, where would I go to learn about cleaning?" Support from the franchisor and name recognition also factored into her decision.

Her business grew very quickly and has been successful ever since. With annual sales over two million dollars a year, her franchise is the third highest producer in the Maid Brigade system. In 1996 she started with one small territory (3 towns), in 1998 bought a local independent service, and in 2002 bought an existing Maid Brigade in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Joe Jimenez, the former owner, still works with Robin's company.

You can tell immediately that Robin truly enjoys and is very passionate about the industry. "There's something d ifferent everyday, it's never the same," she says. Providing a quality resource to home owners and helping make people's lives better in some way is what keeps her going. She also enjoys the challenge of finding new ways to do things and new tools for her employees to work with.

Robin's a pretty tough boss with high expectations of her staff. Nevertheless, with a staff attrition rate of 19% annually, keeping staff is not a problem. While she doesn't necessarily attribute that low turn over rate to her being loved by her staff, she makes it a priority to be a flexible employer and pays her staff more than her competitors. "My cleaning staff work very hard," Robin says, "and they get paid well for their efforts."

When hiring Robin looks for what the rest of cleaning service owners across the country look for: honest, reliable, good people. She does, however, also use an opinion survey, sometimes called a "personality test". Does it work? Robin says that every time she has hired against the test results, she has regretted it.

Sometimes it is tough in a job market where most of the individuals willing to work are not legally eligible. Robin feels that immigration and legislative issues are big problems facing this industry, stating, "If they want to work, let them work!"

"We realize the importance of great customer service, which is not only the way we clean, but also the way we treat our clients. Our phones are answered by people who care, not voicemail, and we bend over backwards to do what ever we can to satisfy, if not thrill the people who trust us to clean for them. Though we add new customers everyday, we have many who have been with us since our first few months in business."

The market in her area is good, and in the eight years she has been in the business, she says that she sees more customers who want good professional service and are willing to pay for it. She plans to continue to build her business, set higher sales goals each year, and never stop searching for things that can make her business better.

Robin feels that an association like ARCP is needed for professionals in the industry to be able to network with others and have access to educational options that help their businesses. Customer education is also important to Robin, as well as government affairs and legislation.

To people in the cleaning business, Robin's advice is, "Define your audience and decide who your clients are going to be. You can't be everything to everybody. Are you going to have the cheapest prices, environmentally safer, or service more of an upper end customer?" For her business, Robin decided she wanted more demanding customers who wanted better cleaning and would pay for it.

What's next for Robin Kotz? She plans to continue expanding her business, always looking for new and innovative ways to improve her service. She also has considered developing her own line of environmentally friendly cleaning supplies.

What ever Robin does, you can be sure it will be done whole-heartedly and with tremendous zeal!

MAID BRIGADE, INC. has provided professional residential cleaning services since 1979. All employees are screened, trained, uniformed, insured and bonded. Maid Brigade provides all the necessary cleaning equipment and supplies. Reliable, superior service is guaranteed. Regular, one-time, and custom service may be scheduled.

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