Stories from the Front Lines: Ron Holt, CEO & Founder, Two Maids & A Mop

How has Covid-19 affected your brand?

Every business is facing a significant impact, and for us it’s no different. Even though being considered an essential business in most states has been a blessing, our revenues as a network took a significant hit. Many franchisees have seen recurring customers suspend services indefinitely. Despite these challenges, our goal has been to make sure our customers and the communities we serve know that we are here for them at all times, even during a crisis. We’re all going through this together, and we feel it’s important to show that support for our customers.

How are you supporting corporate employees?

The most important thing for us during this time is to be as transparent as we can with all of our corporate employees. We have not furloughed anyone at our corporate office. Our team has worked together to help franchisees find creative ways to focus on customers and keep things moving forward. We have also used what we’ve learned from the corporate locations we operate to give guidance and recommendations to franchisees on how to adjust and adapt our services to meet enhanced health and safety guidelines.

How have you helped your franchisees through this?

We will continue to work to be as creative and compassionate in our support to franchisees as possible. We are a small business, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to the issues our franchisees have faced these last few months. We have to be extremely strategic as a team. Our corporate employees have stepped in to provide additional support to our franchisees to help them keep things running. We understand this has been an extremely tough time for everyone and we want to do all we can to help support our franchise family. In recent months, we’ve reduced or eliminated local marketing and suspended some obligations of the franchise agreement if a location was forced to close by state regulations. 

How are your franchisees supporting their employees?

Many of our franchisees continue to work closely with their employees to help them adjust to the new measures and precautions, while providing them with as many opportunities as possible to give them sufficient hours in the face suspended services. Franchisees also have worked to protect paychecks with federal resources. In addition, to help offset pressures on home cleanings, our franchisees have diversified into the commercial space, in part to help increase and keep hours steady for employees.

What are your franchisees doing for their customers?

Our franchisees have really been leading the charge for their customers and we are so proud to see them making a difference. In April and May, many of them showed their appreciation for customers by putting together care packages and giving away cleaning supplies and gift cards to show customers they care and how valuable they are. Some franchisees even donated to local food banks in their customers’ names, while other franchisees have been donating cleaning and sanitation services for first responders. Our franchisees know it’s more important than ever to show that support for our customers, many of whom are also struggling during this time.

How do you see the future of your brand, operations, market, etc. post–Covid-19?

When we emerge in the end, we will use the lessons we’ve learned from this crisis to make us stronger as a system and as individuals, and to learn how to quickly adjust our services as needed so we can adapt even quicker in the future if need be. The last four months have forced us to be creative and quick to respond. Eventually, people will go back to work, and they’ll want to leave cleaning the halls to others so they can be with their families on the weekends. We expect the demand for residential cleaning to only increase in the coming months, rebounding from the early part of the year. The need for our services will be strong, and we’re looking forward to being there when our customers feel comfortable again to welcome us back into their homes.