Cleaning services cater to homes

Sanitising homes is turning out to be big business

Safety precautions regarding Covid-19 revolve around hygiene, so it is no surprise that cleaning services are being requested around the city.

‘Urban Company’, the market leader, is projected to reach their pre-Covid sales numbers in a month, says Rahul Deorah, Vice President, marketing.

“Deep cleaning services account for 15 per cent of our sales during this time. Around 95 per cent of these clients opt for more concentrated cleaning of their kitchens, bathroom or sofas,” he says.

Services may take anything between an hour to almost 10, depending on what you need and the size of your home, he says.

Other service providers based in the city are not doing as well. “We saw a 100 per cent jump in demand after the lockdown but post-June, it has been stagnant,” says Praveen Hatti, co-founder of ‘Unplan’.

While they have not seen a significant rise in deep cleaning services, sanitisation and repair work is in demand. “While our big ticket items are commercial establishments, residential spaces make up the most of our clientele,” he says.

‘Clean Fanatic’ has been hit harder. “Things were looking alright in May but July was really bad. I’m not expecting it to pick up greatly anytime soon,” says Nishant Prasad, CEO.

They are not taking up Covid disinfection requests, instead they have introduced a line of products.

“We have anti-microbial and UV sanitation products which have been selling well,” he says.

He attributes the low demand to the fear psychosis that has taken grip of the city. Praveen agrees, “The higher the number of cases, the lower our business would be. Especially since what we do is very high-contact,” he says.

Safety precautions

Rahul says extensive guidelines have been put in place. Their employees have undergone a two-week training on safety measures.

“There is a rating system in place as well, where consumers can rate the safety. If a person’s rating falls below 4.5, they are made to do a refresher course,” he says.

They are also incentivising employees who are sick to stay at home with paid leave and assistance with hospital bills.

“We do daily temperature checks and have installed the Aarogya Setu app on all our employees’ phones,” says Praveen. They are also equipped with a basic PPE kit.

‘Clean Fanatic’ too follows the same procedure as ‘Unplan’ but they are not sending their employees into Covid hotspots. “It is too much of a risk,” says Nishant.

Dealing with RWAs

Resident Welfare Associations are known to have rules of their own when it comes to letting people enter. “Each apartment complex has its own rules. Sometimes it is as simple as a temperature check, sometimes we need prior permission to enter,” says Praveen.

Rahul says that most of them are starting to ease up. “Consumers themselves pushed for people like delivery boys and us to be let in, so it is not as much trouble as it was in the early days after the lockdown,” he says. “If there is an apartment complex with a Covid case, restrictions increase significantly, but some still let us in,” adds Praveen.