Hiring help, then spending all day on the phone
The round has grown past what one person can do, so you take on a second cleaner with their own van. You split the round the obvious way: you keep the days you like, they get the rest. By the second week, they are ringing you from houses asking where the gate code is, whether the customer pays by cash, and whether the back is included. Their days take far longer than yours did, because the houses you gave them are scattered.
Meanwhile some customers ring you to ask who the stranger was, and one says the new cleaner did the conservatory roof, which she does not pay for.
The round was designed around one person's memory
A one-person round is a mental map. Splitting it means turning that into something another person can follow, and dividing it in a way that is fair in time and travel.
- Round days are split by day, not by area or workload.
- Customer details a new cleaner needs are not written down.
- Cleaning time per house is not known, so workloads are uneven.
- Customers are not told about the change.
- There is no shared record of what each van did each day.
Slow days, mistakes and lost customers
An uneven split means one van finishes early and the other runs late. Mistakes at the door, such as cleaning parts of a house that are not included or missing parts that are, cost money and goodwill. Customers who do not know about the new cleaner may refuse to pay or cancel. And you spend your day on the phone, which defeats the point of hiring.
A split based on the map and the workload
We build the split from your customer list, and the tools both vans use afterwards.
- Every customer is placed on a map with their frequency, price and an estimated cleaning time, which you refine from experience.
- The tool suggests a split into two sets of areas, balanced by cleaning time and travel rather than by customer count, respecting any customers you want to keep yourself.
- You adjust the split until it looks right, and each van gets its own round days.
- Each customer record carries what a new cleaner needs: what is included, access notes, payment method and any quirks.
- Customers whose cleaner changes get a short introduction text with the new cleaner's name and van.
- Each van works from its daily list on a phone, marking houses done, payments and notes, and you see both vans' progress in one place.
| Question | Split by memory | Split by map and workload |
|---|---|---|
| Which customers go to the new van? | The days you like least | Areas balanced by time and travel |
| What is included at each house? | Ask the owner | On the customer record |
| Did the new cleaner do today's list? | Ask them | Visible on the shared list |
| Do customers know? | Maybe not | Introduction text |
How you employ or engage the second cleaner is between you and your adviser. We deal with the round and the records.
Two vans, each with a tidy round
Each van works a compact set of areas. The new cleaner has what they need at each door and stops ringing you. Customers know who is coming. You can see both vans' days, payments and notes without asking. And when the business grows again, adding a third van is the same exercise.
A normal day for the new cleaner then looks like this: open the list, follow it street by street, tap each house done and the payment taken, and add a note when something is different. At the end of the day you glance at both vans' lists and know the round is covered.
Are you about to split your round?
- Only you know the details of each customer.
- You plan to split by day rather than by area.
- You do not know how long each house takes.
- Customers have not been told about a new cleaner.
- You expect to spend the first months answering questions by phone.