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😨 Don’t Panic About Breaking Something – Log It

When you break something in a customer’s home, don’t work yourself into a tizzy. Log the damage instead.

Logging and fixing damage you cause is part of a 3-part system your house cleaning business can use to regain customer trust.

Broken vase with a hand-written oops! note. How to handle breaking things in your house cleaning customers homes.

Turn Oops! into Customer Trust

Breaking something in a cleaning customer’s home will happen at some point no matter how careful you are.

What matters most is how you fix it.

Trying to hide damage or refusing to deal the fallout only makes things worse.

Over the years, I’ve found the best way to handle breakage is a 3-part system for getting out in front of incidents.

Let your customer know what happened right away.
Offer to pay them for the damage.
Keep records about everything.

Having a system for handling damage and taking care of your customer’s needs can turn an Oops! incident into deeper customer trust.

Keep Track, Note & Fix

At the center of a system for handling breakage and other incidents is an Incident Log.

The Incident Log is where you keep records about everything.

It’s where you keep track of the facts of the incident. It’s where you make notes about what your customer wants. It’s where you log the fix for the problem.

Broken metal gas stove grate on a yellow potholder. — Part of gas stove grate I broke and had to replace. *Arrgh!*

In your cleaning business, keeping track of all incidents and damages, can help you:

See how often a worker (including you) damages customer property each year.
Find out who is costing you the most money for damages.
Provide facts if you need to file an insurance claim for major damage.
Make note of how much of your business reserve fund you use each year to cover small damages.

What Else You Can Track With The Incident Log? 👀

You can also use the Incident Log to keep track of customer actions. Use the log to record times a customer:

Didn’t leave payment.
Forgot to leave a key.
Changed an alarm code and forgot to let you know.
Was notiﬁed of an unprovoked attack by their household pet.
Argued with or threatened you or anyone working with you like a partner, contractor or employee.

Get Started With an Incident Logging System for Your Business

$12

Get This Log

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Frequently Asked Questions

When you download the Incident Log, simply duplicate (⌘D) the blank form before using it the first time. Then you can make as many blank log forms as you need.

Use on a computer or mobile device with PDF readers. See a list of free PDF readers in the section below. ⬇︎

Add your daily information anywhere on the form with a blue field.

Fill out the Incident Log form with these 3 free PDF readers:

Adobe Acrobat: A free PDF reader for Mac and Windows operating systems.

Download the Adobe reader to your mobile device from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Foxit: This free PDF reader has to be downloaded and installed on your computer. The Foxit reader has plugins that allow you to manage and save your PDF forms to online storage accounts like Box, Dropbox, Google Drive and One Drive.

Download the Foxit reader to your mobile device from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Smallpdf: This free online PDF reader requires no downloads. Use in your browser with laptop and desktop computers. Smallpdf form fields are yellow instead of blue. Easily save filled forms directly to your Dropbox or Google Drive accounts.

Download the Smallpdf reader/editor to your mobile device from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

The Incident log sheet is set up so you can add lots of notes to each section without having to worry about space.

All fillable PDF fields or sections have scroll bars if you type directly into the form. Add as much information as you need.

Click or tap on the video to see how the sections expand for more notes. The dark bar on the right side is the scroll bar. ➜

💡Special Note: The extra lines of notes are not printable. You can only see the extra lines of notes on the digital PDF form when it’s displayed on your computer or mobile device.

You can also print out the log and write on it.

If you want to use the Incident Log as a printable form, simply print out as many blank copies as you need and write on the form with a pen or pencil.

The blue fillable pdf fields will not show up on the printed form.

The Incident Log has room at the top for hole punching so you can add your pages to a 3-ring binder.

In a binder, you can organize incident Log pages by month and year.

To save on ink, use the “Black/Grayscale” option on your printer and use the “Draft” or “Normal” settings.

Select “Actual Size” in your printer settings. Pages are set up for US Letter paper (8.5” x 11”).

The Incident Log is a digital download. No physical items will be shipped to you.

A download link to the Incident Log will be sent to your email box after your purchase.

Please contact me if you have having any issues with downloading your order.

Self-Employed House Cleaner Shop has a NO-REFUND policy. All products in the Self-Employed House Cleaner shop are digital downloads and cannot be returned or exchanged.

This includes all electronic products and services with a one-time delivery (such as eBooks, PDF Forms and/or Templates and Courses, etc.) which due to their digital, download format cannot be returned.

ALL SALES ARE FINAL.

I care about the success of every one of my customers. I also care about the value of us respecting each other’s time.

When you purchase any digital products from Self-Employed House Cleaner Shop, do so with a clear understanding of the NO-REFUND policy.

Get a full rundown of Self-Employed House Cleaner’s Terms and Conditions for Shop purchases on this page.

Don’t Panic – Log It

Set up a system to track breakage. An Incident Log is part of a 3-part system for handling damages.

Recover from Oops! damage incidents and regain your customer’s trust.

Turn Your Oops! into Customer Trust

$12

Grab The Log Now

Split purchases over $10.00 into 4 interest-free payments with Klarna. Learn more.

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