Interview with Shonta Duncan, Founder/Owner of Eazy Maids

Who is Shonta Duncan?

I am a 38-year-old Grenadian with a passion for enhancing the lives of others.  I have a degree in Special Needs Education, and I have worked with the elderly and marginalised communities, and I am exposed to business administration throughout my career. My passion for enhancing the lives of others through the business of cleaning is why I am here today.

Ms Shonta Duncan, can you tell me what is Eazy Maids?

Eazy Maids is a residential and commercial cleaning business which specialises in deep cleans and move out cleans.

When was it started?

It was started in June 2018.

How does Eazy Maids go about serving the public commercially and domestically?

Eazy Maids offers a range of services, and our services continue to expand, in keeping with our vision to be the largest and most cutting-edge cleaning company on the island, along with being a green clean company. We offer daily, weekly or other interim cleaning services.

For instance, if you want your home to be cleaned once a week or twice a month, we offer basic cleaning.  We also do deep cleans (what you call a Spring clean or Christmas clean), when you clean your house from top to bottom, open all the cupboards, clean the refrigerator and storage areas that no one has gone into for five years. 

We do Move-Out Cleans where a tenant might be moving from an apartment, or someone may have sold a house and a new person is coming in.  The person who has left there has to move out all their belongings.  In terms of apartment rental,  tenants are careful to ensure that they leave the apartment how they met it, otherwise, they might be charged for damages. If the owner has to do it the tenant will be charged for it.

We also offer landscaping services; pressure washing. I use the best window cleaning products (Super Shine) to clean my windows. In the future like I said we will be offering garbage removal services.

Who is Eazy Maids set up to serve?

Eazy Maids is set up to serve the general public: Grenadians and anyone living in Grenada. The majority of the clients are Grenadians and I appreciate that.  We serve corporate customers by cleaning office spaces and office buildings.  We clean villas and apartments.  We are at this time beginning to market our services to the University students. I was not very aggressive in that market due to the small cleaning workforce I had. Basically, anyone who needs cleaning done, we are happy to assist them.

You have a background in Banking and Social Work; how did you become involved in that type of business?

I believe everyone can attest to this – you can do a job and still have a passion for something else. I have always had a passion for organizing. I love putting things together; it does not mean that my place is “Spic and Span” but I like to see things neat.  

From 2007, I had this vision of having a cleaning business.  This was way before cleaning was seen as a viable business. Looking at US television advertising cleaning companies, I knew back then that I wanted a cleaning business and the way I wanted it.  I saw the vision of my cleaners lined up in their uniforms and I knew how professional I wanted it to be.  However, to tell my mother that I wanted to get into cleaning would have been a hard task to sell, so I made the decision not to pursue that path at the time.  I even think I forgot about it at some point.  

Today, being in the business of Real Estate and seeing the conditions that some apartments were left in when I do viewings with clients, my passion for cleaning was re-ignited and I decided to go ahead with my dream.

After one year in business, have you achieved the objective of having people homes clean. Are you able to deliver the type of services you want and do you have the talent to do that? 

I do believe from the customer reviews and my word of mouth referrals, that my clients are happy with the service I provide. I am sure that about 95% of my business comes directly from referrals. For my year in business, I did not print any cards or used advertisement except for Instagram and Facebook, yet it has been quite busy as I have always had referrals from persons that I worked for before and repeat customers. I always keep in touch with my clients to make sure that they are satisfied with the services that I provide, even with repeat clients.

I am a stickler for ensuring that my clients are happy with our services.  I never take it for granted that “Eazy Maids has cleaned it so it is good”; I always do reviews with my clients to ensure that they are happy.

I ask my clients about every three weeks: 

 Are you satisfied with the job? Please let me know what it is I can do to make it better for you.

What drives you as a person to be able to go passionately into this business and to be able to accomplish what you did in the last year?

I love cleaning. God has put this within me and I have a passion for it. Just seeing the smile on peoples faces when their homes are clean – it’s gratifying! It is a business that has profit but the money is a secondary factor. I firstly want to make sure that my when my clients come home they are very pleased with what they get.

It is more than passion; it is also about being educated as well, so I made sure that I went online and did courses in various aspects of cleaning before I started the business. I believe that any profession has a certain standard whether it is banking, garbage collection or cleaning. So, it is a combination of talent and continuous training.  I share cleaning videos and cleaning tips with my team of workers and they share with me as well.

Service is a buzz word these days. How do you get the members of your team to understand that to agree that you all the same vision when it comes to service that is needed?

When a new worker is hired I interview them and I look at their attitude. You can teach a person to work but they must have the right attitude.  I tell them what Eazy Maid is all about. I tell them that an Eazy Maid clean means that things must be shining and sparkling.  If there is extra work to be done, the cleaner can show the initiative to do it and they talk it over with me later privately.  They can also call me on the job to ask my advice on how to deal with a particular situation.

Some cleaners have been working for years other places and when they come to work with me they compare me with Silver Sands jokingly, and ask if I want to be like Silver Sands, and I would say yes!

During this first year of service, I recognize that Grenadians typically are not very comfortable leaving a stranger in their homes to clean, so I try to impress upon my workers how to go about their jobs in homes. Cleaning services involves getting into peoples’ homes and you must greet them with a smile; they do not know you. 

What separates your cleaning company from the competition?

There are some fabulous and amazing cleaners out there who need no extra training, but what separates me is my passion for the job, and:

 The level of detail that is involved in my cleaning

 I follow the training of Hotel and Cruise ship workers, they are very detailed 

 We wipe everything and line them up neatly

 I use expensive products for the best quality experience (like Febreze) although I am looking at getting lower cost but equally attractive alternatives

 We do not just make up a bed, we do it in style

Leaving someone in your home calls for trust; How important is trust to Eazy Maids as a company? 

Very important! I take accountability and I am responsible for anything that happens in the clients home when my cleaners are there. Not Eazy Maids, but Shonta takes responsibility for what happens in clients home and deals with it.

There have been no problems of trust for the first year “maybe it is luck” but I have not had any complaints. I keep in contact with the clients.  Should there be any questions I am here to answer. I do not just send the cleaner, but I am also available during the job hours to the client via whatsapp etc.

Who makes up the greater part of your staff – males or females?

Females.

Do you have any men working for you?

Over time I have only had one man, but he has since gotten a full-time job. I have another one working with me. From time to time, we would need assistance in moving stuff around or climbing ladders etc and men are helpful in those areas.

As an almost 40-year-old woman in business, how challenging is it for you to establish yourself as a businesswoman and to establish your business as a reputable operation?

I must say it is not difficult. The business preparation process on the administrative side was not that difficult.  The work speaks for itself and being professional at all times, e.g follow up with a call and answering questions is crucially important.

Why do I have to be professional to do just cleaning?

It is a service with a smile. Even if it was charitable ….

Service is the watchword?

Yes! Service it is.

You mentioned you want to set up a green company what does that mean essentially?

Green means not harming the environment with what you are doing.  You are cleaning peoples’ homes, so you must be careful of the chemicals you use.  You may always need to use certain chemicals, e.g. muriatic acid to clean a newly tiled floor with grout stains, but as much as possible, I want to be green.

I started with what I have, but I plan to have a steam machine and to use biodegradable products. I hope to have all the cleaning products needed by December 2019 so that I can call myself a green cleaning business. I also support local. I purchased a local product from another local cleaning company but I have not as yet tried it out.  I don’t see other cleaning businesses as competitions – Grenada has a lot of inhabitants, we can all get our share.

Where are you planning on taking this Green company that you are so passionate about?

Eazy Maids will be the place to go for cleaning needs and training.  My initial business model was to provide training and have a small cleaning team of my own.  I am very passionate about teaching and training others. Passing the information on is what I like to do.  In time to come Eazy Maids will have its own building and will offer training to persons within the industry with certification; persons such as residential and commercial cleaners, pressures washers and landscapers. 

I will have a small cadre of cleaners. I envision it to be a nationwide company including Carriacou and petite Martinique. Eazy Maids will be a household name.

What role does Technology play?

Technology plays a major role in my business.  The main reason I did not do business cards is that they eventually get thrown away. I work with INSTAGRAM and Facebook a lot to market our services.  A picture tells a thousand words; you want to show people how you clean.  I also use whatsapp to share training videos with my staff.  

With technology are you ever off the job?

No!  Whatsapp has instituted whatsapp business. I have an automatic message reply when messages are sent to me, so even if I am offline an auto-reply is sent saying Thank you for contacting Eazy Maids. We will get back to you a soon as possible.

Anything I did not ask you that you want to tell me 

From inception, I have had about 10 part-time workers. Presently I have one full-time worker in training. I am looking forward to having a full-time team of workers so that I can take on same day service.  Because I do not have a full-time team I cannot offer same day service except if that client is lucky.

Where can we find Eazy Maids?

Eazy Maids does not have a physical office at this time.  We are available on our Instagram and Facebook page. In time we would have an office most likely in the Grand Anse area.

Are you able to attract the level of business to make you profitable?

At this time I believe that I am limited as I have a full-time job and a small team of cleaners.  

We are entering the hurricane season; no one wants a hurricane. No one wants a hurricane; What is your message to Grenada in-case we have some natural disaster and persons are looking for a cleaner?

I would go along with the advice of NADMA.  Cleaning around your homes after the disaster, of course the community should come together to clean the drains etc. Eazy Maids will be willing to assist schools or communities after a natural disaster in cleaning.  

What is your message to the Grenadian People who have supported you for the last year and going forward?

I am so grateful for your trust and confidence in me, allowing me to come into your homes.

Going forward I would encourage persons to take advantage of our cleaning services at least once. Give yourself a treat!  Embrace the company that is offering this service.