The New Client First Clean Surface Notes SOP
Purpose
The New Client Deep Clean that starts a recurring plan is the one visit where the client walks the house with the crew. This SOP turns that walk into surface notes in the customer record, written before any chemistry comes out, so that the recurring crew who arrives in two weeks knows the vanity is marble, the shower glass is coated, the sofa is S coded and the client will not have bleach in the house. Without it, every recurring crew re-learns the home by trial, and the trial that teaches them about the marble is the one that etches it.
Scope
Covers the walk with the client at the first deep clean, what gets recorded, how it is entered into the customer record, and how it reaches the recurring crew. It also applies when an existing client adds a room or a new surface.
It does not cover: keys, alarm codes and access, which belong to 'Customer Key, Code, and Property Access Management SOP'; which product is cleared for which surface, which is 'The Standard Chemical Kit and Surface Clearance SOP'; and the deep-clean task list itself, in 'Deep Cleaning Service'.
Roles and responsibilities
| Role | Owns | Hands off to |
|---|---|---|
| Office | Booking the walk time, confirming the client will be present, making notes visible on every future job | Hands the lead a job with walk time built in; hands the recurring crew the saved notes |
| Crew lead (first clean) | The walk, the notes, the read-back, entry before chemistry | Hands the office a saved record and any unconfirmed items to call about |
| Recurring crew lead | Reading and acknowledging the notes before visit one; logging changes | Hands the office any new surface or change for the record |
| Client | Answers about surfaces, products and scope; confirms the read-back | Gets a copy of the out-of-scope and do-not-use list on request |
Procedure
Step 1 - Book the walk with the client present. The office books 20 minutes of walk time at the start of the first deep clean, more for a home over about 3,000 square feet, and confirms by message the day before that the client or another adult who knows the home will be there for those minutes. Acceptance: walk time on the job and a confirmed attendee. What wrong looks like: a job booked with keys only and no one home. Stop rule: if nobody can attend, the lead still walks the home alone, marks every observation "unconfirmed," treats all stone and unrecorded finishes as delicate (neutral cleaner only, hidden spot first), and the office calls the client within one business day to confirm. Hazard: none; this is a booking step.
Step 2 - Walk room by room before the kit comes in. The chemical bins stay at the door or in the van until the walk is done. The lead walks every room in scope with the client, top floor down, and asks in each room the same four questions: what are these surfaces, is there anything you have had damaged before, anything we should never use, and anything we should not touch. Acceptance: every room visited, the four questions asked in each. What wrong looks like: the crew starting the kitchen while the lead walks upstairs, so chemistry is out before the notes exist. Stop rule: nobody opens a bottle until the lead says the walk is done. Hazard: an unfamiliar home has stairs, rugs on hard floors and pets; ask about pets at the door and have them secured before the walk, per 'Pets and Children Present During a Clean'.
Step 3 - Record every stone and countertop by type. For each counter, vanity, tub deck, sill and stone floor, record one of: granite, marble, limestone or travertine, engineered quartz, cultured marble, solid surface, laminate, or unknown. Ask the client, and look for the tells (veining that runs through an edge, a gel-coat sheen, a seam). Record sealer status where the client agrees to a water-drop test, run as in 'How to Water-Drop Test a Stone Countertop for Sealer'. Acceptance: every stone surface has a type or the word unknown, plus a location. What wrong looks like: "stone vanity" or "nice counters." Stop rule: unknown stone is recorded as acid-sensitive and gets the neutral cleaner only until someone confirms otherwise. Hazard: the drop test uses plain water only; no product is tested on stone during the walk.
Step 4 - Record delicate finishes and coated glass. Note each: unlacquered brass, oil-rubbed bronze and matte black fixtures, high-gloss lacquer or painted cabinets, wood with a client-applied wax or oil finish, a glass-ceramic cooktop, shower glass with a factory protective coating, tinted window film, fingerprint-resistant stainless, and any finish the client says was damaged before. Write the restriction next to it in plain words: neutral only, no abrasive pad, no ammonia, dry buff only. Acceptance: each delicate finish recorded with its location and restriction. What wrong looks like: "careful with the shower" with no reason. Stop rule: a finish the lead cannot identify is recorded as "unknown finish, neutral only, ask office." Hazard: none.
Step 5 - Record upholstery codes for anything the client may want spotted. Check the tags on sofas, chairs and ottomans the client mentions, and on any piece in a room with pets or children, using 'How to Read an Upholstery Cleaning Code Before Spotting'. Record each piece and its code, or "no tag." Acceptance: every piece the client named has a code or "no tag." What wrong looks like: codes recorded for the living room but not the family room the kids use. Stop rule: a heavy piece whose tag is only on the underside is recorded "tag not checked, do not spot" rather than tipped; tipping a sofa is not part of this walk. Hazard: tip only a light chair, back against a wall, to check under it.
Step 6 - Record the client's do-not-use products and sensitivities. Ask directly: any product you do not want in the house, any scent anyone reacts to, any allergies or breathing conditions, and anything a pet licks or lies on. Compare the answers against the kit card and record any kit product that stays in the van for this home. Acceptance: do-not-use list recorded, cross-checked against the kit, and the client told what the crew will use instead. What wrong looks like: "client prefers natural products" with no list. Stop rule: if the client prohibits the disinfectant but also wants disinfection, stop and get the office on the phone, because that is a scope decision, not a crew one. Hazard: fragrance and quat sensitivities are real airway issues; a client who reports asthma gets the note "ventilate, no aerosol sprays" written as an instruction.
Step 7 - Record what is out of scope. Rooms the client wants left closed, items not to be touched or moved (collections, a home office desk, electronics, a safe, medication), and anything the crew must not do (move furniture over a set weight, climb above a step stool). Read each back. Acceptance: an out-of-scope list the client confirms. What wrong looks like: a closed door with no note, which the next crew opens. Stop rule: anything the client hesitates over is recorded as out of scope until confirmed. Hazard: none.
Step 8 - Read the full notes back and enter them before the first product is used. The lead reads the notes back to the client in one pass, makes corrections, and saves them to the customer record on a phone or tablet before any bottle is opened. The record's save time is the evidence. Acceptance: notes saved with a time earlier than the first product use, and the client's verbal confirmation noted. What wrong looks like: notes typed in the van after the clean, which is how a mistake on the walk becomes a mistake in the record with nobody to catch it. Stop rule: if the app or signal is down, the notes go on a paper card, the lead photographs it, the crew works from the card, and the lead enters it the same day. Hazard: none.
Step 9 - Hand the notes to the recurring crew. The office assigns the recurring crew and marks the notes as surface notes so they show at the top of every job. The recurring crew lead reads them before visit one and acknowledges in the record; any change found on a later visit is added with the date and the lead's initials. Acceptance: acknowledgment recorded before the first recurring visit starts. What wrong looks like: the recurring crew learning about the marble from the client after a complaint. Stop rule: if visit one arrives without an acknowledgment, the crew reads the notes at the door before the kit comes in. Hazard: none.
The record this produces
The surface notes sit at the top of the customer record and travel with every job. A typical entry:
SURFACE NOTES - SAVED 9:42 AM FIRST CLEAN
UPDATED NEXT DAY AFTER OFFICE CALL
LEAD: initials CONFIRMED BY CLIENT: yes
KITCHEN counters granite, sealer not tested
cooktop glass-ceramic: no abrasive pad
cabinets painted high gloss: neutral only
PRIMARY vanity cultured marble: neutral only
BATH shower glass coated: no abrasive, no acid
POWDER vanity marble: acid-sensitive, neutral
FAMILY sofa code S: do not spot
armchair code W/S
DO NOT glass cleaner with ammonia (client)
USE no aerosols, child with asthma
OUT OF home office closed; display cabinet in
SCOPE dining room not to be opened
The office reads it to brief the recurring crew; every crew lead reads it at the door; the owner reads it when a damage claim or complaint comes in, because it shows what the shop knew and when.
Worked pass: a first deep clean with nobody home
| Step | What happened | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walk booked and confirmed. Morning of: client messaged that she had been called in to work and left the key in the lockbox. | Failed: acceptance was a confirmed attendee present. Stop rule taken: lead walked alone, marked all notes unconfirmed, all stone and finishes neutral only; office set a callback for the next morning. |
| 2 | Bins left at the door; lead walked both floors, top down. Dog crated by the client before leaving. | Pass |
| 3 | Kitchen: granite, judged by grain and edge. Primary bath: cultured marble, gel-coat sheen. Powder room vanity: white with gray veining, not sure. | Pass. Powder vanity recorded "unknown stone, acid-sensitive, neutral only." |
| 4 | Shower glass shows a coating sticker in the corner. Cooktop glass-ceramic. Kitchen cabinets painted high gloss. | Pass, restrictions written |
| 5 | Sofa tag under the cushion: S. Armchair: W/S. | Pass |
| 6 | No client to ask. | Recorded "do-not-use unknown, confirm"; kit used per card with neutral on all unknowns |
| 7 | Home office door closed; left closed. | Recorded "unconfirmed: home office closed" |
| 8 | Notes saved at 9:42, first product used at 9:51. | Pass, no client confirmation to note |
| 9 | Next morning, office called the client. She confirmed the powder room vanity is real marble, asked for no ammonia glass cleaner because her son has asthma and reacts to the smell, and added the dining room display cabinet as off limits. Office updated the record; recurring lead acknowledged before visit one. | Pass |
Read against the procedure: the step 1 stop rule is what protected the powder room vanity, since "unknown, neutral only" held the line until the client confirmed it was marble. Without the callback, the recurring crew would have arrived with an ammonia glass cleaner in a home with an asthmatic child and no instruction to leave it in the van. Step 6 cannot be done without the client, which is why the stop rule in step 1 sends the office to the phone rather than letting the unconfirmed notes stand.
References
- See related: 'The Standard Chemical Kit and Surface Clearance SOP'
- See related: 'How to Water-Drop Test a Stone Countertop for Sealer'
- See related: 'How to Read an Upholstery Cleaning Code Before Spotting'
- See related: 'Customer Key, Code, and Property Access Management SOP'
- See related: 'Natural Stone and Delicate Surface Care'