Vistas Cleaning Services… We are the Clean Choice

Emma May, the co-owner and office manager for Vistas cleaning services, shared an adorable family story about how her company got its name.
“When I was little, our family would travel to visit extended family in New Hampshire. In the fall, we would experience the foliage. On the drive, my dad often expressed the breathtaking iconic views as a ‘Scenic Vista.’ I used to think he was saying, ‘Sandy Pista,’ and so I would ask him, “who is Sandy Pista?” As I thought we were driving to see his friend Sandy, so the word, and ‘Vista’ is a fond memory of my childhood. As we were thinking of names, I felt ‘Vista’ resonated with that refreshing beautiful view of your clean home, when you return home after it’s had a good cleaning. It’s like an outstanding view of Vista.

Vistas delivers impeccable services to meet the needs of both residential and commercial clients. For residential cleaning, their services are pretty standard,  weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. These clients are the core of their services, and they can deliver whatever the client needs. For most of 2020 and now, especially with COVID, more people are home. Some residential clients just have the problem of a lot of extra clutter they cannot seem to get ahead of and need help with organizing it. If they have children, there will be toys everywhere, and things were just thrown all over the place, so they become the helping hand to buzz through and tide up.

Vistas also deliver services for move-ins and move-outs for realtors, property managers, homeowners, and landlords. They also deliver post-construction cleaning for residential contractors to clean up after the job, often to remove the fine plaster dust and small construction debris.  Commercially, they do a lot of janitorial building maintenance – cleaning of small offices, light cleaning, and mostly trash removal from the building’s common areas, airways, corridors, etc. Right now, many do not have their own staff that typically does the cleaning like empty the trash, clean kitchenettes, or vacuum. Vistas services allow them to stay focused on actually running their business.

Their clients run the gamut, some clean before they arrive, some let things piled up for 2 weeks, waiting for them, which is fine too. Their staff travel about 15 miles from downtown Boston in any direction, yet may travel more than 15 miles or further for bigger jobs, however, not often.

Most of Vistas clients are from the Boston area and the suburbs, such as Medford Winchester, Melrose, and other surrounding towns. Their most desired, ideal client would be a residential and young professional who has just purchased their first home and is looking to have a cleaning service.
“Once we establish that relationship, we hopefully will continue together with them for a long while. We have been fortunate to have had clients for five to ten years. So, it’s good to start with them and grow with them as they grow their families. We become a part of the ‘family’ in many cases.”

Currently, meeting new clients is not easy, as most companies are experiencing. Somehow, networking on zoom meetings trying to meet people is not as effective as in person. However, BC enjoyed their activities at many in-person, networking meetings through BNI, where we are in two different chapters, in Boston. We also pride ourselves on the fact that we get a lot of referrals from happy customers. However, because of marketing, Vistas is positioned on the web to have new customers, find them in search, then reach out to request a quote.

“Our staff is very experienced and well-loved by our clients, fortunately, many of which have been with us a long time. We try to give our employees the same clients so they can build meaningful relationships with them, as this is very important to us, as a company.”

Emma stated that all of Vistas employees will all be getting the vaccine. So, clients can feel safe. Most of their personnel are bi-lingual and speak Portuguese, which works well. Vistas Cleaning is a full-service company with an office manager, which is Emma May, and that is important when you have a request for emergency services. Office managers are not typical for your average cleaning company. This allows them to be available for emergency jobs, so the client does not have to wait, which most cleaning services can’t easily do because they are all working in the field.

For example, they were immediately available when one of their bigger projects appeared, a 15,000 sq ft, food service-related commercial facility that required sanitation for a potential COVID outbreak. The client called in the morning, and Emma suited up and when onsite later that same day. When they completed the job, they had to present proper paperwork for the client to present to the board of health to be able to reopen. All of the products they use to clean with are EPA and CDC approved.

“It is in our genetic structure to go above and beyond the call of duty for our clientele, as we love what we do. We are trained and certified on COVID sanitation best practices through the WHO for both commercial and residential cleaning services.”
This training taught them about the various chemicals needed to clean, certain processes to abide by, and how to provide paperwork requested by certain clients. This certification helps to set them apart from most cleaning companies right now. Especially in these times where business can be shut down by the Board of Health, unable to open up until they are certified sanitized, Vistas Cleaning is certified, equipped, and ready to offer services. Often in situations like this, it is critical for same-day service. So, they always try to keep their schedules flexible. Having someone in Emma’s position allows them to take on emergency projects which have net us a lot of loyal clients and extra business.

“People appreciate that we can provide immediate services for them.” Vistas Cleaning is a women’s business enterprise, which helps them get some of the bigger jobs for city projects that need a certain number of minorities, and as a women-owned business, they are on the subcontractor list.

Emma’s partner is a certified organizational specialist. She is very skilled when it comes to servicing clients that need their house decluttered because it’s overflowing with stuff.  They don’t need a cleaning service such as vacuuming or dusting. They want us to help them organize mostly closets, bathrooms, and kitchens. We offer as many services as we can.

“Formerly an Architect by trade, many find my transition to this business a bit unusual, however, sitting in a cubicle all day was getting to me. I love interacting with my clients and delivering great services for them. My partner and I have been married for 4 years, we don’t have any children or pets, yet maybe a dog or cat in the future, we’ll see. I was also planning on coaching a Milton high school varsity softball team, however, not sure where that will go this spring.”

COVID hit the business hard.  Initially, they lost a lot of clients overnight. However, now they are larger than before COVID, as they added more services like janitorial sanitation, as people need to become way more cautious and that requires more cleaning. Then, with people at home, more clutter happens, and they need extra assistance. All in all, they were very fortunate to be one of those businesses that experience growth because of the pandemic. They believe those that they lost will return when things get back to normal.

“We really go out of our way to fulfill our client’s needs. For us, it really is more than the money, and we really love the joy we receive when delivering top-quality services that make our clients happy and satisfied. We place a higher value on the relationships we have developed over the years. It is pretty awesome when you know the children from newborn babies to young adults, as we grow up with them, it’s really special. Sometimes they call us ‘auntie’ when we come to clean. Some of our clients have invited us to their weddings, and it’s just things like that where it’s more than a cleaning job.”

They are obviously helping their clients solve an issue regarding something they need assistance with, however, at the end of the day, it’s about joyfully serving people and knowing so many different people in the community, that we love.

Emma suggests calling Vistas Cleaning services if you have a project in mind, no matter what it is, even if you think it’s too big, too small, or too far. She is always happy to give a quote or at least see if it’s a match before she refuses.

“We are all about service to others, delivering excellence, and developing strong, long-lasting
relationships with each of our clients and future clients that we truly appreciate the opportunity to serve.”