Time is a limited commodity in a busy urban lifestyle, although time management gurus may beg to differ.

Counting on the fact that busy urbanites may have no time to clean up their homes, a husband, wife and sister team has brought in a franchise professional home cleaning service called Merry Maids from the United States.

Explaning the basis of their venture, Alan Choong, director of the local franchise called Merry Maids Sdn Bhd, said: Here, most cleaning companies focus on the commercial sector. As a country continues to prosper, there will be more desire for quality and leisure time, in addition to more dual income families.

Choong, 31, and his wife, Tricia, became convinced of the potential of the business after they visited existing set-ups in Chicago and Osaka.

They set up Merry Maids Sdn Bhd, which operated Merry Maids offices, on May 1, 2000 in SS2, Petaling Jaya, and since then, two more franchises have been established in Shah Alam and Johor Baru this year.

To date, these three offices have cleaned more than 1,000 homes.

According to vice president of operations and franchise support Mandy Choong, 27, there has been a yearly sales growth of 40%, and they are now looking for more franchisees.

At present, their office in PJ has 20 cleaning staff called team mates and includes five leaders called captains. They service homes around Petaling Jaya, Puchong, Sri Petaling, Cheras and other areas.

The Choongs, who are from Seremban, stumbled upon the home-cleaning business by chance.

Choong and Tricia, who are accountants by training, had initially thought of starting a food franchise. Both are also involved in the food trading business.

But then Choong came across a book that listed the top 10 franchises in the world. The Service Master, a group of home service companies in which Merry Maids is included, was one of them, This was in 1998.

We then felt we stood a better chance with Merry Maids compared to a food franchise, said Choong.

We also found out that in the last 20 years, the growth rate of the cleaning industry was two to three times greater than other franchises.

Service Master Clean in the United States was engaged to restore the Pentagon after the Sept 11 bombing. Its core services are residential and commercial carpet, drapery, upholstery and window cleaning, and hard surface floor care.

Merry Maids was started in 1979 by Dallen and Glennis Peterson in Nebraska. They eventually sold the company, which then joined the Service Master group, also known as the Quality Service Network, in 1988.

There are currently 1,200 Merry Maids franchises worldwide including those in the United States, Canada, Britain, Japan, Denmark, Hong Kong and South Korea. Its principal office is in Memphis, Tennessee.

As in most small enterprises, the Choongs carried out the initial promotion efforts themselves. They started by distributing flyers house-to-house in Bandar Utama and Taman Tun Dr Ismail.

The response was encouraging. When they went back to the office, phones were already ringing with customers enquiring about their service. Their first customer, they said, has remained loyal to this day, even though she has moved to Johor Baru.

A common issue in many retail and service-based businesses is staffing.

When we started, customer growth was faster than staff growth. But we are glad that our captains also take on some responsibility and guide the team mates, said Mandy, who holds a degree in economics from the University of London.

Inevitably, maintaining a high standard of cleanliness is crucial to the success of the business.

Merry Maids guarantees customer satisfaction by promising to send its team back for a free no-questions-asked re-cleaning service if clients complained within 24 hours.

However, it is a great feeling when we turn a difficult customer into a loyal customer

The company provides all the cleaning equipment and solutions needed for the job. Security-wise, it has a system in place that ensures the customers house is kept safe.

For an average double storey terrace house, an estimated price for weekly cleanings is between RM60 and RM80 per visit, depending on the built-up area and the extent of cleaning required.

When Malaysians use our service, they are buying time, said Choong