We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lucie Wismer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lucie below.

Lucie , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Happy employees do great work and make clients happy. I worked so many service jobs before I started my business, and very few companies ever made me feel special. I would go above and beyond and do extra things with the hope that someday I would be recognized by my bosses, but it rarely happened. When I started my business, I wanted my employees to feel appreciated and loved. We celebrate every birthday, every work anniversary, and have multiple dinners a year so people can meet each other’s kids and families.

When a team receives a great comment from a customer, we print it out and put it on the wall so everyone knows that team did a great job. Our company is a family. The girls support each other inside and outside work. I have been to countless birthday parties, Quinceaños, and even funerals. It is a privilege to work here and not everybody will stay around, because we don’t accept people who want to bring negativity into our family.

I have always believed that if I treat my employees better than any other cleaning company treats theirs, then my employees will stick with me for a very long time and keep our customers very happy. My employees are immigrants, and many of them have been mistreated by previous employers, but once they get to Lucie’s, they stay forever because they are treated well.

When Covid hit, I refused to shut down. My employees still had to buy food and pay rent, so there was no way we were just going to sit at home. We bought masks and gloves (which were very hard to come by) and kept on working. Then, something amazing happened, many of our houses said, “Don’t come clean our home, but we will still pay you so you can pay your employees.” Our actual workload was reduced to less than half, but everyone got paid their full salary. Some people couldn’t come to work at all due to kids with compromised immune systems, and they still got paid. I am extremely proud to say that we didn’t lay off one single employee during the pandemic.

For these reasons, over one third of my employees have been with me for over 5 years. In 2023, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Lucie’s Home Services. We threw a huge party at the Hilton. Some of the girls had never worn a dress before in their lives, but they went out shopping and bought fancy dresses and we had the time of our lives!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

In 2003, my family and I moved to North Carolina from Venezuela. My son Devon was a year old. We were attending a Spanish church at the time, and some of the girls there didn’t have work. I was attending a Bible study at my mom’s church and so I asked if anyone wanted their house cleaned. One lady said yes, and so I took some girls and we went to clean her house. Another lady was dropping some of her cleaning clients due to an arm injury, so she passed them to us. After a few more referrals, we had 2 days a week of work. My daughter Daniela was born in 2005 and I didn’t take the business full-time until she was in school full-time. Once she was in school, we expanded to 5 days a week. Then I taught an employee to drive a stick shift car and she started a 2nd team. In 2014, I joined a business networking group called BNI and grew quickly from 3 teams to 8 teams. We had to get our own office and we kept growing from there. We currently run 13-14 teams a day and clean over 700 houses a week in 4 counties.
We do strictly residential cleaning. We don’t do any commercial work, because that requires working nights and weekends. Almost all of my employees are mothers, so we only work regular business hours. We also work with a lot of property management companies to do their turnovers in between tenants. We do some post-construction cleaning for remodeling companies and a retirement community. We also work with Realtors to prepare properties for going on the market.
The majority of our customers are hard-working families who don’t have time to keep their homes clean. We take that stress off their hands and make their lives better. I see hiring a house cleaning company as self-care, not as a luxury. It’s a way to reduce your stress, improve your quality of life, and have more time with your loved ones. People constantly tell us about how the best day of the week is the day they come home to a clean home. We take great pride in providing an excellent quality of clean so our customers don’t have to stress about their homes.
In business terms, house cleaning is an excellent business. For example, if a company paints your house, you might not need them again for years, if ever. Thanks to kids and pets and life in general, people need their house cleaned over and over and over. The majority of our clients have us clean every 2 weeks.
As for me, I’m first of all a mom. My kids, who are now 19 and 22, have both worked in my company at different times, and I am very proud of them. I am also a world traveler. Wanderlust is hereditary, I got it from my parents and grandparents. My travel focuses mostly on South America and Europe and I am always planning my next trip. I also run a foundation in Venezuela called Victorious Generation Venezuela. 44 kids are a part of the foundation and we pay for their school fees, supplies and uniforms. One thing I love about my employees is that every year for my birthday, they take up a collection for the foundation. Each year, it’s enough to pay for the enrollment fees for all the kids! A portion of all proceeds from Lucie’s Home Services goes directly to the foundation each month.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Our attention to detail and quality of work are what we are known for. We are not cheap, but you get what you pay for. Over and over people tell us that they have used other companies, but that our quality is far above everyone else’s. Sometimes people find areas that were cleaned, and they are shocked that we would even think to clean there! I also tell people that hiring a company is much better than hiring someone who works on their own. If that one person is sick or goes on vacation, you might not get your place cleaned for a while. If that person spills bleach on your carpet, or damages something in your house, they can simply disappear. We have been in the community for over 20 years. We’re not going anywhere. We are fully insured and protect our reputation at all costs, so if something is wrong, we will make it right.

Any advice for managing a team?

As I mentioned previously, we celebrate our employees. We do our best to allow them to have days off for their kids’ appointments or teacher meetings, etc. After they’ve been with the company for one year, they get vacation days, paid holidays and a raise. Twice since 2021, we have given everyone in the company a surprise raise, just because. It was a great joy for me this year in January to tell each person that walked in the door that morning that they just got a $2 an hour raise. Their reactions were priceless. There were hugs and tears and lots of laughter. This is something that makes me happy. I appreciate each one of these ladies and I want them to provide great lives for their families. For most companies, it’s just about the profit. With us, it’s so much more than that.

Contact Info:

• Website: lucieshomeservices.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LuciesHomeServices
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lucies-home-services-durham-2
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/VictoriousGenerationVenezuela/