The Cooperative Cleaning Company

The Cooperative Cleaning Company, owned by Sarah & Mike Neil,was founded 1987 making it the oldest independently operated business of its kind in the East Bay. Our success and longevity can be traced back to the simple goal that has been at the heart of the business since its inception: deliver superior service to its clients using environmentally “Certified Green” cleaning products, and provide its employees a respectful, stable environment with compensation and benefits exceeding the industry average. Sarah, a native of France, also taught French at The Crowden School in Berkeley for over 12 years.  Born in Toucy, Sarah holds a MA in Anthropology from the Sorbonne in Paris and has also lived in Israel and Spain.  Besides being an eternal optimist, the ebullient face of the company and  #1 cheerleader of our staff, Sarah speaks eight languages.  In her spare time Sarah practices Karate and writes novels. Mike, born and raised in San Francisco, is a fourth generation Californian whose family on both sides emigrated from Ireland.  Although educated in Economics and Law at San Jose State and Hastings, Mike worked in accounting for 10 years before changing careers and moving to enterprise software consulting where he served in mid and senior management for nearly 30 years before “retiring” to assist Sarah with Cooperative Cleaning. In his spare time Mike is an avid (amateur) photographer and is most at home in the High Sierra. For over 26 years the Cooperative Cleaning Company has been caring for the most discriminating clients in the East Bay who value highly personalized services.  Founded in 1987 Cooperative Cleaning is one of the oldest home cleaning services of its kind in the Bay Area, and certainly the oldest in the East Bay.  We are not a “referral” service.   Our professional home care staff are all w-2 employees.  We are also not a franchise or a national chain.  We are totally accountable only to our employees and our clients.   Furthermore, CCC has for years ranked among the top service home cleaning providers in the entire Bay Area according to a well known consumer rating agency, with the by far the largest number of survey respondents.  And finally, and perhaps more importantly from a prospective client’s point of view, Cooperative Cleaning benefits from a strong and loyal base of clients, some of whom have with us since we opened our doors in 1987. Our goal is not to be the largest housekeeping business in the area, but we will seek out new and better ways of being of service and to stand out as the best in our field.  However, we will approach any expansion of services carefully to insure that it’s done in a way which maintains the highest level of quality for all customers, new and old alike.From our inception we have prided ourselves on our reliability no matter what problems we may have to endure to maintain the standard.  And problems do at times occur.  Sometimes employees become ill.  Sometimes BART goes on strike.  Occasionally there’s a flat tire, or one of our vehicles is stolen (it’s happened!).  But even under the most difficult circumstances, we find a way to fulfill commitments to our clients.  Even in the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 1991 Oakland Hills fire we still made the majority of our appointments on the days and times scheduled.  As one client recently told us in response to one of our frequent quality control surveys “…In over 20 years, you never missed a single day.There is almost no reasonable request we will not consider.  We have a demanding clientele who expect the best, and we go out of our way to deliver it.  Some clients need to change schedules frequently.  Others call us at 1 PM asking us be there before the end of the day.  Still others ask help on weekends to organize their garage or want dishes washed, laundry cleaned and folded, and invoices mailed/emailed or monthly billing.  We also have customers with extreme allergies to scents and the slightest dust, and others who are susceptible to infections, so we have special vacuums with HEPA filters, our staff refrains from wearing perfume, and when requested we protect our customers and their homes by wearing surgical masks and shoe covers like those you see in hospitals to meet these needs. We could go on, but hopefully this gives you a sense of the flexibility we pride ourselves on.   Communication is the key, and if you have any special needs, just let us know by phone or email and we’ll make sure it’s addressed.Our clients don’t just trust us to do the job well.  They trust us with and in their home, even when they are not present.  As one client recently wrote “…I feel very safe and taken care of when [you] are in my home…”.  Of course all our employees are bonded, but more importantly, in over 26 years we have never had a situation where that trust has been called into question, let alone a case where a claim against the bond was necessary.