How Well-Paid Maids Streamlined Bookings and Improved Customer Experience

95% fewer emails for scheduling requests.

More time for spotless service.

Well-Paid Maids is the only accredited living-wage home cleaning company in the US, setting a new standard for fair wages and worker benefits in the industry. Founded by Aaron Seyedian in 2017, the company ensures all staff earn at least $26 per hour, receive a comprehensive benefits package, and enjoy 24 paid days off annually. With a growing team of about 50 employees across Washington, D.C., Chicago, and New York, Well-Paid Maids has completed over 30,000 cleanings for more than 8,000 customers.

As the business expanded, managing bookings efficiently became a challenge. Their previous scheduling software led to frequent customer complaints and a high volume of administrative emails about simple requests like rescheduling and cancellations. Seeking a more user-friendly solution, Aaron sought out a system that put more control in customers’ hands while reducing the team’s workload.

We interviewed Aaron to learn how switching to a new booking platform transformed Well-Paid Maid’s operations and improved the customer experience.

What would you like our readers to know about you?

“I founded Well-Paid Maids specifically to bolster the living-wage movement. I was inspired by ‘Fight for $15’ and wanted to contribute. I think of the company as a living case study that shows another way of doing business is possible, even in an industry known for bad labor practices.

In addition to setting an example through our business practices, we are an active advocate for policies that help the working class. Over the years, myself and other Well-Paid Maids employees have testified in support of paid family and medical leave insurance, higher minimum wages, and a domestic workers bill of rights at the state and federal level.”

What drew you to work with Acuity Enterprise? What were you looking to accomplish?

“When I started the business, I ran all of our bookings through a different website software’s plugin. Once we got to a certain size, it was clear to me that that software, as well as the company behind that software, was too unstable to underpin a core functionality of the business.

Over a period of years, I evaluated a variety of commercial off-the shelf software but could not find a good fit. I would find a solution that got me 80% of the way to what I needed but inevitably did not allow for a certain level of customization that I found essential to my business model. I also spoke with private developers to see if I could develop a custom solution, but I was quoted $150k and more to build something from the ground up.

Finally, I came across Acuity. I think I passed on it in a prior software landscape review but new features had been added that made it ideal for my business. I was also very pleased to learn that it had been acquired by Squarespace. In partnering with a vendor for a core business function like our scheduling software, I enjoy knowing that a large company with resources is backing the software.”

What challenges or opportunities did you face that Acuity Enterprise helped you solve?

“I needed booking software that gave our customers more control over their bookings. The ease with which folks can set up user accounts to view and edit their bookings reduced our administrative burden a ton. We cut our email volume for simple requests like rescheduling and cancellations by approximately 95%.

I also needed something that gave me as much control over booking parameters as possible, and Acuity solved that. A critical issue for us was disallowing certain start times, which is different than disallowing certain blocks of time. We need to make sure that cleaners have as many days as possible where they perform two cleanings, and the only way to do that is to prevent bookings from coming in between 9:30 AM and 11:45 AM.

Through its CSS editor, Acuity allowed us to hide those start times and increase our utilization, which allows us to earn more revenue and cleaners to have the full schedules that they want.

Finally, the ability to have multiple instances all housed under the same dashboard has been really helpful as we become a national brand.”

Why did Acuity Enterprise stand out in the sales process? What closed the deal?

“I had originally looked at Acuity Enterprise and thought it was too expensive, but I was pleased to learn that the pricing model is flexible enough to fit my needs and my budget.  I also appreciate that Acuity has broken out different service tiers thoughtfully, which map to my company’s growth trajectory.”

What do you enjoy most about using the Acuity Enterprise product? 

“It’s consistent and reliable. It doesn’t break with updates, have downtime, etc.  Our customer intuitively understands how to use it, and we have incredible flexibility to design things the way we want them. So many software tools in this space have limitations where you have to change your operating model to accommodate the guardrails of the scheduler. With Acuity, we didn’t have to do that.

I also really appreciate that you all integrate seamlessly with Square, Paypal, and Stripe. Having those three major processors on the platform allowed me to negotiate for better pricing recently by switching from one to another.”

What kind of results have you seen after using it?  

“Our staff utilization is up, which increases revenue, and our customers love the new system. We have a customer survey that goes out to everyone who receives a cleaning, and we used to get a lot of complaints about our scheduler. That doesn’t happen anymore. It’s also much easier for us to start new branches than it was before. Our Chicago branch was the first one that we created from the ground up in Acuity, and it’s so much easier than the process we used to go through.”

What advice would you give to other Acuity Enterprise customers?

“Make good use of your onboarding specialist. Ours is super helpful and more than willing to give technical problems a real think with our context and interests in mind.”

What would you tell people who are considering purchasing an Acuity Enterprise plan?

“It’s worth it. It’s best in class, and for such an important component of your business, you can’t afford to not use it.”