Coronavirus outbreak spreads, Molly Maid is still cleaning apartments and houses

There are now more than 558 thousand confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the globe. Molly Maid President Mary Kay Liston joins the On The Move to discuss how the business is affected by the coroanvirus outbreak and how it is handling its employees and customers differently.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: You're watching "Yahoo Finance Live." I'm Julie Hyman. Watching the markets here, we're seeing them back off of their lows of the session, but the S&P 500 is still down about 2.8%.

We have been talking day by day about all the many industries that have been affected by the coronavirus crisis. One of them, cleaning services, and I'm joined now by Molly Kay Liston. She's Molly Maid-- Mary Kay Liston, excuse me, Molly Maid President, which is a national cleaning service. Mary, thank you for joining us-- or should I say Mary Kay? Thank you--

MARY KAY LISTON: Mary Kay.

JULIE HYMAN: Mary Kay, thank you for joining us. So, I mean, one would think that this could go one of a couple of ways, right, that people would want to have more cleaning services right now because of concerns about killing germs and things like that but, on the other hand, not want people in their homes as much. How is that playing out for you?

MARY KAY LISTON: You're right. It really is a mixed bag, but we are running and full steam ahead taking care of our customers' homes. Molly Maid is part of Neighborly, which is the world leader in home-service organizations. So across the board we're providing essential services to homeowners in our markets, and certainly the health and safety of our customers is utmost importance to us but also the health and safety of our maids, our home-service professionals.

So we are taking all the CDC precautions with the maids who are working with our independently owned franchise owners throughout the United States and, like I said, following all the CDC guidelines with the hand washing, the hand sanitizer, all those sorts of things. And then when do we actually get into the home where we practice social distancing, of course-- when we actually get into the home, we use EPA-certified cleaners and sanitizers to clean the place, and then we'll apply disinfectant as well.

DAN HOWLEY: I actually just want to ask how many people are signing up for services like this? Are you seeing a large surge because they're nervous about the effects of the virus or potentially that they may have brought it into their homes? What kind of uptake are you seeing?

MARY KAY LISTON: Yeah, again, it's a mixed bag, but we are seeing people reaching out to us to come in, mostly for one-time cleans. They're scared. They want to make sure that their house is clean.

We typically provide service every other week, and most of those customers are sticking with us. In fact, because everybody's at home now, there are more people there. We are still going in and cleaning homes.

One thing we do suggest is that they put the family into a room that we're not going to be cleaning so that we can get our work done quickly and efficiently. But with more people at home and working from home and the kids home from school, yes, we are still providing a valuable essential service.

MELODY HAHM: Hey, Mary Kay. Has anyone on your staff actually tested positive or shown symptoms? And if so or if not, what is the contingency plan if there is somebody who does show symptoms?

MARY KAY LISTON: Well, our plan for our staff, for the corporate staff and with the franchise owners and their staffs, is to contact the health department and follow their guidance.

JULIE HYMAN: And, Mary Kay, sort of on a related note, we have heard stories in different industries about employees being concerned about their own safety, right? Have you heard from your franchisees that more of their contractors are not wanting to go out for work right now?

MARY KAY LISTON: Certainly there are some areas, particularly hard-hit communities, where employees of our franchise owners are preferring to stay home and not go out to work, but there are just as many who are eager to work and continue working to support their families. Should somebody not feel comfortable, absolutely, they're being excused from work. And the same way if anybody presents that they are unwell, then we're absolutely not sending them out into people's homes.

ADAM SHAPIRO: So I have a question for you. It regards supplies. I mean, in this kind of world where it's hard to get the cleaners, how does this work? Does the homeowner supply them? Do the people who are going there supply them?

MARY KAY LISTON: That's a great question. No, we use professional cleaning products. And, in fact, we have a division of Neighborly that is a source-- supplier source for us. So our franchise owners are getting the supplies-- the chemicals and the cleaning supplies that they need.

I do have a fun story about one office manager who was at Walmart filling up her basket with hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies, and she was getting sort of nasty looks from people in the store like she's hoarding it or something. But she started passing out business cards saying I'm doing this to keep my customers and my employees safe, and if you call and say you saw me at Walmart, I'll give you a discount. We generated some business that way too, which I thought was really clever.

JULIE HYMAN: Getting creative at this time as we all must. Thank you so much. Mary Kate Liston is president of Molly Maid. Appreciate your time.

MARY KAY LISTON: Thank you for inviting me.