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Klara, a postal service provider for cleaning billing, has changed its model from a free to a paid service.
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Unions fear the new fees could have a negative impact on cleaners’ wages.
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Klara defends the pricing as necessary to ensure the quality and reliability of the platform.
Cleaning staff don’t have it easy, even in rich Switzerland. In many places the industry is still a large gray area today. Working conditions and social benefits in particular can often be significantly less than ideal.
For people who do not want to hire cleaners through an agency or other providers, the regulatory aspect can be difficult. The service provider Klara launched itself in 2017 as a free service that takes on this aspect. However, the service is now subject to a charge.
Klara’s customers are outraged
This is less well received by customers. Accordingly, the company has been flooded with bad reviews on Trustpilot since the fees were announced, so that the Post subsidiary now has a rating of just 1.6 stars.
“After a year of use, a price increase was suddenly carried out without warning,” said one of the dissatisfied customers. “What an impudence!” says another indignantly. “It makes sense to me that not everything can be free, but please not at the same level of quality,” said a third.
Fee concept questionable
Philipp Zimmermann from the Unia union has mixed feelings about Klara’s development. It is known from the cleaning industry that grievances, such as undeclared work, are still a major issue. “From that point of view, Klara’s offer can actually be seen as positive. Especially for people who don’t yet have any experience in this area.”
On the other hand, the fee raises some questions because it is a percentage of the cleaning staff’s wages. If you pay your cleaner more, you will pay Klara even more. “This could lead to the cleaners being paid less.”
Adaptation is logical and necessary
Klara has developed over the years and the offering has been expanded to include numerous functions, says spokeswoman Olivia Bachofer. “In order to ensure the quality and reliability of the platform in the long term, we have moved away from the free core model.”
Klara introduced a new pricing model for SME customers on January 1, 2023. “An adjustment for private customers was therefore a logical and necessary next step.” In addition, Klara Home is a consumer product that can be terminated at any time if necessary without being bound to long-term license agreements.
“Customers willing to pay”
So far, Klara has hardly had any terminations or complaints. “The number of new registrations after the pricing adjustment remains at a similar level as before, which indicates that users are willing to pay for the benefits of the platform.”
Regarding the fears that the fees would now be passed on to the cleaning staff, Bachofer says, “The fees are designed in such a way that they remain moderate and are in line with the market compared to the services provided.” In comparison to Klara, a comparable service provider receives a commission of five percent.
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