Chinese consumers want better household services: survey

BEIJING - Busy lifestyles and an aging population have boosted the household services market in China, but a survey published by the China Youth Daily on Tuesday found that customers are not satisfied.

The survey polled 1,964 people who had purchased household services across the country. Some 52 percent of the respondents said the domestic helpers they hired earned better salaries than they did.

"A friend of mine hired a maternity matron for 12,000 yuan (about 1,900 U.S. dollars) per month," said Zhang Xiao, a teacher in Beijing. "It is already a bargain as far as I know."

The average annual income of Beijing residents was 92,477 yuan in 2016, according to the latest survey by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.

Some 78.9 percent of the respondents said the household services they purchased were not professional. Many complained about the poor skills, work ethic, and hygiene of the domestic helpers.

Many domestic workers haven't had any training, and professional workers are still scarce, said Ma Yanhua, manager of a household services company based in Tianjin.

The lack of a regulator was cited by 57.2 percent of the respondents as a major reason for the problems in the industry, while many said weak supervision of the market and poor management of service providers were to blame.

Additionally, 61.4 percent of respondents called for the establishment of industry standards and rules, such as more specific and strict criteria for the job.

Domestic workers should have more professional training so that they can acquire the skill set needed, said Ma.

Ma's suggestions were echoed by Liu Junhai, a business law professor with Renmin University of China. He said household services companies should offer more training to workers and set up a better appraisal system to improve service to customers.