Quality Control Programs for Cleaning Companies on a Budget

Episode 19.

Ray

Joel, we’re back, and we are talking about quality control. What can you tell me for the cleaning industry?

 

Joel

That there is none. There’s dirt everywhere. There’s dirt everywhere. I say that tongue in cheek, but in all reality, most cleaning companies, when they’re first starting out, because it’s usually cleaned by the owner, and the owner, because we have a certain arrogance of ourselves, We miss nothing. Of course, our staff thinks they miss nothing, too. But the clients are more in tune than we think they really are. And we have to have some way to audit facilities to ensure that we are taking care of them to the level that the clients are expecting. Now, as you grow, you can get very intricate and things like that. But when you’re a startup company and the money is very tight, there are a few things that you can do that are going to help set you on the right path for building department.

 

Ray

Now, it sounds like you’re talking about useful tools, low tech, low cost.

 

Joel

Low tech, low cost. That will at least be something that can be somewhat measurable, particularly with PH strips. But the other things are going to be very visible and visj a wall for the owner themselves. So starting out with PH strips, well, why are those important? Everything is based on PH. Everything has either an alkalinity or an acidic value to it, including every surface that we work on. And Soil removes at what’s called neutral, which is seven. That’s where we can remove the soils. So when you’re looking at a table and there’s something on the table and you don’t know what it is, you’re touching it and it’s sticky and everything, and you don’t want to damage that surface because maybe it is a granite countertop. You need to understand what’s the PH of the countertop, what’s the pH of the soil, and then determine what you’re going to need to do to remove that substance from the surface without damaging the surface itself. And that’s a A whole other topic about alkalinity and acidity. But in the essence of for a quality control check, this is an easy way so that we don’t damage anything.

The next thing I would say is a black light. Black lights, when they turn on, they are looking for things that have organic value to them. So we’ll talk about a men’s restroom.

 

Ray

Oh, boy.

 

Joel

And we’ll talk around the urinal itself. Well, I’ve been in buildings where you can see the urine goes like six feet up over the left shoulder. You got to work for that, man. You got to work for But it’s true. These things happen and people, they’re focused on the urinal. But when you turn on these black lights, you’re going to find this matter that’s now glowing on the partition wall, on the wall behind the urinal. You’re going to see it glow underneath, maybe even inside where we don’t get in to clean the holes where the soils come down and up. So a black light is going to glow any of the organic materials that we need to clean. And because restrooms are the way that we’re graded the highest in our client size, because these are the places that if they are not kept at a cleanly level, no matter how nice the rest of the building looks, this is one of the things that will get a janitorial contractor relieved of their duties is if they don’t keep them clean. So using a black light to find the soils in the restroom rooms and remove the soils, this is one of the best ways.

The other thing is using an extended mirror. It’s like you would see it at a dentist, only it’s on a telecoptic wand and it’s a slightly bigger mirror on it. So you can look underneath toilets and underneath urinals and behind toilets, or if you’re in the cafeteria under the edges of tables and chairs without having to crawl around on your hands and knees. So it gives you the aid of being able to see things so you can find the gum, the fingerprints, the soils that are building up because soap has run over the edge of the sink and now it’s starting to grow. Yes, people grow.

 

Ray

Oh, I didn’t really realize soap could do that, Joel.

 

Joel

Oh, yes. So these are some inexpensive ways to get your quality control program started with the Edun being a very small company. And going forward, we can talk about some of the more expensive ways of doing a more in-depth program down the road.

 

Ray

Excellent. Thanks, Joel.