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How Being Fired Can Build Your Business

You were counting on the receivables & you're fired. Now you must fill that time with more work or let people go. What do you do next?
21 Jan 2025

How Being Fired Can Build Your Business

How Being Fired Can Build Your Business

Episode 62

Receiving notice that your commercial cleaning company is losing an account can feel like “kick in the teeth”. As the owner or the sales professional who worked so hard to get that opportunity you feel the loss. But let me assure you, whether that account is big or small, it won’t be the last time. And if you’re being honest with yourself, you probably saw it coming. So, the next questions are “What happens AFTER I get this kind of news about losing an account?”

 

Being Fired is NOT the End

My fellow owner, if this is you right now, I’ve felt that pain. Being fired is hard and it hits you like no one else in the company. Let me assure you that your biggest challenge is NOT a new account or the mounting invoices. It’s your attitude. This is no mushy message about “vision casting” or “visualizing your future”. We can discuss those topics after you get over being fired. What I’m talking about is building a “mental muscle” that’s resilient enough to take this “hit” and come back even stronger. Think I’m kidding? Check out the 3 Things That Very Nearly Killed My Business.

 

Being Fired has a Financial Response

Whether you love the work or not, you built this business to generate an income for you and your cleaning team. If you’ve invested time in training yourself and your staff, you want a financial return. As the owner of your cleaning company, no one has more invested in it than you! No one works longer or harder at it that than you. And no one feels that impact more than you. So, it’s time to refocus on closing the deal on more accounts.

 

Being Fired has an Emotional Response

When you hear that a client is so unhappy with your commercial cleaning services, being upset is expectable. You were servicing that account. You were counting on the receivables. Now you or your front-line cleaning staff must fill that time or let people go. That just adds to the emotional “stew”. Angry, fearful, embarrassed and just overall frustration are all expectable. The questions for you are:

  • How upset do you want to be?
  • How long do you want to feel like this?
  • What do you do next?

 

Smart Owners Play the Long Game About Being Fired

If this is your first time being fired, I’m sorry to break this to you. It won’t be your last. If you found dirt to clean with this client, you can find more again. Before heading into more challenges, I’ll tell you the best thing to do is finding a coach who’s been there. Contact me for information and advice that will insulate your company and life. We work with the owners of janitorial cleaning companies to build more reliable and resilient business.

 

This Week’s Podcast transcript can be found below.

 

Ray

Joel, we’re back, and we are talking about when losing an account. An odd topic to start with. It doesn’t really sound all that happy.

 

Joel

No, it usually is not.

 

Ray

However, (it happens.) We know it’s going to happen.

 

Joel

Yeah, we usually know in advance that it’s going to happen.

 

Ray

Walk me through this.

 

Joel

When you start a new account, everybody is happy and excited. And it’s like this shiny new vehicle sitting in your driveway.

 

Ray

You’re anxious to get started. Everything’s fresh.

 

Joel

The client’s excited because they’ve brought you on to solve a problem, and then things happen. Sometimes the person who hired you in the company moves on to another job. And sometimes it is within the same company, but they’re in a different division. Or they moved on to another company, and the person that’s taken over has no loyalty.

Ray

So, your advocate is gone.

 

Joel

Your advocate is gone. And usually, when a new person takes on one of those roles, they want to put their thumb on things. And the easiest roles to replace are janitorial services. Or that’s one of the things that’s happened in the 40 plus years I’ve been in this industry. It’s happened numerous times. So that’s one way that things go sideways.

 

Another one is, even though you have everything documented on the notes from your walkthrough and the conversations that you had with the client, and you prepare a proposal, and you have all these service agreement that’s written up that shows what you’re going to do, how often you’re going to do, and all that. It still comes down to when we talked in another podcast about what is clean and how people view what clean is. Sometimes that’s different. And when you are working in a space that’s still being worked in while you’re doing the cleaning services, sometimes people go in and mess up the areas that you’ve worked in. So now it becomes a “he said, – he said”. And it becomes sometimes a very adversarial relationship. “Well, you guys didn’t clean it. Well, yes, we did. Well, you can’t prove it. Well, yes, I can.”

 

Joel

And when you get in that back-and-forth talk, all it does is create animosity between both companies, and nobody wants that to happen. (Sure.) Sometimes it might be that the same problems reoccur, and it might not be a big thing on the surface. But when it’s the same trash can that gets missed. Or the same restroom that gets missed. Or the same cabinets don’t get refilled with supplies. Those end up getting under the skin of a client. And no matter how much you go out and retrain somebody or go and check on it yourself or whatever, things still happen. You get another problem. You got to go check on because you’re going to trust the individual. “Hey, Ray, I I’ll talk to you. Can you take care of this tonight? And text me when you’ve fixed it so that I know that it’s been done”. (Sure.) And then the next day, after you’ve texted me, said, “Oh, I filled it”. And then the client says, “Oh, that cabinets not filled again”. Now it’s, again, back to he said, she said, and I didn’t see with my own eyes.

 

Joel

Those are the types of things that can happen. So then you get your 30-day notice. You usually know when it’s going to come. (Sure.) I mean, it’s just like an employee that is honest with themselves. It was going to be terminated. You know when you’re a service contractor, usually when you’re going to be let go from service. So now it becomes sometimes very adversarial right up till the end, and you don’t want it to be. Because what you’re trying to do is continue to build a bridge and show them that you’re going to still honor everything about the contract. And one thing I learned very early in my career was you need to leave that building cleaner on the last night’s service than you did on the first night’s service when you first took over.

 

Ray

Why do you say that, Joel?

 

Joel

Because you don’t know how your competition is going to come in and handle the same situation. You may actually have that client call you back and say, “We made a grave mistake.”

 

Ray

So what you’re telling me, if I’m hearing you, you can be fired from an account because someone was upset. Whether they were justified or not, you’re fired. To turn services over, they bring in someone new. A couple of nights later, they realize…

 

 

Joel

We were getting a lot more service with the other company.

 

Ray

Yeah. Okay.

 

Joel

And it does happen. It doesn’t happen often.

 

Ray

So, “the end” doesn’t necessarily mean “the end”.

 

Joel

It doesn’t necessarily mean the end. But again, if it was, if that person moves on to another building somewhere else, whose names are they going to remember? Yours and maybe the other company, Now, they’re going to have another bid at another company because, oh, they’re in that role again, and they’re looking to make a change. And they’re going to remember that you went out on top. Even though they ended up letting you go because of other problems. Sometimes they realize that you’re really not the problem. That it’s sometimes it can be access, maybe it’s a training issue, maybe it’s the individual that works there. Because that person has a halo effect with the manager or whatever. You don’t move a person. Because I’ve done that in the past. I moved people from a building, and then all of a sudden, the problems multiply, and then we bring the person back. And then the problems are like, “Well, they’re still problems. But it’s okay because we like Joe”. It’s funny when it happens. You’ll want to go out on top and leave that positive final impression. Because you only have one chance to make a first impression.

 

Joel

You also have a good opportunity to make a lasting impression by going out and doing everything right and staying on top and being that dedicated service contractor that you told them you were going to be on the front end.

 

Ray

It sounds too like we’re talking about closing up an account with integrity.

 

Joel

With integrity, and that’s sometimes very hard to do.

 

Ray

And very hard to do, I think, especially within the cleaning industry.

 

Joel

Yeah, it’s a dirty world.

 

Ray

Yeah. Joel, let me ask. On the owner’s side, it’s easy to have an emotional response. Someone goes, “We’ve been fired. That’s it. I’m done. I’ve already lined up all the staff for you”.

 

Joel

I’ve probably got holes in the wall. It is an emotional response because you’re tied to the money.

 

Ray

But you have multiple things to manage. The owner, our listener, has multiple things to manage, including still getting the job done to the end of the contract.

 

Joel

Because you want to go out with your integrity. It’s so important. And not just you, but everybody that works for you.

 

Ray

If you perform good service right up to the end of the contract, you may still have an opportunity with whoever’s managing your services…

 

Joel

To change their mind?

 

Joel

I’ve seen that happen.

 

Ray

Okay. Have you really?

 

Joel

I saw it happen. And that’s why they put me into an account to run it. The client told them that we’re still going to honor our 30-day notice. But if you can make the change at the end of 30 days, we’d rather stay with the devil we know than the devil we don’t know.

 

Ray

Let me ask you, this is going to be of particular interest to our listeners who are either managers or new owners. When do I tell my frontline cleaners, “We’re done here”?

 

Joel

O-m-g.

 

Ray

For those who can’t see this, Joel’s eyes just rolled behind his eyelids. What do you do with that, Joel?

 

Joel

Early in my career, I was like, “We need to tell the people right away. And I was told, No, you wait until the end to tell them”. And even in my own company, the people that report to me as the managers have also told me, “We need to tell them right away. And I’m like, No, you need to tell them as late as possible”.

 

Ray

Why not right away?

 

Joel

Usually, you don’t want to tell a person right away because they have that same emotional response that you, the owner get when you find out that you just lost something.

 

Ray

But they don’t have your long view as the owner.

 

Joel

They do not. They have the short term, “I’m out of a job”. This client is just too picky. If they’re that picky, I’m not going to deal with them. And they may work that night. They may or may not call in the next night. Or they may just not show up. Or they’re going to be vindictive and half-do things.

 

Ray

So, you could have 30 days of headaches.

 

Joel

30 days of headaches. (Or?) Or you can work your behind off and work with your management staff and try to do everything to still save it. You may save that account. But if you don’t save it, you save face. You are honoring the contract. You are making sure that you do absolutely everything right in the eyes of the client so that they know that you didn’t do anything wrong in the end. And that you left with your head high. Sometimes that’s really hard to do because I’ve been a part of situations that have been very volatile at the end where I’ve seen that happen. Sometimes the client can just be really rough on everybody.

 

Ray

On the other part of owner’s responsibilities as well, you’re looking to maintain your staff. In those 30 days, you’re probably looking for another account to plug them into. While the company was released from a contract, that employee who might have an outburst, might end service, might work successfully to the end, whatever that might be, isn’t being fired. You’re not firing them. You’re looking for another account to plug them into.

 

Joel

Because in the janitorial custodial service world, one is we have high turnover. But the other thing is, is any good salesperson or any good owner has got other opportunities in the hopper that might close. And you just tell that client, “Well, if your vendor decides to leave and just drop off the keys and take off, I’ve got some way to get that service to you right away”. And that’s happened, too.

 

Ray

Speaking to our listener who is a company owner, the manager, the shift leader, somebody who’s looking to have their own, if this sounds like juggling flaming chainsaws, that’s probably because it is.

 

And if you want to figure out how to do that, have someone coach you through it, contact Joel.

Joel, thank you.

 

Joel

You’re welcome.

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