Cleaning Service Details Make the Difference
Cleaning Service Details Make the Difference
Episode 63
Complaints, Correction, Coins & Monster-Dust-Bunnies.
Establishing your commercial cleaning company, developing client relationships and training your cleaning team all have 1 common denominator. You. You the company owner are where the buck stops. As an owner myself, I understand how crushing those responsibilities can become. Each of these “relationships” carries its own set of challenges and needs. And attending to the cleaning service details can get lost when you’re focused on “big-picture-items”. As an owner, trainer, coach and cleaning consultant, I’ve experienced failures and successes. Believe it or not, it can be hard to tell the difference between the two when you’re in the middle of it. Read on to refocus and gain some perspective on the impact of cleaning service details.
Cleaning Service Details and Front-Line Cleaners
Janitorial and sanitation jobs are easy to start. No degree or schooling is needed. In-company training is traditionally offered. We can discuss how helpful or accurate that training is another time. The new cleaners are often trained on-site at a job. Something few customers know and something that just might horrify them.
When your new cleaning team member is trying to grasp your display of “best practices”, they’re often focusing on the mechanical process. Where do I start? What gets cleaned next? What are the codes or keys I need to use to finish and move on? How do I make sure the building alarms don’t get set off? And if we’re REALLY HONEST they’re probably thinking, “I can’t believe I’m just a janitor. How did I end up in this $h!tty job”.
When that thought occurs, its most often because cleaning service DETAILS weren’t communicated.
Communicating Cleaning Service Details to Your Team
Training your team on the mechanics and process of cleaning services is important. The vast majority of people prefer to be shown how to do something vs reading about it. Physical demonstration is important in training. And sharing the health and safety importance of cleaning service details is as important as showing the opportunities for career advancement.
The Client’s View of Cleaning Service Details
As the owner, on-site team leader or salesperson, your first job is understanding what’s important to the client. Your team might attend to 99% of the building and office cleaning. But if you miss those cleaning service details the client has expressed, you’re likely to lose the contract. Building a good relationship starts with active listening. If that’s not a natural strength, you might consider working with a good coach.
The Value of Training
Frontline cleaners have high turnover. If you want your cleaning company to grow, a primary focus should be employee retention. That time spent with your company will allow you to screen and further train your team. You might even want to work with a trainer and coach who’s in the trenches of commercial cleaning and janitorial. I work with start-up cleaning company owners as well as those operating mature cleaning companies. You can contact us here and we look forward to hearing from you!
This Week’s Podcast transcript can be found below.
00:08 Ray
Joel, the devil is in the details.
00:10 Joel
The devil is in the details. And when I do a walkthrough and I look at what my competitors aren’t doing, because usually when you’re on a walkthrough, you’re getting a call, customer’s noticing the details aren’t being done. Like what kind of details? Details. As much as like a trash can that may or may not have a liner in it. If it doesn’t have a liner, why doesn’t it? If it has a liner, is it tied off? Is the knot tucked? Is the can turn around so that they can’t see the knot? Okay.
00:39 Ray
Forgive me. I’m going to ask why does “not tied off” matter?
00:42 Joel
If you don’t tie it off? Very first person that throws trash into that trash can, it’s going to look like it doesn’t have a liner, because it’s going to go right to the.
00:49 Ray
Oh, the liner is going to collapse. Okay.
00:52 Joel
And is going to collapse into the can and you’re no longer going to see it. And then everything that somebody throws in afterwards, like that nice juicy cup with all the soda and ice.
01:03 Ray
Or what’s over from my fish sandwich.
01:05 Joel
Or what’s ends up on the inside of the can. And then the cans gotta be wiped. I mean, I look underneath desks where the computer cords are and the electrical cords to see. Are there dust bunnies? Are there rubber bands? Are there paper clips all up underneath and joked about? Tell you earlier that anybody can vacuum the the center of a piece of carpet, the walkway. But you know, you can walk into some places and you see the race stripes down the edges, because there’s two inches of dust along the baseboards where you open up the doors that are constantly open and you kind of like, go to close them, and you peer behind them and you find the cobwebs and the and the dust tumbleweeds. Oh, yeah. Not the bunnies, the tumbleweeds. Because people aren’t getting behind the doors. The customer sees all that. It goes back to a time when I was an area manager for another company. About 30 years ago, I had a client that said, you know, Joel, I really like you, and I really want to see you and your company succeed.
02:03 Joel
And I have hidden a certain amount of money in this building. and I know what denominations they are and the coins, and I know how much is here and put it all on my desk. And if it’s the right amount, and I’m not going to tell you the amount, but if it’s the right amount, I’m going to tell you that you’re going to keep the contract, because now you know what’s important to me.
02:25 Ray
So, was this your first night? No, I mean, on that job?
02:30 Joel
No.
02:30 Ray
So this the customer left you an Easter egg hunt?
02:34 Joel
He left me an Easter egg hunt.
02:35 Ray
Interesting.
02:36 Joel
Now, how many times? And I know you’ve worked in the, you know, custodial world at times. How many times do you find loose change on the floor?
02:43 Ray
Oh, numerous.
02:45 Joel
So, when he says that he’s left a certain amount and it’s a four story building with other people in the building, and it’s a possibility that other people drop money, right? Sure. So what’s the chance that you’re going to probably find the right amount of money to be left in the right denominations of coins on his desk?
03:01 Ray
I get his take, but that’s a crappy thing to do to a cleaner.
03:04 Joel
Well, that’s what I was thinking until I realized when I found the gold. And that was he stacked a series of pennies on top of each other behind a door. So it didn’t matter where I found coins anywhere else in the building. I realized that he was counting how many days it was that nobody cleaned behind his door in his office. And of course, I started on the first floor and worked my way up. And it was in his office. Ooh.
03:29 Ray
Okay.
03:29 Joel
Point taken. It’s the details that make the difference to a client. And he wanted to make sure that we were getting behind the doors, and we weren’t. And when I saw the coins back there and the cobwebs and, you know, the various other things that were back there, and the amount of dust and dirt that, you know, was all around the coins it drilled home to me as a young manager for another company. How important details are to clients where most of us don’t think it’s important. Our clients are paying for a level of service. And when they don’t get it. But there was a relationship between him and myself that he wanted to see me succeed because he knew how hard I worked. And he made it clear. And guess what never happened again? Yeah.
04:10 Ray
Because behind his door always got clean.
04:12 Joel
And not just his. Everyone’s in the building. Got clean behind, but he made that point.
04:18 Ray
Fortunately, you had someone who was willing to see something more in you. Yes.
04:22 Joel
And that goes back to building relationships and open, honest relationships with your clients, because most people that don’t have those relationships with their clients, this is what causes people to lose work because they think, oh, my staff is just going to miraculously take care of it every single night.
04:38 Ray
And, you know, Joel, and for our listener, I’m kind of recalling the number of times that I have been corrected over the course of my career. Complaining is different, and getting complaints from a customer is hard. But the gift of correction doesn’t feel like a gift at the time. But if it actually is correction rather than complaining, it really is a gift.
Joel
Yes.
Ray
Goes back to your training.
Joel
Yes it does.
Ray
You know, I know a coach.
Joel
Really?
Ray
His name’s Joel, let me write that out for you.
Joel
I appreciate that, Ray.
Ray
Joel. Thank you.
Joel
You’re welcome.