Avoiding DIY Customer Disasters

Episode 78

In the world of BSCs (Building Service Contractors) and cleaning services, avoiding a DIY customer is a must in my opinion. The allure of “Do It Yourself” (DIY) projects can sometimes overshadow the value of professional expertise. In my experience, the challenges faced by owners of cleaning and janitorial companies stem from three sources. They are:

• A complete lack of understanding the root of a problem
• A hard-headed or “cheap-minded” client
• YOU, the cleaning company owner who hasn’t fully displayed your expertise

Pushy DIY Customers

When clients insist on taking matters into their own hands, it may signify that they’re not a fit for your company or something is being missed by your cleaning company. This is NOT an accusation of you or your team. Any good commercial cleaning company can miss a detail. Routine follow up with your customers should address that. In fact in may even deepen your standing with a customer to know you’ve ASKED. Lower quality cleaning companies (AKA: Trash-and-Dash) aren’t requesting feedback.

The complexities and science involved in professional cleaning tasks are often underestimated by those outside the industry.

DIY Customers Can Damage YOUR Company

It’s a common scenario faced by commercial cleaning companies: Clients who believe they can achieve professional-level results with rented equipment and a few amateur techniques. These DIY attempts often lead to suboptimal outcomes. And while the space is officially your client’s responsibility, providing the means and materials to make those mistakes can come back to bite you. These issues arise from a lack of understanding of the nuanced processes involved, from soil analysis and traffic pattern considerations to the science of drying and air movement. In most cases, our customers don’t have this knowledge. That’s why they hire you.

To avoid these pitfalls, I encourage my Consulting clients emphasize to establish themselves as experts in their field. This means acquiring the necessary training and certifications to handle specialized tasks like carpet cleaning and floor refinishing. By doing so, cleaning companies can not only deliver superior results but also educate their clients about the intricacies involved in these tasks. It’s about shifting the perception from being seen as mere janitorial contractors to being recognized as knowledgeable professionals who bring real value.

Investing in Yourself

I believe the importance of continuous education in the cleaning industry cannot be overstated. Accessing industry trade magazines and training programs offered by organizations like the ISSA and DOCs is well worth your time and financial investment. These resources provide valuable insights and hands-on training that can enhance a company’s service offerings. Additionally, engaging with experienced trainers and coaches can offer customized guidance tailored to a company’s specific needs, helping them refine their skills and expand their expertise.

We offer a series of clearly written training books here. These come complete with plenty of images and visual examples.

By investing in education and positioning themselves as experts, cleaning professionals can prevent DIY mishaps and ensure that their clients receive the best possible service. This not only benefits the clients but also elevates the reputation and credibility of the cleaning industry as a whole. When you’re ready to learn and make more, contact me here.

 

This Week’s Podcast transcript can be found below.

 

00:08 Ray

Joel?

 

00:09 Joel

Yes, Ray.

 

00:10 Ray

I do like the occasional DIY project.

 

00:12 Joel

I rather pay an expert.

 

00:14 Ray

That’s my point. I can drive a nail, turn a screwdriver, sometimes even do a little plumbing.

 

00:19 Joel

I could bend a nail.

 

00:21 Ray

I know when to stop. Speaking to our listeners. Owners of cleaning companies, janitorial companies, who’s that frustrating person that they’re talking to, should be hiring them for more, and they just keep saying, “Give me the chemicals, show me how to do the thing. It’s your fault this is broken.”

 

00:40 Joel

Oh, there’s a lot of them out there.

 

00:43 Ray

How do they overcome that?

 

00:44 Joel

They have to position themselves as an expert in our industry. Sometimes people see us just as a janitorial contractor. We come in and we’re going to do the daily maintenance, meaning you’re going to dust, you’re going to pull the trash, clean the restrooms, vacuum the carpets, mop the floors. Some companies go and get the extra trainings and certifications where they determine that they want to learn how to clean carpets or strip and refinish floors. But their clients are like, “Oh, I did that back 30 years ago when I was in grade school, me and the boys in the workshop, we did this or whatever.”

 

01:19 Ray

And certainly, nothing’s changed in the last three decades.

 

01:21 Joel

And nothing’s changed in the last three decades. Going from waxes to finishes and things like that. So, yeah, nothing changes. But they’re like, “Oh, Don’t worry about the carpets. We’ve got that. We’re going to go down to the local do it yourself shop, and we’re going to rent a carpet cleaner, and we’re going to do it ourselves.” And then they over-wet the carpets. Which creates some delamination of the carpet, meaning that it’s pulling apart and creates ripples. And then they’re saying that it’s your vacuum cleaner caused it. Because they put too much water in the carpet.

 

01:50 Ray

It’s almost like you’ve heard these stories before. (What?)

 

01:53 Joel

Never, never. Or they want to refinish the floor, and they tell you, “Oh, And just get me the floor finish”. And they go out and maybe they get the stripper, and then they use the same cotton mop to apply the stripper, and then they just rinse it out really good. And then they rinse the floor where now the pH level is too high. And then they rinse the mop out a third time. And now they’re putting all the floor finish down with the same dirty mop. And then they wonder why there’s hair and bubbles and dirt and everything else. And then they put a fan on it, and they ripple it, and they bubble it up, and they say, “This looks horrible. You can fix this by mopping”. And there’s an old saying, you can’t fix a crooked wall by applying paint. Well, you can’t fix a dirty, nasty floor by just mopping it. Everything has got to be done the right way.

 

02:41 Ray

Okay, so let’s take those in reverse order. Dear Clean Company owner, you are crazy enough to give your client or maybe let them purchase these floor finish materials that should go back on.

 

02:53 Joel

You know why they do that? Because they don’t want their competitor to come in and do it. Then their competitor sees the work that they’re doing, and therefore it gets their competitor a foot in the door. That’s why they usually do it.

 

03:06 Ray

But it’s there now and your customer botched the job.

 

03:10 Joel

Oh, yes. Now it’s your fault because the floor looks horrible.

 

03:12 Ray

But you have the expertise, you have the training, and you can walk in and look at this floor and say, “I can’t clean this the way it is.”

 

03:20 Joel

You need to, before you give the cleaning chemicals to a client or let them go get down to the local store to rent a machine, If you really have these skills, don’t practice in your client’s place. You really have the skills, you need to explain that to the client, that it’s just more than going and renting a machine and running a machine over a carpet. That there is so much more. It’s understanding the soil, it’s understanding the traffic patterns, it’s understanding the drying patterns, it’s understanding how much moisture you need to use in order to remove the soils that are in there, and the amount of time that you need to run over the carpet to remove enough of the water that’s left behind so that it will dry. Specific relative humidity, things like that, creating air movement, talking to the client about air handlers being on or heat or air depending on the season because some places don’t have that after-hours. They let the building heat up or cool down depending on the season, and they turn all that stuff off, which creates higher relative humidity, longer drying times. Sure. So that is showing the expertise that you have and what they don’t bring by just going and renting a machine. Because they saw a YouTube video, they think they can do it.

 

04:38 Joel

They read a magazine article, they think they can do it. There is really a lot more to it. Our industry is really about science. If you haven’t educated yourself to that level, then go ahead and give the chemicals to your client. If you want to be the true professional, get yourself educated so that you can get a bigger piece of the pie and help that client look better

 

 

04:58 Ray

Joel, we were joking about, Well, here we are on YouTube, giving away some information.

 

The information we were actually giving away, what you just pointed to there was, if you have this expertise, you have a professional responsibility to either not give that material to your customer because it does take professional expertise to apply that, or you need to go get that expertise. You need to get that training. You need to have it in your head and have it practiced. That’s working with a professional. One of the best places to start are the books that we have online. We’ll put the links in there. Where is the next best place for them to go from there? They want some real hands-on.

 

05:37 Joel

Well, there’s industry trade magazines that they can read and get a lot of quality information from a lot of experts from around the world. But then there’s a lot of cleaning organizations that are out there, too. One of the largest is the ISSA, and look at what they have. There’s training classes that they have, and sometimes they’ll have them in a major city. I know a lot of times they’ll do things in Las Vegas, because who doesn’t I want to go to Las Vegas. So, it’s like a draw so that there’s some downtime away from just the training. They can also do customized programs and go to your location if you have the wherefore all to do that. So, if you become one of the larger contractors in down, you might be able to afford that. And in the interim in between, there might be other coaches like myself that be more than happy to come out and work with you at your location and develop a custom content for yourself. So that you can work with your group being a company that might not be able to afford all the luxury of the bells and whistles of the programs that have all the extra shine and polish. Because they’ve been around and they have that expertise.

 

06:40 Joel

I have a lot of knowledge. I have the expertise, and I can work with you.

 

06:45 Ray

You also have experience in being a master trainer.

 

06:48 Joel

I do, and that’s priceless to me to this day.

 

06:52 Ray

Thank you, Joel.

 

06:53 Joel

You’re welcome.