Handling Customer Complaints in the Cleaning Industry

Episode 79

In the world of building service contractors, handling customer complaints is an inevitable part of the journey. In this episode we discuss how complaints can range from:

• Low: An issue that needs to be resolved this week.
• Medium: An issue that needs to be resolved within 48 hours.
• High: An urgent issue that needs to be resolved in the next hour or two.
• Nuclear: An issue that threatens the client and account relationship. This need to be addressed immediately.

 

Next Steps Following a Customer Complaint

Assessing the level of concern is critical. This will help you to understand how to effectively address these complaints. For owners, these situations are “make-or-break” regarding the longevity of accounts and your business. Maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty is built on how we respond to client needs.

Low
The podcast episode outlines a hierarchy of complaints, starting with low-level issues such as a missed trash can. These complaints are generally easy to resolve and can often be handled by frontline employees. Training staff to address minor complaints independently is essential, as it empowers them to manage customer expectations and resolve issues promptly. This proactive approach not only improves customer satisfaction but also enhances the overall efficiency of the business operations.

Medium

Medium-level complaints, such as an entire floor not being cleaned, require more management involvement and investigation. These incidents often involve system breakdowns that need to be identified and corrected. Transparency with clients is paramount; business owners need to communicate openly about what went wrong and how they plan to prevent similar issues in the future. Adopting a culture of honesty and accountability is key to maintaining trust with clients.

High

High-level complaints, such as scuff marks on floors that require extensive management time and planning, highlight the importance of clear contracts and thorough maintenance schedules. Business owners must ensure that all agreed-upon services are consistently delivered, and contingency plans are in place for unexpected challenges. Effective communication with clients and clear documentation of all processes can prevent misunderstandings and ensure smooth operations.

Nuclear
Finally, there are “nuclear” complaints. By their nature these complaints can jeopardize business contracts.

These complaints require the immediate attention of the business owner and the entire management team. Remaining calm and composed during these high-pressure situations is crucial. Implementing comprehensive training programs for all employees, from frontline staff to management, ensures that everyone is prepared to handle complaints professionally. As we note in this podcast, learning from industry leaders is a critical path item for most commercial cleaning companies. By investing in staff training, you can significantly enhance a company’s ability to manage customer interactions positively.

We already know that commercial cleaning and janitorial staff will receive complaints. At times, those are simply because something scheduled is not yet completed. At other times, they complaints are received because a service was missed. In either event, complaints should not be viewed solely as “negative”. Now, I’m NOT trying to polish a turd. But I DO want to convey that complaints are an opportunity for growth and improvement. By establishing clear protocols, investing in training, and fostering a culture of transparency and accountability, your commercial cleaning businesses can turn complaints into catalysts for success. This approach not only improves client satisfaction but also strengthens the company’s reputation and longevity in the competitive market.

When you’re interested in putting a system into place that can help you turn complaints into progress, contact me here. I work with cleaning company owners to do exactly that!

 

This Week’s Podcast transcript can be found below.

 

00:08 Ray

Joel, what’s wrong with you?

 

00:09 Joel

Oh, man. Where do you want me to start?

 

00:13 Ray

I got a bone to pick with you.

 

00:15 Joel

And so does most clients.

 

00:16 Ray

We’re talking about receiving complaints. I laughed out loud when you gave me this, receiving complaints, easy, medium, high, and nuclear. So, what do we do with this is as business owners, we have probably all either received a complaining email, a complaining phone call, valid or not.

 

00:35 Joel

Very true. You can clean a facility 365 days a year for 10 years (and) never have that phone ring. And then one day the phone rings and it’s, “You missed my trash can”. Because nobody calls you up to tell you that you did a good job. Nobody’s going to call you and say the knot on that bag and how you tuck that knot from the night before looks fantastic. Thank you so much.

 

00:57 Ray

It was poetry.

 

00:58 Joel

But with complaints, they do. Very different. There’s different kinds of complaints. There’s the easy complaint, a trash can was messed.

 

01:04 Ray

Low risk, low response, easy to correct the next night, right?

 

01:08 Joel

Typically, or if that client, if you have day porters in a building, you can send a day porter to go take care of that and say, “Hey, Ralph on the seventh floor in Suite 101, his trash can was missed last night. Can you go take care of that?” And a frontline employee can often handle these lower-level complaints on their own. And it should be part of your training and onboarding process of bringing somebody on, that they do handle these types of complaints independently. What you don’t want them to do is say, “Well, that night staff, they can’t be counted on”. So, there’s that part of the training you have to work with your front staff, too. But typically a low-level, Hey, I missed a trash can. All right. Medium type of complaint might be that, again, you have a 10-story building, and the seventh floor didn’t get cleaned last night. That’s a little bit more of a concern. Was there an access problem? You’re just going to take a little bit more research. Did someone not show up to work. Did someone get sick and go home without notifying somebody? Was it a complete miss in the sense of somebody being out sick and the manager didn’t make sure that they backfilled it for the night, and they thought they had somebody and they didn’t go check it?

 

02:12 Joel

A medium type thing, it’s a little bit more management involved. You’re going to have to figure out what happened. Where did the systems break down, and then get back to the client and tell them how you fixed it, what happened. Be honest with them. That client wants to be heard. They want to be seen. They’re upset.

 

02:29 Ray

We have in a previous podcast, honesty.

 

02:32 Joel

Honesty is huge! And owning something when you falter. Then there’s maybe a higher level one where the floors have a lot of scuff marks on them. That’s going to involve a lot more management time. It’s going to involve planning. It’s going to involve discussion with a tenant or a contact or the customer at large. Because more people are involved in it. Maybe it’s not written into the contract that the floors are to be maintained to a certain level, or if they are, are all the things leading up? Are all the maintenance, the general maintenance, the daily maintenance being done, but all the intern maintenance, is that being performed? Or was it written out of the contract, and it was an oversight? Or is it in the contract and it just wasn’t done and you, the contractor, were trying to save a buck or two because you were having a tough month? I’ve seen happen with companies I’ve worked for in the past. Even dealing with some other clients that I have where they’re trying to, “Oh, maybe I can push that out an extra month because I just don’t have the funds to pay the labor this month”.

 

03:29 Joel

That. It happens all the time. And nuclear, well, that could be the type of complaint that, okay, you, the owner, now has to be involved. And maybe your entire management team as well.  Where the customer is looking to cancel that contract effective immediately. Tempers are flaring, and you don’t want to fight fire with fire. You have to remain calm. And sometimes that is so difficult because we do live in a very negative industry. Going back to what I first said, nobody calls you to tell you’re doing a good job. You get the call when things aren’t going right. It can be, “Hey, there’s You spend three days in a row where the toilet paper hasn’t been filled. I went to the custodial closet, there’s no toilet paper”. There’s a series of system breakdowns. Who’s responsible for the toilet paper? Who buys it? Who purchases it? Who’s the one who’s supposed to notify people? Are there too many steps to get that toilet paper ordered? What are you going to do to relieve that problem? Are there attorneys involved? Because there’s clients that are going to send attorney letters out.

 

04:25 Ray

Lord.

 

04:26 Joel

And this stuff does happen. You need to know and have a training program in place. Not just for your frontline employees, but every step of supervision that you have. Not just tell people. It has to be a written document, particularly if you go to get different certifications for your company. Everything’s got to be documented so that you know that things are happening, and they’re happening the right way.

 

04:46 Ray

Where do we go with that, Joel? Every cleaning company business owner is going to be faced with this.

 

04:51 Joel

It’s making sure that you start even small. Maybe it’s just you cleaning the facility. You have no employees yet. Start documenting what are the types of complaints and protocols that need to be put in place. Make it a living document that changes as your company evolves. Then when you hire your first employee, you have to cover that on the onboarding process of how to handle complaints. Because sometimes that client is going to go to that frontline employee and they’re just going to throw up their hands and say, That’s beyond me. That’s beyond my pay grade. Well, instead of them throwing up and saying, “It’s not my pay grade”, they say, “That sounds like something you need to speak to my supervisor, my manager, the owner of the company. Would you like their number? Can I get a hold of them for you?” So, it’s even to that level teaching the frontline employee how to handle something that’s even beyond what they’re normally able to do or should do. Because it might be beyond their pay grade, so to say. They can’t say, “Oh, yeah, we’ll strip and wax this tonight”. Sure. Don’t have the manpower, don’t have the supplies there, don’t have the equipment there.

 

05:51 Joel

It has to be mobilized. Maybe the training is, Hey, if it comes to the frontline employee, let me get your name and number. I’ll have somebody get back to you.

 

05:58 Ray

How would you feel role-playing that in the course of training that employee?

 

06:01 Joel

There are companies that do that because it helps people understand what’s going to happen. Anybody who has been in this industry for even more than five minutes knows that customers are going to come out to that front line employee. There’s a great book out there. It’s about Walt Disney World and how much time and money they spend in training the custodial staff that cleans Walt Disney World because they know that people are going to walk up to the custodian before they walk up to somebody else.

 

06:29 Ray

Joel, it’s great information and great prep for dealing with a situation that every owner is going to have to deal with. Thank you.

 

06:35 Joel

You’re welcome.