Cleaning Business Tips Video

Losing Commercial Cleaning Accounts – but Not Because of Poor Cleaning

What You’ll Learn

Train cleaners on what they must do each night
Inspect work with checklist inspections
Assign an on-site supervisor to touch base in the building

Short Summary

Most owners think a job ends because of bad cleaning alone. Many times the real problem is no fast reply to problems from the customer. A manager may mention missed tasks, then watch the next few nights for follow-up. When the company stays quiet, the manager feels the business does not care. Train cleaners again on the nightly list for that site. Do inspections with a checklist to check the work again after training. Add short visits with the customer, even when things look fine. Have an on-site supervisor check in at the building often.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is bad cleaning always the main reason an account ends?

Sometimes cleaning is the first complaint. Many times the bigger issue is no fast fix.

What should the company do when a manager reports a cleaning problem?

Respond fast and take the complaint seriously. Train the cleaner again and check the work.

Are checklist checks enough without a supervisor in the building?

No. A checklist helps check the work. A supervisor in the building shows the company is present.

What if the cleaner says the work was done?

Use the checklist to check the area. Train again on the missed tasks.

How can the company keep the cleaning fixed after a problem?

Keep training clear and keep checking the work. Keep supervisor check-ins at the building.

Transcript

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Well, hi there. Welcome back. Dan again from CleanGuru.

So, why is it that, very often, cleaning business owners don’t lose the job because of the cleaning, right? You would think at first it’s the cleaning, and that can be part of it. But very often, the cleaning is just an indication of something that’s broken down regarding how you hire folks, how you train your people, how you supervise, how you lay out what they need to do each night, how you keep in touch, and how you check the work with checklist inspections and customer service visits. There are lots of other things that are a big part of cleaning besides cleaning.

It’s really, at the end of the day, a people business. We have people, and we happen to learn and implement cleaning.

But really, the good news is this: very often, a building manager or an owner may bring to our attention a cleaning problem, but often they don’t. They’re not terminating the contract because of that initially. It’s how you respond to it.

And here’s the funny thing: if you work on the personnel, the training of what’s going on, retrain them, supervise them, and figure out what’s going wrong—do they know what they have? Is their night scheduled out? Are you checking? Are there checklists to make sure those things are happening? Is your on-site supervisor touching base with the person there in the building? Communication. If we’re doing all those things, these are levers that we can pull to fix things.

If we’re doing that, we have a very good chance of correcting the cleaning and restoring the relationship. And that’s how it can be a very good thing.

No one likes poor cleaning, but poor cleaning is just a part of the problem. It only becomes the biggest problem when we don’t do anything about it. It can be surprising how many companies don’t really respond to fixing the problem and keeping it fixed, and therefore they do lose the account that way.

But it’s often not just the technical thing that they missed in a cleaning. It’s something bigger than that, right?

Till next time, remember you can do this. You really can.