Owning a business requires hard work and dedication. All businesses face different challenges. The commercial cleaning company is not an exception to this. This article will talk about the challenges that most commercial cleaners face in their everyday. We also hope to share their best practices on how were they able to go beyond these challenges.
To start with, we will talk about the challenges in the management and marketing side of the business. Later on, we will also touch base with the real cleaning challenges that our professional cleaners deal with every day.
Management and Marketing Challenges
Most of the commercial cleaning in Australia is family-owned. It is being handed down from one generation after the next. Some of the old habits of running a business may not be applicable today. Here are some of the critical points where challenges may arise:
Marketing and Business Development
We all know that the success of a cleaning business strongly depends on a steady flow of regular customers and large accounts.
Challenges will not arise if we have a consistent good number of customers on whom our business could rely. But what happens if you do not have this? You need to expand your business by looking for potential clients.
Cleaning companies are often observed to follow the traditional marketing approach like cold calling or the use of printouts and calling cards. This right here is no longer working. It is not an effective way of advertising your company, and it can be expensive too.
Leads and potential clients are now using the internet to look for the cleaning services that they need. They do their research by looking up the websites of commercial cleaners in the area. From there, they would call and schedule a meeting.
Your commercial cleaning company should invest in social media and an excellent website to filter all these potential leads.
Hiring Process
We all know that almost everyone is qualified to have a cleaning job. You do not need to hold a particular degree or certificate to become a cleaner. You have to have a good hiring manager to deal with staff sourcing.
A good Human Resource Manager will be able to gauge the character or commitment of an applicant just by merely listening to the candidate’s answers to the interview questions.
The commercial cleaning industry faces a high rate of job turnover because of the cleaner coming and going. Some cleaners will display a lack of commitment to the job and will leave without even a month’s notice. This example scenario is one of the factors why your customer may lose confidence in your reliability.
Hiring managers will also need to ensure that proper training is given to the new hires to make them deliver their highest performance on the job. Cleaners will have always have different personalities and dedication.
That is why we need to learn how to choose and pick the most trustworthy and hardworking from all of the applicants that we will encounter along the way.
Competition
We cannot deny that competition is everywhere. Regardless of what field you choose to be in. In the cleaning business, studies show that newly established companies are even more successful than those who are already been in business for more than a decade. Why? Because the younger generation speaks the digital language.
The older generation was trapped in the traditional way of running their game. Apart from ensuring the quality of your service, you also need to step up your game by learning the new innovative way of marketing and managing your cleaners. This will bring in a tremendous sum of revenue if coupled with exquisite cleaning quality.
Wages versus ROI
We know that all commercial cleaning companies in Australia have to follow the Affordable Care Act. It involves raising the wages in some parts of the country. Some commercial cleaning companies were not able to afford it because they only have a minimal profit margin.
It pushed them to pass the increased labour cost to the customer by increasing the value of their service. Most of the companies did not react favourably and then later resulted in the cancellation.
In the cleaning industry, we need to make sure that our margin is reasonable enough to earn a living and sustain a lifestyle. We need to make sure that we do not undersell ourselves to get more clients. We need to balance the needs of our employees and our sanity.
Changing Requirements for Cleaning Materials
We all know everyone’s campaign about a greener and safer earth, right? The cleaning industry cannot escape this. Some companies will prohibit them to use chemicals that they think can be hazardous to both your cleaner and their employees.
They will have a higher demand for you to use eco-friendly tools and solutions. Quality cleaning supplies and chemicals tend to be more expensive than commercial ones. Your cleaning business should partner with the right supplier that can offer you an affordable selection of cleaning materials and supplies.
If you are lucky enough, your supplier can also give you terms with payment. You can also ask your suppliers to provide you with the Material Safety Data Sheet that you can present to your clients to prove that you are using safe chemicals.
Challenges of Quality Commercial Cleaning Services
We all know by now that commercial cleaning is far more complicated than home cleaning. Commercial cleaning involves space and equipment that need special attention.
Dusting
It is often overlooked. Most of the most neglected surfaces are keyboards, computer screens, and horizontal surfaces. Commercial cleaners will not even think about touching a desk if there is a lot of paper and clutter on it.
Dust will tend to accumulate if you will not put your attention to it. We suggest that you speak with your customers and tell them that they should keep their desks free from any clutter on the cleaning schedule so that you can give them a good wipe.
It is tricky to get rid of the dust on keyboards and computer frames. We suggest that you wipe and clean it with a microfiber cloth. This kind of cloth sucks up the dust and dirt with less effort. You can also give the keyboard a very light blow from the vacuum cleaner if you noticed food crumbs and dust accumulating at the bottom of it.
Putting the Things Back to Where It Is Placed
Customers expect us to put everything back in its original spot when we are done cleaning. This is one of the challenges that we face as a cleaner, sometimes, we concentrate too much on cleaning, and we forgot where we took the things from. We suggest that you put it back to where you took it right after you cleaned it and not clean the entire area all at once and then rearrange it.
Spider Webs
You do not want your place to look like it’s Halloween. Instruct your cleaner always to check the corners for cobwebs and get rid of them right away. Often, this gets neglected because it is at the very far corner or in a spot where you cannot see it easily.
The commercial cleaner has the right eye for this, and they are experts in maintaining offices and businesses spotless. As we all know, the cleaning business had survived the most significant economic challenges and continues to thrive on being on the surface.
Feel free to share your very own practices on how were you able to win over these challenges. Let us start a wonderful conversation that will be helpful to people who consider building their own cleaning company. Share this article if you agree with what I am saying.