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Commercial Janitorial Cleaning Contracts – Getting Inside the Facility Manager’s Head Thomas Anthony — contributing author |
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This article is about the Commercial Cleaning Industry, but the overall concept can relate to any service related business-to-business effort. As contractors we have a perspective or view of our industry. Our view includes the incredibly challenging projects we have addressed in the past and the previous Facility Managers with their sparkling personalities and quirky requests. The Facility Managers also have a view. Their view (the Facility Managers) includes the contractors who tried to squeeze every penny out of their company without providing an acceptable level of service. They also remember the “no-call/no-shows” and the re-dos with all the calls and complaints from their company’s mid-level managers as well as their boss’ opinion of hiring a problematic contractor. The Commercial Cleaning Industry seems to maintain an industry standard of adversarial relationships between contractors and clients. The contractor believes the client will want as much work as possible from him/her for very little money and the client believes the contractor wants a lot of money without doing any of the work. Unfortunately the relationship seems to eventually play out just the way one or both parties expect. I imagine it could be considered a self-fulfilling prophecy. Knowing this, why would we continue to do it over and over? At the end of the day, all the Facility Manager really wants is a clean building consistently, within budget, and for his phone not to ring with complaints. All the contractor wants is a pleasant work atmosphere, realistic expectations and fair, on-time compensation. The word “partnering” has been used up and worn out over the last ten years or so. It sounds so much like a cliché but …………. IT’S NOT! To acquire and sustain and profitable, uneventful account you will need to “partner” with your client. “Mr. Facility Manger, I’m sure we’re not the first cleaning company you have spoken with and you will certainly not by my first client. We have both read this book before. At the end of the day you want a consistently clean facility maintained in an uneventful manner and we want a profitable account offering the promise of longevity. Now let’s talk about how to get there and accomplish a mutually beneficial relationship.” “Our work directly reflects on you.” When the restrooms are dramatically clean, your people don’t say “this cleaning company is great”. They say “Joe found us a great vendor!” and when they’re dirty…. well you get the idea and we understand that. Our results are your results and we also understand that. “Ya know Mr. Facility Manager, a service industry business like commercial cleaning is all about communication. It has been my experience addressing a concern strictly at our respective levels seems to lose something in the translation. Obviously there is a correct time for it, but not with every missed trash can. Your mid-level manager calls you with a complaint and then you relate it to me. Then I take your complaint to my person on site and relate what your guy said to you to him. We will now get the result of my guy’s interpretation of what I said, about my interpretation about what you said, about your interpretation about what your guy meant. It’s like when our kids play telephone. It’s much more results oriented if my guy just talks to your guy.” This is where you should talk about communication logs and points of contact. This is also where I would address periodic inspections internal to my company and periodic, documented inspections with the client’s representative. We have learned having a level of service rating documented monthly from each department head proactively addresses problems, extends the length of a contract and dramatically tones down the severity of a complaint. A communication log permanently hanging on the inside of a janitor’s closet is an incredibly valuable management tool, as is a dated file of he said/ she said back in your office. Communication between you and your on site people will have you aware of a problem before it reaches the Facility Managers desk. The first rule of damage control is to put the incident out there first. Put it out on your terms and in your time frame. “Mr. Facility Manager…. I’m just calling to let you know we had a small issue last night. This is what happened and this is how we’re addressing it. We have it under control. I’ll keep you advised as necessary.” The Facility Manager now truly believes you have his back and you are both on the same team. Asking a Facility Manager his hot buttons will return you vague, overwhelming or maybe useless answers. Asking him about his mid-level managers hot buttons will offer both you and he focus. Asking the individual managers directly will offer you even additional insight. It’s important to know that Mr. ABC in accounting needs his waste can serviced four times a shift and that the entire facility doesn’t. It’s important to know Dorothy over in HR needs three extra packs of hand towels in that restroom and the whole facility doesn’t have restroom supply issues. If we addressed what the Facility Manager hears we would spend our whole day emptying trash cans and stocking towels. As a Commercial Cleaning Professional I now know that there may be a possibility Mr. ABC’s trash can isn’t always available for servicing. Maybe additional cans or a larger can could be an answer. Or maybe leaving a full can outside a locked door for service would solve the problem. Now at least I know where to look to address a hot button and dial back the complaints going to the Facility Manager. Requiring three or fours packs of hand towels in a particular restroom suggests the level of service in that restroom may need to be addressed. The guests are probably wiping down the fixtures prior to their use. And on and on…. Ask the questions and listen to the answers. When I hear Mr. XYZ calls every morning complaining about the level of service in the facility, I ask where he parks and what entrance he uses. I learn he parks next to the dumpster pad and uses the south entry. If we clean up the dumpster pad and pay additional attention to the “approach” to the south entry, he will probably stop seeing a problem with the level of service in the building as soon as he pulls into the parking lot. Partnering really isn’t a dirty word. If we get the Facility Manager’s back, he’ll have ours also. Make him/her look good…. very good, even when they’re wrong. I have fallen on my sword more than once for a Facility Manager. My contracts seem to be renewed consistently, so I guess it was worth it. Once you realize both you and the Facility Manager are on the same team, with the same goals, life gets so much better.
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