Commercial cleaning is a very competitive industry. There are nearly 10,000 contractors in the UK and choosing one can be a very arduous task. This is exacerbated by the fact that many cleaning companies under price contracts to win business. For these companies, their only differentiator is being cheap. Experienced buyers will understand that there are simply no bargains to be had in service industries. Perceived bargains always become a false economy.
Cheap contracts come at a price. The cost of under resourced cleaning contracts include:
- Unhappy clients and occupiers
- Unhappy cleaners (being asked to do too much for too little pay, without any job satisfaction
- Breakdown in relations and trust
- Risk of bad publicity for low pay rates in London - London Living Wage Campaign.
- Little or no account management and supervision
- Little or no training
- Little or no compliance with health, safety and environmental issues
- High cleaning staff turnover - no long term established team
- Continuous expensive re-tendering
- Increased cost of maintenance (redecoration, carpet replacement etc.)
- Clients do not get what they have been promised
- Clients are regularly told "that is not included, that will cost extra"
- Hassle, hassle, and more hassle!
Under resourcing a cleaning contract by having too few labour hours, cheap cleaning chemicals, no account management and supervision and no training does not make the contract achievable or sustainable in the long term. There may be a short honeymoon period to get the contract off the ground, but complacency and the contractors' bottom line will soon dictate the poor cleaning standards received by the client.
Value for money is the answer, but how can it be defined? Not Just Cleaning describe it as the balance of the required cleaning standards, with a low risk of service failure at an appropriate cost. Cleaning standards can be agreed by simple task frequency schedules. Low risk of service failure can be achieved by standard processes for training, health & safety, quality control etc. The appropriate cost will include for the right amount of resources. This will include sufficient labour, good quality materials & equipment, supervision, appropriate training (and re-training as required) together with fair rates of pay. This will ensure that the contract is properly resourced from day 1 to completion of the term.
The economies desired at the outset come with added value service from the cleaning company, innovation through understanding and meeting the clients changing needs and the trust built over a long term sustainable relationship.
Kind regards
Reuben Heppelthwaite
Not Just Cleaning Ltd
127 Cheapside
London
EC2V 6BT
Tel: 0207 600 1956
rheppelthwaite@notjustcleaning.com
http://www.notjustcleaning.com/
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