Cleaning Productivity Best Practices

A reader writes: “Thanks for the consulting visit; however we still are confused about how to satisfy our customer and make a profit.”

In cases like this, building service contractors have to focus on fulfilling the contract specifications first and worry about profit margins later. Based on this particular site visit, we noted some serious issues that need to be addressed if you are to keep this contract. Following are some best practices to consider that will cost some additional outlays at first but ultimately should make you more productive over the long haul:

1. Convert from Zone Cleaning to at least Blended or Team Cleaning as soon as possible. The current Zone Cleaning is causing your staff to clean at about 2,500 SF/Hour which is unacceptable in a commercial type contract. In observing workers I noted that they did not seem to be very organized and cleaned differently in different sections apparently based on their mood at the time.

2. Develop Job Cards that clearly delineate what tasks are to be performed and in what order with time frames that make sense. These Job Cards should be customized for each day of the week since some areas are only serviced two days and other five.

3. Determine what Detail Work you plan on performing on each day in your Quadrant Cleaning since most staff seem to be waiting until the end of the week or month before they try desperately to catch up. 

4. Commit to cleaning this contract based on the requirements in the SOW (Statement of Work) specifications rather than managing by complaint. It is usually too late to respond or react to a complaint when the customer has to point out the obvious defects.

We will continue this discussion in a future article. Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean…

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678-314-2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net.