Managing Accounts By Complaints Is Not A Good Idea

A key aspect of any Quality Control Program is to manage valid complaints. One person stated: “We love complaints since it gives us the opportunity to demonstrate to the customer they made the right choice.”

Of course, we explained that repeated complaints were unacceptable. I like to think of quality control as a choreographed play that has everyone hitting their marks and ending on a positive note. If each worker (team or zone cleaning) performs his/her tasks correctly and in a timely manner, the audience (tenants) is happy and we get paid. If a worker misses a trash can or fails to dust or leaves dots on the floor and the supervisor/lead fails to catch and correct it, management’s phone will ring the next day.

When managing by complaint, management has to respond the next day by sending someone to the account, meeting with an unhappy customer, bringing in staff immediately or scheduling them for overtime to correct something that should never have shown up on radar in the first place. Without written documentation and tracking, how do you know if there is a pattern that needs correcting or simply a onetime goof due to a sub filling in that night?

My position is that we need to document the status of the account when work is completed each and every day so that we can demonstrate to the customer that we are on the job. Although we certainly want to have a great working relationship with the customer, I believe that there are better ways of meeting with them than when there is a complaint.

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