Every customer has different expectations for their cleaning contractors and staff during the holiday period. Some facilities, such as schools, usually face a reduction in traffic; others, including shopping centers, see an increase.

Building service contractors must talk to their customers in advance, and be prepared.

Cheryl Johnson, CFM, knows this well. She’s the assistant director of property services for Arizona State University’s (ASU) Downtown Center in Phoenix. The building, owned by ASU, is actually a mixed-use facility, divided between rental units and office space.

During the winter semester break, the school almost completely shuts down, but for tenants, it’s business as usual. So, Johnson’s BSC must balance the needs of both sets of building occupants. They clean tenant space as usual, but take advantage of the empty classrooms to perform project and detail work.

However, next year, there may be a scheduling snag — there won’t be the holiday downtime the cleaning staff has become accustomed to over the last several years.

“We won’t be closing next year,” Johnson says. “There’s been such a demand for winter-session classes, we’ll have to stay open.”

Johnson isn’t sure whether there will be a change in service quality next year, when the BSC won’t have a large block of downtime for project work. Still, she believes her contractor is professional enough to find the time to do the extra tasks, whether it’s on Sundays or little bits each day.

Pack in the projects
Even if your customer has a tremendous amount of downtime during the winter months, that’s a less-than-ideal time for BSCs to hibernate

For example, the holidays also are slow for the 2,100-room Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas due to a drop in convention bookings. But Floyd McMurry, director of environmental services, doesn’t let his staff slack off.

“During this time we expect a much higher quality standard and quantity of work from our staff,” he explains. Even though the casino’s cleaning is done in-house, contractors should pay attention to the regimen his staff performs during this otherwise slow time.

“We are able to get into the casino and shampoo the entire area with minimal interruptions, as well as clean the canopies and neon signage surrounding these canopies,” McMurry says. “The restrooms are sanitized, disinfected and cleaned from the ceiling to the floors. Ceiling chandeliers, vents [and] walls are cleaned. Slots’ banks bases and foot plates are detailed cleaned and polished.”

Keep your employees in check
Unfortunately, holiday festivities can mean a nightmare for attendance. Vacation requests increase, as do snow-related transportation problems. Even overindulgence in holiday food and (especially) drink can increase absenteeism.

But, while customers might be sympathetic about an ice storm, they probably won’t appreciate any attendance-related service disruptions — they want the work done, period.

McMurry has an attendance system for his cleaning workers that BSCs can emulate. He receives a detailed occupancy report and convention projection, so he can determine exactly how much routine clean-up he will need. After adding in the project work, he’s able to determine exactly how many people can be absent on each shift. He steadfastly sticks to this limit.

By engaging in a little advanced planning, and sticking to a schedule, contractors will be able to give their customers a much-wanted holiday gift — great service.




POSTED ON: 11/1/2003