If your employees grumble occasionally about the work they do, consider yourself normal. If your customers grumble about the service you provide, consider yourself warned. Customer complaints are an important barometer when it comes to measuring your ability to provide a valued service.

In my experience, a significant number of customer complaints come from building occupants and managers who don’t understand what’s in the contract. They don’t know what the cleaning worker is supposed to be doing, so they complain based on speculation.

Don’t assume all the building occupants know the scope of your cleaning contract. Tenants usually think the contract includes more services and higher frequencies of cleaning than actually specified.

A tenant who feels the cleaning isn’t very good may be reacting to the fact her trash wasn’t emptied last night. “You missed us last night,” frequently can be translated into “I don’t know what’s in the specs.”

You can prevent complaints by stopping problems before they get started. You do that with strategic planning and a little creativity. The goal: educate and communicate.

Spell it out
A complaint reduction program starts with knowing the four most common customer complaints. Listed in frequency:

  • Restrooms are smelly or dirty
  • Restrooms are out of paper, soap and other refill products
  • Dusting isn’t being done
  • The trash was missed

Since restrooms generate the lion’s share of complaints, plan to educate your client on exactly what you do to keep restrooms clean. Explain any programs you use to improve occupant health, along with any specialized tools or processes in the restroom.

Also, communicate with clients and tenants the cleaning frequencies in your contract. For example, when you take over a new account, put out an information pack introducing your company and explaining your cleaning program. Tell customers you’ll be collecting trash every other night and cleaning restrooms daily, if that’s the specifications of your contract. That helps all the building occupants know what to expect.

One company we know took it a step further. When employees in a certain area complained their trash hadn’t been collected for weeks, an investigation revealed cleaning workers didn’t have a security clearance for this particular area. The building occupants had no idea and thought they were the victims of lousy service.

The cleaning manager resolved the problem by creating a very clever card for employees to leave behind whenever they were unable to gain access to any area. The card introduced the cleaning worker by name. There was a check-off box for the workers to identify the tasks they were unable to complete and another box to check off when they would return to try to work again.

Essentially, the card read something like this: “Hello, I’m John. I’m sorry I was unable to pick up your trash today. I will return Wednesday evening. If you have any questions please call [phone number].”

In a team-cleaning situation, occupants would receive two cards, one from the light-duty cleaner and one from the vacuumer. This way, building occupants knew that not only had an attempt been made to clean their office space, but also they were getting double coverage. They had a specific number to call if there was a problem. And they knew exactly when the cleaning worker would be back. Plus, they knew that the cleaning workers were people with names.

This simple system completely changed the way occupants of this facility felt about the quality of cleaning and the people who performed it.

There are other important areas you’ll need to educate your customers about. One of them is a definition of trash. I remember an architectural firm that lost thousands of dollars worth of plans because someone “stored” the rolled up plans in a trashcan. When the cleaning worker came through at night the documents went to the dumpster. After all, they were in the trash. Describe to all building occupants what your employees define as trash.

You’ll also want to make sure your clients understand where your employees can and cannot go. Some tenants assume the custodial staff can unlock any and all doors, and thus clean anything or fix a problem immediately on either side of the doors. You can avoid frustration and complaints by clarifying your “key” policy.

When problems do arise, make sure your customers know how where to direct their complaints. Should they talk to the custodian, the site manager or the property manager? Different companies have varying policies. BSC’s need a specific program to handle complaints that includes a name, telephone number or email address.

Occupant housekeeping
You can minimize or even eliminate some complaints when you have clear communication about occupant- based housekeeping. In other words, how much is the client himself expected to do when it comes to keeping personal workspace clean?

Some banks require employees to remove everything from their desktops each night. Other organizations are much less rigid. What are the policies in the places you clean? Do your employees and the building occupants understand those rules?

Also, some tenants do things that may actually be harmful to the building and its occupants. Tenants may bring a “sick” plant from home so they can watch and water and do whatever else may be necessary to nurse the plant back to health. In the process they may be spreading dust, pollen or spores that might make other office-mates ill.

You’ll need to work closely with the property manager to make sure you educate, not infuriate their customers.

Finally, make certain you teach your customer about your quality control program. One BSC dates vacuum filter bags, saves them and once a month on the walk through shows the property manager how much dirt has been removed from the building that month.

Anything you do to track the work being done and document it can be a helpful tool when it comes to teaching your customers about the value of your services.

This kind of proactive communication helps property managers and building occupants understand how the cleaning worker thinks. You won’t get nearly as many complaints about jobs you weren’t hired to do. You may even get some kudos for the way you perform the work you are supposed to do.

John Walker is a regular Contracting Profits columnist. He is a veteran building service contractor; owner of ManageMen consulting services, Salt Lake City; and founder of Janitor University, a hands-on cleaning management training program.




POSTED ON: 7/1/2003