BSCs Join Forces With Facility Management Firms

While some BSCs might opt out of working with third-party companies, others seize the opportunity to secure big contracts that force them to operate in lean but innovative ways.

“Contractors must work within a climate of continuous improvement,” says Philippe D. Mack, CEO of Eurest Services in Toronto, Canada. “What facility management companies look for in a janitorial contractor is to responsibly drive costs out of operating expenses, and to operate in a fiscally responsible manner with respect to the service offering being delivered. Although we may not represent a discretionary spend, we need to provide scalable solutions that address the changing needs of our clients and the end users of our services.”

To do this, BSCs need to help facility management companies realize that there is opportunity to save cleaning dollars by redesigning cleaning programs and make them willing to work with contractors on specs that are unique to the needs of each customer.

“We can design a cleaning program to meet any budget, so if we start thinking in terms of meeting the actual needs of the client, you can start to find a lot of opportunities to save a lot of money,” Knight says. “Facility management companies aren’t very good at doing that, but quite frankly, a lot of cleaning companies aren’t good at doing that either.”