BSCs and the Internet

Just a few short years ago, simply having Internet access was considered progressive for building service contractors. Today, technology has become both ubiquitous and invisible — everyone has a Web site, everyone has e-mail, and they treat it as a normal part of doing business, not as a novelty.

Still, in many ways, the building service contracting industry is in its technological infancy. Most BSCs’ Web sites are static, presenting only basic contact and service information, and rarely changing. Electronic commerce is limited to the occasional eBay auction or airline booking. E-mail is used instead of, or more commonly, in addition to, fax and phone, but not in any new or radically different way.

There are some BSCs, however, who do offer much more than e-mail and a Web site to their customers, employees and peers. They’ve added innovations such as portals, message boards and Web blogs to their online offerings, and say this sets them apart from their competition, and puts them in a better position to do business in the Internet age.

Portals
One of the more radical innovations BSCs have added to their Web sites is the information and communication management system, commonly known as portals. Business Clean Inc. (BCI), St. Charles, Ill., offers portals to both customers and potential employees.

For instance, in the case of the former, clients are given a login to use on their own Web page, according to a BCI spokesman. From there, they can see their current services, contact list and even pictures of the janitors in their building. They also can type their concerns into an electronic log, eliminating problems due to bad handwriting. Also, the system sends out the message to everyone responsible for that account, including the cleaner.

“You can streamline communication and not have to worry about phone tag,” he says. “The biggest problem is [with traditional communication methods] that customers don’t see the night people. Any time there’s a problem, they call the manager during the day, who then has to get in touch with the cleaner. The process can go on for two or three days.”

This system does require a high caliber of cleaning employee — those unable to speak or read English, or those who cannot use e-mail, cannot work for BCI. To ensure janitors know how to use the Internet and e-mail, BCI does not accept paper or phone applications.

“We run ads in publications online, and I only include the Web site, not the phone number” the spokesman says. Potential hires can fill out a job application online, and the information is downloaded into a database.

“When I get jobs in an area, I send out an e-mail to the people in the database to find out who’s interested,” he explains. At that point, he starts the verbal interviews.

So far, this system has been successful — he recalls landing a $250,000 contract the day before he went on vacation. He was able to fill 80 percent of the positions while on his laptop in a bookstore in Florida.

Employee and customer information sent through portals will soon be accessible on hand-held devices such as the Blackberry, predicts Jonathan Williams, a BSC and founder of BigMop.com, Union City, Calif.

“A customer e-mails you a work order. It is immediately dispatched to the manager’s handheld unit, the janitor’s handheld unit and stored in an online database of work orders,” says Williams. “No one can say they didn’t receive it.”

Williams also expects that these hand-held units will eventually be able to scan bar codes, making them useful for inventory and attendance tracking as well.

“Imagine: You can go to a customer’s building and take inventory in the closet,” he says. “It is then transmitted to your internet-stored database of inventory that flags it for delivery to the customer. If it is out of stock, an order to the vendor is automatically generated and scheduled for delivery.”

Or, janitors can use their hand-held computers to scan attendance sheets, so managers can know instantly which workers are late, absent or clock out early.

Message boards
Another type of Web site BSCs can use is an online industry community. These communities can integrate a variety of media, including links, message boards, articles, items for sale, bid generators, safety information and referral services.

One such community is CleanPeers.com. According to one of its founders, Ken Galo, CleanPeers is dedicated to the smaller contractor, and is intended to act as a comprehensive resource center. One of the more popular features is the message board.

“Message boards offer quick and easy access,” says Galo, who is also owner of L&K Facility Services, New Berlin, Wis. “You can do it at 3 a.m., after you’ve done the cleaning. You can’t necessarily call your supplier, but there could be three other BSCs online to offer you fast input.”

BigMop.com also offers a popular message board.

“The forums are utilized many times a day,” says Williams. “Contractors use these message boards to solve problems, find vendors, look for subcontractors, “how to” types of things and many other topics.”

Other BSCs mediate the boards and help contractors get answers to questions and continue to grow a successful operation. It is quicker and easier than paying a consultant or tracking somebody that wants to help.

“I think would be very difficult to open the Yellow Pages and call another janitorial company and ask ‘How do I finish a floor?’” Williams explains. “They will laugh at you and hang up. Why would they want to help a local competitor? Message boards provide nationwide help without worries of being laughed at or competitors stealing your accounts. It is a great tool.”

Blogs
Since gaining popularity during the 2004 presidential campaign, Web logs (called “blogs” for short) have become important tools in industry as well. A few cleaning professionals have begun using blogs for their own sales, marketing and customer communication.

Galo is one such contractor. Galo’s Web logs were born because of his frustration with the previous method of updating the Clean Peers Web site.

“I was writing stuff down, but then I had to wait for [the Webmaster] to update the site,” he explains. “I couldn’t do anything instantly.”

So, he set up a site on Blogspot.com, a free service that hosts and provides software for hundreds of thousands of blogs. Galo’s sites include wwwcleanpeers.blogspot.com and wwwlk-clean.blogspot.com.

“Now, I don’t have to be formal — I can post three or four times a day, and I can do it via e-mail,” he explains. “I started writing about how to break the ice and develop relationships with your customers, and it just snowballed from there.”

In addition to the blog for his cleaners’ group, Galo also maintains a site on behalf of L&K, for his customers.

Managemen Inc., Salt Lake City, also offers a Web log for users of its OS(1) cleaning management system.

“The main reason we created the blog was to create a forum for our clients and colleagues to trade useful information,” says communications director Benjamin Walker. “So much of what we do is based on the sharing of information in regards to benchmarking, training and tracking, and a Web log really enhances that capability.

“The thing that we like about using the Web log is that every entry is archived, so if our clients found a piece of information useful, they can keep coming back to it,” Walker adds.

So far, he says, reaction has been strong.

“It’s been interesting to hear the response from customers,” he says. “They not only have been using the blog as a reference when networking with clients and other organizations, but have started to comment and contribute to the contents.”

Walker is surprised that there aren’t more cleaning-industry-based Web logs.

“It’s starting to be commonplace in many trades and probably only a matter of time before the cleaning industry really embraces the technology,” he says.

Regardless of the exact online technologies they use, contractors will need to become more Internet savvy in general in order to succeed, says Williams.

“The internet [has] increased my janitorial company’s net margin and quality, built a great customer reputation and helped us stay ahead of the competition,” he says. “I believe any contractor that is not migrating to the Internet may have trouble competing in the future.”