After nine years, it is easy for clients to forget what their building and grounds looked like before they hired a good a cleaning contractor. Over the years, improved cleanliness and efficiency and reduced costs slowly escape the clients’ minds, and all they are left with are higher expectations. Now, after years of hard work to keep that higher standard, the cleaning staff only hears about problems and not the successes.

The change in the facilities at Mount Airy School District, Mount Airy, N.C., is apparent to Mike Hiatt, the assistant superintendent of personnel and operations. He remembers what it was like before the district outsourced cleaning to a private company, so he recognizes the increase in the cleanliness that came with the service.

“People have forgotten what our buildings looked like before we took this service on,” he says. “They do such a good job your expectations begin to climb.”

In a district serving more than 2,000 students at two high schools, an elementary school and a middle school, the buildings face heavy usage and require heavy cleaning on a daily basis that isn’t possible with an in-house janitorial staff. The cleaning service is better suited for heavy cleaning because they work at night.

“We get a better cleaning that looks fresher in the morning than I did under the old system,” Hiatt says.

Faculty and community members became accustomed to the cleaner conditions and forgot the work it took the cleaning service to get there, so smaller problems began taking center stage.

For contractors in a similar situation, regaining the confidence and appreciation of a community or faculty that may not realize the effort that goes into cleaning may call for some self-promotion. Showing the facility before and after the contractor took it over can go a long way to regain the community’s confidence.

“If they would do a little more public relations with the parents and community around the school, we’d all be a little better off,” Hiatt says.

Interpersonal relationships
Creating a good relationship between rank-and-file janitors and the customer employees, also can help rebuild a contractor’s reputation.

When a problem arises in a classroom or work area, Hiatt encourages school staff to work directly with the janitor, so they can respond to the problem. In doing this, the janitor is not put in a position of being told to do something by a superior, but is being asked by the room’s user.

Once the problem is corrected, or even if there are no problems, it is good for the teachers and the cleaning staff to communicate regularly. Routine conversations can stop small problems before they get larger and create overall goodwill.

However, cleaning staff who work at night are not directly in contact with the teachers, so it can be difficult to foster a working relationship.

“We’ve helped that a little bit by putting a checklist in the room that the cleaning service is supposed to check each night and then the teacher checks it the next morning,” Hiatt says.

Making the time and opportunity for personal contact can cultivate appreciation for the job that both the custodian and the teacher do during their days.

“If those people think that those teachers appreciate what they are doing, we get a better job and the company gets a better feeling about it,” Hiatt says.

Both the customer and the contractor can gain from increased communication and positive reinforcement when things go right. The client can gain a cleaner, fresher building from a happy and appreciated cleaning staff and the contractor can benefit from improved public relations by having a happier customer and the support of the community.

“We would all like for somebody to pat us on the back a little bit each day,” he says.

by Ryan Mertes, Contributing Editor




POSTED ON: 8/1/2003