Preventative maintenance, follow-through and communication are the most important components of a successful cleaning operation — and typically the biggest weaknesses of the cleaning industry.

In 1998, we identified companies that were capable of providing consistent service at Southwest Airline’s airport operations facilities, reservation centers and headquarters, as well as on the aircraft. We also tried to consolidate service providers and control the cleaning chemicals used in our facilities and aircraft. We reduced the number of cleaning providers from 58 to about 24.

One of the companies that was awarded facilities in several cities had a slick marketing presentation, respectable balance sheet and appeared to have exactly the business plan we were looking for.

Unfortunately, their execution, commitment to quality service, self-policing and value to the customer did not materialize. Simply put, the company failed to implement and maintain a communication plan.

The dedicated director never had a clue as to what was going on without us notifying him; supervisors did not follow up to ensure that tasks were completed; project managers did not audit sites; regional directors were absent; vice presidents were disinterested in anything but account revenue; and the president was insulated from unacceptable performance until receiving termination notices.

Another large company chosen to clean aircraft and facilities got off to a better start, and over time picked up most of our business from their main competitor. However, they are very entrenched in their regional divisions and experience chronic problems in certain locations due to the exact same problems of communication and cooperation.

The group that I work with relies upon the janitorial divisions to support the aviation services. Not understanding the uniqueness of cleaning airports, aircraft and reservation centers (on the part of a few of the divisional leaders), plus a lack of support, caused this company to lose some of our business as well.

The biggest challenge in working with medium and large cleaning companies is their internal communications. If the leader of the company does not make it clear that everyone is accountable, and that every leader in the organization will follow the plans, then the company is going to fail.

A common phrase at the upper management level, in many industries, is “We’re looking at the business from 30,000 feet.” That’s fine if the skies are clear and you can see like a hawk. However, if there is a layer of clouds in between, then upper management will be out of touch with daily operations.

Another issue that we have been running into involves service labor groups. Instead of managing and resolving their labor issues, some companies are looking to the customer to make their decisions for them. They come to us and say “Our labor representation is demanding $X per hour in pay, will you agree to pay it?”

All we want is for our planes and facilities to be clean, and we expect that a company that is taking our money will do those things and manage their own affairs. A company’s work force and labor relation concerns are strictly internal and the customer should be left out of it. The service provider needs to work out a rate that it believes is fair, and which does not erode the company’s margin, then present that to the customer. While a pay increase’s impact on bill rates may cause service cancellation, dragging the customer through every step of negotiations is unprofessional.

Another of the many lessons that I have learned in working with service providers is that a company’s service quality hinges upon front-line supervision’s service commitment. If the people that are working in the customer’s “home” do not have a clear idea of the duties and objectives, and receive support from above, they are not going to succeed. If middle and upper management do not communicate with each other, then they will not succeed.
The biggest operational sins that clea

ning companies commit include blaming service lapses on the lack of an adequate labor pool; not getting copies of the contract’s cleaning specification lists into the hands of their supervisors; not policing all areas every day, ensuring that all tasks are accomplished; and finally, blaming the customer. If you are taking the money, then you better get the work done — no excuses.

If supervisors and managers are policing themselves, they can see what was missed and can respond by shifting people around to cover service lapses.

All of these problems should be invisible to the customer. Do not wait for your customer to point out what you missed; beat them to it. If you missed a substantial task, such as a quarterly carpet extraction, and the opportunity to make it up has passed, issue a credit without being asked. The only thing that is more upsetting than companies taking money for services not rendered and waiting to see if the customer will request a credit is managers who are completely unaware of regularly missed services.

I contract and manage services for 59 airports, nine reservation centers and a headquarters campus of nearly two million square feet. I have one coordinator assisting me for approximately 20 hours per week. There are a lot of customers, such as I, who do not have time to be a cleaning company’s operations manager. The companies that are with us now, and will be with us in the future, will have to manager their own affairs, and I suspect other customers feel the same way.

Jim Malone is the buyer of services for Southwest Airlines’ purchasing department in Dallas. He is responsible for contract negotiation and management of aircraft and facility cleaning, HVAC, checkpoint and static site security services, security equipment, corporate dining-vending-coffee service, elevator maintenance, uninterruptible power supplies and emergency generators, lighting and utility contracting.




POSTED ON: 7/1/2001