Software Helps Cleaning Managers Do More with Less

As nice as the sentiment that hardworking staff and solid, dependable products form the foundation for a strong custodial operation might be, many modern facility cleaning managers know that it is no longer enough. In-house custodial operations often cover a stupendous amount of heavily occupied and frequented space while short on time and staff. These pressures are what make software solutions that have been developed for the optimization of cleaning operations so appealing. But with so many software options available on the market, these decisions must not be made lightly. Careful consideration and plenty of research is key to finding a software solution that will benefit the department. 

The first thing facility managers must do in their search for the right software solution is identify what’s most important to them. That might seem obvious, but cleaning software comes in many different varieties. Some might only have a single feature — like inventory management, staffing, or employee onboarding. Others might do all three. All have strengths and weaknesses. 

“To me, the perfect program doesn't exist,” says Aaron Uresti, assistant director of Custodial Services and Resource Management at University of California, Riverside. “I've never seen a program out there that can deliver everything in one.”  

When Uresti began working with custodial software about 12 years ago, it was for the purpose of improving quality control. He says software focused on quality control serves a purpose for any facility, and that one of its greatest benefits is that it allows those doing the inspections to ditch the paper-and-pen notetaking. The user intuitively moves through a sort of checklist, and all information is instantly reported.  

For instance, if a supervisor would like to demonstrate areas of improvement in performance to a frontline worker, they have the data to back it up. Conversely, if a facility manager would like to prove just how great their cleaning staff has been, they also have the facts to back it up. Some software will allow users to attach photos of the worksite to reports, giving them visual records, too. 

“You're ensuring that you're delivering the appropriate level of service to your client,” says Uresti. 

When considering software for the purpose of quality control, there are multiple variables to consider. But when it comes to capabilities, Uresti thinks one feature is key. 

“For quality control, I always go back to the saying ‘You can’t manage what you can’t measure,’” he says. “If you’re looking at establishing a quality control program, I would say that the main feature you want to look at is the ability to customize. I'll give you an example. We have a quality control program that we use — Spartan Chemical’s cloud-based CompuClean Cleaning Management Software — and we were able to pretty much customize it how we want in terms of scoring.” 

At University of California, Riverside, custodial services have a zero-to-three scoring system: ‘Three’ is fantastic; ‘Two’ meets the custodial standard; ‘One’ means the service is being performed, just not to standard; and ‘Zero’, which is just bad. With customizable software, Uresti and the team can keep the points system they love and are used to. 

Careful Considerations 

Quality control is significant, but it’s certainly not the only thing that keeps facility operators restless at night. Maybe their frontline staff routinely worry if they have the soap needed to restock dispensers. Uresti comments that CompuClean specializes in inventory management for the department.  

He says the software can also come in handy when a facility manager needs to justify the purchase of new equipment. For example, if an outdated floor cleaning machine has been repaired a few times between now and this past Groundhog’s Day, the software will provide records of that. Managers can use those records to compare repair costs to the price of purchasing a new machine. 

Also popular is the feature that helps track workloading woes. Uresti cautions that using the software for this purpose could be tricky, because facilities vary in size and require different types of cleaning and staffing needs. But CompuClean’s workloading component provides as much accurate data as possible, and recommendations for how long it will take to properly clean a space. 

Uresti gets this and more from Spartan Chemical’s cloud-based CompuClean Cleaning Management Software. It provides an integrated reporting system and a variety of modules to improve the workloading, quality assurance, inventory management, and documentation of a facility’s cleaning operations. But there are sometimes one-off software programs that managers might also find useful to have in their arsenal. 

Software that Uresti finds interesting are programs or apps that help with fleet management. He knows of one equipment manufacturer that will place a geographic information system (GIS) in the customer’s equipment. Therefore, if the manager of a large property, say a major university, wants to check in on where a particular machine is located, they can go to their computer, tablet, or smartphone and track the equipment. 

“To some people, equipment management might be the only thing that they're interested in. Someone else might be looking for quality control,” says Uresti. “Or they just want a workloading program to either help them earn new business, or help dial in their staffing and get some assurance that this is how much time needed to clean a particular building.”