"In the future, successful cleaning contractors will no longer have customers," says Ron Segura, President of Segura Associates, which works with large cleaning contractors helping them build their businesses. "Instead, they are going to have partners."

Segura explains that the entire professional cleaning industry is changing.  The key to success, for both cleaning contractors and distributors, is building solid customer relations that go beyond the relationships most have had with their customers in the past.

To help turn a customer relationship into a partnership, Segura offers the following five suggestions:

1. Become a solutions provider.  "The more value you offer the customer, the more they depend on you.  They now see you as a crucial part of their day-to-day business operations."

2. Communicate.  Make regular communication with clients your top priority.  "In the past, many cleaning contractors had limited contact with their clients, and then all of a sudden they get a termination notice.  Partners depend on regular communication...it helps solidify a partnership."

3. Trust with no need to verify.  Trust is crucial in any partnership.  "Most facility managers have had a lot of experience with cleaning contractors.  They know when they are being 'conned' or misled and when they are working with someone they can trust.  They do not need to verify this, they can feel it."

4. Remember your word is your bond.  No partnership can exist if the parties cannot depend on each other.   "When you say you are going to do something, do it.  This applies to everything from addressing cleaning issues to showing up on time for a meeting."

5. Learn about your customer.  In order to be a partner, you have to know who you are partnering with. All customers are not the same. Take the time to understand each customer, they are all different with different business and even personal needs.

"All of these suggestions are crucial in order for a partnership to develop and grow," according to Segura.  "But becoming a solutions provider is the 'icing on the cake.'"  If the customer sees your suggestions have helped them reduce costs, become more sustainable, improve the health of their facility, that's when you become a top priority to them."