Earlier this year we took the decision to update our website with the aim of trying to give potential clients a clearer view of what we stood for and not just what we do. Afterall, cleaning is pretty much cleaning wherever you go. Isn’t it? You’d think it would be fairly easy to get a cleaner on board and for them to do what you asked of them – however, this really couldn’t be further from the truth. The difficulty we had was trying to find a path through the information most clients are processing whilst making a decision on what cleaning company will best suit their requirements.
When speaking with new clients we found most ticked many (if not all) of the following points:
Over the last few years both the living wage and minimum wage have risen dramatically as the government try to push towards their target of a £10 per hour wage as a means of increasing the standard of living for millions of families across the country.- They are unhappy with the current level of cleaning being doneThis has seen increases every year that are way in excess of inflation levels and aren’t always easy for businesses to absorb or pass onto their clients.
- They are questioning whether the cleaner is in for the full duration of their shiftWhilst the desired outcome of the governments strategy can only be one that’s positively encouraged and supported – for many companies it’s proving harder to deliver.
- They question whether the cleaner really knows what the actual cleaning schedule isThere have been casualties in the Edinburgh area already this year with a number of cleaning companies having already closed their doors. Whether this was down to more enforced legislation increasing costs (pensions and wages) or other operating problems I’m not sure but one thing is for sure that many cleaners are facing the rough end of the stick.
- They wonder why their contract manager never returns their emails or calls when they have issuesTo compensate for the increased costs there is a re-balancing act that we see many companies apply. Such as:
When all of these points go unanswered for a long enough period of time people will get fed up and will ultimately look for change. However, what happens when you’ve been through a process of change and you end up back in the same place a year further on down the line? All that’s happened is you’ve changed cleaning company and things improved for a while but then ended up tailing off and you’re left back where you started. You become reluctant to change again and perhaps have a feeling of that everyone in this industry is the same.Employ staff on a self employed basis
We all have stories of the dodgy workmen and of tradesmen not turning up when they said they would and folks often come to have a level of expectation when it comes to bad or poor service. That’s an entirely wrong way to go about things – but most of us have ample stories of our own and those of friends and work colleagues to back that up. However, what if there was a cleaning company out there that behaved and acted as you’d hope they would? A cleaning company that REALLY cared and have processes in place for regular communications and reviews, Only employ staff on a zero hour contract basisa cleaning company that comes highly recommended and can be thoroughly reference checked? You’d be interested, right?Deliberately cap hours to make sure nobody reaches levels of automatic pension enrollment, or qualify for sick pay and also means they’ll be paying zero employers NI
We know that in business people buy people. It’s the personal interaction that somebody has with another individual that will ultimately seal the deal. Price and details can be agreed and sorted if there is a bond of trust in place. Trust is everything. It’s stronger than a contract. We know this and this is where we think we excel and it’s where we’re trying hardest to cut through with the type of communications we make with our marketing. We’ll be making bold changes and bold statements going forward from here.Take on younger staff in order to pay far lower minimum wage levels
We make no apology for saying who and what we are as well as who we want to be. We won’t lie down. We won’t conform to the usual cleaning company stereotypes. We won’t stand back and let other people be the voice of our industry. Today we stand above the parapet and are prepared to be vocal about what we’re passionate about. Today, we lay the down the gauntlet to all companies out there in our sector that aren’t looking after their staff and clients properly.Put work out to agencies to remove all of their responsibilities so hiring and firing is made much easier and jobs become far more of a disposable commodity.
Today, we promise that change in this industry is coming – and we’ll be one of the main players pushing it through.
We’ve never agreed with any of the above practices and that’s why we have a very low staff turnover in comparison with the industry average.
