Category Archives: Cleaning Service Personnel

Management issues related cleaning service personnel / Maintaining Service Standards

Our Service Training Will Ruin You

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Frustrated business woman with message restroom mess causing management stress

Several months ago one of my trained workers injured her foot while playing pickleball. The injury was very disabling so doing any physical work in the near future was not a possibility for her. I found a replacement to do her work and she entered treatment.

Part of her recovery was to find work that matched her physical condition. I received this short note from her today.

Hey Cynthia, Hope you are well!  I was just thinking about you & felt I should tell you this.

Ever since working at Washroom Wizard!, I notice sooo many unclean places!! Where I work now, my employer has a 2-person crew that cleans our restrooms every few days.

However, they don’t clean the doors or walls & now that I’m attuned to that stuff (thanks to you!)…I can’t un-notice it. So I go in & spot-clean whenever I can.

Thank you for making me a more thorough & observant cleaner!! 

Is this a blessing or a curse? For the personal needs of our service workers, the training is a blessing. However, when they are out in the world, where they experience the results of other cleaning services, it can become a curse. Just as this former worker annotates “I can’t unnotice it…I go in & spot-clean whenever I can.” This is not an uncommon response from the workers that Washroom Wizard! has trained.

Not very many people are eligible, or would ever be selected, for training by Washroom Wizard! Pshhh! What do you mean? Anyone can clean a restroom.

If it was the case that anyone can clean, then why does this former worker see so many places in a restroom that are not getting cleaned by the so called “crew that cleans”?

This is exactly the problem that Washroom Wizard! is designed to solve. When your restrooms are “in fact” clean; your whole business runs smoother. Employee health and wellness is never an issue, morale is up, customers are happy, and businesses with clean restrooms have a stellar image.

However, be warned, anyone who chooses and is selected for work at Washroom Wizard! will continually run into not being able to “unnotice” the lack of cleanliness that other services leave behind.

Don’t be a dummy!

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Every once in a great while I do find a little wisdom on the internet when it comes to cleaning services. Seldom do I ever see anything relative to the attitude of management when it comes to the benefits of hiring cleaning services. The excerpt below is an anomaly because it very succinctly points to the cost savings smart managers can realize. (Regretfully, I did not record the source when I saved it.)

Money and Time Considerations

Some business owners seek cost efficiency by outsourcing to companies providing cleaning services.

They do this because they understand attempting to use in-house resources can take valuable time away from core business needs.

Outsourcing cleaning services allows in-house resources to continually support the primary business rather than dedicating them to cleaning and maintenance issues.

I wish that more business owners and managers were this savvy. I have seen this type of benefit, over and over again, with my clients. They have more of a payback as a result of the professional cleaning services we provide than the cost of those services to the business.

This benefit comes in the form of high employee morale resulting in increased productivity, happy customers that share their experiences with others, and the lifting of stress from managers because they no longer spend their time and energy disciplining employees for not cleaning.

There is, however, an underlying attitude regarding the use of employees for cleaning that has been left out. The statement focuses on the result businesses can attain with a professional cleaning service; it does not delve into the attitudes people have about cleaning that make it seem reasonable to have employees do the cleaning.

There is a common erroneous presumption that anyone can clean. This is like saying that anyone can dance, anyone can do math, anyone can be an artist or an accountant or a chemist.

When I started my business, I naively presumed that I could teach anyone to clean. Boy, was I wrong. I found that some people just don’t see dirt. I learned that the level of perceptual detail to even identify places that need to be cleaned cannot be taught. I also found that some people can’t move their bodies in a fashion that would allow them to complete the work efficiently.

  • Why go to the bakery? After all anyone can decorate a cake.
  • Why hire a seamstress? Anyone can sew.
  • Why hire a bookkeeper? Anyone can add and subtract.
  • Why hire a window cleaner? Anyone can produce a streak-free window

We all have different skills. Yet, when it comes to cleaning, it seems that the mantra “any dummy can clean” is a hard one to dispel. When a business thinks that their employees can do the cleaning it is with this erroneous presumption. Don’t be a dummy with your business.