Are your Cleaning Services Like Making Pancakes? They Should be.

I love making pancakes. I'm a simpleton who prefers flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, eggs, milk, and butter. That's it. And I do like toppings from time to time, including like the chocolate chip pancakes I made this morning. 

But there are nuances around pancakes. My youngest likes small silver-dollar pancakes. My 2nd youngest likes them medium size but fluffy. My wife likes pancakes but with no syrup (she puts PB and Jelly on them). And I like them thick and stacked with crispy edges for texture. I like to fry them in oil. Some people like them plain and uniform. Some prefer them cloud-like after using soda water. Some like them soufflé style. Some like them with no sugar while using natural fruit for sweetness. Some like buckwheat pancakes. Some like to use corn meal. Some like crepes. And some like a good Dutch Baby with only lemon and powdered sugar. 

But which one is the best? Is it up to us to decide someone else's preferences? Is it ok to tell a breakfast guest they have to have a pancake with bacon in it? Or is it up to us to understand their wants and needs in a good breakfast concoction and strive our best to accommodate?

Pancakes are like cleaning services. 

We're always trying to impose our view point on what cleaning is or isn't onto our clients. Don't get me wrong. We need to steer them as needed. They don't know what they don't know. But many times they're set on a certain scope, standard or whatever in what they view a cleaning service should be.

For my residential cleaners reading this, have you ever experienced a client that insists that you clean dishes or even do laundry? Ever have a residential client ask you to clean pet waste or ask you to tidy up a 6 year old's bedroom before cleaning it?

For my commercial cleaners, have you ever had a potential commercial client insist on using a certain standard of commercial cleaning products? Or ever have a commercial client insist that you provide consumables like toilet paper or paper towels? Or how about that one client who wants you to sit around for an extra hour because their weekly evening meeting is running over?

Is the customer right to ask for these things? You bet. If it's not YOU helping, then WHO? It's up to you to create firm boundaries in your contracts and scope of work to share your non-negotiables. But anything else goes, right? It's up to us to share our flexibility as an answer to their needs. 

Below are 11 different nuances around cleaning. When a prospect reaches out to you (or you to them), they already have a point of view as to what they want in a cleaning service. It's our job to anticipate these and address them early to avoid client friction.

Level of Clean

The needs of a surgical center are vastly different than the needs of a warehouse. One expects perfection and the other just needs the dirt to stay out of their way. APPA offers their Five Levels of Cleanliness. When you're on your way to your sales walkthrough, are you anticipating these needs beforehand? Are you listening to their words when they repeat the word "dust" three times or "always dirty" when complaining about your potential predecessor? How are you adapting and crafting your proposals and contracts to meet the needs of this client-to-be?


Scope of Work

You ALWAYS need to have a clear and well-defined SOW within your contracts and/or proposals. We repurpose our SOWs to provide as a checklist for our team. We also use them to craft our client surveys. We tell them exactly what we will do and when we will do it, organized by location within the facility. Do your clients and prospects know what you will do and when you will do it? Do they know what areas you will not do and is that listed? 

Schedule Flexibility

I remember bidding a local university's health department at the peak of COVID. They came to us with an idea that we HAD to incorporate into our bids. They had well patients in one part of the day and sick patients in the other and they assumed any sick students would have COVID. So they needed a cleaning crew to come in around noon each day and clean the 12-15K or so square feet of their facility, complete with full disinfecting. And we only had 1 hour to clean. Plus, being in the daytime, we had to pay for everyone's parking fees. We had to provide a crew of up to 5 people to clean that space too. Talking about inconvenient!  How are we going to find an employee for only 1 hour time five?! If not US, then WHO? We offered alternatives, but in the end we couldn't make it work. We lost on price. Are you the type to bid and win at all costs...including new headaches? Or are you willing to price your best price and call it a day? We offered flexibility at a price.

Communication

Sad to say but we lost more than one client due to a lack of communication. Our last one was a church in Maryland. It was a nice church but COVID did them in due to a reduction in space rental income. We gave 100% on our cleaning through, that's for sure. We didn't lose due to economics. We lost on communication. In our initial sales walkthrough I was clearly told that their last cleaner was fired due to a lack of communication. I took that to mean that they never called back. When we were fired 18 months later my answer was clear: they wanted someone to talk to, in person, at least once per week, even if the cleaning was going great. They even cited that as a reason. Like with pancakes, clients have different expectations on communication and I didn't ask the question behind the question on what communication means for them. 

Compliance Requirements

We received an invitation to bid for the US Botanic Garden in DC. It's a living museum with plants and flora and they needed cleaning services throughout, even around the plants. We ultimately passed on this one because it didn't align with our goals at that time but it would have been fun to have. They had their own compliance requirements through ISSA and CMI certs, and are actually one of only two different prospects we encountered who required certs through these organizations. The education alone is great (was Train the Trainer certified). Are you adaptable to learning and improving? If a client had any sort of compliance requirement (ie cleaning industry-related, OSHA, etc.), would you scoff or would you embrace? 

Services Offered

I knew we had a problem when we had a client tell us we were the Jack of all Trades and master at none of them. It was true. We offered our core 4: janitorial, porter, disinfecting (Pre- and Post-COVID), and specialty floor work (mainly strip/wax and carpets). But we offered more. We offered light electrical, light plumbing, light maintenance, parking lot attendant services, maid services, unarmed security, supply sales, temporary outsourcing, and even an in-home chef service. A confused client never buys. It's like offering 20 styles of pancake to your guest and they become paralyzed with the offer. Listen to your clients. It's ok to make a pivot. But it's also OK to pass on new opportunities or outsource to others. You don't have to provide everything they want and you don't have to be a know-it-all. Major in the majors, not in the minors. BTW, we eliminated almost everything except for the four and profits spiked.

Sustainability Goals

There was a time where all of our clients, it seemed, wanted to get their property LEED certified. We worked with a 3rd party to provide info and to help them get started. Maybe you've dated the same. Perhaps you had clients with green cleaning goals. That's their flavor of pancake. It's ok. Work with them. If not YOU, then WHO? It's an easy process and you'll learn along the way. Be open to being a resource for your client vs. holding them back from their goals.

Event Readiness

Our kiddos' High School is probably not unique but they have all sorts of events, nearly daily, that impact the cleaning at that location. One of our biggest competitors cleans there now and I don't envy them. They have a ton of wait time where they sit and twiddle thumbs while the event continues on. Are you adaptable to different needs of that facility, whether it's late night church meetings or putting on the next big school play? Or what about a shift in schedules of the occasional office worker burning the midnight oil? Are you able to stick around to meet their event needs, both before or after?

Forward facing to their guests

This one tripped us up at a bank location we cleaned. They refused to give us key access and told us to clean during the day. Hey, we were ok with that stipulation. But what we failed to anticipate is their demand after we started that none of our cleaners could be visible during normal working hours. We couldn't vacuum, mop, clean, remove trash, or anything like that while their guests were there. We had to hide. And I understand. If you're working with a new customer on a potential new bank loan and a vacuum is running, that's in bad form. I get it. But that caused a lot of problems when we had to cram all of our cleaning into just 30 minutes, and they'd always complain that we didn't do it all. They limited to what time we could stay and they limited what we could do in the time we were there. If they liked pancakes it'd be some sort of diet pancake with no syrup or toppings. But that's their deal. I failed to share non-negotiables and that was one.

Budget Sensitivity

We had a great client. They worked with dementia and Parkinsons patients within their own facility. They ran lean and served as a great resource for the community. We had a great contract with them and it was an honor to help them. Well, their lease was up for renewal and due to demographics, they decided to move out west here in the DC Region. It was a good 45 minute drive and a toll fee to get out to their new location. Because they operated lean, they expressed their budget. It was untenable for how we operated and our goals didn't align. I was sad to lose them as a client but we had to move on and let someone else work with them. Are you listening to their needs? Are you working with them even if it doesn't benefit you any more? We offered a best solution for them and moved on. We don't have to say "yes" to every opportunity. 

Frequency Needs

Ever have that awesome client say, "We would like to increase the cleaning from 2X/week to 5X. Can you help us?" Those are fun. It's a sign also of growth and success. Feels good, doesn't it? Well, what if the inverse were true? "Can you decrease the frequency from 5X to 2X?" Yuck! But it happens. What goes up must come down and sometimes your clients need help, even at your detriment. Are you the time to complain? Or will you roll with the punches? It's ok to say "no" but at least help them transition to a new cleaning company. If not YOU, then WHO? Not all pancakes have to be the same.

I hope this helps someone. This was top of my head this morning. Go crush it, and remember, not all clients are the same. They all have different wants and needs!