Traditionally, many businesses, for example large offices, hotels, gymnasiums etc have had their own janitorial departments which oversaw cleaning and maintenance on site, but in recent years there has been a major shift in how companies are choosing to deal with their cleaning requirements. An increasing number are choosing to outsource these duties to professional commercial cleaners.
So, why has this trend emerged? According to Nicholas Pastras, CEO of Smart Cleaning Solutions and a 20 year veteran of the commercial cleaning industry, here are the main reasons why businesses are finding that it’s advantageous to outsource their cleaning.
Commercial cleaners offer operational flexibility
According to Nicholas Pastras, operational flexibility is very important to businesses today because it allows them to keep delivering excellence consistently, even if they have problems with staffing. For example, if a hotel, gymnasium, restaurant or any type of hospitality business a full time janitor, its a major disadvantage if they becomes ill, or they have to go on leave.
source:medium.com
If someone is unable to show up and do their job for any reason, then you’ve got nobody to cover their workload. However, when they have contracted a commercial cleaning service, they are geared up with additional staff and can always cover temporary staff non availability because of injury or holidays, so the cleanliness of the business won’t be compromised.
Outsourcing allows staff to focus on core competencies
In any business the ideal is for staff to be focusing on core competencies, not getting distracted with other duties, no matter how important they are. In many industries, for instance, in the hotel and hospitality industry, staff should be making a great impression with the guests, not dealing with the time-consuming aspects of cleaning.
source:medium.com
It makes more sense if they let professionals handle these functions in areas like the hotel kitchens, laundry rooms, dining rooms, and bathrooms, leaving concierge and waiting staff free to focus on facilitating the requirements that will make an outstanding impression on clients, like customer service and interacting well with guests and clients to create a good impression.
It’s all about specializing
Modern businesses are outsourcing their non-core functions because they realize that they need to specialize on the things that make them the most money. Instead of wasting time supervising janitorial staff, and worrying about procurement of cleaning equipment and products, business managers are finding that they can just offload many aspects of their work onto specialists and focus 100% of their attention on figuring out how to maximize their profitability.
source:medium.com
Modern managers know that every minute they spend giving instructions to janitors is a minute they are not spending on ensuring the core aspects of their business are running smoothly, so it is about getting their priorities right.
Another big influence on outsourcing has been the proliferation of mobile phone apps that allow customers to rate their experience easily. Nicholas Pastras explains, “It’s so easy for people to rate businesses in public forums, and believe it or not, one of the top elements of dissatisfaction in hospitality industries is how clean customers perceive a business to be. For example, in the hospitality industry the top three things people complain about are the quality of food, the quality of service and the cleanliness of a premises.
source:servicekeepers.com
People just don’t feel relaxed in a place with lax cleaning standards and its so easy to leave a comment about a pace being dirty – which is a huge put off to people looking at reviews.” With high expectations from customers and the ease with which negative reviews can be made, and the severe consequence of negative feedback easily available online, hiring a specialist to take care of cleaning is even more important, and is a big reason why many businesses are choosing to engage professional commercial cleaners.
