In a past blog Tom talked about the power of perception (the importance of how you look, act and other random issues with appearance).
In this blog I want to expand on that a bit because perception is just so important. To put this is perspective for you, if people “perceive” you are neat and clean, they see you as someone who does a good job.
But if they “perceive” you as sloppy and unorganized, they privately wonder how you could be doing your job, which of course is to clean their home or office.
Below you will find some of my random thoughts on “perception”. Some of these issues may seem like common sense to many of you. However I see the following issues all the time in my travels so I want to discuss them.
# 1 – Dirty janitor closets. For commercial accounts, always (and this should go without saying) keep your janitor closets tidy if your customer has one and you utilize it. This means everything in there (the sink where you get and dump water, the buckets, the mops, the rags, the solution bottles and trash liner boxes etc…) needs to be clean and organized.
I have seen some janitor closets so dirty it’s hard to believe people keep their supplies in there. If you are hired for a new account and run across a dirty janitor closet, clean it top to bottom ASAP as you now “own it”. Secondly, when you make it shine the customer will notice what you did and it will confirm to them that they made the right decision to hire you.
# 2 – Unorganized employee bins. If your employees bring in their supplies (no janitor closet to leave supplies in), then they should keep their transport bins extremely clean and neat (the customer notices all these little details).
# 3 – Dirty vacuum cleaners. Make sure to wipe off (with a damp rag) the vacuum from any dirt and dust it has been collecting (this is another of those little details that can make a bad impression). You really want to avoid bringing in a crummy looking vacuum to clean someones home or office. Many folks break this rule as I see it all the time.
# 4 – Dirty mop heads and rags. Always have clean rags and mop heads available to your staff. It is not all that expensive to replace your rags and mops when they get worn and dingy. If you don’t provide these items then your employees may just keep using the same old dirty ones they have over and over.
Employees sometimes tend not to pay attention to how dirty and smelly the mop heads get. You must stress /educate them on the importance of having clean rags and mops to do a good job. Also make sure they have enough solutions and paper towels to do a good job.
This is another one of those small details that your customers notice and correlate directly to the perception of how well you clean. Special note: Make sure you and your staff wrap any dirty rags or mop heads in a trash liners so you don’t “stink the place up” as they say (there is nothing worse than a foul smelling mop).
# 5 – Dirty solution bottles. Wipe your solutions bottles off once in awhile as they get dirty too. You should also change your toilet brushes when they start to show some wear and tear (no detail is too small for you to take a look at).
At the end of the day, it’s not fair to have your employees “make do” with a inadequate set of supplies. They need the proper tools to do a good job. It is up to you to make sure a system is in place to make sure all these loose ends are tied up. Sometimes owners “think” they have better things to do than run around keeping track of these menial tasks, but it’s always the little things that sink your ship. When the staff see that the owner doesn’t care, then they stop caring too, so you need to be mindful of that angle.
This post boils down to two main issues. Number one is remembering that “perception” plays a large role in how your customers view your company and its performance. Number two is making sure your employees have the right tools to do the job. This will help you improve your business and will help keep your staff and customers happy for a long time.
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