Trust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwgpnLZawow

Trust. It’s a small word. But it means everything to us.

Our clients trust us to clean their offices without supervision.

Our clients trust us to turn up on time.

Our clients trust us to respect their office.

We’ve earned that trust by proving ourselves on a consistent basis.

But we don’t take that trust for granted. We work hard to make sure we continually deliver for
our clients.

You see, for us, trust, is our greatest asset.

It’s the thing that can set us apart.

Complete Cleaning Contracts - Office Cleaners you can trust.

Read full article : Trust

Do you invite your cleaner to your office party?

This might seem like an odd question to some of you but when organising parties and nights out how often do you include the cleaner? Sometimes? Never?

I only ask because it seems to me that the cleaner in many offices is forgotten about. Out of sight and out of mind. Perhaps that’s because they come in to clean your office out of hours and you never see them. You know they’ve been because these plates that were littering your desk are gone and your bin has been emptied plus there’s plenty of loo roll and soap every time you nip to the bathroom. However, do you ever stop and think that they’re playing a valuable role in your company’s business too just like you are?

I was witness some years ago to a cleaner retiring from the large company I worked for. She was an old lady that had worked for the company for some 20 plus years and was one of their longest serving members of staff. On such an occasion you’d have expected a bit of pomp and razzmatazz, cakes, speeches and maybe a clink of a glass or two of the good stuff. Sadly, there was none of that. There was the cleaner, me and my head of department. Nobody bothered to stay on a bit later to see her off. There had been a small whip round but the card and gift voucher inside it couldn’t have been worth any more than £50. She was delighted that they’d thought of her at all whereas I was completely mortified.

When Complete Cleaning Contracts was set up it was set up with people in mind. We wanted to attract the best clients in the market that wanted to be looked after properly by a company that cared for them and we also wanted to be home to the best cleaners in town. We knew that marrying the two together would be a successful formula that would be hard for any of our competitors to replicate unless they worked to the same beliefs and values as we do. It’s okay saying you do on your website but you can’t kid someone on when they can see it and feel it for themselves every day when working with you. We’ve always said that we work best when we can be a part of your team. Being part of your team means being visible from time to time, being praised for our performance the same way you’d praise anyone else for doing a good job and being included in what’s going on.

I know of many of our clients that invited our staff along to their Christmas party nights. Why? Because they’re seen as part of the client’s team and in some cases our cleaners have been working with the client longer than any of their own staff have been. One client that is a strong advocate of including our staff in their events is Sandra Crow, Chief Operating Officer at Dovecot Gallery in Edinburgh. You can read her testimonial on our website. We also have other clients that do the same and I can assure you the cleaners involved are very appreciative of this. They feel valued, respected and part of something much bigger. They feel loved.

So, next time you’re having a night out with the office or are organising a party please consider your cleaner. If it’s somebody’s birthday and there’s cake on the go – why not keep a piece back for the cleaner? Little things like this go a long way to making someone feel appreciated and that their work is of value. Little things like this make people go the extra mile for you and keep happier staff in their jobs for longer which will ultimately be the best thing for your business.

Post source : Do you invite your cleaner to your office party?

Are you really paid properly for the hours you work?

That might seem like an odd question and one that most of you reading this will possibly answer “yes” to - but do you really? Do you get paid proper holiday pay for the hours you’ve worked or the hours you’ve been contracted to work? Did you get paid for the extra days work this year for the leap year? When you work late past your contracted hours do you paid for these hours?

I don’t know of any company that can answer “yes” to any of these questions and in my earlier career I certainly didn’t work for a single company that could. Everyone talks about how valuable their people are but yet choose not to look after them at the very basic level.

Complete Cleaning Contracts pay holiday based on the number of hours our cleaning staff work and that is logged every month. This is totaled up across the year and the holiday time off is earned based on the number of hours they’ve actually done – not the hours they were contracted to do. So, if someone is a big fan of overtime and covers for a lot of other staff when they’re off then they’ll be rewarded with the extra pay for doing so plus the extra hours of holiday pay too. Our staff qualify for 28 days paid holiday per year and can take this whenever they choose. Often some staff will work in contracts that close over Christmas so, they may have to hold some time back for that but on the whole they’re free to be off when they like and we don’t put constraints on them such as they can’t be off when another member of their team is off. That would just be plain wrong. I hear of people in other companies losing their holidays because their boss won’t let them off because somebody else they work alongside is off too. That type of inflexible behavior has no place in our company and I’m disgusted to hear it’s still in practice in today’s modern world.

Did you get paid for an extra days work this year? Every single member of staff in our business did. After all they did work it so why not pay them for it? If you haven’t been paid for it - then maybe you need to ask your boss why not? I’d love to hear the answer you get.

Lastly, do you work later than your contracted hours? Do you do this often? If so, why hasn’t your boss realised that maybe instead of over working you that they need to get some more people in? In my past careers I’d often work through my lunch and worked an extra hour or more most nights. Over a working month that would add up to an extra week that I’d worked without any extra pay. I did it because it was expected of me but why should anyone have to do this? None of our guys do. They get paid for what they do. I ask them all to leave on time and if they can’t - then they phone in and let one of our management team know why not. We’ll authorise the extra time which they’ll be paid for and we let the client know that there was an issue that required us to go over our time. It may not be something that we’ll bill on that occasion but at least we can have a discussion with the client about unexpected working hours popping up and can set up a procedure to deal with that in the future. The main thing being that people are being properly compensated for their time.

Doing all of the above helps us retain our cleaning staff, which in turn means happier clients and allows us to spend more time growing our cleaning business. It’s all pretty straightforward and honest and we hope that maybe the rest of the country will catch on at some point.

Post source : Are you really paid properly for the hours you work?

Sometimes the answer has to be ‘no’

As much as we hate saying the word "no", sometimes it's the only way to move forward.

We've had a great year and are delighted to be going into the festive season in the best shape we've ever been in. We've retained more clients this year than ever before, we've picked up even more new clients this year and we've taken on an additional 20+ permanent staff. This all makes for great reading but please be assured it's not down to luck and is the product of countless hours of hard work and dedication by the team to ensure that this has happened. However, on looking back at the year we realise we could have been more efficient and maybe could have done things a bit better. Maybe if we'd said "no" more often it could have been easier and a bit less stressful.

We know what we are - we're an office and shop cleaning company that covers Edinburgh and Fife. However, if you were to see some of the projects we've undertaken this year you'd swear we were a pan-Scottish builders cleaning company. Or, if you looked further through our figures and client lists you'd see we even cleaned leisure centres and that the bulk of this work done was either over the weekends or working all through the night. Whilst we can do all of this, and do it exceptionally well for some of the countries biggest companies - it's not what we do. Whilst this has all been high profile and profitable work it has been a massive strain on the team that provide our core services to our biggest clients day in and day out.

To ensure that 2016 is another great year we have had to make some tough decisions and the first has been saying "no" to some large projects - which means we won't be doing some large builders cleans in Carlisle, Ayr, Dumfries, Glasgow and Aberdeen in the New Year. It doesn't mean we won't still be working with these clients, because we still are, but just not outside of the areas where our cleaning teams are based. We have also chosen to step down from a contract that involved intensive cleaning over the weekends. As much as we hate saying "no" we realise that by saying "yes" to these projects that we put our core business in jeopardy. These projects take our key team members away from our core business and we put incredible strain on our cleaning teams asking them to work unsociable hours, often quite far away from home. Whilst they are well rewarded for it - it's not something we want to be doing any longer.

We've already said we know what we are - we're an office and shop cleaning company that covers Edinburgh and Fife. Well, next year our aim is to be the best cleaning company in these areas. We know what type of clients we work best with and we know how to attract the best cleaners around and in 2016 we intend to be closer to our clients than ever before.

We intend to increase our client retention rate (this will be hard given it's already (90%+) and we'd like to welcome more clients into our business that want to work with a cleaning partner that works to a routine that suits the changing needs of their business. We know that flexibility and continuity are the key factors and we always build our teams around our clients needs. Now we're rebuilding our whole company around servicing these clients even better than before.

We’ve set ourselves some big goals for next year and it won’t be easy, but with the commitment and support of the team we’re confident that 2016 can be our most successful year yet.

 

Read more : Sometimes the answer has to be ‘no’

What do customer testimonials mean to us?

When a respected, busy client takes time out of their day to let us know how impressed they are with the service we offer it’s well ……….. well, it’s quite hard to describe if we’re being totally honest. Not because we don’t think we’re worthy of it – far from the case, but these days high praise is a currency in steep decline. We know we’re not operating in the good news business and we know that if we’re doing our jobs properly and consistently then we will, invariably, hear very little. We know that we’re doing a good job when we send out our monthly invoice and it’s paid on time without fuss or hassle.

That’s not just how our business works – pretty much everything is like that these days. As a nation we’ve become quite reactive when something displeases us, and in search of a solution to the problem we have we can often be too quick to be critical but it’s a rare time that we actually stop, think and appreciate what we have experienced. We now have a growing number of clients (all current contracts and all featuring on our testimonials page) that have taken the time to phone or write and offer their compliments on the service we’ve been providing.

How rewarding was that? Well, it means the world to us if we’re being genuinely honest. We all work hard and at times we know the standards we set for ourselves, whilst exceptionally high, become after a time almost expected. We work hard to ensure we’re constantly delivering on what we promise and this is demonstrated with how long we generally work with our clients. However, to know that what you’re doing is appreciated and it’s making a real difference and impacting on people’s lives to a point where they feel the need to convey their thanks just means everything.

If you’ve read some of our other blog posts you’ll see us often remark that we feel that the best business is done when there’s a bond of trust between the people involved and that goes further than just the terms of a contract. Our aim is always to become a partner supporting our clients business rather than just being classified as yet another supplier. More often than not we’re in their offices when they’re not. We’re being trusted to look after their business. Not the daily running for sure – but the physical aspects of it. Ensuring everything is in order for their staff and clients to do great business in a clean, fresh, professional environment.

To some cleaning is seen as a commodity that is often faceless, invisible and is most often undervalued. However, we know there are folks out there that view it differently. These kind of clients tend to work with us. We love working with them. We’ve always got room on our books for more of them. We can even introduce them to staff that feel the same way about us. Great staff. Great clients. Great partnerships. That’s what it means to us.

Learn more : What do customer testimonials mean to us?

Beware The Cowboy Cleaning Companies

So, you’ve set your heart on looking for a new cleaner and you’re now online taking a look at what’s what in the Edinburgh office cleaning marketplace. It’s highly likely that you will be looking for a high quality, reliable service all delivered at a fair market price. That’s a fair assumption I’m sure you’d agree - but how important is price going to be in your decision making process? Is it at the top of your list of priorities or are there other factors that will play a bigger part influencing your decision? The reason we feel compelled to come right out and ask these questions is that we know you’ll find exactly what you want as you work your way through the companies that present themselves to you over this process - but the bigger question is this - will you ultimately get what you really need?

At first glance we all look pretty similar, all with a similar list of services on offer, all making similar promises and all trying to present ourselves in a way that might just make us stand out that bit more than the rest. If you’ve read through the copy on our website (About us section) you’ll see that we’ve already attempted to highlight the areas where we think we’re quite a bit different to the other cleaning companies working in Edinburgh. We’re not going to go back over these points here but it is interesting to see and hear about what’s going on in the marketplace and as a potential buyer of office cleaning services in Edinburgh we felt it might be useful for you to know some of the following points which might help make the decision making process a little clearer, if not easier all the way round.

Okay, we used the headline “Beware the Cowboys” to bring you to this point so, it’s important that you know how to spot a cowboy company from the genuine article. Often you can’t spot this just by looking at their website (that would be too easy) although some of the signs will be there. Just because a company rank highly on google doesn’t mean they should necessarily be considered as a suitable partner to support your business. In business we know that people buy people. Ultimately more than money we know that it’s trust that makes the world go around – however, some folks are a sucker for a cheap deal and we all know that cheap isn’t always best. In this case we know that cheap isn’t always legal. And we all know that cheap just never ever has a habit of working out alright in the end.

When you go cheaply you know there are corners being cut. You don’t know where, you may not even ask – but if you did what would you find? Here’s an idea of you may or may not expect to find if dealing with a cowboy company:

• On their website do they have a landline phone number and contact address? If it’s just a mobile number chances are you’ll never be able to speak to them when you really really need to.
• When you phone them do you always get an answer? Are you leaving a message on the machine of a company or that of a one-man-band? This may or may not be an issue to you but how important is the guarantee of knowing the company is big enough to cope with whatever it is that you’ll be asking of them?
• Are they based in the area where you are? If not how strong a presence do their senior managers have in your area? We know it’s not all about where a company is based that determines the quality of service they offer but having senior managers on your account and being around often certainly does.
• The big question (or should we say questions) relates to how they work with their staff:

1. Are their staff employed by them with a proper contract of employment?
2. Are their staff paid the minimum wage or a living wage?
3. Do their staff get paid holidays and sick pay?
4. Do their staff have a pension plan they pay into?
5. Are their staff trained in all areas of health and safety?
6. Do they have risk assessments and method statements in place for cleaning your place of business?
7. Do they have all the necessary insurances in place and can they prove that they do?
8. How do they ask to be paid after they’ve worked with you? Cash?

These are just some of the questions you should be asking when looking to appoint a new cleaning contractor for your office. Getting it wrong could be costly. We know that a large number of cleaning companies use self-employed labour that they pay in cash. These cleaners have no contract, no holiday pay and may not even be getting paid the minimum wage. These cleaners most likely aren’t even insured in your premises if this is the case. Taking a chance on a company like that is like driving your car without an MOT or road tax. Why take that sort of risk?

Also, staff working for a company like that almost certainly don’t feel valued and will most certainly be looking for another job. Where does that leave you and your cleaning contract? We know. What it means is you’ll constantly be getting introduced to new cleaners into your business. None of them will stay long with a company that treats them like that. Even if your cleaner comes in out of hours and you never meet them you’ll still know when it’s a different cleaner doing the work. The standards won’t be the same. It’ll feel all different – but not in a good way. You’ll be left wondering what’s going on but not really getting the answers you want and need. So, to get round this we recommend you only deal with companies that can satisfy you with the answers that you want (maybe even need) to hear relating to the questions we’ve already highlighted that you need to ask.

Once you’ve done all of the above you’ve only got 2 questions left to ask – this time of yourself.

1. Do you know exactly what you want and possibly what you don’t want of a cleaning partner?
2. When do you want to meet us?

Original post : Beware The Cowboy Cleaning Companies

Change is coming

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:

1. They are unhappy with the current level of cleaning being done
2. They are questioning whether the cleaner is in for the full duration of their shift
3. They question whether the cleaner really knows what the actual cleaning schedule is
4. They wonder why their contract manager never returns their emails or calls when they have issues

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.
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 company that REALLY cared and have processes in place for regular communications and reviews, a company that comes highly recommended and can be thoroughly reference checked? You’d be interested, right?
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.
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.
Today, we promise that change in this industry is coming – and we’ll be one of the main players pushing it through.
Learn more : Change is coming