Production Rates and Cost per Square Foot
Seldom does a day go by that someone doesn’t ask me about pricing and production rates for the cleaning of commercial buildings. Sometime it’s about a small space or building and other times it’s hundreds of thousands or even millions of square feet and the reality from my perspective doesn’t change.

There is an almost endless list of variables in each building that need or should be taken into consideration when calculating a realistic price or production rate for cleaning services. An even more important and overriding factor is how you go about doing the work. The issue of how you workload the building and what equipment and processes are used, have an equal or greater impact on determining the amount of labor and costs required to get the work done in a way that meets the cleaning specifications.
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Filed under: Bidding and Estimating by William Griffin
Originally Published: CMM May 2015

There is a revolution going on in hard floor care that will have a major impact on how floors are cleaned and restored in the future. We are in the beginning phases of eliminating the need to strip, burnish and refinish hard surface floors. For those of us who grew up on the handle of a floor machine, with layers of wax on our boots, it’s hard to envision floor care without stripping and refinishing, but the handwriting is on the wall and will soon reach the floor.

Destructive Innovation
The speed and depth of change is creating turbulence and uncertainty for manufacturers, business owners and department managers as the cleaning industry transitions from the familiar ground of “how things have been done in the past” to the uncertainty of an unknown future that is rapidly evolving.
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Filed under: Floor Care by William Griffin
Originally Published: CMM April 2015

Every building has a floor and sooner or later it will need more than daily or routine cleaning to remove heavy soil, scratches, scuffs and restore that like new shine. Hard floor care is one of the most profitable service specialties and if you ask for the work, is often an automatic add on for janitorial and residential cleaning services. If you have the skills, staff and equipment needed to provide periodic and restorative maintenance and your price is reasonable, chances are you will get the work. Sometimes floor care is included in the contract, but many times, floor care provides an opportunity for additional income and profit. If you can’t personally do the work, consider subcontracting with another company to provide the service and add 20%-40% to the cost as your markup for managing the project.

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Filed under: Bidding and Estimating, Floor Care by William Griffin
Originally Published: CMM April 2015

Two of the more difficult positions to fill and train for in a cleaning business or any type of service operation are the salesperson and estimator.

Not everyone agrees as to what type of a background is needed or most advantageous to have when it comes to finding someone to fill these positions. Some will say; if a person knows how to run the numbers and can learn a computer program they can bid, estimate and workload cleaning accounts. The same can be said about sales; if a person has a silver tongue, handles themselves professionally and knows a few buzz words and follows the basic concepts of how to close a sale, they can sell cleaning services. I disagree. In my experience, the best sales people and estimators, not only have the above listed skills, but also have experience in the cleaning, maintenance or property management field.
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Filed under: Training by William Griffin
Originally Published: CMM March 2015

Training is most effective when utilized as a method of supervision and management. Training is much less effective when it is an activity done on a set schedule or only done in an attempt to solve a problem or correct a behavior. Training should be a mindset that guides how you approach and interact with staff, customers and others, whose behavior or attitude you want to influence.

For training to be effective on a long term basis it must be ongoing and reinforced with follow up refresher exercises that keep the information easily accessible in the mind of the learner. Training should start before an employee is hired and continue indefinitely with each and every contact or interaction you have with individual.
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Filed under: Training by William Griffin
Originally Published: CMM February 2015