29. Can I run a commercial cleaning business remotely?
The answer might surprise you.
Before we kick off, I want to apologise for a couple of things:
Missing The Growth Lab Wrapped on Saturday; and
Missing The Growth Lab Podcast on Monday.
I didn’t prepare well enough for the Easter weekend and missed my publishing deadlines as a result.
We’re back on track this week though. I’m really excited for the next episode of The Growth Lab podcast, the second instalment in our tech series, with the founder and CEO of Fantastic Services - Rune Sovndahl.
Keep it locked.
A common question that I get asked during discovery calls is “Can I run a commercial cleaning business remotely?”
Quite often, the person asking the question is a remote domestic cleaning business owner. They’re looking to diversify and want to know if there’s a similar plug and play format that they can apply to commercial.
While it’s possible to manage some aspects remotely, commercial cleaning requires a physical presence.
There are different challenges that you don’t have to face running a remote domestic cleaning business.
Agenda
Lack of control
Communication
Building Relationships
Contract Mobilisation
Health + Safety
Lack of control
Commercial contracts often require you to clean at least 3 times a week.
You need to maintain tighter control over your operations and service delivery to make sure staff are performing and clients are happy.
There’s a reason why commercial cleaning businesses have big operations teams, everything form - Operations and Mobilisation Directors to Special Teams Managers and Operational Support.
Having control over your operations requires a physical presence.
Communication
Remote communication when you’re servicing a client twice or four times a month is acceptable for domestic cleaning.
When your cleaning a property between 20 and 30 times a month, you need to have more effective communication channels in place to keep clients informed and deal with issues promptly.
Site visits, on-site team meetings, site audits, extension & renewal meetings and performance review meetings are often required during the term of a contract.
These can’t be carried out remotely.
Building Relationships
I spoke with Josh Melton, CEO of Athens Cleaning, in episode 1 of The Growth Lab podcast. He explains how relationships play a key role in growing his commercial cleaning business.
From generating leads by joining local business groups and networking events to building trust with clients so they give you a second chance when things go wrong.
Building relationships with clients and staff is essential for running a commercial cleaning business. Trying to do this remotely is difficult, it’s better done with regular face to face interactions.
Contract Mobilisation
Mobilising a commercial contract involves many moving parts. Things like carrying out a pre-contract audit, organising products and equipment, organising cleaning schedules and staff site inductions are included in a mobilisation plan.
Once the contract has been mobilised, you need to make sure that staff have everything they need to clean - restocking products, replacing equipment, revising cleaning schedules etc.
Managing these operational tasks remotely can be very challenging. While you can put systems in place to automate some of these tasks, you still need to physical supervision to ensure effective service delivery.
Health + Safety
Commercial cleaning often involves the use of heavy equipment and chemicals. These pose a safety risk that need to managed effectively.
This includes carrying out a site induction for fire evacuation plans, expected conduct on site, reporting of incidents or accidents and other health + safety matters. This information forms part of the site folder that’s prepared as part of the mobilisation plan.
To make sure that these activities are carried out safely and that staff are following the necessary safety procedures also requires physical supervision.
Ultimately, having a physical presence is important for commercial cleaning.
Whether you’re starting a commercial cleaning business or pivoting into commercial from domestic, you will be that presence in the begining.
As you grow, you can build your team by hiring for these responsibilities - sales and operations.
That’s when the option of running your business remotely becomes a possibility.
It takes time, patience and a lot of hard work to get there.
Content to check out
Check out episode 1 of The Growth Lab podcast where I chat with Josh Melton about growing his commercial cleaning business with relationship marketing. Listen here.
Prefer watching over listening? Check out The Growth Lab podcast on YouTube.
Need More Help?
If you’re struggling to generate sales leads that grow your cleaning business, I offer help in 3 ways:
Email me with your current prospecting strategy. The more detailed you provide, the more personal I can make my response.
Get manually verified, hyper-personalised B2B contact lists for your cleaning business delivered straight to your inbox - within 48 hours.
Turn 100% cold prospects into 5-10 sales leads and booked appointments every month for your commercial cleaning business.
Thanks for reading!
Matt @ The Growth Lab
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