It is a warm sunny day, the sky is robins egg blue and the grass is emerald green. In the distance, you can hear birds chirping as your hair is so effortlessly moved by the slight breeze. You shut your eyes and take it in before looking down. There you notice your lunch, a brightly orange colored bun with a glistening hamburger patty poking out around the edges. The golden fries are starting to tease your nose so you reach down and pull one out and slowly take a bite. Delicious!
What I was able to do just now was put you into a generic position of eating a burger on a sunny day with no implied feelings or tastes. Your brain had to construct the burger, the breeze, how it might taste based off of previous experiences with burgers in your life. This might lead you to say “yea it is just a burger, that isn’t hard to do.” You are right and wrong! It is just a burger, but the minute I apply a brand to it, your whole image would change! If I said Wendy’s you would picture that square patty they are known for, or Burger King’s flame-broiled burger with poppy seed buns, McDonald’s bright red french fry holder? box? ( I don’t know what to actually call the thing fries come in!) Anyway, you get the idea. Although they are serving the same product category they are serving FAR from the same product!
The same can be said for cleaning companies! Many customers we encounter haven’t broken their mindset of being stuck on the product category and not the product. The differences in how the experience is treated and the product the customer receives can AND DO vary tremendously!
The difference can be found in a couple of different areas, starting with the people and ending with the products used to service your company. You might be saying at this point, “I know this already, but the price really determines my choice.”
In order to give the client such low-cost janitorial services a couple of things are more than likely taking place. Let us take a glimpse at why those prices you fall in love with might not be the best long term play.
First, the price might be low because they do not have employees thus, doing the cleaning themselves; This is great until their business continues to grow and life takes over as it does when suddenly your business suffers the consequences of a supplier losing their interest or being mentally pulled in other directions.
Secondly, they do not care about their employees or franchisees and pay them a lot less. See, franchisees and employees will often be paid out of a percentage of the monthly billing they provide cleaning for or worse a flat rate. Some cleaning vendors will low ball bids not caring that the energy put forth by their staff or franchisees sees the reimbursement financially that their work deserves. What this will create over time is the cleaning person losing interest and motivation in keeping standards and start shifting their mindset toward “How do I get the most money for my time.” Knowing they are not going to see a wage bump they do the only thing they can GO FAST.
This will ultimately lead to poor cleaning quality and consistency leaving you with the headache and distraction you wanted to avoid.
THERE IS A REASON YOU MAY BE HIRING A NEW CLEANING COMPANY EVERY 6 MONTHS! YOU ARE ACCEPTING LOW OFFERS IN EXCHANGE FOR LOW QUALITY!
Lastly, when you hire a company that utilizes employee help with a high turnover rate, you are going to receive the product of this. Often it manifests itself in operational headaches ( wondering whose in my building now? Supply orders not being filled! Having to re-explain the cleaning expectations, etc.) These employees are coming into your business treating this as a job and just focusing on the quick buck!
Vanguard consistently strives to partner with business instead of just “showing up”. Our goal is to create a lasting relationship and help your company focus on what it does best, winning! We are able to do this by supporting our franchisees like a family (often invited to homes and parties), selecting top-notch candidates and PAYING THEM LIKE SO! This keeps their motivation high and allows them to RUN THEIR BUSINESS because after all, our franchisees aren’t treating this like a job; it’s their business.
So before you go accepting the next low offer you receive ask yourself a couple of questions;
- Am I solving my headaches or delaying them?
- Are they lower because they want the money, not the partnership?
- Am I prepared to get what I pay for?
- How much is my time and relief of headaches actually worth to me/this company?
Hopefully, at this point, you are starting to think about past vendors you have used for cleaning and past experiences and see that maybe you are still shopping from the same store! I highly encourage you to think this through as you look around our site learning about our green cleaning products and what the Vanguard Cleaning difference means for you and your company.
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