Several weeks ago our company, a commercial cleaning and janitorial services provider, received a request for a janitorial quote from a local fast food franchise. Our salesperson was surprised – he’d never seen a fast food location that was interested in nightly janitorial cleaning. Our company had done floor finishes, carpet cleaning, kitchen detail work, and the like for restaurants, but nightly cleaning is generally completed in-house as part of restaurant employees’ closing duties. He went to survey the location to create his quote, but had to ask the owner, “Why a janitorial service?” The answer was fascinating.
According to the fast food franchisee, before he opened his own location he had spent some time in Texas visiting another franchise – the largest and most successful in the country, in fact. He had asked the owner there for a tip that he could use to make his own franchise just as successful. The tip? “Use a janitorial service.” The franchisee thought he was being played with at first but the explanation that followed made sense.
The large Texas franchise owner had realized that his employees were spending several hours each night cleaning the restaurant after closing. They weren’t doing a good job, and his workforce (mostly students) did not appreciate staying late to complete these tasks. When he tried outsourcing to a local janitorial service, he was surprised by the increased productivity from workers who were able to spend more of their shift selling food (closing times were quicker so closers’ shifts could start earlier in the day) and were more motivated when relieved of the hated cleaning duties and late nights. One trained janitorial cleaner could clean the restaurant in less time than it took several fast food workers. The labor savings helped and the restaurant was considerably cleaner, pleasing his customers. He claimed that hiring a janitorial service was one of his best investments.
Our local franchise owner was impressed by this testimony and was now in the hunt for a janitorial service for his own restaurant. What a great example of how janitorial services can be so much more than another drain on your business maintenance budget. Most businesses see these services as a necessary evil, but this fast food franchisee saw them as an opportunity to increase productivity and profitability.
For other businesses, advantages may come in the form of happier, healthier employees who use less sick time (especially if you’ve hired a green cleaning company). New techniques and technologies have made daytime janitorial cleaning a viable option, which has proven to help companies save significant amounts on their utility bills. Maybe it is time that we stop looking at janitorial services as a financial drain and start seeing them as an opportunity for benefiting businesses everywhere.
by David Murphy
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