Clean Your Own Offices?

“We’ll just have our workers clean the offices, it’ll save us money”

Typically, it doesn’t.

When you’re a business owner, the balance sheet means everything. Unfortunately, while adding the task of daily or weekly janitorial cleaning to your employees’ responsibilities shows up as a net gain in the short term, by avoiding the added monetary expense of hiring a local janitorial service provider, like Anita Cleaner, what does it do to your business over time?

Now, I’ve had the wonderful experience of being responsible for cleaning the office every week as the low guy on the totem pole. It wasn’t enjoyable. I got hired as a laborer to learn the trade and here I was spending hours every week scrubbing and cleaning, regardless of what my work load was like throughout the week. I already spent plenty of time cleaning up the job site and cleaning up the tools and the trucks. The last thing I or anyone else wanted to do was look after the offices themselves.

That was for a construction job. Now, you may be thinking “well, what if all of our staff already works in the office?” Well, there wouldn’t be a special trip, it wouldn’t be done after-hours and they could just do it throughout the day. But, how much value would they be creating? If they’re being billed out at $65 per hour, then the time spent cleaning is actually a loss to the company. That doesn’t factor in the indirect costs of forcing people to do the cleaning work, a task completely outside of what they were hired for.

Employee Morale

When it comes time for them to decide whether they want to stick around or find a new employer, chances are they’re going to look for somewhere that doesn’t add menial tasks to their already busy schedule. On top of that, the actually office cleaning work will not be done to any acceptable quality of standard.

More than half of our business clients became our clients after first trying it the “cheap” way. They had employees look after their business or tried to do it themselves but it just gets away from them. Vacations happen. Sick days happen. Unexpected things always happen. It’s the only thing in business that you can rely on: the unexpected. Now, the first thing that gets swept under the rug (for lack of a better term) is the extra duties such as cleaning the office every week. After a couple of weeks, it will get to the point where getting it back to good feels too overwhelming to even begin. Then, your office is just dirty.

What if you put that extra effort into the tasks that actually made your business money? What if your staffers spent their days doing the jobs they’re hired to do and that you get paid for them to do. If they have an early Friday, instead of spending it sweeping, mopping, and dusting, they got to get home to their families a couple of hours sooner? Happy, appreciated employees are what make the difference between a business that fizzles out after 5 years and the ones that become staples of their communities for decades.

Customer Benefits

Happy Employees = Happy Customers

Happy Customers = More Money

Making your business a place that make customers feel good is important. Cleanliness is a top priority for making the best first impression that you can. Even if your business location isn’t customer-facing, its overall vibe will come through in phone calls, emails, etc. The comfort of your employees shows up in everything your business does. Whether B2C or B2B, a clean and orderly work environment reflects on everything that your business produces.

Change typically stands out more than the status quo. If you keep your office cleaning tasks in-house and that stellar employee goes above and beyond for you, things may look great. But, maybe they take on more of the actual work or they move on to a different company. When the cleanliness goes down hill, even slightly, it will be very noticeable to regular customers. The first thought that most people have is that something is wrong.

“Why can’t they keep the place clean anymore?? Are they struggling or are they being reckless with their money? Maybe the owner has a substance or gambling problem?”

True or not, serious or not, the outward appearance means a lot to the overall image of a company and its future.

Community-First

Whether you’re a B2B or a B2C operation, hiring local help from your own community is always a good idea. Anita Cleaner is a locally owned and operated home & business services company. Our employees are your customers. We are you customers. We’re a stone’s throw from your office, we drive by each other all of the time. We share clients and partners. Your employees may be our clients already.

Hiring local, whenever possible, is what keeps local economies strong. The more homeowners and businesses that keep their money local the better chances the community overall will thrive. The same businesses who support the little league and soccer teams also shop at your store, provide your home services, and keep the lights on for you and your neighbors. Their work is their craft and they do it because they choose to, not because it’s the most profitable or scalable option out there.

When you get a solicitation from a national x/y/z business, they’re in the sales business, not the x/y/z business. They’re really good at outreach and making promises because those are the skills they’ve cultivated. They’re not fixing your plumbing or keeping your business clean, they’re already on to the next cold call or email. You pay their subcontractor, the profits of that transaction leave the community forever. Each and every time someone hires one of these companies, more and more of you and your neighbor’s hard earned money leaves the New Castle area. The big-time janitorial company that subcontracts all of the work out to the lowest bidder isn’t sponsoring your kid’s soccer tournament or supporting the spaghetti dinner for grandma’s diagnosis.