Tips for Cleaning Offices During the Holidays
Whether the holidays put you in a festive mood or leave you feeling like the Grinch, this time of year presents special challenges for commercial cleaning companies. There's just no way around it—every commercial cleaning company must factor the holidays into their winter schedule.
From working around customer decorations to bringing in as much extra end-of-year revenue as possible, there is plenty of work to do between Thanksgiving and the New Year. Here are a few tips to help you survive the stress.
Identify Special Holiday Cleaning Requirements
Many businesses put up holiday decorations. Talk to your clients to get on the same page about how your technicians will handle these displays.
- If your employees need to clean around a large Christmas village surrounded by glittery, winter scenery, they may require extra time to dust and vacuum stray “snow.”
- Live wreaths and trees tend to shed pine needles—that are then tracked around the building and get stuck in carpet—which may add time to floor care.
- Many front doors are decorated with special “paint”. That can be hard to clean around so be sure your clients' expectations are realistic. Also be sure your cleaning technicians are trained on how to clean door glass that has been decorated.
Coming to shared expectations about these special cases will prevent misunderstandings and frustrated clients. Ask early and communication the client's desires to your staff.
Prepare for Company Parties
Many businesses opt to host parties in their buildings. In addition to extra decorations, this may mean more garbage from food, decorations and gift wrap. It may also mean holiday treats can wind up stuck in carpets or staining floors.
All of this can add up to extra labor hours beyond the day-to-day cleaning your contract covers. Again, ask your customers early how they plan to deal with events—will they do the extra cleaning themselves or do they want to pay for additional cleaning?
It's good customer service to do a little extra here and there—like taking an extra trip or two to the dumpster. On the other hand, any additional cleaning that prevents your technicians from finishing the rest of their duties should be brought to their supervisor's attention and, likely, result in an additional service fee.
Give Floors Extra Attention
Floors take a beating in the winter months. In addition to pine needles strewn about the building and candy canes smashed into carpets, snow and ice can wreak havoc on the floors in commercial buildings.
When salt and slush are tracked inside, your technicians can play defense and protect against potentially expensive damage to the floors. Train them in best practices for winter floor care. This includes things like using the right ice melt, vacuuming walk-off mats, and using proper techniques to avoid slip-and-fall accidents.
Your customers will likely have extra visitors during the holidays. It's your job to make sure their building gives off a great first impression—and floor care is paramount to making that happen.
Kill Germs to Avoid Illnesses
Commercial cleaning companies do more than make buildings look great—they also keep them healthy. The holiday season overlaps with cold and flu season, which means it's more important than ever to prevent the spread of germs inside your clients' buildings.
Provide ample training year-round to your cleaning technicians on how to properly sanitize and disinfect common hot-spots or touchpoints in the workplace. Areas most prone to contamination include door handles, light switches, elevator buttons, desktops, telephone handsets, break room appliance handles and buttons, and copy machines.
Offer Extra Cleaning Services
The end of the year (and start of the next) is a great time to sell add-on services and get a nice boost in revenue. Here are a few tips for maximizing profits through strategic upselling:
- Remind clients that their extra end-of-year funds can take care of some of the more neglected areas of the building or to tackle overdue maintenance projects.
- Talk to branch managers about scheduling an extra cleaning or two before their superiors from the corporate conduct an annual year-end visit.
- Encourage your customers to use the holidays—when more staff are out of the building on extended vacations—for more intrusive services, like deep cleaning and floor maintenance.
- If you notice that an office party appears to have gotten wilder than expected, offer an extra service date to help with cleanup.
Before the holiday season gets into full swing, reach out to each of your customers to see if they plan to have any special events in their building. In addition to helping you plan your own schedule, it starts a conversation about what else you can do for them this winter.
Holiday Hours May Mean a Change to Your Cleaning Schedule
It's not unusual for businesses to have modified hours during the holiday season. Retailers may extend their business hours to accommodate shoppers, while other companies may reduce office hours to allow employees additional time off. And, of course, many businesses completely close on Christmas, New Year's Day (and sometimes Christmas Eve, or they may only be open a half-day).
Ask your customers early if they'll have a modified schedule during the holiday season and how they'd like you to adjust your service days or times. This is also a good time to ask about special events, like company parties, that may affect when your workers can be in the building.
The holiday season is an unpredictable time for commercial cleaning companies. Start your winter planning as early as possible to strengthen your customer relationships and to maximize your profits. The extra effort you put into customer satisfaction during the holiday season is appreciated by your customers year-round.
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