What Do Office Tenants Want?

When it comes to cleaning office buildings, we tend to focus on the property managers wants and needs. Sure, satisfying the property manager is important but what about the wants and needs of the building's office tenants?

As cleaning business owners, it can be a struggle maintaining the cleanliness and image of office buildings, especially Class A types. These buildings can have many office tenants with different expectations. And those expectations may differ from the agreed upon services and frequencies you have with the building owner or property management company.

Do You Know the Wants and Needs of the Building's Office Tenants?

Office tenants and their needs

Although it may seem like a no brainer to focus on fulfilling the service contract agreements, it is also the responsibility of the cleaning business owner to ensure that both management and office tenants alike are happy. This can certainly become a balancing act as you, your supervisors, and cleaning technicians address the demands of both.

Sometimes cleaning business owners and supervisors think they know what the customer wants; so that's what they focus on. But what do tenants of office buildings really want from the cleaning service company?

The following are some of the things that office tenants feel are the most important services they want to receive in their buildings:

• Quick response to issues as they arise.
• They want everyone in the company to be able to fix their problems swiftly instead of having to make several phone calls to get things done.
• They want a cleaning service that pays extra attention to detail and is committed to doing a good job.
• Minimal interruptions from cleaning staff and reduced noise levels – especially in buildings that offer day cleaning.
• They like to see familiar faces in the cleaning staff; they value low turnover.
• They like to see cleaning personnel in uniform and personnel who are courteous and act professionally.

The following are the most common reasons property managers replace their cleaning service:

• Lack of response to concerns and problems.
• Repetitive problems.
• Have to request something more than once before the task is taken care of.
• Lack of engagement and communication.
• Reactive versus proactive in their approach to cleaning issues.
• Lack of attention to detail, poor quality cleaning.

Listening to the needs of the office tenants, and fulfilling those needs are essential to keeping the atmosphere of the building a happy one. It is your responsibility to not only address those needs, but to communicate the issues and concerns of the tenants with the building management.

Your cleaning technicians are responsible for the cleaning duties as well as performing customer service responsibilities as they interact with office tenants.

Provide customer service training for your cleaning technicians so that they can respond to complaints and requests in a timely manner and pass the necessary information onto their immediate supervisor. At this point, it will be up to the site supervisor to validate the request or complaint, solve the issue as quickly as possible, and relay any information back to the building management. It may be necessary to negotiate an addendum to the current cleaning contract to include additional services.

Tenants should also be made aware that there are certain cleaning services and frequencies that have been previously agreed upon between you and the building's owner or property management company that you cannot deviate too far from. They will hold some of the responsibility to engage and negotiate these changes with building management themselves.

You, as the building service contractor, are responsible for fulfilling the office cleaning needs of the building and although the challenges of satisfying both tenants and management can seem like a burden, there certainly are opportunities for your cleaning company to expand on the original contractual agreements and put a few more dollars in your pocket at the same time.

For example, if the toilet paper in the restrooms is constantly running out, you could negotiate with management to purchase and replace them with larger capacity dispensers or perhaps increase the number of times the restrooms are being cleaned.

Or, if you have received complaints from office tenants that their office windows are dirty or the common area and breakroom glass always has stains and bird droppings on them, you could negotiate more money in the building's maintenance budget for an increase in window washing.

Remember the old phrase; “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”? It's so true. Take those requests and complaints from office tenants and turn them into more profit for your cleaning company.

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Customer Service Training Program for Cleaning Technicians (PDF Download) Your customers and their office tenants generally judge you, your reputation, and your quality of service by the way your employees handle themselves and deliver on the promises you make. Do your employees really know how to represent your company in the way you want it to be represented? The Customer Service Training Program for Cleaning Technicians will pay big dividends with customers and tenants alike! Why is customer service training so important? 96% of unhappy customers don't complain, however 91% of those will simply leave and never come back. – 1st Financial Training services One unhappy customer will tell 9 to 15 people about their experience. - White House Office of Consumer Affairs 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. – McKinsey It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience. – “Undertanding Customers”  by Ruby Newell-Legner

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