WE CAN DO THAT

Have you ever been asked by a customer to do something not in the normal realm of services you normally provide? I'm thinking here of something like,

---Trash service

---Lawn care

---Pest control

---Parking lot sweeping/striping

---Window cleaning

---Snow clearing

---Handyman services

---Rental of break room machines---microwave, coffee makers etc.

---Temporary help

---Factory machine operators

And the list goes on. What was your answer? Did you say "We can do that" or was your answer the one so many companies give--"We don't do that".

More and more BSCs are finding tremendous opportunities in providing as many services as possible for their customers. Those that don't, eventually get replaced by a contractor who said "We can do that". In fact, many contractors are purposely becoming full facility service providers. As a consultant, I am advising most all of my clients to explore the opportunities available. In fact, several of my clients have or are in the process of changing their names to incorporate facility services in their name, i. e...ABC janitorial service becomes ABC Facility Services.

No, you don't have to become the expert in all of these areas. Just do some research and align yourself with key reliable providers in these services and then sub contract them to those providers. You negotiate a discount from the provider.

The key benefit to your customer is the tremendous savings they experience in their "soft costs". Their overall monthly invoice won't probably be reduced but you are saving them money in other areas. Here are some of the real benefits to your customer,

---They make one phone call to you and you handle all the services

---They cut one check each month for all the services.

---They save enormous time in negotiating contracts with numerous vendors.

---Can you think of some others?

Think about the time they save in making one phone call and even more important, just including the services I mentioned at the beginning could mean they have to negotiate with 6 or 7 different vendors to get the services they need.

And what about the cost of writing checks. Most administrative managers will tell you it costs them between $75 and $150 to cut a vendor check so you can save them  hundreds of dollars each month in that area alone.

Now let's talk about the benefits to you. Do you realize how difficult it is for a customer to replace you if you are providing them with 6 or 8 different services. That means if you miss dumping a trash can, it all of a sudden isn't such a "big deal" if they begin thinking about all the other services you provide.

As an example, I had one major customer for over 20 years that started out as a janitorial service customer only. As the years went on we added the following services,

---Lawn mowing for 40 acres of ground

---Parking lot sweeping

---Parking lot striping

---Snow clearing from all of their parking lots

---Flower planting and maintaining in and around the main office bldg.

---Concrete coating of their factory floors

---Rental mat service (and they provided the area to clean them)

---Power scrubbing of all concrete aisles daily

---Cleaning debris from their roofs and gutters 4 times yearly

---Factory machinery and rafter cleaning during their annual shutdown

We became a pretty difficult vendor to replace. You can see that missing a trash can once in a while wasn't nearly so important as it would have been had we provided only the nightly janitorial service.

Now, some of these services we provided may seem a bit off the wall but you get the point---BECOME A FULL SERVICE PROVIDER WITH AS MANY SERVICES AS YOU CAN TO AS MANY CUSTOMERS AS YOU CAN. Your profits increase and you become much more secure with that particular account. I suspect one of the reasons we had the account for over 20 years was that when our competitors attempted to secure the business they were not equipped to provide all of these services or they were one of those customers that said "we don't do that".

It takes some learning and some educating of your own staff to become a facility service provider and not just a janitorial service. I know we struggled getting our managers to embrace the concept but once they began to reap the bonus monthly from the proiftability in their area, it became much easier for them to promote full service to their customers.

I realize for some of you larger customers, the information in this blog may be old news but we may just have spurred an idea of a new service you can provide and for you smaller, maybe newer, companies it is certainly something to consider.

So, think about the additional revenue and profits that are available to you in circling your customers with additional services. Maybe even more important in the grand scheme of things, think about the increased stability you get from providing more services which makes it very difficult for you to be replaced.

As a reminder, next week Monday, the 14th, we begin our daily pod casts leading up to the BSCAI and ISSA conventions in Las Vegas. Be sure and tune in to www.tripodcast.com and hear contractors, vendors and convention speakers talk about what you can expect this year. Remember the dates, November 18-22.  You can register at www.bscai.org or www.issa.com.

Till next time.