Wednesday, April 29, 2015

WHAT IMPRESSION ARE YOU LEAVING?

In my previous blogs as well in my books and DVDs you have heard me discuss the importance of an ongoing recruiting program for prospective and current employees as well as a systematic method of tracking your applicants. Another important part of this process is the facility where you interview and process new employees, especially if you are in the cleaning business.

Stop reading for a moment and take a walk to the front of the building where you ask prospective employees to apply for a position with your company. When they drive up what do they see? Nicely painted building, accurate well positioned signage, well lighted grounds, neatly mowed and maintained? Please make a note of any improvements that need to be made and who will make them promptly.

Next, walk in the door that applicants enter to complete their application. Okay, so we have a few cobwebs hanging from the ceiling and we haven't had time to vacuum the carpet for a week, but we've been busy starting a new large account. I understand completely but I want to remind you that if you are in the cleaning business and your business is to keep things clean, isn't it important that we begin at our own office so our prospective employees get the message loud and clear that we provide first class, quality, professional service and satisfaction to our customers and we expect nothing less from anyone joining our team? You see, the prospective employee doesn't know you started that large account and so they judge your quality expectations by what they see in the application room.

This reminds me of one of my long term customers who also became a long term friend. Part of the customer satisfaction process was for me to do a monthly inspection tour with him. If things went well, it culminated with a lunch that I bought. 

I should mention this was a large industrial facility sprawled out over many acres and we cleaned the administrative areas, factory offices, lunchrooms, restrooms, etc. with a sizable staff around the clock. When I would arrive for my monthly tour, my customer's first order of business was to walk to the main supply closet in the factory and check its condition. If everything looked neat and clean, mop buckets and trash barrels empty, mops hung up properly etc. he would say "Ollek, looks to me like your crews are doing a great job, let's go to lunch". By the way, part of my deal was that I could not alert the crews as to which day I was coming. I kept my word on that issue although I sometimes wish I hadn't.

On the other hand, if he found anything out of order such as equipment dirty or mop buckets standing full of water with a mop in them or a trash barrel still full of the last shifts trash, we would spend the rest of the day walking the entire facility (without lunch). You see, his philosophy was if we couldn't keep a 20 by 20 supply closet clean, how in the world could we keep his large plant facility clean? Agree?

You see, it does hold true. If we can't keep our own facilities clean and inviting to our prospective employees, how in the world can we expect them to keep our customer's facilities clean? WE set the example in our office as to what we expect in the field.

I don't want to belabor the point but I cannot over emphasize the importance of presenting a neat, clean, and appealing first impression for people who enter our premises. Never know, a prospective or current customer just might decide to pay you a personal visit. How do your facilities stack up?

If you haven't already done so, take a tour of your facilities. What kind of a message do they send to prospective employees and customers, or current customers? 

Hope to see as many of you as possible in Scottsdale at the Executive Management Conference on May 14-16. Should be a great learning experience and I am really looking forward to it. 

Till next time. If you have any comments or suggestions just contact us  at 573.374.1111.

Watch for news on a brand new site, in addition to our regular one that we should have up and running within a month. We're excited about it and will give you more details as we get closer to launch. MAKE IT A GREAT DAY. 

1 comment:

Bryan Lazorik, CBSE said...

Great points Dick! Thanks for sharing! It's good for everyone to take a step back and see the situation as a prospective employee would!

-Bryan Lazorik, CBSE