"Good Evening" is not the answer

The holiday's are over and it's time to get back to a normal schedule, normal routines and to finish my 3 part series on the insights from the staff.

The number 3 most frequent complaint by the staff was a little complicated and I have held off posting about unitl I personally spoke with some of them and got some clarification.

On the survey there were a number of #3 responses.

• Don't just say Hi! when there is a problem

• 'Good Evening' is not the correct response when asked how is everything is going?

• Don't be afraid to talk to me, I am an adult!

Were a couple of the lines written into the survey. In speaking with the staff I realize that what they were trying to get across was that they see a large number of customer employees working at night in the offices and while they are polite, make small talk etc.... They do not mention to the cleaners if there is a cleaning issue. Instead they don't mention it all and remain unhappy or they wait until it gets to be a big problem and then take it to the big bosses.

The cleaning staff would much rather have you the customer point out the problems right away so they can be addressed immediately not at the quarterly staff meeting. It is a cry for communication and something that I am encouraging the cleaners to be a little more direct in their discussions with employees they see at night. Don't just nod, wave or say hello but every once in a while ask specific questions about the service, their work area and the the overall perception of our performance. All feedback is welcome at all times by everyone on the staff, we all count on our jobs for various personal reasons but keeping you the customer happy is our number 1 job to insure that we keep our jobs!

Thanks for reading this past year and I look forward to sharing more thoughts and ideas with you in 2005.
Sincerely,
Ken Galo
Co-Owner
L & K Cleaning Services
www.lk-clean.com

Xmas Break

L & K Cleaning Services, the owners and staff would like to take this time to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season!


Couple of tips/hints and thoughts during this time of year.

• Don't leave the decorations plugged in over the weekend

• Unplug the crockpot, toaster oven, warming plates etc... after the office party.

• Don't leave food out, uncovered, if you plan to eat more of it later

• Make sure the coffee machine is off before leaving

• Try to keep the food and drinks in the same general area to reduce the risk of carpet stains

• If you need extra trash barrels or trashbags for the party, call us, we loan them out for free.

Thank you for your patronage this past year and we look forward to providing you with the same high quality service again next year.

News Flash--Cleaners Have Tele-kinetic Powers!!

The second item on the employee survey was split evenly by 2 complaints. Since they are both very similar I gave them a combined consideration and ranked them number 2 on the top 3 list of cleaning employee complaints.

2A is: Please mark boxes that are trash with a big 'T' so we know to take them and throw it out.
Our staff are trained NOT to throw out any box that is not IN a garbage can unless it is
marked as trash!

2B is: If you need more work space-- do not use your trashcan as an extra stand! When cleaners arrive for work and go to empty the trashcan and some book/pad/case etc is open or on top of the full can of trash, guess what? bye bye book, pad or case!

2C is: Personal note from me, No, I do not, any longer, go dumpster diving because you made a mistake. It's not safe and it's certainly not healthy.

Number 3, the final cleaner complaint will be out in a few days.
Thanks for reading.
www.lk-clean.com

Why We Hate the Phone Company

To be in a service based business you have to be a 'people' person. Personally, I love meeting people, talking to people, hearing their stories and so forth. It's fascinating to me and gives me greater insights on developing our service programs.

This includes talking with our employees. They are all part time which means many of them have full time jobs besides ours or are in school preparing for a new career or are retired from their life's work. This all makes for interesting conversations.

We also take the time, periodically, to add items to their paycheck envelopes. Things like janitorial humor or cleaning related cartoons that we come across, cleaning related crossword puzzles etc...

Recently we put in a survey and asked the cleaners:

If you could request 3 things of the customer you clean for, what would they be?

The number 1 answer? And I mean by almost everybody!

Please Stop Throwing the Phone Books in the Trashcans!

Why?

1. They make the cans very heavy and difficult to empty
2. The books always rip the plastic liner causing the half cup of coffee or can of Pepsi to spill into the can which they now have to go wash out.
3. The book is not trash, it is recyclable

I thought this was very interesting and would pass it on to our readers. I will post other survey results in future blog postings.

Thanks for reading.
Ken