 Hey, and good afternoon. This is Angela from Ask a House Cleaner, and I'm super excited that you guys have joined me today Today I'm here with Sherri Cedar and she is brilliant. She was on our show the other day And I'm super excited to have her back. She came from TV production. I know so she's got attention to detail She's got that eye for I can see when something needs to be fixed She runs one of the largest training come are one of the largest cleaning companies commercial cleaning companies in the state of Florida that's independently owned and operated and she runs the business with her husband And she's just a wealth of information. So I want to ask you guys to jump in and ask your questions today I've got about 20 of my own questions So we're gonna go just as fast as we can and we're probably gonna run out before it is all over But anyway, thanks for joining us today and please help me welcome to our show Sherri Rhodes Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It is wonderful to be here as super treat and I love your background. I will just continue to say that it's brilliant Colorful and Sherri and happy which is what cleaning should represent Well, you know when I started my cleaning business I did not I was not very smart and I did not know how green screen works So I said if I had one picture if a picture says a thousand words What is the picture that I want to use and it was a picture of cleaning supplies And so what I have behind me is a 10 foot by 8 foot stretch fabric trade show display And I figured that since I didn't know how green screen I just like stand in front of the same screen all the time and then it would say cleaning Well, you know what you did yourself a favor because green screen is like brilliant as everybody thinks they are they're not entirely practical for for podcasts and webcasts because you know if you're animated which I tend to be and you're like Suddenly you're like wait, where'd your hand go? It disappears You know, so you'll be talking to somebody on a zoom call and you see a body part go missing That's their green screen. Well, and you know, it's weird because I have a green screen I also have a 10 foot by 8 foot green screen that are used for another podcast And you're correct when you move around parts of you disappear So if I'm in a clap or something like I can clap up here But then I have to like clap in front of my face if I'm on a zoom call So like my hands don't disappear. Yeah, it's totally it's totally jarring to people who are not familiar with what's going on They'll be like and they can't even hear what you're saying They're just looking at like the very odd situation your your face is in Well, you know, it was funny. We we did a show and this is off topic and then we'll get back on topic So forgive me you guys We did a show with a guy that's absolutely brilliant and he was on the ask a house cleaner show And he had a green screen and then he had his logo behind him that had like all these words on it And it was like a step-and-repeat banner And so there's all this distraction and words and stuff and then every time he would move his head Like his ears would disappear and like half of his head would disappear I'm like whoa. And so like I was watching him the whole time and it was just mesmerizing and so distracting Right and you did not hear a word that he was saying Which which is something we're gonna touch on it a little bit when you some of the questions You had sent me about managing people and whatnot. It's how you talk to people, right? To how you talk to people but I want to say hi to our friends. We've got Dikisha here. She says awesome We've got Mimi Mimi's 105 Dobbins. This is hello, Angela. I hope you're well. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us and God bless You know what? Thank you for joining us and God bless you too. All right onto today's show Hi. So Those uh, those of you that are just joining us for the first time Let's hear a quick update on sherry and how she got into the commercial cleaning business because it's an interesting story Thanks, Angela. Um, well as you mentioned, I have a background in tv production And I had a 20 plus career 20 year plus career in production doing incredible I mean just incredible things. I work with national geographic channel and bravo nbc abc fascinating shows and Meanwhile, my husband was growing a commercial cleaning company and I think you reach a point in your life where you just say Whoa, there's only so much I can handle having two children and growing two businesses And then I kind of think it was a gradual aha moment. I don't know that's that contradicts, right? But there was a an evolution Especially when my husband said why are you working for other people when we can grow something together for our family? And I said wow, you know what? That's so true. And I embraced our company Um, it's not anything I thought I would do and I always thought I would be the wife Never dreamed I'd be the president running it alongside of my husband But I found creativity and business I love working with people. There's a lot of parallels between tv production and commercial cleaning, believe it or not Like what? pre production production post production Okay, uh, a house cleaner whether it's commercial or residential. You have a new client pre production What materials do I need? What tools? How much time do I need? Is there any special requests that that owner property owner will have? How many people do I need for the job? What's the proper? Of course, you always wear proper footwear, etc Um, how do I get there? You know Then production is when you're in it you're cleaning That's the same thing as making your tv show the pre production in tv is interviewing figuring out what the show is Production you're making your tv show you're shooting production for us is the actual cleaning the job post production you go back You edit you put it together you look ahead Post production would be how did I do with this customer? Were they happy? What can I do to improve next time? Looking ahead to the future Wow, what a good wrap-up. That was awesome But you're absolutely right and that's there are parallels to that also in the residential cleaning business as well totally And i'm just going to say no matter what business you're in you're in the people business It's a service industry And there's basic tenants of customer service that whether you're making a tv show selling widgets Or cleaning residential or commercial properties People are people right you manage people you work with people you serve people Well aside from being a uh people business the commercial cleaning industry has some differences From residential cleaning, which is also people business So if all things being equal and let's assume that everybody everywhere wants to get value for what they pay for They want to get a clean service that they don't have to follow behind people and go Hey, you missed a spot right they they want what they're paying for and they want it to be done properly every time And they are expecting you to show up and be reliable and be safe and be accurate every single time I'm going to assume that that's the same on on both sides But tell us a little bit about the types of properties that you guys clean Because most of what we do at savvy cleaner is residential. They are homes Some of them are big homes and some of them are multifamily homes So there might be airbnb's there might be duplexes apartment complexes and things like that, but typically not Like dentist offices or schools or daycares or things like that So tell us about the properties that you have well First of all in terms of residential. We do do a lot of condominium associations and homeowner associations Which is you know people's apartments together and common areas So we do deal with that in the residential side quite a bit We do medical so that means medical facilities and hospitals A lot of schools ranging from university high school preschool single tenant multi tenant buildings industrial like big industrial warehouse areas Corporate headquarters and auto dealerships. I think those are the verticals Whoa. All right. So there's a lot of different stuff there a lot of stuff to unpack So tell us For some of the similarities so that as we can kind of see like hey What are the differences on things we think we know like tell us about the condominiums in the apartment complexes Where you have multifamily units there and you deal with the common areas. What types of common areas do you clean? A gym a clubhouse The entryway the hallways the common area bathrooms elevators stairwells Wow, okay. Cool. That's that's really different from a lot of the stuff that we do So how do you how do you guys bid a job like that? Oh, okay. Well, let's see now you're gonna cause me to think you know every Every property is different. Um in a in a residential You know, generally you walk in you figure out the square footage. You know how long it's gonna take you You do a price So it's somewhat similar in commercial You just like residential you walk the property beforehand You would never give a price without seeing it because you don't know what type of floors they have You don't know what countertops they have. You don't know How many chotchkies they have or Find things or is it very industrial and concrete? So anyway, you walk the property Oftentimes a commercial property will have an rfp request for proposal and they have a scope of work already outlined And they generally have an idea. Do they want day porter services? A day porter is somebody who's on property during business hours Versus nighttime cleaning and day porter services, you know, they're generally the upkeep of the building during the day Um, you know, so you go to the bathroom. There's toilet paper. There's not mud on the floor So once you get all of your your details your facts and your figures You go back then and you factor in how many bodies you need How many hours you need Then you put in all of your, um You know your tax social security Um, I'm forgetting the word for what it's called right now There's a word for all of that bundled together But you add that in and then you add a percentage of what's your margin Margins are not huge in this industry oftentimes you, you know, you're looking at volume business But um, and then we put together a proposal. We use something called pandedocs, which is this amazing proposal software I love it And we put in all of the elements, you know, is it monday through friday, etc? Send it off That's how we bid So do you When you when you do a bid do you plan in advance like here's what we need to get out of the job and here's what we're hoping for so that you can Um Staff it properly or do you just go in and say okay? Here's here's our bid and here's what we're we're we're going for And then you try to figure out the the gaps after that how many people you're going to have to hire and All that stuff after the fact Uh, we don't go in blind Well, we you try to educate yourself as much as you can beforehand Every customer is different Um, be with experience You glean knowledge, right? And you know just by virtue of the industry or the type of property Like you know, what's gonna work and what's not gonna work. You have a very good gut feeling about that But so you go in with best intentions and sometimes you have to tweak now if you're really off like you might have to eat that Um, or if circumstances change, let's just say you're in a multi-tenant building and there were many empty office suites Um, so you bid it based on the number like the rent roll But then all of a sudden boom they lease out everything and everyone wants cleaning You're going to have to go back to the property manager or the building manager and say hey listen, you know, we have to Increase the number of cleaners and hours and here's what it's going to cost And most people are amenable to that. I mean most people property managers understand How that works and so do you guys like sign contracts for a certain period of time like the next six months or the next year Or how do you guys lock in business for a period of time because if you're going to hire people I'm guessing you yeah, I would like to have a contract. It's always nice Guarantee, um, it really depends sometimes you have a three-year contract Sometimes you have a five-year contract. Some days you get a 30 day You can have a contract, but they have a 30 day out in them. So um, you're only as good as your last clean and you're only as good as how you handle a problem and its resolution The truth is anyone can fire you at any time. So it's the onus is on you as the cleaning company To have measures in place So people are always happy and if they're not you can resolve it very quickly because you know, we're human everyone's human So in the residential cleaning business and this is a little bit different for Homes or sometimes and I know especially since the pandemic a lot of people started working from homes So we go in and we bid a contract and then we kind of see Our customers on a regular basis and I know in commercial cleaning oftentimes you bid a contract and then like you never see them again And it's only paperwork from here on out No No No, you do see them. I call no on that. Yeah, okay. All right. Tell me how it goes well, um We have area managers who are in charge. I mean we have to see our customers Often Because you build relationships and you want them to call you if like there's a dust bunny that's been sitting there I don't want them to sit and stew over it I want them to be able to call and say hey sherry, you know These guys missed it could they just pay a little closer attention or to our area managers Um, look, some people don't want to be bothered janitorial is not always the vendor that people want to see They're like, you know what as long as you're doing a good job Don't talk to me But we let our customers know we're here for you We like to check in And so when you check in is that like a quality assurance thing you just call and just touch bases and just say hey remember us we're we're here and Give us I mean that can come in so many different forms Really, we have a quality assurance supervisor. That is her job She goes out and sometimes it's at night so the customers don't see her But we're doing checks and balances on our own teams to make sure that we're living up to the standards that we um Are so proud of you know, we we have to keep that up Sometimes she goes during the day to see property managers or just to say hello. Hi. I'm here if you need anything um Sometimes it's an email. Hey, how are you just checking in Sometimes it's a text a phone call a drop-by. It really depends on the customer. Everyone is different You have to cater to that, you know, you have to be able to read people And I love that because a lot of commercial Especially where we are is done after hours after the business closes for the day And so people have already gone for the day and you don't get to see them So if you do get to see them, it's usually like two ships passing in the night Yeah, you're showing up as they're leaving for the day and hey, how you doing, you know, kind of a thing So I love the fact you guys have a system built in place where you can stay in touch with your customers Oh, absolutely. And you know, you do get the customers Who are working late, right? Or they're they always see the cleaners and they form a really nice bond You know, it's usually there's no no one else in the building and Um, someone comes in and takes out the trash. They have a nice chit chat and and there are relationships formed Um, we've had some really beautiful letters sent about some of our cleaners or they start to wish each other happy birthday It's very special when that happens nice All right Well, you just mentioned taking out the trash and I know that's a question that we run into a lot Is on commercial properties. Do you take out the trash and what happens to that? Do you take it off site? Do you have a dumpster at the back somewhere where maybe the the cleaning service has a key or they have access to that? What what are the rules and does your insurance change because you're taking property off site if you are? How does that work for you guys? um 99.9 percent of commercial properties Have a trash removal system Meaning you take the trash out and you put it in the dumpster in the back Generally behind the building um You do have to be mindful Is the door going to close behind you we we actually have our cleaners put the key cards That they have on a lanyard around their neck because the oh I left it on the desk And they can't get in to avoid that like we really drill that in keep the key around your neck Or in cases we have aprons and they put the keys in the aprons um, but yeah, it's a very standard procedure And also you can't drag the trash, you know, there's a process you have to wear gloves So your the our cleaners are not getting contaminated always make sure you lift it um, and it goes into the dumpster And if people have excessive trash, you know once in a while, that's fine But if it starts to really become a problem we speak to the building and say maybe you need a day porter during the day um Maybe we need to bring an extra person in that trash removal takes an extraordinary amount of time People really underestimate it, but to done done properly um, yeah, it takes time What are your procedures for hazardous materials? I know you said you clean some hospitals And so if you're taking out trash and there's hazmat, how do you guys deal with that or do they deal with that on their own? um In some cases we deal with it. There's something called hazcom and all of our Cleaners get certified in hazcom in how to deal with the trash You know from basic things like when you put on gloves and you remove your gloves You don't want to touch them here. You turn them inside out. It's something like you see the medical doctors do So there are little tricks to the trade to keep everybody safe But if you're not certified you may not take out hazardous material and often hospitals will have a service that just deals with hazardous waste Okay I know that the rules are always different and as residential cleaners we leave the Garbage or trash on site. We do take it out, but we leave it in their receptacle bins. We do not take it off the property I think they're actually insurance rates that hike if you are a trash collector and you take trash off site So we encourage all house cleaners everywhere. Do not take it off site It does not go in your car and then you have to dispose of it somewhere So do not do not throw your trash Do not take it with you No, and there's a good chance if you're taking the trash and dumping it in someone else's dumpster You will get a fine for it because remember there are cameras everywhere Everyone sees everything and if you're dragging trash on the floor, they will see If you're dumping trash illegally in someone else's dumpster, they will see And they see for it. So they will they will not be happy about that I'm so glad you brought that up. I know that a lot of dumpsters have locks on them Like if we're not using it right now, there's a lock on it. Oh, yeah I think it's up the state of michigan or wisconsin. I forget which one but one of them has it's a felony charge If you get caught and there's prison time If you get caught illegal dumping, which is huge Yeah, I mean, I can't speak to florida on what the fine is but people get very angry if you're touching their dumpster Yeah, thank you because also they don't know what you're putting in there. Are you, you know, first of all, are you Are you cleaning out a crime scene, you know Or if you dump your trash and someone else had a crime scene in there and your fingerprints are there Good god, you don't want that No, but in all seriousness if you're if somebody in your property threw away, let's just say a paint can Which you know To them might have seemed harmless the paint cams empty you dump the paint can Well, you're not allowed to throw out a paint can Especially if there's paint in it you as the cleaner can get the fine. So you want to protect yourself I'm so glad you brought that up. There are lots of little nuances that sometimes we don't pay attention to And it's the reason that I really encourage all cleaners residential or commercial to go through training So that they can learn the nuances of all the things that oh, I just never thought of that Because that's not a good enough answer and that's not an escape route. So I'm glad you brought that up No, and the truth is you don't know what you don't know Like if you said to me what keeps you up at night Because I don't know what I don't know. So the more I can educate myself The more I know What keeps me up at night is the stuff I do know That keeps me up all night. I'm like, oh, no, I wish I didn't know You know what maybe maybe you're right about that too Oh speaking of which, um, the residential industry for cleaners Often attracts a certain type of person that is available to work during the day hours So tell us about the the commercial industry and the different types of people that you might be able to hire That maybe this is a second job or something for them sure Generally speaking commercial cleanings at night After hours and the the hours really are typically six to ten p.m And it's really an ideal opportunity For somebody who wants to supplement their income They can have a 40 hour a week job or whatever full-time position And then they could come and work four hours at night. Sometimes it's only two hours. It depends So we find that a lot of our staff. This is a second job for them and it works out very well You do need to take into consideration travel time. I want to point that out If you're going to work two to three hours, you have to make it worth your while You don't want to take all that gas money You know use it up in gas money. You don't want to be stuck in traffic. You don't want to get home too late So those are considerations Another in the commercial cleaning industry, we also have day porters and that's a daytime job And that's typically a 40 hour a week job. Um you know probably Benefits insurance depending on where you go Um, and and that's another great opportunity if you like to interact with people during the day be part of a team Um, and you are part of a team at night too. Don't get me wrong. It's just a little bit quieter a little more solitude and so are those day porters Employees of ak building services or are they employees of the company that hired them? No, they're employees of ak building services You will go into a company And you might see the day porter wearing the company shirt because that's what that client prefers But they're our employee Or you may see the ak shirt You know our day porters always wear polo shirts. They always are tucked in and look clean and professional But you can always see the day porter Well, and I think that's an important thing to say because there are a lot of companies That want to be represented by a professional looking company And so whether you're a day or a night company if you look professional It's going to show up on camera number one. They are going to watch you. I promise you this They are going to watch you somebody somewhere is going to watch you clean They're going to watch your every move whether you're in a home or you're in an office And they're they're going to give you feedback, right? And so it is important to look professional and to do the job that you are hired to do and to be thorough and effective and consistent Those are like the keys because if you start skipping stuff and you're like, oh like I'm looking around and nobody's here So I'm just going to like screw around on my phone for a half hour and then I'll like dust the top. Oh, no Somebody is always watching for better or for worse. Um You know People work so hard, right cleaners work so hard and occasionally if a company had a party And they've left water out in or a soda like to me That's indicative of help yourself like in the world. I've grown up if you put drinks out in the table But you know, you get a call the next day. Well the cleaner took the bottle of water and you think well, geez It was sitting out there. They were thirsty and uh, oh, okay, you're right I I shouldn't have called you about that. But you know, so people do roll back tape. They do spot check And I think homes they do that probably more so than commercial properties I'm willing to bet residential people are looking a lot more closely than commercial I know at sabby cleaner, which is the company that I have training house cleaners and maids We have a policy and the policy is not so much as a piece of halloween candy If it was not given to you it is not yours do not take it It is not yours. Well, it was it was next to the trash I thought they were going to throw it away But it was not in the trash and they did not give it to you if they did not physically give it to you and say Hey, I want you to have this. I thought of you. Maybe you can use it. It is not yours. Do not take it Even if it's in the trash on the curb Don't take it That's you know, that that's how I look at it. Uh, if you know, sometimes if you have a special relationship You say, hey, if you're tossing that can I have it but in general it's it's better just not to Well, and I know for residential The neighbors talk And so they will talk to their other neighbors and say so and so did such and such and if it's good Then you get a job as a result of it. It's a referral and it's bad The job that you had may go away, right? The neighbors may fire you No, but you know what that was what I wanted to bring up with looking clean and professional You know our ak employees like right now I have my ak A manager shirt on And the women we give them a beautiful tunic to wear Or a golf shirt or a button down and the men wear a button down our porters wear a collar our cleaners Have a t-shirt People have always commented wow everyone looks so professional. We really appreciate it That's going to help you get more business You know and if you are have your own Cleaning company and you're a house cleaner and you're you're branded in a beautiful way Um and look clean and professional people notice they notice that and they say oh, wow, you know, maybe I'll call She or he In addition to that I I want to highlight two things and they're touchy situations But I think it applies both to residential and commercial and this has been my experience 32 years in the industry hygiene Really matters Oh god, yeah If you look like you've had a shower and your hair is done and you've brushed your teeth and you are clean It's a reflection of your business If your hair is all wonka doodle and it's a mess and your breath is bad and you've been out smoking or something And you just step in and you reek people are going to go. Whoa That's the person that I've trusted to clean my space And they look like they just rolled out of bed and they look like they've they're falling apart, right? Make sure your package that you're delivering and that's you that's your advertisement Is clean and your hygiene is on and so that means whatever that means for you and our company We encourage people to take showers and wear deodorant before they show up for work Okay, that's that's like part of our training. The next thing is Smile It's free. It doesn't cost anything and it's free, right? So if you're doing a job and you're inspecting your work Smile like tada. I did this and it looks great And we go one step beyond because we know we're on camera and we give ourselves a thumbs up like yes I did this and it looks great People like oh, I'm gee check it out my house cleaners at my house and just gave themselves a thumbs up And they show their friends and their friends are like who's your house cleaner? I gotta hire that person and we've picked up so much business because we give ourselves a thumbs up At when we check off our checklist People watch and then they tell their friends and how you present yourself will either promote or expose you I love that. Yes, but also when you take pride in what you do That's in your appearance. That's in your presentation And your product is much better if you really take pride And and what what we do is very important, you know, we're promoting Healthy and safe and clean environment for whether it's home or business You know people less illness people are more productive in a clean space People are happier in a clean space. People have a clear head in a clean space. They're proud They market themselves better All of the above and cleaners should take pride in that and that starts with your appearance and how you feel I mean, it's so important How you feel always comes back to did I get paid on time as well And I know in the yeah, I know in the residential business We clean and we get paid either the same day or it's an auto pay that they pay on a regular basis Tell us about the commercial business and the differences because I know a lot of companies do like 30 60 90 day terms How does that work? We pay our employees bi-weekly. So that's every other week And I would say most people are on direct deposit or get have pay cards You know, so automatically you have a card and then that every other friday It's filled up like a ATM or card or a credit card Um, so that's how we pay our employees and how we get paid is 30 days Sometimes the customer chooses 60 90 120 and then I have to say well, we may not be showing up tomorrow Um So we we do as a company often float, right? There's because we're we pay people no matter what but yeah, it is not Same day. It's just not how the industry works So if you are a residential cleaning company thinking about adding some commercial to your roster You need to be prepared for the differences in the pay terms Because the word I just heard you say in a shouted just like a bazooka at me like What was we float people? Tell us what floating people means for those that don't know that term uh, for example We are cleaning a building and we have been there Ah, let me give a real example I could think of and and most customers are amazing, right and they do understand as business owners. You need You know accounts Receivable to be paid, but you're cleaning a property Um one month goes by they didn't pay their bill. So you did not receive money But we still are paying the employees. I would never say to an employee Well, I didn't get paid so I can't pay you that would never happen So even if my cash flow is not coming in as the business owner I still have to have enough cash reserves so I can pay my employees on time and without any issues So it's very important to have your you know your financial ducks in a row so to speak So you're on top of your invoicing You're on top of your billing You're on top of your accounts receivable It's it's very important what you don't want to have happen is become a company where you can't pay your employees Because they will just stop showing up What I just heard you say was organization you have to be highly organized in order to run a janitorial business Oh, yeah, so if you're a cleaner that flies by the seat of your pants, this is not for you. Is that right? Yeah If you fly by the seat of your pants, no businesses for you anytime you have Employees and you're dealing with insurance issues and customers and people who depend on you for a service Um, you have to be organized. You have to be really buttoned up I mean and when I say organize I mean that's for everything. That's for training That's for the products you use. That's for communications with people. That's for returning phone calls I mean organization is a big important word that's applicable to everything you do Well, and that brings me to the cleaning supplies because we're organized as professional cleaners And we go inside people's homes and we have a little tiny cleaning caddy and we fill up all of our supplies the night before We fold up our microfiber claws and then we're ready to go The in a commercial uh business I know depending on the type of business Some companies have their own closet that has cleaning supplies And it's got a great big garbage can and it has different kinds of garbage bags that we don't use in residential And it has a cleaning caddy that might have mop pads that are different than the ones we use in homes Tell us about some of the differences in the cleaning supplies themselves for commercial versus residential Well Difference. Okay. So I love a dispenser system a dispenser system We love to put in our janitorial closets. And what does that mean? Well, when you're dealing in vast quantities You're not gonna it's not economical To go to the store and buy, you know 50 bottles of windex um, so what we have is a concentrated product in a dispenser that is Diluted just perfectly because it has water hoses mixed into it and it's foolproof Meaning it's can never be too strong. It can never be too weak. It's just right Um, and we in the red in the commercial sector. We we love spartan cleaning products We also love true shot by johnson and johnson. I think the key is to have Gentle Green seal approved cleaning products for the most part not a hundred percent. We'll get to that in a minute That are labeled appropriately with sds books That are appropriate for a commercial environment So that is for those of you And for those of you that are joining us sds are safety data sheets that every chemical manufacturer From the global e-harmonized system Requires their their cleaning companies all the the companies that do chemicals to have a safety data sheet That has 16 different segments on it that tell you the hazards and how to use it and how to store it And all of the different things you need to know in order to be safe So if you're not familiar with safety data sheets, that's what sds is and if you are a commercial company You are required to have I believe you got to have those on site. Oh, yeah You have to have them on site. Um osha requirements That you have to have that on site and and the reason everyone just so you know is you know, god forbid Somebody splashes a cleaner in their eye. You need to know right away. What exactly was in that product So you could remedy it. Um, which is why of course also the types of products Are so important another subject to talk about um But also if you somebody it's bring your kid to work day Not the cleaners because the cleaner would never bring their child to work. That's against the rules. However, we're saying that Okay, somebody somebody else does And the child wanders into the closet although they're generally locked, but I don't know. Let's just pretend But a kid drinks something purple that looks like Gatorade, but it's not an sds book. It's gonna when you get to poison control immediately They'll know why Okay, so we just covered like 20 things not to do and I want to reiterate these are no things my company does That was not good english, but you know janitorial closets stay locked People don't have access to the cleaning supplies Everything's labeled for safety um And the reason you would label as well You want to use the correct cleaning product for the correct service Like you don't ever want to make a mistake because you don't want to um You don't want to ruin the surface or what you're cleaning, you know glass cleaners for glass You would never use windex on a mirror. It will scratch it Never mix bleach and ammonia you'll pass out And so uh having having the training to make sure that you are safe What precautions do you take to put in place so that a house cleaner? I'm sorry What is the term a janitor a janitor a commercial cleaner a janitor cleaner What what do they prefer to be called? The cleaners we call them cleaners. Okay, cool So what what precautions do you have in place for a cleaner to follow those rules instead of just making stuff up? Because well, I got this in my hand and it worked on this so maybe it'll work on this too Well that that right in there is like one of the single most important things you can do as a A large commercial cleaning company is training its supervision and accountability Like that is one of the most important reasons why you would have a commercial Cleaning company as opposed to you know, somebody's cousin's neighbor um When somebody starts there's two ways this goes you start a new account You have group training with everybody we have certifications that People get they take classes. They have ongoing training. We do hands-on training area managers, I mean we train and we train and we train to the point where the Area managers are like again. Yes more and you're gonna love it because it's important We have a quality assurance and trainer Who that's her entire job That's all she does is to make sure that everyone's Doing things correctly and if she finds something that's not being done correctly we retrain And retrain and if they're not trainable we maybe would help them find other employment elsewhere I trained for a company that was a very large company And they had a lot of trainers and so there was a lot of room for error And one of the things that they did and we we don't do it in residential But it was a brilliant idea is they had a little tiny scan code on the insides of all of the different rooms So as the house cleaner, sorry the cleaner would come in they would scan They had a little tiny scanner in their pocket. They would scan this little code I'm in here now and it was linked to their their personal Account so like I angela am in this room. I am cleaning this bathroom Then when they would go to use the cleaning supply they would scan the cleaning supply Like I angela used this cleaning supply on this surface and while there were cameras and everything all over What was really interesting about it is there were like six touch points before they they got out of one little area Where they had to scan all these different things and i'm like, whoa This is really high tech and high touch But it was really interesting because it held every single person accountable If you are the area manager and you're coming into inspect an area and something is scratched or something is damaged Or the wrong supply has been used on a surface You know who is cleaning, you know what supplies they used and it also was the way that they tracked their inventory for cleaning supplies Because if you scan this and you have used all these different cleaning supplies, you're going to run out at a certain time but It also prevented the cleaners from you know taken some of those supplies home And then using them to run their own cleaning businesses So it was really an interesting way to kind of manage and then hold everybody accountable to the same standards Ah, yeah, you know I don't think that mark and I would feel good about that because Yes to it. I mean we do use the scan codes for many many customers Because they need to show if they get an inspection, right? Yes We've been cleaning this many times and we do that for a lot of customers And it helps track to know how quickly or slowly people are moving are they covering things correctly? But I think if you had to scan everything the same way they do in the hospital every time they take your temperature You know, I think that really slows things down And I think productivity and efficiency would be Really uh hampered that way But this was a huge Company that needed to track those kinds of things And I think that every step along the way there are probably adjustments You know if you're a certain size company you do things a certain way And certainly if you're a solo cleaner you do them a different way What uh, what systems do you have for cleaners that are taking just a cleaning caddy? And they're going to clean a little maybe a little office building somewhere And it's not a great big storage closet and they've got robot vacuums and vacuums that vacuum themselves and all those things Well, everyone's trained. There's a checklist Um, we have an area manager. We still do quality assurance So we we train and we trust and we have supervision. I I really think like that's enough, you know in a in a good way, um We love our team members You know, we trust our team members a lot of them have been with us a very long time And they take pride in what they do and I attribute that to company culture and appreciation and saying thank you um But yeah, I think it comes down to the training In addition to taking care of your employees and having them take care of you back How do you take care of them when they are working on site at night? Let's say that they're on a job by themselves and the building is closed And you're trying to ensure their personal safety and then also the safety of the property and the belongings inside Um Doors are always locked the properties that we clean at night the door is locked And that's without question and they may not open it for anybody So if there's ever an issue, um, they would call You know, generally speaking in the larger properties, there's multiple people There's a supervisor on site, but if you do have somebody who's working solo in a property um You know basic we do a situational awareness training For our managers, which then we teach people if you see something you say something If you have that gut inside of you that you're uncomfortable Call for help immediately Um, don't be looking at your cell phone as you're walking to your car in the parking lot Make sure you have your keys out of your purse or your pocket before you get to your car um, I don't think there are properties that we clean that We would never take on a customer where we felt there was Safety as an issue, right? But in the world that we live in today We have to remind people the extra steps to be vigilant Keep their eyes open and pay attention I'm so glad you brought that up because you're right We live in a world that's becoming increasingly more dangerous And although we can do all the training in the world The situational awareness can save you and i'm really glad you brought that up because if you have been trained properly And you like you said we wear the lanyards with the key card If for some reason you get locked out when you go out to take out the trash you have safety to get back inside And so it's it's things like that where you have your car key on your person at all times If you get locked out and there is an issue and you have to run to your car and get in your car and drive away At least you have the ability to do that as well. Don't put yourself in harm's way I love that you have training and you've covered all of those bases. That's awesome I mean, we love we love situational awareness. It's really it's just as humans. I fact we did the training I loved it so much. I brought it to all my girlfriends and their kids and and boyfriends too You know friends who are boys. Let me in case mark's watching reiterate that But you know, I was like, this is so important like Every human should take this class on these tips of how to be mindful of your Awareness now, let's just say someone's working in the building and they see a tenant in the building And this tenant always Looks nice or even a fellow cleaner. They always have their hair neatly back. They're well dressed. They come in one day And their hair is disheveled They're messy You know, that's like, okay. That's something's off. Call your supervisor right away and let them know Maybe that person went off medication. Maybe that person went on a bender. Maybe that person had a bad day But we're not going to allow somebody to be in the path Of a potential incident So people know you see something you say something And also with situational awareness, especially in office buildings comes A different set of standards as far as your personal safety For example, if you have to reach something, oh, there's a cobweb up there and I don't have my long pole I think I'll stand on this chair that has wheels on it and get No The answer is don't do it Okay, don't do it because situational awareness if you're alone Especially in a building and you stand on a chair with wheels on it And you happen to roll out and you fall down and smack your head You're going to be in a building by yourself and no one can come help you, right? So you have to always be on your your your best awareness and say, you know what? That's that's a I call it a dumb rookie move. That is a dumb rookie move. Don't do that and so yeah, you have to use your best judgment and your common sense which hopefully is In tow wherever you go. Well, okay to that Also, like there's something on the ground and it's too heavy to move. Don't move it Like don't hurt your back Because that's a real common mistake. Please. Don't do it. Don't wear flip flops to work You know, we're closed-toe skid proof shoes Which is required in some of our for some of our Buildings or customers we supply the shoes You know, just we're the right Um, what are some other things? Oh, you know be mindful when you're mopping This is why I love microfiber mops and not the string mops because I don't like the water everywhere, but you know Have a system and how you're working so there's no slip and fall You know, all these little details are just so important because if you cannot work You cannot earn a living, you know, it's Your body is your most important asset I'm so glad you said that I believe the same Speaking of assets, I'm curious how you go about getting commercial cleaning jobs I know lots of house cleaners ask me on a regular basis like hey, I want more commercial business. How do you get jobs? Oh, I wish I had like the magic bullet, right the the silver bullet for that. Um, Look, I think customer word of mouth Is first and foremost when a customer is happy They are very likely to say to their colleagues and friends We love our company. We love our cleaning company They you could picture people are at happy hour. It drinks, right? Uh the cleaning company left the bathroom smelling like urine again those those urine guards haven't been changed I'm so mad. We love our company. You should call a k building services. Like that's the best way um, and then of course We are always out there making connections Always letting people know who we are. So when they're ready um They can call us You know, and of course we have a sales team as well who are out there working very hard because the you know Everybody needs cleaning everyone on here is in a great industry Everyone every home needs to be cleaned and every business needs to be cleaned. It is a wonderfully recession proof business Well, and I'm glad you brought that up because there are a lot of people that don't stop to realize There's a budget for cleaning at every company. There's a budget for cleaning Companies have to be cleaned. It's it's like a thing, right? so Although sometimes they want like a Rolls Royce and they're only willing to pay for like, you know a 1994 Camry So you have to make, you know, you have to set people's expectations. That's a big part of bidding carefully So tell me um, what happens when somebody has uh, uh 94 budget and they're looking for the 2003 Rolls Royce It's not business. I want if if they You know, you can sort of see those customers right away Um, you can explain Often they'll say well, you'll give them what you really think they need What you recommend and say well, I only have this budget this amount and you say okay If we go to that budget Maybe your back your floors will be vacuumed once a week and not every day Are you okay with that? You know, you really have to paint the picture of what this budget amount is going to um afford them And they'll have to make a decision whether that they can live with that or not You put it in the scope of work. So there's full transparency. It's like an upfront contract You set expectations and if they are just like well, could you squeeze it in for me? Please did it? Then we might just say, you know what there are people who could do it for less and you know, we wish you the best I'll never want to put myself in that situation because it's really the cleaners who end up suffering Because then they come back to the cleaners. Oh, could you do a little more a little more? And then the cleaners are going over budget and you say, why are you going over budget? I'm not making any money on this building. Wait a second. Why am I losing money on this customer? And it doesn't make sense for anybody I want to stop for just a second on what you just said because this is really important and I don't want it to slip by The person that's bidding the job is holding everyone else on the team accountable And what i'm hearing sherry say is that they're setting expectations that are reasonable and realistic So that when the cleaner comes in the cleaner can follow and deliver what was promised And if if if Somebody somewhere along the way breaks that chain of command and they start adding things on The company takes a hit because the company has made special promises And they've been a price that is fair for what has been agreed on and there's a contract in place And when the cleaner comes in and does extras while that might be lovely and don't we wish we all could do that? That's not what's being served up on the menu. That's not what they paid for And so if you're doing extra things or you're fitting in extra requests that are not part of the job Those need to go back through the company Got to get on the phone and you got to call your supervisor and say hey, wait a second I have some special requests here. Is this allowed and if it's not allowed You'll be you'll be given an instruction that no that's not allowed Or they'll get on the phone with the person and they'll they'll resolve it without you Okay, you just go about and do the business you are hired to do Because otherwise it costs a whole lot of money and it's not scalable and if nobody Check this out if nobody's making money on the work that you do even if it's fantastic You're gonna lose your job Yeah, and there's a few points to add on to that You know, we we pride ourselves on going above and beyond, you know, we we often do that. Um And that's great, you know, when you when you hire a larger more established company You have some flexibility to do these things However, when it comes to every day and the norm, that's a different story. So you have to use your judgment You know what? This is a great customer Um, they're really we're grateful for their business. Yes We could do a little more and because that's what you do, right? You always give a little more but When dishes like dishes are not in the scope of work in a in a kitchen for commercial They're just not otherwise you'll have a professional dishwasher Sometimes the cleaners will go in and they'll they'll do it once in a while But then people start thinking the cleaners are going to do it. Now the dishes are stacked up Then you say, why am I over budget? What's going on? Why do you need two extra hours? They say well, we do the dishes you say no no more Then the customer come back and says well, they stopped doing dishes because they expected the dishes to be done And now everyone's upset I like to look at it like going to a restaurant when you go to a restaurant They give you a menu and you say I would like to have the entree They don't bring you out appetizers just because they want to give you a little something extra They don't if you didn't pay for them you don't get them. And so what would you like to drink? You say, I'll have water Okay, great. They're going to bring you water and your entree. You're not going to give you a free dessert just because Well, you're a good customer. So here's a free dessert Maybe they do every once in a while But that's not the norm and they don't do it for all the customers, right? Because it's not on the menu. It's on the menu, but that's not what you purchased At any point you can always purchase an appetizer or drinks or dessert or whatever. It's available to you But if that's not on the menu, what we're serving is exactly what the customer paid for And we're going to make it the best version of whatever they paid for every single time And that's the reason we go back and I bet you guys do this too You go to a restaurant and you order the same thing over and over and over and over again, right? Every time you go I know I do why because I can count on that one dish being spectacular They deliver it the best way every single time I know that I can order extra things and so do our customers and we need to be crystal clear About the extras that we do it's going to be a little garnish here and a little garnish there It's not going to be a whole free appetizer or dessert or whatever. Okay, that's not it's not scalable And you don't make money giving stuff away So I love what sherry said and I love the way she said it In that we're it's quality control. Okay, we're going to deliver the best we can And it's going to be exactly what we promised by setting expectations in advance And it's also okay to say, you know I think you could use a deep clean right now. It's been a while Would you like me to do a special job for you? And then you could come to, you know, the deep clean the closets whatever it is you're going to do or the floor work Because that's understood there's maintenance and then there's special projects And that's very important to distinguish the two different products that you offer We have service providers that come and some of the the service providers that always get my business And I love this. It's a great approach. They say, hey, you're due for a deep cleaning or you're due for this or whatever It's that time again on the calendar for this particular service. When would you like us to schedule it? And I'm like, well, let's see in two weeks or whatever, you know And just the way they say it. It's just so matter of fact, like, you know, it's time again. Here we go Okay, let's schedule that but it goes on the schedule and there's an extra fee for that. Right. It's not free. It's not a freebie Yeah, and I don't think people should be shy about that or feel bad about it It is what it is and just be matter of fact about it Oh, this was so good and our time is up man. I could just keep going and going and going Sherry, you and I are just gonna have to start a podcast together. Just this is great. Tell our listeners where they can go to find you Okay, if anyone would like to have a conversation or connect you can find me on linkedin Sherry cedar, you can find us through our company website ak building services And oh, there we go. Yes, find me. Have a conversation connect. I love talking about cleaning and business and all things related Well, I have learned so much from you and if you have one piece of advice that you want to leave Residential cleaners who are thinking about the commercial business. What piece of advice would you give them? Think carefully because it is a very different business While the the core tenant of cleaning is the same the methodology the insurance All of the sort of business surrounding the business are different and the pay scales are different So just think carefully and wisely before you take that plunge Great advice as always. Oh, I love this. All right, you guys. Thanks so much for joining me here today Thank you. Sherry. This has been enlightening and informational and entertaining. So thank you I appreciate you guys dropping in today to to visit with us and to share this information So until we meet again, leave the world a cleaner place than when you yes shine brighter