Bring Accountability And Effective Communication to Your Cleaning Crews With This One Simple Tool
In a world filled with a growing number of distractions, communication isn’t something we can take for granted. Even though we all understand how important good communication is, it’s still a daily challenge to ensure we understand and are understood. Communication breakdowns can lead to significant issues at work, which is why we believe a cleaning crew communication app is an essential tool for anyone in the commercial cleaning business.
You might think that with instant messages, texts, messaging apps, and good, old-fashioned emails we already have plenty of ways to communicate. This is partially true. Indeed, these resources help us in our personal lives. But when you run a business, you want to keep your work communications in one easy-access place.
Who has time to go from one app to another to another attempting to find that message about the mop heads? Or to figure out which employees use which communication method?
It’s easier, more efficient, and more productive to use one mobile app that handles everything from inspections to time tracking to translating messages into preferred languages. And if you really want to step things up, how about adding client messaging to the package?
More than just another app, though, a cleaning crew communication app offers numerous benefits that can help your commercial cleaning service.
Improve communication with your vendors, customers, and staff. Learn more today with a discovery call and find out how to make your cleaning operation more efficient, cost-effective, and better for everyone!
Modern Challenges Faced by Cleaning Crews
Communication and accountability go hand in hand. Gaps in communications make it impossible to assume accountability. You can’t do something you don’t know you’re supposed to do.
Yet, even with so many avenues for communication, you can never guarantee that someone gets your message. Again, this goes back to the idea that with so many options, we rarely have one centralized place dedicated to communicating at work.
Here are some of the communication challenges that cleaning staff face, as well as some possible outcomes of those challenges:
- Language barrier. One considerable strength of cleaning businesses is that teams speak so many languages. This allows communication with more clients and vendors, and opens up the possibility of contracting with new customers. However, that variety can also impede communication if there isn’t a mutually understood language.
- Distance. If you work with multiple cleaning teams across multiple locations, that distance can create communication issues. As a message goes from one person to the next to the next, it changes. Pretty soon the request to add a task to a checklist becomes tossing the checklist and creating a new one.
- Location. In-person communication can suffer when there are location barriers. This is evident when people are assigned to different spaces. However, even two people working in the same facility may have trouble tracking each other down to relay messages.
- Extra work. Poor communication often leads to extra work. There’s the time and effort it takes to get in touch with people. More than that, though, are all the duplicated efforts, the time spent doing a task the wrong way, or doing work that doesn’t need to be done.
- Missing tasks. It’s so easy to miss something on a facility cleaning checklist when you assume someone else is doing it.
- Missed requests. It’s not unusual for clients to have specific requests in the middle of a job. Maybe it’s a conference room that needs tidying up before a big meeting. Or perhaps it’s a school teacher who needs help cleaning up a spill. Again, though, without a solid way to communicate, these requests can go unfulfilled.
Addressing Accountability and Communication Issues
What can you do about all these challenges? More importantly, how can a cleaning crew communication app help? Isn’t that just one more in a series of communication channels?
A cleaning crew communication app is another way to reach your cleaning service staff, yes. It’s also much more. Specifically, JM Connect, from Janitorial Manager, is designed by and for people in the commercial cleaning industry.
Here are some of the benefits of a high-quality cleaning crew communication app:
- Communications hub. Instead of searching through multiple apps to find the right messages, a single app consolidates everything into one location.
- Location-based messaging. An app with location-based messaging makes it simple to reach anyone at a given location. You don’t need to pull up a schedule or see who’s assigned where. If you need to get a message to your on-site team at location A, you can do it easily. This is especially helpful when facility owners or supervisors have special requests or instructions.
- Real-time task-tracking. A communication app like JM Connect comes with numerous additional benefits. The cloud-based software includes task lists, which are automatically updated as they are checked off. Whether you have a cleaning team with you on location or you want to check on a remote cleaning team, it’s all in your hands.
- Time tracking. Part of your job as a commercial cleaning business owner or supervisor is employee time tracking. You want to ensure people are at work when they’re supposed to be. This also allows you to keep tabs on payroll and time and task management.
What about onboarding? It’s not always easy to get your team to adopt new protocols. That’s especially true if people feel like you’re going to track their every move.
There are a few ways to handle this. The best way, however, is to get buy-in from at least some of your team. Software like Janitorial Manager has benefits for them, too.
Some of these benefits are accurate payroll, better team communication, eliminating task duplication, a record of shared images in case there are any disputes about work getting done, and more evenly distributed work orders and workloading.
Use Janitorial Manager to Improve Communication
Here’s one example of how Janitorial Manager can benefit your team in your day-to-day operations.
Ryan’s team works in a large office complex. In addition to regular cleaning, they’re also contracted to do minor maintenance, such as changing light bulbs, snow removal from walkways, light plumbing, and so on.
The commercial cleaning company that worked there previously had a similar contract. What they didn’t have, that they needed, was a commercial cleaning crew communication app. On a busy work day, one of the restroom sinks began leaking. While the cleaner on duty went to the basement to turn the water off, someone working in the building walked into the restroom, slipped on the wet floor, and ended up with a concussion. That company’s contract was not renewed.
Something similar happened to Ryan’s team. Someone on the team noticed a leak in one of the restrooms. In this case, though, he stayed in the restroom to warn people of the slippery floor. At the same time, he used location-based messaging on the JM Connect app to reach everyone on his team.
Within minutes, the water was off, there were signs, mops, and buckets, and the restroom was reopened, thanks to a helpful team that could take care of the issue without the risk of anyone getting injured.
Measuring the Impact of Clearer Communication
Clear communication benefits everyone. And a cleaning crew communication app can help you measure those benefits. How?
Apps like JM Connect come with a full suite of commercial cleaning operations tools. Among those tools are inspection reports, time tracking, checklist and work order management, and customizable employee performance records.
These tools allow you to ensure you’re staying on budget for any given location. You can track employee progress, including following up after performance reviews, as well as listing certifications.
Furthermore, task tracking through Scan4Clean allows you to find out exactly when employees scan in or out of an area. This information is vital for determining the actual timing of cleaning tasks. Plus, regular reviews of this information can help you determine if there are anomalies.
Tips for Maximizing the Effectiveness of Janitorial Manager
Let’s say you do add software like Janitorial Manager to your commercial cleaning operations. You have task tracking, time tracking, a cleaning crew communications app, Scan4Clean, language translation features, employee performance records, and more. But how do you make the most of it?
Any time you bring in a new tool to your organization, there’s a learning curve. That doesn’t mean the learning curve has to be lengthy or complicated. For example, Janitorial Manager includes complete onboarding and training. Plus, our team is available for any questions that come up along your journey. To begin, though, here are some tips to help get you started maximizing the effectiveness of this tool.
- Maintain regular training schedules so your team stays up on the latest best practices in the janitorial industry.
- Encourage your team to communicate openly, by asking questions, keeping each other notified of any issues on a job site, and calling out your team for a job well done.
- Appoint an on-site supervisor to help everyone on the team adopt your new software.
- Run regular reports to ensure you have the data you need to make smart business decisions.
- Take advantage of the numerous integrations, including QuickBooks, Zoho CRM, ADP, Paychex, Blitz Sales Software, and more.
With communication as a cornerstone of your commercial cleaning business, you’re on the path to success. And that success can be much more swift and sweet with the right tools in place to help you get where you want to go.
Bidding, to-do lists, cleaning checklists, supply inventory, timekeeping… it’s all here. Janitorial Manager can help you organize all your commercial cleaning operations. Schedule a free call with Janitorial Manager to learn more.