Maintaining cleaning equipment and supplies is crucial to keep your business running. Here’s how to keep up.
Take care of your equipment, and it will take care of you. If you’ve heard that before, you’re not alone. Maintaining cleaning equipment and supplies is one of the best things you can do to keep your business in business. Without your tools, you can’t work. And if you can’t work, you’re losing money.
The catch, of course, is that maintenance takes time, and time can be hard to come by. It’s easy for maintenance to take a back seat to more pressing matters. When your equipment is performing well, putting off those maintenance tasks doesn’t seem like a big deal.
However, things start going downhill when we aren’t maintaining cleaning equipment regularly. It’s almost impossible to tell at first. Gradually, we become accustomed to the fact that buffing the floors takes a little longer, or that the steam cleaner doesn’t heat up quite as well. Then one day, that equipment breaks down completely. There’s a good chance it breaks down in the middle of a job. That is far from ideal.
Make your cleaning business more organized, efficient, and profitable. Schedule a free call with Janitorial Manager to learn how mobile-friendly scheduling software can help you streamline your operation like never before.
Maintaining cleaning equipment and supplies: 5 ways to stay on top of the work
1. Perform maintenance as you go. One trick to maintaining cleaning equipment is to perform some of the smaller tasks as you go. For example, make it a habit to wipe down your vacuum at the end of every shift. If you do this with all your equipment, it’s easier to notice small things like a power cord showing signs of wear or other problems.
2. Put it on your calendar. It seems simple enough, but it’s surprising how easy it is to forget to add regular maintenance tasks to your calendar. But once you have it in your calendar, you can set these tasks as recurring every week, month, or whatever the interval. This way, maintenance is part of the schedule. And if you aren’t sure how often to schedule maintenance, check the manufacturer’s website for recommendations.
3. Plan for maintenance in the least disruptive way. One frequent excuse for avoiding maintenance projects is that it’s too disruptive. For example, your team can’t do their job without the polisher. But what happens when the polisher breaks down, and you have to send it out for repairs? You can avoid this scenario with planned maintenance tasks. How? You can rent or borrow the equipment you know will be out for maintenance. That means you can continue to do your job while your team is maintaining cleaning equipment and ensuring that it has a long life.
4. Do it all at once – or one at a time. Most maintenance tasks won’t take long. That leaves you with a couple of options for maintaining cleaning equipment. You can schedule a half-day (or however much time you need) strictly to attend to maintenance, cleaning, and repairs of all of your equipment. Your other option is to schedule individual equipment on separate days. So Day 1 is for vacuums, Day 2 for steamers, etc. Then you only have a little bit of “down” time.
5. Stock up on spare parts. There are some things you know you’ll need for maintaining cleaning equipment. A supply of extra items like replacement floor scrubbing pads or vacuum belts almost always comes in handy. Keeping these on hand means you can take care of your maintenance tasks in one shot instead of having to order and wait. It’s also helpful to have these items in the event that something breaks unexpectedly.
Why regular maintenance is important
Safety. The safety of your team and customers is a top priority. One way to ensure safety is by maintaining cleaning equipment and supplies. Not only can poorly maintained equipment break down, but it can also become a hazard when parts break, or wires are frayed or exposed.
Saves money. It’s not hard to calculate how much money regular maintenance can save you. You know how much you make for each job, so failing to do that job is a direct monetary loss. More than that, however, frequent equipment breakdowns can hurt your reputation. That means fewer referrals, or worse, negative word of mouth.
Solidifies your reputation. Speaking of reputation, the quality of your work is vital to a good reputation. When you show up to a job with well-maintained, clean, functioning equipment, your customers perceive you as professional and competent.
With so many benefits to maintaining cleaning equipment, there’s really no downside. Your equipment works better, lasts longer, and helps boost your reputation. Your team can work more efficiently and safely. And it saves you money. What’s better than that?
Take advantage of the value Janitorial Manager can bring to your cleaning operation to streamline your processes like never before. Learn more today with a discovery call and make your cleaning operation more efficient and cost effective!