Janitorial work orders are the lifeblood of your business. More work orders mean more business, and more business means more income.
You love work orders.
However, work orders also mean more administrative work. It’s the stressful kind of work… searching for your notes, juggling tasks, scheduling people, following up, and purchasing supplies.
You hate work orders.
Finding the balance between excitement and dread when you have work orders come in is essential for your success. You may find just that by adhering to the following best practices of janitorial work orders, you can move from your love-hate relationship, to just love…
Establish A Consistent Process for Processing Janitorial Work Orders
Having a simple, step-by-step process for creating work orders is important and helps prevent costly mistakes. An example process might be when a customer calls and describes the work they need, you might visit the customer’s property to assess the issue and prepare a quote. Once the customer accepts the quote, you schedule the job and create a detailed work order. Once the work order is created, that document is consistently used to:
- Establish the expectations of the customer (scope of work)
- Help you resource and schedule efficiently
- Guide the employee onsite who is completing the job, and
- Serve as a benchmark for inspections of completed work.
Clearly, there is a lot riding on correctly managed work orders. Taking advantage of intuitive, easy-to-use software like Janitorial Manager will allow you to create detailed, digital work orders from the office or in the field! These work orders can be accessed by multiple people viewing the same thing at the same time… which means everyone stays on the same page throughout the entire process.
Ensure All Essential Customer Information on the Work Order
Competition is fierce when it comes to the commercial cleaning industry. The omission of even one detail can lead to costly mistakes and wasted time… perhaps even the loss of future work! You must be fully aware of your customers’ expectations for each job, so every work order should contain the following information and line items:
- Client contact info
- All deadlines or times for appointments
- All specifics for the job, including the exact location(s), task(s), etc.
- Any notes from related conversations with the customer
Assign All Essential Internal Details Related to the Work Order
Scheduling your staff and ensuring proper materials are much easier when you know exactly what your customer needs, rather than ‘guesstimating’ based on your memory of a brief conversation with the customer.
So once you have all their details nailed down, it’s time to establish your own internal work order information, including:
- Order or tracking #
- A list of all equipment and supplies needed
- The estimated cost of the work—broken down by task or item
- Available employees to complete the work
Eliminate the Paper Trail – Create Digital Work Orders
For many janitorial service companies like yours, clients’ work orders are received over the phone or in-person. Often, this means that service requests are jotted down on whatever paper is within arm’s reach…a Post-It note, a corner of a newspaper, a napkin, sometimes even on the palm of your hand! But due to a gust of wind, an over-piled desk, a sneeze, or one too many hand-washings later, finding that note can be challenge.
Even if you did successfully transfer the hastily jotted information from the back of your last parking ticket onto an official work order form, once your employee takes it with them to the job site, you won’t be able to answer your customer’s questions if he calls for an update.
The solution is found in a commercial cleaning software like Janitorial Manager, which provides you the freedom and flexibility of creating, receiving, and managing janitorial work orders, digitally. You and your customers will be able to easily input requests into a customized portal where you can access, assign and modify it from any digital device… without having to chase down scraps of paper or dig through piles work orders in your vehicle or office!
Move from Love-Hate, to LOVE…
Following these best practices and creating digital work orders might just be what your relationship with your janitorial work orders needs!