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Overcoming Obstacles: Using An App For Cleaning Companies

“There’s an app for that!” When the iPhone 3 came out in 2009, this was Apple’s new marketing slogan, and it caught on like wildfire.  Now, everyone has a smartphone, and you can find an app for just about anything, from gaming and social media to banking and grocery shopping, and literally everything in between. It was Apple’s goal to make the app an irreplaceable tool, and the amount of app downloads from their Apple App Store each year (over 140 billion in 2016 alone!) absolutely proves that they succeeded.

However, not every app is created equal. While a lot of businesses have invested their time, money and effort into creating an app for either their employees, their customers or both, it takes more than some coding and a nice user interface for an app to be successful. And if you’re a business owner, especially in the commercial cleaning industry, apps may be the last thing on your mind. You have plenty of things on your plate – learning or using something new may not be high up on your priority list.

But you have obstacles, right? Things that frustrate you, or hinder the quality or quantity of your business?

If you could change those things, or handle them in a more efficient way, would it be worth your investment? If your answer is yes, then using an app to streamline your business could not only remove a lot of those barriers, but it can save you time, make you more money and help you serve your customers better than you are now. Take a look at these three common problems that commercial cleaning companies face, and see how an app can fix them!

Obstacle 1: Paper EVERYWHERE

You know the dread you feel when you come into your office each day and see a desk full of paper: work orders, sticky notes, calendars, employee schedules, supply receipts, etc. If it’s not your desk, it’s a filing cabinet full of the same paperwork, for multiple clients, spanning too many years. For most business owners, using paper is easy because it’s how they’ve always handled their business, but let’s be honest – it’s outdated and not efficient at all. Staying organized is already important to you and your business, but if you’re still using paper as your main source of organization, it’s time for an upgrade.

There’s an app for that: Keep everything organized, for every client, with practically unlimited storage space in the palm of your hand! By using an app to handle this part of your business, you can easily navigate through any information you need, on any device, wherever you are. There are sections for work orders, scheduling, employee information, budget analysis, inspections, and more. Clear off your desk and clean out that filing cabinet – paper will no longer be an issue for you!

Obstacle 2: Sometimes employees (and clients) are needy

As a business owner, you have a lot that you’re responsible for, but keeping your employees happy and your clients satisfied can feel like a never-ending job, and micro-managing doesn’t do anyone any good. Whether you have two employees or 200, keeping up with all of their schedules is a challenge. The same goes for your clients – regardless of how many clients you have, maintaining the level of customer service it takes to keep those clients puts a lot of pressure on you.

There’s an app for that: Scheduling your employees is no longer a stressor when you have an app to handle that schedule for you. Using the calendar function, you can plan every job that needs to be done, who is going to do it, and when it should be completed. You can even color-code each job or the jobs for each employee to help you visualize what needs to be done, and you can adapt the calendar for what works best for you – whether looking at your schedule by day, week, month or as an agenda. Your employees can have access to the specific parts of the app that they need, giving them the freedom to maintain their job (and taking that pesky micro-management issue off the table). You can also manage all of the information you have for each of your employees and your clients, including anniversaries, birthdays, contact information, and more.

Along with scheduling your employees, you and your clients have access to a client portal – this is where your clients can access the software themselves, giving them the option to contact you when a job needs to be done, or allowing them to provide feedback when needed. All of their communication comes to you via system notifications in the app and by email alerts, which will help you be as efficient as possible when addressing a client’s problem or request, and helps your clients feel more involved in the process.

Obstacle 3: Work orders, inspections and inventory – oh my!

The top three areas that can make or break your business: the work orders you receive from clients, the inspections that are done (or not done) after those work orders are completed, and the inventory used for each of those jobs. Having good business practices and budgeting in these three areas is vital for a business to be successful, and while you may think you have each of these areas covered, there are ways you and your employees can excel here, bringing more clients in and keeping more money in your bank account.

There’s an app for that: Take the stress out of managing work orders and inspections by using tools specifically built into the app for these two areas. You can filter the information by client or date, you can see when each work order or inspection is scheduled and when it’s completed, and you can even track whether or not an invoice has been paid or how well you or your employees performed on each job. And when it comes to inventory, your budget is key – you can compare your cost versus your budget, you can organize every product you use, how often you use it and how much it costs, and you can keep your supplier list up-to-date so you’re not wasting time or money by using the wrong ones. When your clients see how well your day-to-day business is handled, they will be more than satisfied, and a happy client is a loyal client.

Don’t let obstacles like these block your business – by utilizing an app to help your commercial cleaning company, you will not only be more relevant to business today, but it will set you apart from your competition, and give you the peace of mind you need to keep your business successful for a long time to come. Want to know more? Contact us at Janitorial Manager – we can answer your questions about using technology to help your business prosper by giving you a free demo of our software and our app. Contact us today!        

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