News
Retaining your business
In such unstable economic times gaining new business, and more importantly retaining existing contracts, has never been so crucial for cleaning companies. Pippa Jukes, Director of Sales for cleaning and FM specialist Nviro, looks at how companies can stay on top of contracts, and analyses processes that need to be put in place to retain them.
t will come as no shock that many cleaning companies are going through some tough times during this economic slump, one which the country is still struggling to recover from. The battle to win new contracts keeps getting harder as prices continue to be driven down, which leaves many companies fighting to stay afloat. For this reason the retention of existing contracts has never been so important for cleaning contractors. It costs around 50% more to gain a new customer than it does to retain one, so retention should be at the top of every company’s agenda. The processes that are required for retention should also be honed to a fine art. As the existing holder of the contract, you already have the upper hand; however, the crucial part is knowing how to use that to your advantage to give your customer no reason to look elsewhere. It’s easy to think that retaining business is simply down to a matter of treating the customer correctly and providing good service. Yet, with clients constantly looking for more efficiency and cheaper prices it’s not so straightforward. When contracts are up for renewal, the same care and attention that was paid at the initial tender proposal stage should be carried forth as if the contract were brand new to a company. Becoming over familiar and taking things for granted is an easy trap to fall into, and can be the catalyst for the breakup of many relationships, not just in the world of business. When a contract goes up for renewal, the salesperson can’t afford to take a back seat and rest on their laurels. It’s often procurement teams that go out to tender but they have very little to do with the day-to-day operations of a contract, so they are far from the champions of the cleaning/FM provider and have to approach it from an unbiased standpoint. For this reason it’s vital that procurement teams take the opinion of onsite management into consideration during the tender process. Those on the frontline have a much wider understanding of how a contractor performs on site. This does depend on the set up of the
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organisation. Typically, those in public sector organisations have a very rigid, strict protocol to follow throughout the tender process and will not deviate for fear of being opened up to scrutiny. In a sense, this is fair for every competitive bid because it allows new contractors to gain business on an even footing, but does little to allay the fears of those trying to retain business. The key difference sits within the team that creates the proposal. As pointed out above it’s essential to treat the retendering process as if it were for a brand new contract. However, the team has to remember the distinct advantage it has – the incumbent contractor will know the contract inside out. This also means that they can be more effective in providing further efficiencies during retender, as they have already accounted for mobilisation and implementation costs when the contract was originally won. These savings can be transferred over to the customer to offer them a better service at a lower rate, something a new customer coming in to tender will struggle to offer. You may have gathered masses of significant information over the life cycle of a contract, but the next stage is to work out how to utilise it to best effect. All too often the operations team that has been successfully running the contract has very little to do with the team that will be requesting the extension or renewal. If this happens, there is a fundamental breakdown in the quality and effectiveness of the bid and it becomes like everybody else’s. It’s simply not enough to deliver good service; yet, the best way to garner the information needed to be successful in retendering is to offer the highest standards of service and to constantly assess how more can be achieved. By holding monthly meetings, reviewing operative performance, carrying out customer satisfaction surveys and re-training where required, you can continuously keep on top of what your
customer desires. At the end of the day, if you don’t sit down and ask exactly what your customer wants and how you can make things better, you’ll be none the wiser when it comes to including this information in the retendering documentation. Engaging with customers on a regular basis to communicate needs and issues forms the very heart of the contract. There’s absolutely no point in going for a contract renewal on a site if it is poorly managed and lacks the desired performance that is required. Just simply looking after your customers in the right way leaves you with far less to prove when it comes to applying at retender stage. By opening up a dialogue and getting to know your customers as people, you can begin to build a trusting relationship and bond which will have a great effect on whether contract retention is successful. Truly knowing your customers also means that you will have a lot more critical information at your disposal. If after three years managing a contract you know that the customer has a strong stance on corporate social responsibility, then make a song and dance about it in the proposal. You may learn that a customer is keen to drive towards a greener and more sustainable approach to business, so make sure that this forms an important part of your own approach. Clients may not be requesting this information but, if you know it’s what the customer wants, then you have a large advantage over those trying to win the new business. The advantages for an existing contractor during the retendering stage are vast, but it’s imperative to remember that this isn’t a time to rest on your laurels. Use every detail to its full effect to make sure your tender document sits a cut above the rest, if you know your customer; you’ll know how to win back their custom. For more information about Nviro please contact 0800 032 1334, email
info@nviro.co.uk or visit
www.nviro.co.uk
Building & Facilities Management – October 2013
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