REGULAR
How to build strong customer and supplier relationships
Good customer and supplier relationships are fundamental to any business success, whatever the industry. SmartTask’s Paul Ridden discusses how workforce management software can help cleaning companies manage the different aspects of their operations to meet even the most stringent SLAs and win new business.
For the cleaning sector, understanding a client’s requirements, managing staff, contractors and suppliers is essential to deliver the right services to an agreed contract. Having robust and transparent commercial relationships with customers and suppliers can ensure that your business has strong foundations.
While this statement is true, in reality running a business requires actionable tasks and ways of working to deliver on a service promise. This includes systems and processes that can collect and quantify data and report transparently – and help to manage the customer relationship.
Keeping customers happy
Workforce management software systems can support even the most rigorous of client requests and service audits. With the right systems and tools in place, you can confidently address the requirements set out in a service contract.
Such systems can provide evidence to demonstrate how your company will manage and deliver services to meet a customer’s needs. Whether that is providing cleaning for multiple sites, challenging locations, specific site access details or even seasonal workforce demands.
Features such as automated Proof of Attendance mean that you know exactly where your operatives are and their activities. You can accurately record services completed, while mobile apps make it easy for staff to book on and off, ensuring their welfare and safety.
As an example, Approved Cleaning increasingly found that manual and paper-based processes were detracting from the services it was delivering. The company chose SmartTask to enable it to manage and monitor its workforce more efficiently, ensure that staff were paid correctly for their work and that clients received the service promised.
Cleaning operatives use the SmartTask App to sign in and out for their shifts, replacing paper timesheets, while the admin team can see who is working and where thanks to SmartTask’s geolocation features, and respond quickly to no-shows, all in real time. Using SmartTask to monitor the services it provides has proved to be a major selling point in winning new business for Approved Cleaning Services.
32 | TOMORROW'S CLEANING Improving performance
Monitoring performance and highlighting possible improvements is also made easier with workforce management software. Storing all documents in one place (third party contracts, equipment, compliance checks and licences) means they are readily accessible when required.
You can build in renewal reminders for contracts and licences, which ensures business continuity. Managing administration in this way builds robust processes and enables easy reporting to ensure that contracts meet the required standards. Nothing beats having everything that you use to deliver your services at hand – it’s an efficient way of working that also helps with industry compliance.
Stepping up to the next level
Open communication ensures good customer relations. Keeping customers informed of service delivery, changes and issues can be managed with secure access to a customer portal. It ensures no last-minute surprises – or costs. Customers can see the services delivered and queries can be raised and resolved, helping to reconcile invoices quickly.
Elite Contract Clean, a well-established office and commercial cleaning company with its head office in Chesterfield has also enjoyed rapid growth, which it attributes to its emphasis on customer care and satisfaction. Using SmartTask’s electronic forms has enabled Elite to provide additional services, including quality audit reports and equipment checks, in a more professional, efficient manner. The customer portal ensures that clients are kept up-to-date in real-time.
Elite MD, Craig Denton, said: “Our investment in SmartTask has definitely reaped benefits for the business. It enables us to work more efficiently and provide a professional service. It is definitely a selling feature when it comes to talking to new clients.”
www.smarttask.co.uk/smarttask-cleaning/ x.com/TomoCleaning
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
