I know who your BSC is and they did it!

OK, I admit I am a local competitor  that wants to quote on your offices but I still think it's the cleaners........

That being said, we use our company newsletters, that are mailed out to every customer and extra's left in their coffee stations to promote our staff, stories about successes, classes completed, on-going training and of course some touching, human interest stuff about volunteer work or birthdays or company annv etc....

The whole idea being to make the customer see us as real people not those mysterious fools that only come out at night.

I also make a point of talking about the cleaners that are assigned to their building whenever I meet with customers or their employees.  I don't say the words "staff" or 'Cleaners", I use the actual employees real name.  It personalizes the issue for the customer, it's harder to be mad at 'Terrel' than it is at 'that sweeping guy'.

When you get tired of this batch eating the Wheat Thins from the box in your desk drawer, give me a call!

We once cleaned the ceilings and walls, carpet and hea/air dicts in a public school.  It took 4 weeks. After job was completed we were told that we had to pay for a time card reader in the amount of $500. They said it had been thrown to the floor and broke in several pieces. I asked the crew who I believe were honest and all said they didnt know anything about it. During our time there , they was kids running around in building, painters , club meetings, and a lot of traffic. It could have been anyone. But the fact that we were the cleaning crew and they owed us $86,000 might have influenced them somewhat. I said we were not paying for it. There reply was then we will hold your payment until it goes through the court systems. They knew I would pay so as to get my pay. It was cheaper than hiring a lawer. The same principal also took me and the County Maint Supervisor outdoors where he pointed out that the plastic barriers around the playground equipment had been busted in several areas and that this was our fault too. I said to them both , Now this is about enough. We had not cleaned anywhere near the outside playgrounds. I said I think you need to talk to the county employees who are running into the barriers with the mowers. They agreed hesitantly that I would not have to pay for them also.   Over the years we have been blamed for a lot but usually the clients realize that they were wrong in thier fast assumtions.

It is a sad fact of life that cleaners inevitably get the blame when something goes astray in the office. They are an easy target because they are generally the last people in the building and they work alone. Unfortunately we had a couple of incidents over the years where the cleaner actually was guilty of theft. The temptation of cash or property in an unmanned/unsupervised clients office proved too much for a couple of weak willed employees. The truth is that cleaners ard no more honest or dishonest than the general population. Every walk of life has its share of thieves.