The first blog post in this series went over the journey, often lasting decades, that some Mero customers have shared with us as they looked for ways to track, maximize and prove cleaning work. The long and often frustrating journey to find an effective cleaning validation solution underscores a crucial point: the need for a real-world solution is genuine and pressing. Companies have invested significant time, resources, and effort into this search and are now finding success with Mero’s beacon based solution. In this second blog post in the series, we’ll dive into how commercial cleaning firms can use Mero to win more business.

Winning and Retaining Commercial Cleaning Contracts

In the competitive world of commercial cleaning, companies have two primary avenues for growing their business: winning new contracts through Request for Proposals (RFPs) and securing contract renewals. Both paths require a strategic approach controlling costs while delivering on cleaning quality. Let's explore how commercial cleaning firms can excel in these areas and, thereby, increase their market share.

Winning New Business: The RFP Process

When it comes to securing new contracts, price competitiveness is universally a top concern for building management. Facilities executives invest significant time in modeling and evaluating costs from proposals submitted during the RFP process. These cost analyses can be incredibly detailed, especially for multi-building deals.

In the highly competitive commercial cleaning industry, being cost-effective is crucial for winning RFPs. The most impactful way for cleaning companies to drive down costs and increase their competitiveness is by optimizing cleaning efficiency. This is where Mero's beacon-based technology truly shines. By providing real-time data on cleaner presence and activities, Mero enables supervisors to allocate resources more effectively, reduce unnecessary labor hours, and focus cleaning efforts where they're most needed. For instance, areas with low foot traffic may require less frequent cleaning, while high-traffic zones might need more attention.

Mero's system allows for this dynamic allocation of resources, significantly reducing wasted time and effort. This increased efficiency translates directly into lower operational costs, allowing cleaning companies to submit more competitive bids in the RFP process without compromising on quality or profit margins.

Facility managers are giving their commercial cleaners a complex challenge when it comes to staff. On the one hand, facilities managers are looking for commercial cleaners to pay their cleaning staff competitively as they recognize the importance of well-compensated cleaning staff, understanding that underpaid workers may lead to poor quality service, high turnover, and potential security risks. There's a growing awareness that fair wages contribute to staff motivation, attention to detail, and overall cleaning excellence. On the other hand, these same facilities managers are relentlessly driving down overall cost of contracts during the RFP process.

This seemingly contradictory set of goals – demanding both fair compensation for cleaning staff and the lowest possible overall cost – creates a significant challenge for commercial cleaning firms bidding on contracts. Traditional approaches often fail to satisfy both requirements simultaneously.

The solution to this dilemma lies in dramatically improved cleaning efficiency, which is precisely what Mero's technology offers. By optimizing cleaner routes, ensuring resources are allocated to areas that truly need attention, and providing real-time data on cleaning activities, Mero's system allows cleaning companies to do more with less. This increased efficiency means companies can offer competitive wages to their staff while still keeping overall costs down.

Moreover, the data provided by Mero's system allows cleaning companies to demonstrate this efficiency to building managers during the bidding process. They can show how their approach allows for both fair wages and cost-effectiveness, giving them a significant edge in competitive RFP situations. In essence, Mero's solution bridges the gap between quality and cost, allowing commercial cleaning firms to meet the dual demands of building management. By enabling a more efficient, data-driven approach to cleaning, Mero helps create a win-win situation where staff are well-compensated, quality is maintained, overall costs remain competitive, and building management is happy.

While there is no denying that cost is a top concern in selecting RFP winners, it’s also true that other factors are becoming important and may tip the decision to a particular vendor.

Building and facility management are starting to heavily weigh the quality assurance systems that vendors have in place. Mero offers one of the best quality assurance systems for commercial cleaning firms, providing real-time data and insights that can give companies a competitive edge in the RFP process.

In addition to knowing the cleaning staff or competitively compensated, building management is also looking for this staff to be well-trained. To address this RFP response proposals should highlight:

• Comprehensive initial and ongoing training programs
• Employee retention rates and strategies
• Background check and screening processes
• Staffing plans to ensure adequate coverage

Building management increasingly prioritizes comprehensive documentation of cleaning activities, not just for quality assurance, but also for liability protection. This trend has significant implications for commercial cleaning firms bidding on contracts as many building managers now require thorough records of cleaning activities to protect themselves in case of accidents or health-related incidents. They look for cleaning companies that can provide:

• Time-stamped proof of cleaner presence in specific areas
• Detailed logs of cleaning tasks completed

Securing Contract Renewals

For existing contracts, the quality of cleaning - and proof of that quality -  is paramount. It's common practice for building management to directly evaluate cleaning services or hire consulting firms to conduct assessments.

Interestingly, something we’re seeing more frequently with Mero customers is that there's a growing trend where facilities satisfied with their current vendors are bypassing the RFP process altogether. Instead, they're opting to audit the current provider to ensure quality. Often they engage an outside firm to do these audits and at Mero we’ve now worked with multiple auditing firms. In these casse, if the existing provider passes these audits, the contract is renewed without the need for a new RFP, saving time and cost for the cleaning contractor. This approach represents a great way to maintain existing business contracts.

1. Visual inspections
2. Hygiene ATP (adenosine triphosphate) bioluminescence detection technology tests to measure surface sanitization levels
3. Interviews with commercial cleaning firm management and janitorial staff

These are just a few examples of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) being evaluated.

To pass these audits across large or multiple properties, cleaning protocols must be both standardized and customizable to the needs of each property. Mero's technology is ideally suited for this purpose, allowing companies to maintain consistent quality while customizing cleaning activity to specific site requirements.

Many contracts now include penalties when quality levels aren't met or when certain KPIs aren't achieved. This makes it crucial for commercial cleaners to have solid proof of their cleaning work. Again, Mero's solution provides the perfect answer, offering comprehensive data and analytics to demonstrate compliance and quality.

Conclusion

In conclusion, success in the commercial cleaning industry requires a multifaceted approach. By leveraging innovative technologies like Mero's, companies can improve their efficiency, demonstrate quality assurance, and provide the proof of work necessary to win new contracts and secure renewals. In an increasingly competitive market, these strategies can make the difference between growth and stagnation.