The COVID-19 crisis has imposed massive change on the cleaning industry, moving it from being a service that was only noticed if it went wrong to being, without fear of exaggeration, a matter of life and death. Effective cleaning and sanitisation is now a key part of any business.
The extraordinary levels of change have highlighted the difference between providers who are adaptable, with the ability to change working practice quickly, and those whose systems inevitably slow the pace of innovation.
“Our business has changed so much since February 2020 when all this began,” says Temco Managing Director Andrew Philpot. “We have had our heads down the whole time, adapting our practices for each of our wide range of clients, all of which had different requirements as they adapted themselves, in particular with regard to their approach to furloughing, ranging from complete closure to remaining open with reduced staff. Cleaning has shot up the agenda.”
Senior managers are taking an interest in cleaning like never before so Facilities Managers (FMs) are talking about every aspect of the cleaning process, how things are cleaned, when it is cleaned, what is cleaned, why it is cleaned. There is no one size fits all now. Every site has to be considered and tailored like never before to ensure that new client protocols, such as split teams, are understood and implemented, taking into consideration use levels, social distancing, supplies, every consideration.”
And how has pricing been affected? Have clients been held to ransom? No, for Temco’s clients the base price has simply been adapted to reflect the cleaning that is now required to include sanitations, to give clients’ staff confidence that their work environment is safe and COVID secure.
It is a different way of thinking.