Can you smell success?
By Ken Galo
L & K Cleaning Services

You better; your customers are groomed for it.

The old pros of our industry will try to tell you that if you don’t smell anything, then it’s clean and they are right. However, in today’s world of scented toilet paper, scented bowl cleaner and plug ins in every cubicle they are doomed.

Your customers are being groomed by the advertising companies and manufacturers to expect and demand to have their nostrils assaulted with a cacophony of essences no matter where they are.

Yes, you can sit in your manager’s, contact’s, purchasing department or contract administrators office all day explaining the virtues of odorless cleaning and how the lack of any detectable smell indicates a clean environment but the minute the vice president sticks his head in their door and says “ my maid service at home leaves the house smelling like an ocean breeze, get the janitor service on the phone this place stinks” you are in trouble.

Today’s office worker has coffee mug heaters with candles on them, they use air freshener plug ins and jars of potpourri to make their work space smell like anything except toner cartridges. They also expect their restrooms, conference rooms and break rooms to also smell like anything except what they are. Office workers are conditioned from home to look for smells that tell them things are clean and fresh. They have dryer sheets, laundry soap, hand soap, toilet paper spindles with deodorizers all hitting their senses and they have come to anticipate this at work as well.

Numerous cleaning complaints are generated not because something is actually dirty but because the perception of clean is missing. This stems from a lack of sensory stimuli.

How does a cleaning service provider cope? You get with your janitorial supplier, find out what kinds of deodorizers they handle, practical applications for these products, can it be safely mixed with mop water and not damage the finish? Can you spray a shot into the restroom trashcans and will it last overnight? Can you spray some in the cafeteria trashcans?

No, it is not the proper method, no it’s not the recommended method and it definitely does not mean you are cleaning any better but as a service provider isn’t it your duty to give the customer what they want before they go to someone who does?

Standing on ethics is grand providing your willing reduce your income.