It’s called progress even if it’s going backwards.
It’s just a cycle of which some are bigger than others. And there will be cycles within cycles. Over time these companies will see that the job they are paying for is not acceptable and their high street image is deteriorating. The branch managers will start to complain to their area managers who will take it up with head office. They will be fobbed off for a while. The manager responsible for the new concept to save money was a hero to start off with and was probably paid a bonus for his forward thinking. He will want to save face and not accept that his fantastic idea was a failure; he will push it along for as long as he can. So the ‘national’ cleaning company will be sent an ultimatum. The actually window cleaner will get his backside kicked again, firstly for spending too long at each job and then for not cleaning properly. He will then be fired and the ‘national’ will buy some time with the excuse that they have had to let the window cleaner responsible go, but that they have a new window cleaner and everything will be alright.
In the meantime another ‘national’ is also talking to the head office which will appear to solve all their cleaning problems, as they will clean all the windows and oil all the squeaky hinges as well. Then there’s the villa in Italy that is at his disposal that nobody else in head office knows about. But they still need to see their contract out with the first ‘national’ before the new contract begins with the second ‘national’. But it doesn’t take long before the whole cycle starts again, and that’s a nice villa in Italy, the whole family wants to go there again next year. By this time they have forgotten who their original window cleaner was because the staff you knew are no longer working there.
We do a branch of national supermarket even although head office wants it done by their contracted cleaners. The contracted cleaners would only clean the glass, no signage, window frames or light fittings. We do the job every 2 weeks, provide and invoice and statement and get paid a couple of weeks later as the shop manager claims the cost through his personal expenses account. The previous manager has now been transferred to another branch and we still have the job with the new manager using the same payment system.
Yes, head office has tried to put pressure on the store manager to start to use the approved VAT registered ‘national’ again but he stood his ground and refused.
My advice is to keep in regular contact with the shop’s manager – who knows, in some future time things can change again and most probably will. Maybe you can suggest the manager pay you via his personal expenses route. If you haven’t got pictures of the before and after clean for your portfolio, why not get some, even if it means doing the job for free (with the managers permission). The pendulum will swing back in our favour sooner or later, but the only way we will get the job back is to keep in touch – it’s called marketing.
Spruce
