[absolutecleaning]

hi there

we have been cleaning a newly refurbed pub since it reopened under new management about 3 mths ago.

we have been charging £175 for a 7 day a wek cleaning program.

now they have got through their first chrsitmas (making well over what they have planned for) they have decided to cut their weekly cleaning budget to £100.

my first reaction was that they will have to get staff to cover some of what we normally do but we are then told that he has been told by the "syndicate" to lose 45 hours of bar staff as well.

any suggestions please?

we do not want to be sharing tasks with bar staff as when they dont carry out the task properly we will take the blame

thank you

[pdl]

How many hours do your cleaning staff do each day.  Sharing this info might get you a better response.

In essence they only want you to clean for 4 days a week, and you can bet your bottom dollar the bar staff will not keep it up to standard on the other three days, therefore, you will have more work to do on the 4 days you have to do it.

my suggestion would be to find out exactly what the client wants for his £100.00?

[J. Deans]

Absolutely,

If they are cutting their budget, you must go along with them and cut your services accordingly.

It should easily be done ammicably. They are not saying you are expensive, they are saying what they can afford (regardless of a bumper Christmas - they have to cost for the year)

Simply reduce your services or hours to suit.

Hope this helps.

[absolutecleaning]

thanks for your responses

we clean ourselves as we have just started out.  doing around 1 and half hours per day plus 15 mins travel and about the same waiting to get into job.

for the cleaning which needs to be done to keep the standards as high as we like to perform to.

obviously the situation will be dealt with amicably (they are the customer) but i think even the manager thinks the syndicate are being greedy (they have taken at least £3k over what they have planned for every week since opening.)

having 3 days without a clean is not an option - it either means not cleaning on one of the days following their busy nights or not cleaning at all for 3 days in the middle of the week.

am going to suggest that we just reduce the clean to 5 days a week for £125 and that way the staff will just have to do a basic visual clean on tues and thurs

fingers crossed eh!

[Les]

Hi,

we recently had a similar situation with one of our contracts who have to cut their monthly cleaning budget by just under £1,000 per month  I know, talk about a kick in the painful bit's

However it SHOULD be only for a short while and came about as their parent company have been making a loss over the Christmas period...

They said that they only want to spend £300 per month to include window cleaning. So that's what we do, and so far it works out at about 30 minutes cleaning per night, that's including time fillng buckets, changing loo rolls and hand towels, soap etc.

They are getting their own staff to mop floors, hoover, empty bins etc...... and you know what ? the place looks a tip  which is exactly what we knew would happen.

The girls spend no extra time on the premises and leave once the set time has run out. Just to cover ourselves I did write to the company and explain what would be happening.

You only have to ask yourself what would be the situation if you walked into Tesco's and said "hi, I used to spend £100 a week on shopping but now I only have £25, what will that get me"? The answer, "£25 of shopping" ! And Tesco make even more profit than we do 

Work to the new budget by consultation with the customer, or lose money. 

Les

[J. Deans]

Just what I said Les.

But if they know what they are going to do anyway. Why ask?

[gordonswindows]

Hi Guys

im sorry to say this but you are bringing these problems upon yourselves.

You should have a written contract which describes your services and agree terms over three years.

You are causing these problems due to "doing it yoursel"
cheers
gordon

[Art]

Hi Guys

im sorry to say this but you are bringing these problems upon yourselves.

You should have a written contract which describes your services and agree terms over three years.

You are causing these problems due to "doing it yoursel"
cheers
gordon

Just a quick couple of questions if you don't mind Gordon

1. How many contracts of this kind do you have

2. How easy is it to get clients to sign a 3 year contract

Thanks Arthur

[Art]

Just to elaborate on my questions above.............. the origional poster was obviously concerned about his drop in income, which is a fair concern.

Posting that it was his own fault for not having a 3 year contract is both patronising and unhelpful.

1 year contracts are hard enough to get, never mind 3 year ones so unless your intentions are to put people down, i for one would be interested to hear how you go about securing 3 year contracts as standard??

Arthur

[DP]

I cant help but to agree with Gordon (in part at least) as many of the problems are bought on by ourselves especially when it comes to contractual issues. However I think 3 years is a bit stiff as they are often national contracts (and very often franchised) usually with a serious financial benefit to the client and containing horrendous "opt outs/penalties".

I think if you agree a reduction amicably, then that’s fine, but you do have to consider the inevitable consequences such as blame and loss of reputation etc when the wheels fall off.

I think we are far to keen sometimes to inherit our clients problems. If you can hang onto something doing the best you can then that’s great, but there has to be a limit whereby your time and effort are better spent elsewhere, after all your budget is just as important isn’t it?

Remember not all work is good work, sometimes you just have to make the decision and move on.

[Ian Gourlay]

If the pub wants to reduce costs and there is no contract, the best plan would have been to terminate the cleaning contract, and employ an in house cleaner.

[J. Deans]

In the 'New-Build' sector, our contracts can extend to 3 years simply because they are 'to completion of works' and renewed automaticaly every 12 months.

12 months is pretty much standard (UK) contract terms, with a review at the end and automatic renewal if there are no issues. 3 year contracts must be very rare, surely?

[DP]

3 year contracts have their place especially with large corporate’s having multiple branches and nation wide chain stores etc. Its simply not practical to re negotiate the contract every 12 months plus they can receive (and often demand) far better service rates. Like buying bulk really.

[J. Deans]

Kinda outta our league - for now, anyway.