As you may imagine, the commercial cleaning industry is quite robust, with companies ranging in size and expertise. In upward trending economic times, there is no shortage of work for commercial cleaning companies. However, in times of economic downturn, cleaning services are often the first area that is skimped on or even removed all together; the service can be viewed as an expendable item. For the commercial industry particularly, cleaning office spaces generates over 30% of their overall revenue.
One of the business s and economic challenges that commercial cleaning companies face can be prevented all together. Most companies lose over half of their clients each year (then having to rebuild that income) due to poor service. In the service industry, a poor-quality job could cost you years of consistent performance. It is important for companies to train their employees well and ensure that employees are committed to providing quality service every single time.
A huge external challenge that commercial cleaning companies face is the fact that they are part of one of the most competitive outsource industries of all other industries. This competitive market not only effects the cleaning company, but their supplier as well.
Some other potential challenges that companies in the commercial cleaning industry might face are shrinking profit margins, the rise of green cleaning, labor issues, marketing, and automation. Most cleaning companies are only operating with a net profit margin of 4% and they have very little room to protect their margins while maintaining quality. The industry relies heavily on migrant workers to whom they’re able to pay minimum wage, which results in high turnover and low employee morale. With the longstanding traditional nature of the industry, companies may need to shake up their marketing strategy and take it to a more digital realm rather than traditional methods.
In short, cleaning companies need to take care of their employees to build morale and retain customers through well trained workers as well as keep themselves up to date on new trends in the industry so they don’t get left behind.
