One of the key questions when finding the cleaning company you want to work with is to ask what the communication is like. Are you only going to talk if there is problems and how often do you walkarounds and audits to make sure everyone is on the same page?
Below is an excerpt from Disney U by Doug Lipp, it’s a great example of why communication is so important between cleaning companies and clients and cleaning is not always cleaning.
At Tokyo Disney Land’s invitation-only preview event, the media will be treated to tours of attractions, restaurants, and stores As resort guests, they will get a long-awaited chance to sample the food, wander in and out of on-stage areas, and most importantly, enjoy the attractions.
A press event is a massive, stress-inducing public dress rehearsal for thousands of cast members. Whether they are working on-stage or backstage, the countless details associated with an event of this magnitude challenge even the most seasoned teams of operations veterans. Yet for the most part, the Tokyo Disney Land’s operations team consists of theme park rookies.
Indeed, a core group of Japanese managers and supervisors have received months of training from an elite group of Disneyland operations professionals. Many Japanese managers were transferred to the United States, spending months learning the details of running a theme park, Disney style; some even participated in the grand openings of attractions and theme parks in California and Florida. But as with any grand opening, there are endless details and many fingers in the pie, and some things simply fall through the cracks.
In preparation for the press event, the custodial and groundskeeping crews have been hard at work cleaning, polishing, and scrubbing every attraction, every restaurant, and every store. Flower beds are repeatedly checked for wilted or dying plants. Tokyo Disneyland is spotless and ready for the big day.
And this has created a huge problem.
Enthusiastically embracing the mission to “make the park shine,” the custodial crew cleaned the Haunted Mansion. It isn’t just prepped and readied for the big day. It is spotless! All the dust is gone. The spooky cobwebs have been removed. The Haunted Mansion is immaculate-it no longer looks HAUNTED.
Ron Pogue, vice president of Disneyland International and Walt Disney Attractions, Japan, recalls, “The Japanese custodial crew wanted everything to look perfect for the press event, so they tidied up the old mansion. Unfortunately, in their enthusiasm, the custodians managed to eliminate meticulously created and specifically placed artwork. They removed all the rubber cement cobwebs, wallpaper stains, and dust on the velvet curtains that had been purposely and carefully applied by a team of artists to make the place look haunted. The art of ageing and graining, a process commonly used in the worlds of theatre and film, involves the precise application of paint and other materials to on-stage props and buildings, creating a sense of realism. In the Haunted Mansion, artists spent weeks transforming the newly built mansion into an old, decrepit haunted mansion. In one night, the graveyard custodial crew transformed the aged and grained Haunted Mansion into a building so clean, shiny, and spotless, it could have passed the white-glove inspection of the strictest inspectors.
Steve Lewelling, the director of operations at Tokyo Disneyland, has a lasting memory of the incident. Living in Japan as part of the start-up team, Steve got a wake-up call-literally. “The call came at 2 a.m. My manager of custodial, another American expatriate, called me at home, woke me up, and said, ‘Steve, they’ve cleaned the Haunted Mansion!’ I couldn’t believe this guy was calling me in the middle of the night simply to tell me the Japanese custodians had done their job.” As the details started to emerge, Steve realized the gravity of the situation. What had taken the artists three weeks to create had gone down the drain. “We had just put the artists on a plane and sent them back to California,” recalls Steve. “I was on the telephone scrambling to get them back, and their plane hadn’t even landed in Los Angeles!”
Although it was not “spooky” enough to open during the press event, the artists returned to Japan and miraculously readied the Haunted Mansion… again.
If you are returning to work and want to discuss your office cleaning needs contact your local Sparkle Cleaning team to discuss costs. We are also able to support you with a one off deep clean including carpet cleaning and fogging
This is a test form
Over the last week, we have been inundated with clients and potential clients asking for advice, hand sanitizer and deeps cleaning because of the recent Coronavirus outbreak. This is a short brief of the information we have given them.
Do you need a deep clean?
Probably not at the moment unless you have a confirmed case of Coronavirus. Coronavirus as of this moment hasn’t been proven to last more than 4 hours on a hard surface and therefore deep cleaning wouldn’t be worth it unless you are doing it every day.
Washing your hands
As your mum always told you, wash your hands and don’t pick your nose. This is still the best advice. Try to avoid touching your face too much and make sure you wash your hands regularly and thoroughly using an antibacterial hand wash for at least 20 seconds (Sing the ABC song or happy birthday twice).
Using hand sanitizer
The country is currently on backorder of hand sanitizer, if you can’t/don’t have any then use an antibacterial handwash, however, this is running short. Another option is to use an antibacterial multipurpose spray, look on the back of the spray, most will say something along the lines of Kills 99.99% of E.Coli and Influenza, these are the ones you want, spray this on your hands, then give them a wash with normal hand soap.
BE CAREFUL, MOST OF THESE PRODUCTS ARE AN IRRITANT TO SKIN
Coughing and Sneezing
Make sure you, and the people around you, follow good respiratory hygiene. This means covering your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or using a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately. Try to be at least 6 feet away from anyone when coughing or sneezing.
Clean Your Workstation
Ultimately your team needs to be responsible for their workstation. Make sure that they have all the tools needed, antibacterial cleaner, clean cloths and masks if you feel these are needed.
If you have any questions please call the office on 01172591456
Article posted 05/03/2020
Every year the government increases their minimum wage. It has recently been announced that in April 2020 the government is going to be increasing by the biggest margin in the last few years of 6.2%
The rise is more than 4 times the rate of inflation and will rise to £8.72 for over 25’s. From April 2020, the new rates are:
What will this mean to your cleaning teams?
Most cleaning companies will operate at minimum wage for employees, at Sparkle Cleaning we operate a Living Wage for all our associates, meaning we shall be increasing their hourly rate to above the recommended £8.72 minimum wage but what happens to this additional cost?
We will have to increase the cost of our services
Our prices are calculated on several factors, for example, we allocate
10% of your hourly rate to supervision, Audits, check-ins, client meetings etc,
10% to staff holiday cover, sickness etc
1% to the maintenance of equipment replacing mop head, vacuum bags etc
What happens if my cleaning company doesn’t increase their costs?
If your cleaning contractor doesn’t increase their costs then their standards are probably going to drop. You won’t be getting as many audit visits, they might try and stretch that mop head a little further or instead of spending the expected amount of time on-site, they leave slightly earlier.
If your Cleaning Company isn’t increasing their costs then make sure you get a review from Sparkle Cleaning by using the link HERE or call us on 01172 591456
First impressions count right? That’s why it’s so important to make sure that everything from your company brand to your team members and the office toilets accurately represents who you are and what you stand for. Think Cartier, think Apple, think Virgin Atlantic and Disney! Did you know that the custodial cast members at Disney wear white to encourage them to take extra care in their work to keep their costumes clean? What a fantastic, yet simple idea.
Commercial cleaning plays such a vital role in the image of your business and it’s often overlooked. People don’t see the value in it, especially if it’s something they can do themselves in a small or medium sized office. But let’s think about this, does it really pay to get your team members to do your office cleaning internally? If they are spending time cleaning then what aren’t they doing and is this a valuable use of company time and money? Will they put in the same level of effort and attention to detail as a professional cleaning company?
With Sparkle Cleaning you not only get a dedicated and fully trained team for your office who provide a clean workspace and a happy and healthy environment for your staff; it’s our sole purpose to make sure your premises is the best representation of you to keep your customers and clients coming back time and time again.
It is no secret that the weather is changing. It seems like an age ago we were all basking in the warm summer sun, but now we are wearing our winter boots and trying to keep out the cold. With the colder (and wetter) weather comes dirty and muddy feet. One of the greatest enemies of any office space.
Dirty and muddy feet will come into your office, perhaps even walking through the entire space, which means that they are going to leave stains and marks all over the floor. Aside from ordering everyone to hover above the floor when they enter, it can seem like there isn’t much that you can do about this, however, there is.
Why not take a look at some of our top tips for keeping dirt and mud out of your office this winter?
Have a mat at the door
One of the simplest ways that you can limit the amount of dirt and mud that makes its way into your office is to make sure that you have a mat at any entrances from outside. That way, as people walk across them, the dirt is going to transfer onto the mat, stopping it coming into the rest of your office as well as making things a whole lot easier to clean.
Clean the outside paths
Another way to try and limit the amount of dirt that can make its way into your office is to make sure that the outside paths are as clean as possible. After all, if the paths that people will use are clean, then you are going to find that their shoes are much cleaner and that you don’t have to worry about too much mud and dirt making its way into and onto the carpet.
Consider covering wooden floors
If you have wooden or lino floors and the weather starts to turn wet and muddy, then you may want to consider covering over these floors. Not only can they quickly become dirty, but wooden and lino flooring can also become incredibly slippy when they are wet. Which increases the risk of people falling over and injuring themselves. Not something that you are going to want to happen.
Keep hoovering on a regular basis
Sometimes, despite your best efforts you are going to find that dirt makes its way into your office space. In order to stop it building up or causing a stain or any larger issue, you are going to want to ensure that you hoover up the mess on a regular basis. It is best to leave any mud to try out, as this will make it much easier to clean up and should stop it from smearing around the carpet even more.
Minimising the amount of mud and dirt that makes its way into the office isn’t always easy, but there are things that you can do to try and keep it to a low level, hopefully making sure that your office space stays looking clean and tidy, the whole winter through.
We are a nation of dog lovers, which means that we are often looking for ways to incorporate our prized pooches into our everyday lives. One area that definitely seems to have seen a shift towards becoming more dog friendly, are offices.
Having a dog in the office is not only good for the owner (and the dog too) but is also good for overall team morale. Not only this, but it also shows that you are the type of employer that will take the needs and situation of its staff seriously.
The only trouble with creating a dog friendly space is that you are making it a little trickier to keep clean. That said, there are things that you can do to ensure that your office remains clean and hygienic, despite welcoming in some furry guests.
Clean up accidents right away
When an employee brings a dog into their office it is important that they understand that they have to clean up any accidents that their dog may have. They are going to need to work fast in order to make sure that there is no damage done to the carpet. You may also need to ensure that you supply them with the right cleaner to clean and sanitise the carpet, as this will make sure that things are properly cleaned.
Consider replacing the carpet
If you are giving serious thought to having a dog friendly office and you are sure that your employees are going to take you up on the offer, then you may want to think about installing the type of carpet that is going to make sure that your office looks as clean and tidy as possible. It is important that you buy a carpet that has moisture barrier backing as this will stop any fluids from leaking through, and, if the worst does happen, then the carpet will be easier to clean.
Ensure your employees understand the rules
As we have already mentioned, it is important that the employees who bring in their dog understand the rules that you have set out to keep your office looking clean and tidy. You should find that the majority of employees who bring dogs in can control their pooches, making sure that they don’t make a mess or damage the office space that you have. However, if there are some troublesome canines then you are fully within your rights to give them a warning, and then, if things don’t improve, ask them not to come into the office anymore.
Having a dog in the office can be hugely beneficial, and, if you follow these tips you can also find that it doesn’t have to mean that you have a messy and dirty office space. Which means that everyone is going to feel the benefit, without any of the drawbacks that you may be concerned about.
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