Scale Your Cleaning Company With The Leading Cleaning Services App

Starting a cleaning company can be a lucrative decision as there is plenty of work with much demand, plus low overhead and none of the usual operating costs. However, managing a cleaning company comes with its own set of challenges. From hiring and training the best team, planning and disturbing an effective schedule, tracking time accurately for easy payroll, maintaining healthy internal communication, engaging repeat customers and ensuring customer satisfaction, and the list could tumble on. 

Many cleaning business owners have found that relying on pen and paper or even Excel spreadsheets with endless text messages and messy WhatsApp groups isn’t working. It just doesn’t cut it! Given the advancements in technology, turning to a digital solution to manage daily operations is a no-brainer.

Hundreds of cleaning companies are using Connecteam to combat the day-to-day challenges of running a cleaning company. As such, we created a guide based on their usage to provide you with the best practices to overcome challenges and scale your cleaning business.

Challenges Cleaning Companies Faced Before Connecteam

• Reports From the Field are Often Misplaced 

“When a cleaner needs to send in a report, like a cleaning confirmation form, I usually don’t get it until later that day if I’m lucky. And if they made a mistake or forgot to sign the form, I have to chase after them to get this information so it takes me twice as long to process the information.”

“Sometimes my employees send me confirmations via text message which becomes hard to track and is just very messy!”

• Tracking Hours Can Lead to Errors

“Time tracking and payroll can take me an entire day or two because I have to sift through hundreds of Excel sheets or scribbles on paper, and sometimes mistakes can happen. It isn’t efficient whatsoever.” 

“It’s just an endless game of ping pong with my employees if I catch a mistake or I need them to pick up hours.”

• Assigning Shifts Takes Hours

“If a shift opens up, I have to search for a replacement, and juggling so many employees and locations makes this task a chore I really want to avoid.”

• Onboarding is Long and Timeconsuming 

“I need new cleaners to be up and running that same day but instead we’re trapped in a room and we lose a whole day just going through little things like what’s in the employee handbook. It’s a total waste when half my new hires quit within the first month.”

• Internal Communication is Messy

“When I need to send an urgent update, I either have to call all my cleaners one by one or organize a conference call or I send text messages but I have no idea who got the message or even bothered to read it.”

“My cleaners struggle to get ahold of me sometimes because I’m so busy managing a dozen different tasks, by the time I get back to them, it’s already irrelevant.” 

• Providing the Best Customer Service can be Hard

“There is a lot of competition out there and I really want to have a competitive edge but I need a tool that can help me manage everything so I can focus on the big picture.” 

It wasn’t until we found Connecteam’s cleaning service app that our biggest challenges gradually became a thing of the past! – BnB Clean Services

Read more about BnB Clean Service’s experience with Connecteam cleaning services app here.

How Connecteam Helps Cleaning Managers Tackle Workplace Challenges

1. Automate Daily Checklists, Reports, and Forms

Day-to-day operations are a core function of efficiently running your cleaning company, therefore checklists and reports are commonly used in order to lessen friction from day-to-day activities, automate information flow, enhance response time, and build oversight. 

The following are examples of checklists and forms cleaning companies create on a regular basis:

• Cleaning confirmation form
• Daily cleaning checklists 
• Weekly cleaning checklists
• Monthly cleaning checklists
• Site or facility inspection 
• Equipment return and equipment order
• Repair order ticket 
• Report an issue
• Inventory count checklist
• Stock order form (items and quantity)
• Stock drop off form
• Customer service approval 
• Incident report
• Expense reimbursement
• Employee performance review

All checklists, reports, and forms are digitally logged, can be easily shared as a PDF, or can also be exported to Excel. Additionally, there is no limit on how many documents are stored and the number of submissions doesn’t affect the pricing.

On top of that, you can share these with your customers so they feel better that their needs are being met. 

2. Accurately Track Hours

Time tracking is available on an employee’s smartphone so time tracking and payroll sheets are much easier for you to manage accurately. 

• Simple clock in and out with a GPS location stamp
• Sending automatic reminders to ensure employees are clocking in and out on time
• Utilizing tags, shift attachments, and notes to know exactly how much time was allocated for each customer or the type of job
• To manage and approve leave and time off requests 
• Exporting payroll sheets, per shift, or as a total.
• Integration with QuickBooks Online and Gusto for easy and straightforward payroll processing

 

3. Easily Assign Shifts and Service Calls

For dispatching and managing a service user’s calls, cleaning companies rely on Connecteam’s job scheduling feature to provide all the relevant information to the cleaners easily and all from one place:

• Assigning cleaners for services based on different requirements
• Providing all relevant information including time, address, and special instructions for each location and customer. 
• Sending reminders and notifications to ensure cleaners arrive on time and also to notify the manager if someone is running late.
• Keeping records of the clock in and clock out time and location, and enabling shift notes and comments when additional information is needed.
• Know when employees clock in and complete a shift – additionally, employees can add pictures and comments for each shift if necessary. 
• Allowing employees to accept or reject shifts (optional – can be disabled).

4. Ensure Compliance At All Levels

Compliance is a must for most cleaning companies therefore ‘Read and sign’ forms and periodical refresher training courses are common-place. All documents are logged and automatically sent as a PDF copy to predefined email(s) via the app, plus any form can be customized and summary reports can be exported at any time.

• Employee handbook acknowledgment
• Using hazardous materials
• Health and safety 
• Uniform agreement 
• Sexual harassment policy
• Incident findings report
• Other read and sign documents.

 

5. Efficiently Onboard and Train Your Staff

Cleaning companies often face a high turnover rate and must have a top service level for every job therefore it’s important to use Connecteam for streamlining your onboarding process. With the app, everything is more efficient and quick. 

• A formal letter welcome aboard letter
• New employee checklist
• Personal information form
• Background and security check compliance forms
• Employee uniform order and agreement form
• Nondisclosure agreement
• Declaration of pre-booked holidays
• Read & Sign appropriate forms

Apart from onboarding, it’s important to train your cleaners whenever necessary so that there are no knowledge gaps. Cleaning companies use Connecteam to track an employee’s progress and create training material on things like:

• Health and safety training
• Proper use of hazardous materials training 
• Sexual harassment training
• Equipment usage and maintenance
• Test and quizzes.

Learn more here about effective training for your cleaning staff.

 

6. Enhance Internal Communication

Internal communication is not so easy to achieve when your employees are scattered and don’t sit in one location. Therefore, Connecteam makes it easy to overcome this challenge by including features like: 

• Employee directory: it’s easy to find the contact details of an employee or client by just searching for the name, location, title, and more. 
• Chat groups and channels: create an internal group for job locations or small team so it’s easier for everyone to stay in touch. Employees can let each other know if a road is closed or if they’re out of a product and someone is nearby to help. 
• Realtime push notifications and updates: for both formal and informal announcements, like HR updates, a letter from the CEO, employee recognition, or updates on the company policy and such. Take it a step further and send amazing feedback from a customer to all your employees to help boost morale. 

7. Easy Access to Company Protocols

To ensure compliance across the board, having all company protocols available at the click of a button is a must. Plus, when you update a protocol, you only need to do it once on the digital cleaning services app and everyone has the updated version. No more printing off dozens of physical copies and disturbing among employees.

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) 
• Safety and emergency protocols
• Cleaning procedures
• Employee handbook
• Code of ethics
• Sexual harassment policy
• Uniform policy

 

8. Improve Workplace Safety

Cleaning companies raise their safety standards and create a ‘safety first’ awareness by letting employees report in realtime, make safety information available, and communicate safety-related topics. Some of the best practices include:

• Quick and easy reporting: in real-time, it’s easy for employees to send reports on hazards or incidents, and the relevant supervisor receives the report immediately for further evaluation. 
• Safety digital resources: ensuring that all safety protocols, tips, and resources are available in a click, along with ‘lessons learned’, incident findings, and periodical safety tips.
• Ongoing safety training: sending training material to employees on a regular basis to ensure there are no knowledge gaps and that employees are aware of certain updates, plus it’s easy to send quizzes to make sure the content was understood. Admin can follow the progress and can send a reminder to complete the training. 
• Safety first communication: in a tap, you can distribute and communicate safety-related updates and protocols, like incident finding reports, updates, and guides on using hazardous materials and equipment, real-time updates, and more.

 

9. Streamline Human Resource Needs

HR teams and executives prefer to automate processes and gain better control over workforce-related issues through:

• Recommend a friend: it’s easy to refer friends for a position at the company to help improve recruitment reach.
• Vacation or sick leave request management: employees receive an instant update if a request was approved or denied.
• Personal information form: when onboarding new hires, it’s easy to obtain personal info, contact info, emergency contact, documents such as tax forms, photo ID, and more.
• Updating contact information: instantly receive an update for an employee’s information like name, address, bank account, and more.
• Employee satisfaction surveys or performance reviews.

Connecteam is a true all-in-one management solution that includes numerous capabilities to scale your business. Plus, the pricing doesn’t burn a hole in your back pocket. Start your free plan today!