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Fragrances can mask odors or can enhance perceived cleanliness, but watch out, in today’s ECO friendly world they don’t always pay off. Not all “fresh smelling“ additives guaranty customer satisfaction.

Fragrances or masking agents are often used in cleaning solutions to enhance the total sensory perception of a carpet-cleaning job. If it smells good it must be clean, right?  Well, the problem is that not all agree. All it takes is one asthmatic person in the home or one chemically sensitive occupant of a building to ruin your day.

In my opinion clean is odorless. Clean means that you have removed unwanted matter. This would include anything that smells or off gasses however many have different opinions on the subject. They may believe that if there is no lemon lime or orange citrus smell the desired expected result was not achieved. They did not get their moneys worth.

What an end user perceives as clean may be what you have to give them. You should always ask them what they want prior to cleaning. This often requires educating them on the plusses and minuses of fragrance additives.

This can be done in a number of ways. Of course, if you do both commercial and residential cleaning, your information can be presented in different formats.  For residential customers you may want to inform them by email prior to cleaning or hand them a consumer educational piece at the door.  Commercial cleaners can add information into their proposals or add a page to their website.

Facility managers should err on the safe side and go with the fragrance free cleaning. Have copies of Material Safety Data Sheets if you choose to use products with residual odors. This can reduce the liability for both of you. Again you never know how it will affect each person in a building. I have seen whole floors evacuated for weeks because of this. It can be costly for both you and your client.

Protect yourself and your company. Good communication about the subject will keep you out of trouble and help the cash to keep flowing regardless of the nice smell you may have or may not have left behind.

Corporate Profits driving down Quality of Service

In tight economic times corporate accountants and advisors dictate to the real estate asset managers and owners what the numbers have to be to be successful. Public REIT’s (Real Estate Investment Trusts), Government and private enterprises seek bottom line performance numbers. Degrees of profitability reach beyond achievable human and technological performance levels.

Managers of corporate business plans for building asset maintenance are forced to drive down costs of quality service providers by doling out RFP (Request for Proposals) that provide the lowest possible cost to end user. These are often followed by best and final pricing negotiations when they pick a few often-desperate companies to dangle the carrot in front of.

For at least the last ten years since the unforgettable 911…service providers have been asked to sharpen their pencils. Providers have been asked to absorb, refigure, reconstruct, consolidate, innovate, add service and rebuild businesses to comply with today’s fiscal demands. Many were forced to pay under the table, hire or employ illegal immigrants. Those who are don’t, get penalized or cannot compete with those who do.

Many of these large corporate machines that are driving price reduction play fair, however the norm seems to be that unethical business bidding practices are fair game. Many service providers are falling by the wayside because they get cornered and are bound by unprofitable contracts. Often square footages are manipulated or promised only to be retracted at the final hour. Take it or leave it!

The Government and private enterprise is advancing their demands of what is considered environmentally preferred. USGBC’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) programs force implementation of healthy building practices. Green buildings are becoming the norm. Educated facility service providers are needed.

Service providers have increased pressure to pay rising insurance, health benefits, education and unemployment costs.  Cleaning for health is not an option for companies who believe in doing the right thing.

Corporate America pleeease Wake Up!  Your profits will grow because you have responsible fairly paid service providers taking care of your interior and exterior carpets, textiles, floors, walls, grounds, HVAC, etc.. Government and private buildings need to follow their own LEED. Building leases need to specify healthy vacuuming and cleaning frequencies following guidelines set by the industry. Until that happens we are an industry in decline. The occupants of these buildings will be the losers.