ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Oleg Popov of Cristanval Cleaning compares the cleaning sectors of the USA and Russia.

In September 2014 Ipsos Public Affairs published the results of research concerning the cleaning industry in the US. A total of 400 ceo’s and/or top managers participated in the study. They represented numerous trades: food service, hospitality, commercial, and healthcare. It is interesting to compare what factors the US executives consider crucial and how the same factors affect the Russian cleaning industry.

American cleaning industry managers consider customer satisfaction maintenance to be the number one priority, though achieving the highest quality of service is tremendously challenging while managing work staff. In evaluating the values of Russian businessmen, customer interests are the top priority.

Should the client be dissatisfied either with quality of services or the quality of communication between the account manager and the customer’s representative, the contract will be lost. It is well known that it is much harder to revive trust and reconcile with an unhappy customer, than it is to maintain a relationship.

Obviously, the pool of workers is like a frontline in the battle for customer allegiance. Their performance on that frontline measures the credibility of the entire company. This is why recruitment and training is a matter of utmost importance for any top manager.

The loss of workforce productivity is one of the most important issues to be studied among the US cleaning industry problems. Also, quality maintenance is the leading direction in training.

In Russia we appreciate how crucial it is to maintain supervision at all levels. Companies have implemented multilevel quality control systems which include, at their core, productivity regulation. It is rather uncommon in Russia to separate workforce productivity management and control into separate tasks. It is also worth noting that, in Russia, proper attention is paid to the strict adherence to the technology of cleaning and correct use of different cleaning agents.

In the US the choosing of the right cleaning agents is accomplished through the following list of prioritized values: quality of chemical; versatility of the cleaning agent; price. In contrast, in Russia price takes the lead, while quality scores second.

What is of most importance to the US cleaners?
• Customer satisfaction
• Efficiency and effectiveness
• Business development
• Economy of operations
• Profit
• Staff turnover

The same aspects are of importance in Russia, but each is assigned a different value. In first place you find enhancing efficiency and effectiveness, followed by  profit in second place. Next comes customer satisfaction, followed by the technological advances in fourth place. Personnel is in fifth place. These are the crucial value-points throughout the industry, but each company will score these values differently.

In 2014 in the US, the PLR (personnel loss rate) decreased to 17 per cent compared to 24 per cent in the 2013. It appears that the phrase ‘meaner and leaner’ is no longer as much in fashion. It is notable, that three out of four companies anticipate significant improvement in respective business sectors during the next year.

Regardless of the current general economic crisis, amendments in legislation and heated situation in the HR market, the Russian cleaning industry as a whole exhibits stable growth of 20-30 per cent per annum.