ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Cleaning companies must go beyond simply keeping a space clean because it’s contractual. This industry is anchored on first impressions, says JPC by Samsic. This London-based specialist provider of premium cleaning services revived its model by implementing hospitality-inspired practices. Shiromi Bedessee and Adam Black from the business’ sales and marketing team explain more.
 
JPC by Samsic is part of Samsic Groupe, a €3.3 billion FM leader operating in 27 countries.

Traditionally in the cleaning industry, focus is on technical efficiency, cost control, and hygiene standards. It’s because it’s contractual. Looking at 2025, businesses, local governments and community networks are increasingly conscious of rebuilding: with focus on economic, societal, and developmental rebuilding after the disruptions of the pandemic. This has left service industries in flux, needing to be resilient to the unpredictability of all kinds of needs, at all times. This isn’t contractual, but it’s more than just good CSR. It’s customer service.

Cleaning businesses that adapted to serve hybrid working models have grown well. However this was not enough – with many reaching a pressured bottleneck to diversify their purpose within the ‘new normal’ across 2022-2024. But what about repositioning cleaning altogether?

JPC by Samsic integrated acute client feedback research to redevelop its businesses. After reinvesting £1.5 million  (€1.76 million) back into the service, the company developed a concierge line and revived the standard cleaning service delivery model under hospitality-integrated practice. JPC found that the industry’s perceived value changed too. A critical reputational change in cleaning positively impacts those working mid-to-low on the socioeconomic ladder. Led by managing director John Conry Jnr, the model refined in the heart of London’s demanding facilities management sector now forms a blueprint for elevating cleaning’s purpose, enhancing team connection and reshaping market differentiation.

Cleaning companies must go beyond contractually just keeping a space clean. This industry is anchored on first impressions – cutting through superficial benchmarks and creating a model for the future of the sector needed internal specialists who could reinterpret the exacting pressures within cleaning.

Elevating purpose - cleaning meets hospitality

JPC’s hospitality-inspired approach applies concierge ethos to cleaning. Rather than being seen as a background function, the teams (at all levels) take a client-facing role. Leading from the front, staff are trained to deliver more than cleaning; they embody the professionalism, attentiveness, and proactive attitude associated with high-end hospitality. Post-Covid recovery efforts beyond 2024 are shaped by broader challenges: demanding a holistic approach to rebuilding that encompasses support under the cost of living crisis and climate emergency.

Cleaning is a person-facing industry and those in frontline occupations need strengthened strings to their bow. The sales and marketing team adapted the Forbes 5 Star Standards of Service guide for cleaning to internally steer value and reconnection to public needs through a refined hospitality edge. Our people are stakeholders for atmospheres and energies within premises: rebuilding reputations for clients as office occupiers find comfort away from home.

“We see ourselves as part of the client’s team,” says one JPC key account director, Mirela Ciobanu from British Land Portfolio. “Our job is not just to clean but to enhance the environment and the experience for everyone who uses it.”

Keeping teams connected

At the heart of this transformation is JPC’s commitment to workforce engagement. By aligning the purpose of cleaning with the principles of hospitality, employees are empowered to see themselves directly integral to client success. Pride in work becomes synchronous with a stronger sense of connection with their team and the client’s mission.

Traditionally, cleaning partners were not embedded in this way – with relationships kept to the most senior levels of management only. Developing frontline teams into active ambassadors enables autonomy in the cleaning service, where direct insights can be communicated with rapid acknowledgement there and then.

Regular training and development sessions ensure staff have both the technical and interpersonal skills needed to succeed. Teams are encouraged to communicate openly with clients and collaborate on tailored solutions. Satisfying the rise of hospitality-style cleaning tasks is mandatory. Quick room resets after unplanned meetings, waste and recycling workshops and even going the extra mile to follow centimetre-precision guidelines for crockery placement for guest cleaning services: JPC by Samsic delivers on every client request. And these things do not usually sit inside SOP’s or standard scopes.

“When you feel part of something bigger, it changes how you approach your role,” says Andrew Jack, account manager at Broadgate Estates. “You take pride in the details because you know they
make a difference.”

Cleaning as a strategic asset

Changing the perception on cleaning is vital within the current decade of uncertainty. The ongoing climate emergency, cost of living crisis, technological/ AI revolution and endemic culture reshapes the need for acute cleaning solutions. Inherited specifications and scopes of work from incumbent transfers ‘did the job’ for previously stable eras. ‘

Longevity’ in cleaning solutions from client partnerships is the only place to redefine cleaning as a ‘function’. Businesses that view cleaning as a strategic asset, immediately benefit from reputational progression, because they centre on public experience, safety and comfort. This creates cleaning-equity, a term JPC by Samsic assess across its portfolio to ensure client communities are supported in unison.

From embedding a speciality line to the cleaning service focused on customer experience and concierge, JPC reshapes how clients perceive the value of cleaning services. For too long, cleaning has been seen as a cost to be managed rather than an investment that is critical to the client/ business directly. People are more health conscious and hygiene-literate than ever before. JPC’s model demonstrates that cleaning is a strategic asset - one that enhances the client’s brand, supports its operations, and improves the experience of everyone who interacts with its spaces.

Clients increasingly see the impact of this shift. Whether it’s ensuring a welcoming reception area or providing discreet, high-quality service during events, the value of cleaning becomes tangible with public discourse and creating destinations people want to return to.

Elevating the sector’s profile

This change in perception has broader implications for the industry. Through showcasing how cleaning can deliver a concierge-level experience, companies like JPC are helping to elevate the sector’s profile. Cleaning is no longer a transactional service; it’s a professional field that demands investment, skill and expertise.

Our Workplace Concierge Model is the only training developed in the market to elevate a cleaning team member’s duty. This bespoke training ensures the minimum expectation from a cleaning professional is instantly heightened: with autonomous decision-making, elevated monitoring and reporting duties and customer-interactive training to ensure people are immediately greeted, recognised and seen on site.

As clients begin to see the direct link between high-quality cleaning and positive customer experience outcomes - whether it’s occupier satisfaction, tenant retention, or brand enhancement - they become willing to invest.

Shaping the market and securing differentiation

Adopting a hospitality-inspired approach can create a unique selling point for providers in a competitive market. Conventionally, hospitality cleaning may be separated by a company as a unique service line – as seen in TFM models or IFM operations. Hybridity and lower occupancy today benefit from more agile single-service solutions that can pivot purpose to add extra value. The scalability within single service lines to meet a ‘Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday’ demand with ease and flexibility is now superseded by the increase of more five-day visibility to absorb technical tasks with regularity.

Efficiency to re-model unimaginative cleaning specifications has made room to research client needs closely week on week. As the first cleaning company to enter the UK Customer Experience Awards and win a gold and silver award, JPC encourages peers and leaders to work out how customer service enhancement can impact their engagement. Within the last three years JPC by Samsic has carved out a position as a trusted partner rather than just a cleaning service provider.

This differentiation is key to market sustainability. As more providers adopt this approach, the industry evolves from a focus on cost to a focus on value. Cleaning companies that embrace this model will find themselves not only meeting expectations but also shaping the future of the sector. The conversation on cost will always be there: for a sector that is driven on profit and margin sensitivity, value is now determined on a new standard which companies must define for themselves.

Cleaning as a future-proof investment

JPC’s hospitality-inspired model highlights an important lesson: cleaning is more than a task - it’s an opportunity to enhance environments, build client relationships, and elevate the sector. Centred on purpose, team connection, and client experience, cleaning providers can demonstrate a redefined value and secure long-term investment. Importantly, shaping this to target sectors is critical for the elevation of the cleaning sector across the UK and Europe. Through this market differentiator, JPC by Samsic saw growth in nine new sectors during 2024.

The industry has the potential to reshape its profile, making cleaning synonymous with a new standard of excellence. As JPC’s approach shows, the future of cleaning lies in thinking beyond the proverbial mop and bucket and embracing a vision where every interaction, every detail, and every outcome contributes to something greater for public happiness.

As a company, we have optimism for a cleaning sector building new legacies. The stimulation in the market for client-embedded change demonstrates that collectively we’re closer than ever to influencing a widespread shift across business culture and workplace environments.

www.jpcbysamsic.uk