ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Italy correspondent Anna Garbagna reports from a new cleaning exhibition in Sicily at the end of 2016.

The round table ‘Cleaning Companies: Which Future? Market, Regulations and Work’ was organised by AIS, the Association of Service Companies of Sicily and took place at the end of last year during the exhibition Pulire Mediterraneo. It was an opportunity for the service sector and the institutional world to exchange opinions on the deep transformation of the public services market which represents the backbone of the sector in Sicily.

Many issues were discussed, from the new code for contracts to access to the public market for small and medium companies, along with new opportunities for small and medium companies. 
AIS, the association which promoted the event, was established only recently but it already has 40 member companies, showing how the service sector in Sicily is vibrant, active and eager to be represented.

Loyalty and satisfaction

Following the round table ‘Hygiene: a tool for customer loyalty. How to elaborate a hygiene  strategy  effective for the development of tourism capacity in hotels and restaurants’, with speeches by Vincenzo Figuccia, secretary of the conference of presidents of ARS (Assembly  Region Sicily), Salvatore Avola, president IHS, Riccardo Maggiore from Codacons, Dario Pistorio, president of FIPE Sicilia and Virna Re, president of Afidamp.

Tourism challenges

Customer satisfaction and loyalty are still open challenges for hotels and restaurants: it takes many years to build a good reputation and a few minutes to spoil it so hygiene plays a decisive role in all of this.

Nowadays customers are more and more uncompromising, more informed and significantly more willing to express their opinion, especially if it is negative.

The subject of hygiene is crucial for potential repercussions on customers’ health and Figuccia highlighted many critical points which contribute against Italy, such as shortage of facilities and lack of a support network for tourism in contrast to the strong wish of hoteliers and restaurant owners to grow and to become more competitive.

Issues linked to hygiene grow as tourism grows, as emphasised by Riccardo  Maggiore of Codacons, and they will increase if Italy will not adapt its facilities related to hygiene and cleanliness. Virna Re also spoke about the lack of training for operatives and she called for support from institutions which are not sufficiently involved in the culture of cleaning, in order to help the tourism sector to grow as a result of improved hygiene.

New code

The conference highlighted how the whole economy (not just the tourism sector) is today more and more linked to reputation. The speeches initiated a lively exchange of opinion with the audience which was strongly called into question because the army of customers is endless and all of them, with no exclusions, are part of it.