Getting It Right – Ten Tips For Choosing Your Next Technical Cleaning Supplier Partner
Nearing the end of your contract with your current tech cleaning supplier? Thinking of making a change? Don’t view it as a hassle: think of it instead as a chance to start working with the best in the business. Here are Technivo’s top tips for choosing your new partner.
Do your homework
Look at the market, gather as much information as possible about who’s offering their services. Make a shortlist, look at each prospective supplier’s website, read their blog posts, read their customer and peer reviews, find anything you can about them. Basic research like this is a great way to start to get a feel for the approach a company takes to its business.
What have they achieved?
Look at their history: how long have they been in business? How many clients have they got, how many employees do they have, have they won any industry or sector awards? Growth is good but check that it’s managed, sustained.
Word of mouth
What do the supplier’s customers say about them? Do your colleagues and industry peers know them and rate them?
Do they understand your business?
Regardless of what a supplier supplies, they should go to the trouble of learning about your business. Ask them if they know your company’s mission statement or brand values: they don’t need to live them like you do but just knowing them means they’ll take an appropriate approach to dealing with you. And every little helps!
Get the paperwork right
Does the supplier have the right certification? For example, do they clean to ISO 14644 (hint: Technivo do)?
The company they keep
What clients do they work with? How long have they worked with them? Are their clients happy? Do they feature client testimonials on their websites? Will they let you talk to their clients?
Time is money
Does the supplier fit in with your timing requirements? Do they minimise the amount of downtime your business has to endure? Will they minimise disruption to your own staff? If the answer to any of these is no, walk away…
The price is right
Note the emphasis on the right price, which contrary to popular opinion is not necessarily always the lowest price. As the Victorian art critic and thinker John Ruskin famously said, ‘if you deal with the lowest bidder then it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better’…
Keep it green
Taking steps to be environmentally-friendly is good business: your customers do it and they want to see you doing it too, so make sure your suppliers are doing their bit.
Get a guarantee
Are your suppliers prepared to back their workmanship with a guarantee? One that really means something?
In the real world you’re unlikely to find suppliers who tick all these boxes, so you need to use your common sense. But Technivo is a good place to start: talk to us if you’re struggling to find tech cleaning suppliers with the credentials you’re looking for.