Key Concerns for BSCs in 2018

What we heard from janitorial contractors at ISSA 2018 and BSCAI Contracting Success.

A large group of TEAM employees from Product Management, Sales, Account Management and other areas were at the ISSA Show North America 2018 and BSCAI Contracting Success Conference in Dallas, Texas, last week. We had four jam-packed days visiting with TEAM customers and other janitorial contractors, and most of our conversations centered on a couple of themes: proving the value of the service janitorial contractors provide and using data to better manage the business.

Inspections. Inspections. Inspections.

Time and again, building service contractor visitors at our booth on the ISSA trade show floor came to us asking for better ways to establish the value they provide to their customers. Most of the time, that meant quality assurance and building inspections. Janitorial contractors of all sizes need tools that help them maintain high standards and deliver quality service. And, they need it in the palm of their hands. They also need the ability to show proof of work to customers and fix issues fast. In the competitive landscape of commercial cleaning, that’s crucial to keeping and winning business.

Many of our visitors were also looking to move away from tying together multiple software systems to run their main business functions and wanted workforce management and quality assurance all in one system. These interactions validated our product roadmap for 2019 where we will be focusing on developing an inspections function in our new product Q by TEAM Software, currently in beta.

Data. Data. Data.

The other key theme we heard from cleaning contractors was the labor shortage challenge. Low unemployment rates and rising minimum wages are forcing janitorial contractors to get more creative with their retention efforts. Many are looking to solve these problems using data to help diagnose where they’re losing employees, so they can address the issues at the source, rather than simply hire more and more people on a revolving basis. While recruiting and hiring likely will always require constant effort, robust employee and operations data, when used together, can help identify trends, gaps and opportunities to improve hiring and employee retention. That customer and prospect feedback supports our 2019 development efforts, as well. We’ll be paying close attention to our business analytics and reporting tools to help our customers in the janitorial industry cope with a tight labor market and other business challenges.

As always, our time at the ISSA 2018 trade show and BSCAI conference was critical in validating our future development plans and building relationships with those in the industries we serve. We look forward to delivering more high-value solutions to the challenges our customers and future customers face every day.