According to the 2019 Report on the Building Services Contractor Market, business is good for BSCs. In fact, 65% of BSCs surveyed in the report experienced higher sales in 2018 over 2017 and profits were higher for 62% of them. Plus, three quarters of BSC’s surveyed are looking forward to even higher sales and profits in 2019. 

Is your BSC experiencing the same growth? If you are enjoying the same levels of optimism and profit this year, congratulations! If you are still a little behind, have no fear. Your BSC can rather simply begin to expand your offerings without garnering up new business. There are ample opportunities within your existing client list to grow. With some help from your distributor, and the advice included here, you will be well on your way toward a 2019 that continues to experience growth and increased profits.

Why Start With Your Clients?

You’re in the service business, which means you are in the business of relationships. We don’t have to tell you how important those relationships you have with your clients are to your bottom line. The truth is that your strongest clients trust you, and would prefer for you to take care of all of their needs if you can. It’s a hassle for buildings to hire out, do the work to find new services or begin to develop relationships with new subcontractors. What can you do to make your clients’ lives easier? Offer them more, and you will not only develop a stronger relationship, but you will also grow your business.

Specialty Floor Care

Many BSCs feel they need to outsource the specialty floor care at buildings because of the false belief that it requires a significant investment in expensive equipment and the specialized floor stripping process. However, there have been so many advancements in the world of specialty floor care and the types of floors being put into buildings that this is hardly the case anymore. 

Floor stripping and refinishing used to be a fairly regular process that required a specialty floor care service. New floor care programs that treat different types of floor substrates have been able to significantly decrease the amount of stripping and refinishing needed in buildings, sometimes eliminating the process altogether.  With floor care that focuses on preventive floor care including matting and frequent dust mopping, your BSC can prolong the time between the need for floor finishing by years. 

For example, when we designed our award-winning Enviro-Solutions® Terrazzo/Concrete Floor Care Program, we set out to create a program so that end users never need to deep strip, scrub, seal, or apply floor finish or diamond grind floors ever again.  This floor care program can completely revamp your maintenance routine without requiring any new equipment. For example, our diamond pad technology may be used on any autoscrubber. Some new floor care equipment requires a significant investment in new technology, leaving the problem of what to do with old, but perfectly usable, equipment. Unfortunately, that equipment may often end up in the landfill. By allowing custodial teams to keep using floor equipment, this program reduces waste and is cost efficient, too.

Window Cleaning

Most buildings hire out a specialty window cleaning service, regardless of who does their regular cleaning and maintenance. However, this can be something that your BSC can begin to offer. Don’t panic; there’s no need to invest in expensive scaffolding equipment or find specially trained window cleaners just yet. Take inventory of the buildings you are caring for currently. Which of those buildings have first floor windows that you can help clean and maintain? Chances are, your client may just simply be hiring out for window cleaning service of even first-floor windows just because it’s the way it’s always been done.  They’d love the opportunity to streamline by having you take care of those windows. 

If you decide that you would like to begin offering window cleaning services to your clients, we recommend you consider becoming affiliated with a reputable window cleaning organization such as The International Window Cleaning Association. This organization can help provide the necessary training and safety information and certifications, in addition to any necessary licenses. As always, if you are considering expanding your capabilities, your distributor will be a solid resource. Ask your distributor for their recommendations on the equipment and products you can invest in to expand your BSC’s offerings to include window cleaning. 

Expanding into window cleaning may not even require much of an upfront investment if you find the appropriate product. Many products, including Charlotte’s Enviro-Solutions® ES77-NFP No Flash Point Glass Cleaner,  have been formulated to effectively clean a multitude of surfaces, including not only glass but also mirrors, chrome, plastic surfaces and countertops without leaving a film. 

We are encouraged by the 2019 Report on the Building Services Contractor Market and look forward to yet another year of growth in the cleaning industry. The best part about some of the advice we provide here is that it does double duty. You’ll get more business, and deepen the relationships you currently have. Everybody loves a win-win!