by Shane Henson — October 5, 2011—Procter & Gamble Professional, the away-from-home division of Procter & Gamble, recently released the findings of its national 2011 Cleaning Industry Insights Survey, which queried 400 cleaning industry professionals and decision makers. P&G Professional launched the survey to explore the perceptions, attitudes and behaviors, as they relate to the current economic climate, of decision-makers managing in-house or contract cleaning services in the healthcare, food service, hospitality/lodging and commercial industries. The results may be of particular interest to facilities managers who contract out their cleaning services or who manage a contract cleaning group.
Across multiple survey questions in P&G Professional’s 2011 Cleaning Industry Insights survey, the results suggest that cleaning professionals are interested in improving efficiencies. Specifically, three out of four respondents would rather “find ways to become more efficient” than “raise prices for their customers” in order to improve their bottom line. In an environment where raising prices doesn’t seem to be a preferred option, it’s not surprising that a mere 15% reported “making a profit” as the most important factor for their business right now. Further, when asked what their business had cut back on as a result of the economic climate, close to one-third of respondents (28%) reported their business has cut back on staff, such as laying off employees.
According to 83% of survey respondents, cleaning professionals or those they report to have been under pressure to control costs over the last 12 months. The good news is that 83% of those surveyed also reported being effective in this area over the past 12 months. Similarly, when asked about how efficient their business has been in the last 12 months, thinking exclusively about cleaning operations, 83% of survey respondents reported being at least somewhat effective.
Additional highlights of the survey include:
- The most important factor for businesses right now selected by three of the four industries surveyed is “keeping customers satisfied” (selected by 33% overall), followed by “growing the business” (23% ), and “being as efficient as possible with their current resources” (17%).
- Forty-seven percent of respondents reported that the most helpful element when it comes to performing their cleaning services would be “products that get the job done the first time.”
- One in four respondents selected training as one of the top three challenges with managing a cleaning staff today.
- Although training challenges differ across industries and businesses, the overall top four challenges or obstacles to effective cleaning-related training include “loss of work productivity” (selected by 18% of respondents), “availability of qualified training leaders” (18%), “language differences” (17%), and “actual cost of training” (13%).
- Forty-seven percent of respondents reported that the most helpful element when it comes to performing their cleaning services would be “products that get the job done the first time.”
