About TLC

TLC is located in Wrentham, Massachusetts. They operate primarily in the Commercial Janitorial space. Like many Swept customers, their cleaning staff tend to be part time employees who don’t have frequent contact with Management and who work mostly at night. Their turnover rate in 2018 was 106% meaning that they had to hire 172 cleaners to fill 162 roles.

TLC had 5 Night Supervisors to manage 150 employees but over time they struggled to effectively staff the Night Supervisor position

Eventually they went down to 1 Night Supervisor for 150 staff which led to significant problems and led them to look for a platform like Swept.

Interesting Moments

TLC joined Swept April 2019. Supply Management and Cleaner Communication were cited as their biggest pain points.

What was the deciding factor?

TLC had been using Expresstime for reporting, but were encountering issues with communications and supply requests between cleaners, supervisors and management. They needed a better way to communicate among staff to improve employee and client retention. Since cleaners did not have an effective way to communicate problems or get responses from their night supervisor, they became disengaged from their work and cleaning quality was suffering. These issues directly impacted client relationships.

Having a single night supervisor who was responsible for working with 150 cleaners became a fire fighting exercise. Cleaner requests would fall to the side whenever a new, more pressing issue was raised. 

Obviously they needed a solution for their communication issues.

How Swept Helped

Through a diligent onboarding process, the Swept team stayed close to TLC, and had regular engagement and training sessions. We developed a strong bond with their operations manager as he began to roll out Swept for his team.

He noticed that cleaners were now able to communicate, not only with the night supervisor but with all cleaners who worked at a particular location. As a result, other cleaners who were not working could contribute to conversations and help address questions. The result has been that TLC has filled a large gap in service for their customers and can now successfully communicate to reduce the wait time for cleaners to get guidance when they encounter an issue.

Since communication is happening entirely in one place now (Via Swept messages), the night supervisor and operations team can see any requests made by cleaners, and step in to make sure everything is getting done.

The Results

Swept made a major impact on the day to day operations of TLC. Cleaners are reported to be happier, more engaged and feel pride in their work. Though TLC did not foresee that having cleaners communicate with each other would create a more positive work environment, that was indeed the outcome. The TLC management team, who was skeptical of using Swept at first, is overwhelmingly happy with the results they are seeing. The increase in Communications has reduced employee churn, and reduced the number of customer complaints. Now if there is any issue, TLC can get ahead of it long before it becomes a serious problem.

Examples of How Swept Helped

A Location had 2 different types of soap dispensers and the cleaner who was filling in did not know where to find refills. The cleaner posted a message in the Location Message Board and another cleaner, who was not working at the time, quickly told them where to find the refills. In the past, they may not have gotten an answer as to where to look, but with Swept, an off-duty co-worker was able to help, and the task was completed with no time waster whatsoever.

A night cleaner who was with TLC for 3 weeks had been assigned to clean a building they were not familiar with; when they arrived, there were boxes scattered all around the building. Some boxes looked like garbage, but the cleaner didn’t know if they should throw everything out or not. They quickly figured out how to send a message to their night supervisor through Swept, and added some pictures of the boxes (a very useful feature). The night supervisor was also unsure of what to do. While trying to figure out a solution, another cleaner joined the conversation and explained what needed to be done. The night supervisor sent over the second cleaner to assist, and the job was done as it was supposed to be. The new cleaner praised (via message on Swept) TLC for their help and professionalism. This went a long way to help them feel valued and supported. The following day, the location customer sent a similar message to management. They were thrilled with the professionalism and cleanliness of the building. 

This was a big win for TLC, and a proud moment for Swept.

Special thanks to TLC Janitorial for sharing their story. You can check out their website here. 

Swept is dedicated to highlighting stories that touch everyone in the janitorial industry. Having started as a commercial cleaning company ourselves, our hearts go well beyond the janitorial software we offer. Learn more about Swept’s cleaning company software here.