We asked for this three weeks ago
The client's office manager emails your account manager. From next week, the second floor is empty on Fridays, so skip it, but the new breakout area on the ground floor needs doing every night, and please stop using the scented spray in the meeting rooms because a member of staff has complained.
The account manager replies to say of course, and forwards the email to the area supervisor. The supervisor mentions it to the regular cleaner on a site visit, remembers two of the three points, and forgets the spray. A relief cleaner covers the following week and knows nothing about any of it.
Three weeks later the office manager emails again, less politely. The breakout area has been missed twice and the spray is still being used. As far as the client is concerned, they asked clearly and were ignored.
Where the message gets lost
A change to the specification has to travel from the client, through the account manager and the supervisor, to every cleaner who works that site, including cover staff. Each step is a conversation, an email or a text, and each one is a chance for detail to drop out.
The site's written specification, if there is one, is rarely updated. It sits in the contract file or a mobilisation pack, so the document the cleaner could check still describes the site as it was a year ago. The real specification is whatever the regular cleaner remembers.
Nobody confirms receipt either. The account manager assumes the supervisor passed it on. The supervisor assumes the cleaner took it in. There is no point at which anyone can see that the change has actually reached the person holding the mop.
What lost changes cost
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Repeat requests | Clients asking twice feel ignored, even if the work is good |
| Wasted effort | Time spent on areas the client no longer wants cleaned |
| Missed new areas | Added rooms or tasks not done at all |
| Billing mismatch | Scope changes never reflected in the price or the invoice |
| Cover problems | Relief cleaners working to an out-of-date picture of the site |
The first row does the most damage. Clients rarely judge a cleaning contractor on one bad clean. They judge it on whether it listens. A small request that has to be made twice counts against you far more than its size suggests.
How we get changes from the client to the cleaner
- A change log per site, where the account manager or supervisor records each change once: what, where, from when, requested by whom. A client email can be forwarded to a dedicated address and turned into a draft entry for a person to confirm.
- The site task list the cleaners work from, on their phone or a printed checklist, updated from the change log so it always reflects the current specification.
- A notice to every cleaner rostered to that site, including relief staff, showing what has changed, with a one-tap confirmation that they have read it before their next shift.
- A view for the supervisor of which cleaners have confirmed and which have not, so follow-up is targeted rather than general.
- A reply to the client, from the account manager, confirming the change and the date it takes effect, sent from the same record.
- Changes that affect scope or price flagged to whoever handles contract variations, so the invoice matches the work.
If your cleaners already use a workforce or task app, we connect the change log to it rather than adding another app to their phone.
What the account manager sees now
A change is logged once and travels on its own. The account manager can see that it reached the site task list and that every cleaner on the rota has confirmed it. When the client asks whether their request was actioned, the answer comes with a date and a list of names, not a promise to check.
Relief cleaners arrive knowing the current specification. Scope changes reach billing. And over time the change log becomes an accurate history of how the site has evolved, which is useful at renewal.
Is this happening on your contracts?
- Clients have had to ask for the same change more than once
- Specification changes are passed on by word of mouth
- The written specification for a site is out of date
- Relief cleaners do not know about recent changes
- Scope changes are not always reflected in the invoice