My business, the janitorial business, is a service business. And, at Myles O’Donnell we’ve been a Portland janitorial service provider for three generations. Getting things right is never an easy thing, it’s tough; and one of the reasons why it’s tough is because our business is extremely dependent on our people.
Think about it… you choose a janitorial company because of the price, the reputation, the positive meeting you had with the owner. All those things have a part to play, but the only one that really matters is how the business serves its employees. The janitors. These are the people that will have the keys to your office or facility, and will come in after hours cleaning the floors, toilets, emptying trash cans and wiping down desks. More often than not, janitors work after hours, when your business is empty. They must be able to work unsupervised and they work quickly and discreetly. The janitors themselves must pass muster; they must be motivated to do an excellent job, while understanding that for the most part, it’s a thankless task. Clients rarely call to compliment their janitor.. when the job is done right, it’s just not something they even think about. So we do it. We appreciate the people that make up our team, and honestly we’d be nothing without them.
The first thing we do differently than many Portland janitorial service providers is we do not subcontract out our work. The client contracts with us, then the work is done by us. We think you deserve to know who’s going to be on your premises, and we have a definitive buck stops here attitude if things go wrong (which thankfully, beyond a small thing here and there which we’ve rectified, they haven’t ).
The second thing we do differently to other Portland janitorial service providers is check in with our clients all around the Portland Metro area, and we find out how things are going. We’re proactive about it. When we hear of areas to improve, we train. When we hear a client is happy, we congratulate and celebrate with our staff. It’s one reason that some of the janitors with Myles O’Donnell have stayed with our firm in Portland for over a decade. We’re blessed to have a loyal team, but nevertheless we are facing some challenges in recruiting new janitors as we grow.
Here are the things we look for; and we won’t accept anything less. We do a background check on all prospective employees before we invite them for interview. Those that are timely, can take instruction, and communicate easily go through to our training program, where they are trained on proper use of janitorial equipment, products, techniques, and protocols by an experienced janitor and shift manager. Only once we get the nod from the supervising janitor do we allow the team member to clean your site unsupervised.
Our relationship with our clients is based on trust; and that trust flows to each and every one of the team members here at Myles O’Donnell.