Day cleaning service an award winning performance

Dateline: 23.01.2009
Author: The UK's Cleaning & Maintenance magazine

Prestige offices need top quality cleaning services if they are to justify the designation. One company, which has specialised in keeping the London bases of some of the world's most prestigious companies in the world in top condition, is Lancaster Office Cleaning Company. Lancaster won the 'Offices above 15,000 square metre' category of the 2007 Kimberly-Clark Professional and CSSA Golden Service Awards for its work at the Canary Wharf based UK headquarters of the McGraw-Hill companies, international business and education publishers.

"Lancaster is a well established provider of office cleaning services in the London area, particularly the City, West End and Docklands, under the management of Raymond Lancaster who founded the company more than 30 years ago," said sales director Martin Fitch. "This award represents a real acknowledgement of Lancaster as a market leader in London and recognises the quality of service we provide."

McGraw Hill, which is based at 20 Canada Square on the Canary Wharf estate, is a good example. Lancaster operates a hotel style day cleaning service for McGraw Hill, allowing most cleaning to take place during the day. "This makes this award unique," continued Fitch. "It is for day time cleaning which many companies promise but few deliver to high standards. With our portfolio of clients comprising some of the largest financial services companies in the world, this is something that we at Lancaster Office Cleaning understand well".

The Lancaster Office Cleaning Company was established in London in 1976. In the 32 years since then it has added a range of support services to its core functions of office and window cleaning. Turnover has reached 55 million pounds while the company now has more than 4600 staff.

"We've grown organically, but we've retained a tight focus on our clients," said Fitch. "Lancaster Office Cleaning Company is structured in such a way that every client gets close attention from our senior management at all times. We keep our clients' objectives in mind at all times."

It is an approach which has worked well. "We have one of the highest rates of client retention in the industry," continued Fitch. "Given that we also have some of the most discerning and demanding clients, I believe that is the true measure of our success. We've built up a strong reputation over many years, but we are well aware that we can't afford to stand still. We have to develop with the demands of our clients, to make sure we are ready and able to satisfy new needs as they come along.

"The nature of office work has changed completely since Lancaster was founded. We've changed with it. In the 1970s IT played a small role. We've built up an industry leading role as specialist IT/systems room cleaners. IT systems are particularly vulnerable to handling by untrained or poorly trained staff, and any hiccups caused by cleaning staff can be enormously costly. At Lancaster we have IT/systems specialists who know exactly what they are doing. It's even more vital than ever to control dust in rooms which contain IT equipment. We've made sure every one of our staff has the right training to do that".

The company puts enormous stress on training its staff, a focus which was recognised by the Lancaster Training Academy's victory in the Training category of the 2007 Golden Service Awards. "We were hugely pleased with our results in the Gold Service Awards," said Fitch. "It was great to have the excellence of our training recognised, but we were also very pleased indeed to have our work with one of our biggest clients recognised by the award judges. We've shown that we've got the theoretical background and we know how to put it into practice."

Lancaster was acquired by Rentokil Initial plc in 2007, but it maintains its independence within the group, and its identity as a family based company. "Rentokil Initial recognised the value of the Lancaster brand and the importance of the close personal relationships we had built up with our clients," said Fitch. "It's a great position for Lancaster Office Cleaning Company to be in. We've been able to carry on doing the great job we know we can do, with the added confidence that comes from the backing of the world's biggest business service companies.

Graham Landi, UK and Ireland country manager for Kimberly-Clark Professional, said: "Lancaster has done fantastically well to win two Golden Service Awards in the face of some stiff opposition. They're a highly professional company and we were glad to be able to recognise their professionalism. The Golden Service Awards are there to recognise the best in the cleaning services industry and with Lancaster Office Cleaning they've done just that".
www.lancastercleaning.co.uk

Reprinted from November 2008 Cleaning & Maintenance magazine

Day cleaning service an award winning performance