COVID-19 left its mark on every industry and the cleaning and restoration world was not spared. While everyone tries to acclimate to the new and different ways our society functions, the cleaning and restoration companies that did not have to close their doors are forced to look at how the pandemic has affected business and what adjustments they need to make in order to thrive.
How Has the Pandemic Affected Cleaning and Restoration Companies?
Luckily, the cleaning and restoration industry has been recognized as an “essential service” and is not forced to shut down like many other businesses, but that doesn’t mean that these companies don’t experience different hardships. While some companies are facing a shortage of employees who do not want to enter other peoples’ homes, others are missing out on recurring residential cleaning jobs because customers are afraid to invite others into their homes.
Disaster restoration doesn’t stop with the pandemic and cleaning services have become increasingly valuable – but other factors have transformed the way many cleaning and restoration companies manage business. Advertising, recruiting employees, conducting business, and even legal protection are all various aspects of the cleaning and restoration industry that have changed – and COVID-19 protocols are running the show.
Advertising
In a world where advertising focuses on 24-hour services and the ability to “get there fast”, COVID-19 quickly overruled priority in advertising. Websites and advertisements had to shift focus to show how safety takes precedence and how safety measures are being implemented. Photos, videos and content were all upgraded to show that safety was the main concern.
Recruiting And Retaining Employment
Some companies did not know if they would survive the pandemic because their employees were too scared to perform their job duties and quit. Even companies who promote safety and have safety measures in place cannot ensure the sanitization of a home that they must enter. For cleaning and restoration companies, the priority to find employees became almost as high as finding work – sometimes higher. Business owners have had to find creative solutions to finding, hiring, and retaining employees in a way that they haven’t had the need to before.
The Way The Work Flows
The organizational way the work flows through a company had to be revisited by many companies as lockdowns happened. Many companies had to decrease the number of employees allowed in the office – which meant that more companies had to manage the workflow from several different home offices. This structure change brought more changes as companies began utilizing different technological devices, programs, phone systems, and a large number of other office tools and processes to be able to perform job duties on a daily basis.
Along with office-type changes, technicians who are out in the field must take different steps to complete their job duties like cleaning and sanitizing equipment after a job, wearing different protective gear, and avoiding certain job procedures that invade the safety measures of social distancing. All of which can affect the timeliness in which an employee can perform the job. We know that when one job takes longer so do the rest that follow, and revenue begins to decrease.
That means that business owners have to look at different processes within the organization to find a solution to the increase in costs associated with changes due to COVID-19…and they have to transform in a way that can make their businesses profitable once again.
These are only some of the many changes that cleaning and restoration companies have seen since the surge of COVID-19. Companies who serve different areas of the United States are impacted in different ways depending on how rampant the virus is in their areas – but one thing is true for all cleaning and restoration companies. Cleanliness and sanitization concerns are not going to go away even if COVID does, so business practices must be allowed to evolve quickly and in a way that will meet the needs of both employees and potential future customers.
