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To Clean Or To Clean Professionally? Nedvigimost Review, № 58, December 2005

Widening of Kiev real estate market, appearing of new objects constantly lead to the rapid growth of branches connected with construction. The professional cleaning sphere isn’t an exception. In this article we’ll talk about the situation at the cleaning market in Kiev, we’ll define its leaders and types of services.

According to the operators’ estimation, more than 150 cleaning companies of different level and size work in Kiev, at the beginning of the year their number was just 100. The high speed of cleaning industry development are caused by the growing of the number of modern offices, trade premises, with the activation of foreign investors, intensification of construction, which uses the modern materials, which need the professional care. That’s why we may come to conclusion, that the necessity of cleaning services will be growing, and so will the number of cleaning companies.

“The professional cleaning services are one of the most dynamically developed types of business. 10 years ago nobody knew what professional cleaning is; now everybody knows about that and most of the companies use this service, because cleanliness is a business-card of the modern office”, Tayana Zoz, the deputy general manager of Svitanok of Ukraine, said.

The high growing of the number of companies doesn’t mean the improving of qualitative indexes of operators’ work.

“There’re lots of cleaning companies at the capital market at the moment. But just the singles may be called professionals. Generally these are the private enterprises, which don’t have the qualified staff, professional equipment and tools, certified chemicals, detergents”, Elena Suchitskaya, the specialist of cleaning department of Latrok Ltd., said.

It’s still early to tell, that cleaning industry in Ukraine will be as popular as in Europe. According to the information of European Cleaning Journal, the number of cleaning companies in Italy reached 16 thousand, in France – 12 thousand, in Great Britain – 8 thousand, in Germany – 6 thousand, in Russia – 500. The number of employees and workers, engaged in the cleaning industry, is about 705 thousand of people, in Great Britain – 400 thousand of people, in France – 352 thousand of people, in Italy – 292 thousand of people.

General Portrait

The main jobs, offered by cleaning companies of Kiev, include the complex cleaning of offices with cleaning of all firm surfaces (floors, walls, plinths), dry cleaning of carpets, protection from dirt, cleaning of adjoining territories, care of flooring, washing of windows (generally done twice a year). The works may be done at the single base or may be included to the cost of contract (it’s generally concluded for a year with a possibility of further prolongation). A customer may conclude a contract for doing a general single cleaning or for doing of maintaining cleaning. The single jobs include (except for the general cleaning of building after construction or repair) the special services, which require a high qualification (however they may be a base for the long-term contract). For example, the marble crystallization is done once in a season (generally these terms are discussed in the contracts) or with the necessity of polishing of granite, etc. Generally the list of offered services are defined by the customer’s necessities and corrected directly while working with a customer.

The list of main clients of cleaning companies has the following look: business-centers, trade and entertaining complexes, banks, hotels, construction companies, private houses and cottages. The operators notice that the logistics centers and industrial enterprises show the bigger interest to cleaning.

At the same time the traditional clients of cleaning companies in Europe (private hospitals, schools, and high schools) use the cleaning service in Ukraine very rarely. Generally, these organizations buy the equipment and tools and do the necessary jobs just by themselves. It’s not easy to define the cost of the standard set of professional cleaning services. The prices for the services are defined by the volume of jobs, including the area of premises, the time of jobs fulfillment and quantity of people engaged in the jobs. The final calculation of cost is done after the detailed studying of the object by the employees of cleaning company. In average the cost of the jobs in Kiev is about %0.5-2.5 per one sq. m of area.

Quality Control and Staff

The main problem of cleaning services is quality control. Russian companies solved this question after appearing of GOST about the professional cleaning services. While defining the quality of services in Ukraine, we need to orientate on separate documentation, which act for different spheres of industry. For example, the cleaning company should have permission for doing of constructional jobs, create and develop the technological conditions about the cleaning of buildings and constructions.

“The control of the technological process of jobs fulfillment is important for reaching of qualitative result. The technological maps, tables of requirements to the quality of cleaned premises and surfaces, sanitary norms are used to achieve the best result”, Svetlana Kostyshina, the general manager of DaLa Ltd., reported.

In Iryna Kladko, the marketing specialist of Shaden Group, opinion, the other thing, which guarantees the quality of cleaning jobs, is inculcation of systems of quality control, according to the requirements of ISO 150-9001, which contributes to the improving of products and services quality, to increasing of competitiveness and development. The company, which inculcated the system of quality control, may guarantee to its client the doing of services on the highest level.

The services will be done owning to:

• Analysis of activity in comparison with activity of competitors
• Inculcation of modern technologies
• Getting of high-quality materials
• Increasing of professional level of staff
• Effective system of motivation of activity and quality of employees’ work

The other problem of cleaning companies is hiring the skilled staff and its training. The professional cleaning company uses just modern equipment in its job (vacuum cleaners for dry and damp cleaning, steam purifiers, polishing machines, etc.). These machines aren’t easy to use; they need the special level of preparation. The cleaners are taught to use the chemicals properly, to behave with staff and clients. As for the managing positions, the big cleaning companies use the foreign methods of training, for example the methods of British Institute of Cleaning Sciences. We have just a couple of same native schools.

“The small training centers for staff training exist in the cleaning companies. If you want to train you staff in the professional center, you may do it just in the Kharkiv International Institute of Building Care”, Vladimir Kucherov, the general manager of Kiev-Berlin-Service Ltd. noticed.

Our Future

Despite of all difficulties, the future situation at the Kiev cleaning market seems to be fine. In I. Kladko opinion, the fact, that some foreign companies went to Ukraine to check the cleaning situation, speaks for itself.

“That’s why the prospects are huge, you should just use them properly”, she added.

Opinions

Vladimir Kucherov, the general manager of Kiev-Berlin-Service Ltd.:

“We do have competition at the cleaning market, but just at the price level. The companies don’t make up anything, they just reduce the price. However there’re lots of different kinds of cleaning in Europe. You need to learn the technologies, buy the equipment, do the demonstration in front of the customer, but the Ukrainian cleaning companies still don’t do that. That’s why the competition is still primitive. Some companies don’t raise the qualification of their employees, saving the money, but in a couple of years it’ll be a loss for the customers. I think, that earlier or sooner the one wins the fight, who constantly grows and develops.”

Iryna Kladko, the marketing specialist of Shaden Group:

“Lots of cleaning companies, which have recently appeared at Ukrainian market, still have just a few employees, they are also inexperienced ones, but those companies, which really want to achieve success, will show themselves from the best side in a couple of years. The old-timers of cleaning market may lose their positions, because of the ambitious young companies, which are ready to work for their image for small prices. There’re some companies, which have formed their own price policy, have found their niche and steadily function. So the cleaning business in our country starts getting onto the new level. The clients are getting more scrupulous, because they may compare the level of different companies’ services and choose the best one.”

Tatyana Skripnik, the manager of direction of Chistyj Svet:

“Any technique is good until its service support is good. This statement is especially important for cleaning companies, because even the smallest demurrage of cleaning equipment turns to be the big losses or lost profit. However some cleaning companies offer the best service, but not each of them stick to its promises, especially if it’s about the new companies. First of all, it’s connected with limited possibilities of beginning suppliers (unsatisfactory assortment of spares, accessorize, irregularly supplies, financial instability, etc.). That’s why before buying the equipment at the market, find out about the company’s reputation, its reliability and stability at the market.

Source: Nedvigimost Review

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