We’ve gotten to that point in the pandemic, BSCAI members. COVID is not going anywhere anytime soon. We are not in “post-pandemic times,” and that’s just reality. We can’t change it. What we can change is how we react to the ongoing health crisis from a business perspective. So, we asked the question of two member-professionals: “What is currently most important to your customers now compared to pre-pandemic?”
SMG Corporate Services President Scott Weintraub was quick to answer: “Without a doubt, customers realize now how truly important cleaning is. It’s too bad it took a pandemic for that to be realized. You’re seeing it in scopes of work now. You never saw the word ‘disinfect’ in the cleaning scope of work for an RFP that you were bidding, unless it was to disinfect showers in a locker room or something like that. But you never saw it anywhere else. There is a heightened sensitivity to cleaning, and you’re seeing that with more tenants coming back to buildings. A lot of these people have been working from home for two years, and they don’t want to come back. So, they’re going to use an excuse they can. And it could be cleaning. ‘Oh my God, this place is filthy. I can’t work here.’”
Bill Warnecki, President of Omega Services Group Inc., added his insights to the discussion. “I believe the comparison between pre-pandemic and now can be summed up in a few words,” he remarked. “And that’s ‘How do you make the occupants of the facility, whether multi-tenanted or owner-occupied, comfortable and safe in their environment?’ Although, the cleaning process has not changed dramatically as far as procedural or tasks, we have gone to the far end of the scale making sure we are part of the solution and not the cause of an unsafe environment. Pre-pandemic cleaning was mostly done in the still of night, sight unseen. Magically, the next morning, everything was completed. How did that happen?”
He continued, “I’m being facetious, but now the process is visible. The customer wants to see and know the disinfecting, cleaning and wiping frequencies that have been increased, are done. It’s our belief that implementing systems to validate and verify ‘cleaning’ has become extremely helpful to building owners, tenants, and the like. For us, and I’m sure for most BSCs, we have been extremely flexible meeting frequency changes, building vacancies, tenant occupancy and pricing adjustments work for our clients. Our staff has had to have additional training on chemicals, more flexibility on workloads and area covered to meet the needs. The good thing is as an industry supported by our association, BSCAI, we have been frontline for these new challenges.”
Moving forward, Weintraub expects to see margins stay higher with customers being more accepting of higher prices now amid inflation and wages going through the roof. He also agrees with Warnecki in that BSCs are going to see a lot of extra tenant services being requested. “Before, maybe the cleaning crews only came in at night. But now more customers are going to say, ‘You know what? I would like a day porter here when my staff is here.’ So there’s that visual of ‘Oh, someone is here cleaning.’ Seeing it during the day is, I think, the next trend.”
Both interviewees say the pandemic era has challenged them personally and their leadership skills specifically. For Weintraub, the biggest challenge has been managing a remote team. “We are not a tech company that had previously managed people remotely or who’ve had teams all over the world,” he noted. “We’re a large, regional company. But everything was in the office. Trying to maintain that camaraderie during COVID was such a big challenge. It’s hard to get a sense of how someone is really feeling over a Zoom call. And then you have Operations . . . those employees out in the field. They were out there in the field risking their health, and you had other employees sitting at home. Naturally, there was some resentment. Managing that while maintaining a cohesive team was hard.”
Warnecki has found that the uncertainty of the health crisis and its impact on his company’s clientele has affected his vision for the future. But he’s feeling more comfortable the more battle-tested he has become. “Leadership to me is about inspiration and having the clearest vision about what’s next in the future,” he said, “without losing sight of the present. I’m always trying to be a few steps ahead so I can decipher the information presented and find the best path for my team. That being said, during this period, communication with my team has been paramount. . . . Communicating a positive outlook at times has been a challenge. So far, the direction we’re going, the things we are implementing, have gained a deeper respect from the team.”
SMG Corporate Services is a leading provider of commercial cleaning, janitorial, property maintenance, and corporate security services in such New England and Northeast states as Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. Weintraub is the fourth generation in the business, as his great-grandfather founded the company in 1924.
For its part, Omega Services Group boasts over three decades of experience supporting the commercial real estate sector. The firm specializes in everything from tenant renovations to high-end, secured facilities throughout the Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia market.
With an eye to the future, Warnecki stated, “We are cautiously optimistic that the year will be a success. The challenges that we are all working with regards to labor, inflation, supply chain, etc., we believe are bumps in the road -- although at times BIG bumps! I believe in the not-so-distant future that positive changes will be presented. We will always be dealing with something. I was once told things could always be better . . . and they could always be worse. At the end of the day, though, we are blessed where we are.”
Also looking to the near future and offering some forecast, Weintraub said, “Earlier this year, I thought we were starting to see a market correction. People were getting away from, ‘Hey, I need someone here spraying my building every day anymore. I don’t need high-touch cleaning because COVID has just become a part of our reality now.’ But with COVID back in the news with this new and highly contagious variant, who knows what’s going to happen? It’s really all still very fluid.”
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Bill Warnecki Scott Weintraub