Aetna Reinvents Itself As A Facility Maintenance Organization

When Aetna began expanding into new markets, it also began to expand its services. While it has adhered to general commercial cleaning offerings, such as industrial and office cleanings throughout, the company also provides facility management, office support, post-construction, and workplace safety services. 

Becoming a fully integrated facilities maintenance company has not only kept and attracted customers to Aetna, but it has also kept the company afloat during tough times. As the current vice president of BSCAI, Greenland is encouraging other BSCs to do the same.

“We pretty much do anything,” says Greenland, adding that the company has even helped customers find front desk receptionists. “When we devise new ways to help serve our customers better, we become a truly valuable part of the customer’s day-to-day environment.”

For Greenland, it almost becomes a branding issue. While almost anyone can “grab a mop and bucket and go clean,” he says, few companies can offer education and safety training, energy management, customized recycling or disaster recovery planning, for example.

“We have to become a knowledge-based company, the experts,” he says. “We need to be as smart as our customers. That takes us out of the subservient role and lets us become partners.”

Greenland is clearly passionate about the future of the building service industry. Throughout the conversation he discusses everything from the value of day cleaning, to utilizing technology to clean, manage and communicate with customers, to the importance of environmental health and changing the perceptions of the general public and customers about the commercial cleaning industry, as a whole.

“We’re not just a cleaning industry anymore,” Greenland says. “We’re always evolving and looking for ways to provide more value to our customer relationships. It really is about evolution.”