How Contract Cleaners Can Stand Out In The Education Market

This is the first part of a six-part article on how BSCs can break into the education market.

The realm of American education is changing, and not just in the classroom.
 
From high schools down to preschools, these buildings were traditionally the territory of in-house cleaners. There wasn’t typically much room for outside building service contractors.

Shrinking budgets and the growing trend of charter schools, however, have conspired to change that.

“They’re all looking for creative ways to reduce costs,” says Paul Senecal, president of United Services of America in Bridgeport, Connecticut. And outsourcing janitorial services is the “easiest thing to do that has a significant effect on cost.”

The nature of schools — where administrators, teachers, students and even parents have come to know the in-house cleaning crew — can make it difficult for an outside contractor to make an appealing overture. Additionally, the best way to land a job where children will be present is to already service kindergarten through 12th-grade school accounts, says Senecal. But solving that catch-22 is tricky.

“Your first school is very tough to get,” says Owen O’Mahony, president of IBS Direct in Long Island City, New York.

For BSCs who highlight the right experiences in their proposals and focus on what school administrators and board members care about, breaking into the school market can be a lot less daunting.