Issue No.3     November 1996

QUEST

Helping Q-1 customers succeed in their mission
with quality cleaning services.

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Contents:

• The best (and worst) way to choose a janitorial service provider
• Interchangeable Core Locks: The cost-effective solution to high-demand office security
• NEW features to ‘Success.mdb’ software

The seemingly simple task of selecting a janitorial service provider was not so easy for many of our customers before they chose to partner with Q-1.
      How did you fare? What's at stake is not necessarily choosing the lowest priced provider but the one that reflects your own performance and capability as a building manager. If the successful awardee of the contract p erforms well, then it reflects favorably on those involved in the selection process. It's a win/win/win situation. Your employer enjoys the benefit of good service at a reasonable price, you can concentrate on your job duties other than dealing with janit orial concerns day in and day out and your contractor benefits by growing with you.
      We at Q-1 have developed a proven formula for selecting a service provider wisely:

Prequalify Bidders

If you are in a purchasing position in your company, you probably have a list of potential vendors for various services and products you buy. If so, you might have a list of pre-qualified bidders for the service you seek. If not, then go through simp le steps to pre-screen the candidates by calling five or six potential candidates. Look through yellow pages that are at least three years old. This assures you that those you are calling have been in business at least three years. Or call other facilit ies in your locale that are similar to yours in character and size and find out who they would recommend. Find out not only who they use but if they are happy with them.

Seek References

Contact the potential candidates and invite them to provide you with references. Call the references and screen down to three candidates.

Provide Tour

Conduct a site tour either separately or concurrently, giving them your stated goals. Ask for each to come up with recommended specifications based on their own professional experiences. Ask that it be submitted to you in a specified diskette format s uch as WordPerfect or Word format. You can also give them the specifications you currently have, those of which you may or may not be happy.

Compile Data

After you receive all the recommended specifications, pick/choose, cut/paste what you think is most suitable for your needs. This way you can give one compiled set of specifications for every bidder to work with—thus an apple to apple comparison. Make a note of whose recommended specifications you are relying on most. This reflects thoroughness of that candidate.

Obtain Pricing

Provide the final set of specification to the three final candidates and ask them to give you their prices. Since you already checked the references, you know any one of the candidates would be qualified to do the work, if chosen based on price.

Compare Strengths

After receiving price information, review the pricing difference, the strengths of their references as well as professionalism in their overall business conduct. Give each aspect a weighted merit point value. If one contractor's price is lower than o thers by more than 10%, then I would be cautious as to its validity. It is quite possible that the contractor might have missed something in their workloading (bidding) process.
      When you narrow down the candidates to one or two, check other references such as bankruptcy record, IRS liens, Department of Labor liens, or any other information readily obtained through public information systems. I hav e seen a case where a federally chartered bank, which prohibits contractor employees with a criminal history from entering their facility, engaged in business with a janitorial firm whose owner himself was a federal criminal! A small amount of due dilig ence can save a lot of embarrassment.

Consider Match

Once a decision is made to award the contract to a finalist, make sure you have compatible chemistry with the contractor. This contract relationship may not be a lifelong marriage, but it is definitely a partnership between you, your employer and the contractor.
      If price is not the sole deciding factor, I would recommend that you select the contractor with the personality compatible with your own. This is the start of a long journey. Both you and your contracting partner will help e ach other succeed.

Avoid common pitfalls of selection process:

scenario: End-user buildings less than 100,000 sq. ft.
      In this situation, the decision to contract janitorial service is typically made by an informal process without going through objective selection criteria. The decision-maker usually asks an assistant to look for a new ser vice provider. Usually there are two motivators—unacceptable service or cost savings.

• The assistant checks the yellow pages or information gathered previously and only requests two or three proposals.
• Separate site tours are conducted—not letting the competition know against whom they are vying.
• Each bidder creates their own set of specifications—it is very rare for a buyer to have any pre-set specifications. The buyer ends up getting three different scenarios. Each bid looks pretty good at varying prices. Naturally, the one with the lowest price by a wide margin looks the best.
• The references given were checked and they reported acceptable comments.
        When interviewing the lowest priced contractor, the assistant asks how they could do the job at such a low price. They explain that since they are a small contractor they do not have layers of management overhead and they c an provide good service at a lower price. Impressive. The money savings over several years amounts to many times the assistant's salary. Wow! What a positive performance!
• The assistant discusses the three proposals with the boss and recommends a candidate based on the findings—primarily price and references. The boss concurs and the contract is awarded.
        Within a short time, however, an influx of calls from tenants report various cleaning problems. Efforts to relay messages to the contractor to correct the problems get no results. Many reasons are given why something can not be done instead of how it can be done. After months of wasted time and energy, the next contractor gets a call to rescue the manager out of the situation.

      After 20 years as a premium quality service provider, we at Q-1 are familiar with the unique needs of many other building management situations. They include:
— end-user corporate facility with limited locality
— end-user corporate facility with state wide needs
— end-user corporate facility with nation wide needs
— property managers with multiple sites with limited locality

      In future issues of QUEST we will feature examples of such cases.

      An interchangeable core locking system has big advantages for users with a high demand for security, and a need to keep costs low. By using interchangeable cores or “I-C core” locks, you can change your own lock s and save yourself the cost of a house call from a locksmith. Here's how it works:
      The core, or key cylinder, is what mates a lock with a key. When a locksmith re-keys a lock, he usually alters the cylinder, then issues a matching key. An I-C core lock allows you to accomplish this yourself with a removabl e cylinder, thus the name “interchangeable core.” Using a special key, called a control key, you simply remove the core and insert a new one.
      To properly utilize an I-C system, have a supply of extra cores keyed to your system. When a tenant moves, you simply change the applicable core. It is preferable to have the used cores re-keyed. Having the used core re-keyed prevents someone with a “used key” finding that mating lock on another door. Remember, the cost of re-keying is minimal when you take the core to your locksmith, rather than having the locksmith come to you!
      Another advantage of the I-C system is instant change. You do not have to wait for a locksmith to secure an office. You can change a lock the minute the need arises.
      If you are not using an I-C locking system now, changing over to one is easy. I-C core locks are competitively priced, and you install them at your own pace. You can change over one lock at a time as tenants move out, or do your whole complex. The great thing is, once you have changed over, you no longer need to pay locksmiths for house calls!

In less than a month after the announcement of our Success.mdb application based on Microsoft Access program, we have received two requests for new features.
      One request was to deal with how to manage parking slots between tenants, keeping track of originally assigned slots, dates, tenants, fees, and any changes that occur. At any given time, the information would b e readily available on your screen and/or to your printer showing which tenant has what slots and what fee should be billed. We will add this feature to Success.mdb and make the updated version available through the Internet.
      The other request addressed how to manage facility equipment. At any given time a list would be automatically available to the building engineers showing equipment needing certain types of maintenance to be pe rformed within a certain time range. For example, plumbing and HVAC units in multiple buildings. Each of the units has its own set schedule of preventive maintenance. How do you keep track of what maintenance was performed on which equipment on what da te and at any given time? What are the services due on that day or that week to what equipment at which building? Similar requirements are met by Q-1's own existing database system which can be easily converted and added into the Success.mdb.
      Any of Q-1's customers can enjoy the benefit of these improvements just by asking. Please contact ckim@q-1.com with your request.