ACE cleaners
Published: 16 June, 2008
Shopping centres across the UK are upping their game when it comes to the cleanliness of their malls. Westfield Merry Hill and McArthurGlen's Swindon Designer Outlet were both congratulated for the cleanliness of their malls at this year's BCSC ACE Awards.
Westfield Merry Hill was the overall winner of the Awards, which celebrate the best in the industry for customer service. And the judges' observations included describing the centre as 'immaculately clean'. Brian Pell, national facilities manager at Westfield, says he has adopted a prescriptive service level agreement with Australian cleaning service provider Clean Domain.
"We went through a stringent tender process - longer than you would usually expect from a tender - to get the right company," says Pell, who has brought this concept with him from New Zealand-based Johnson Controls, where he worked previously. "We set the bar very high with what we wanted. I drew up a very rigorous service level agreement, which included a step-by-step, blow-by-blow appendix of exactly what I expected."
This went right down to how glass and window ledges should be cleaned and the levels to which they should be maintained.
"It was really worth it," Pell says. "There are times the cleaning supervisor comes to me and says 'this is the best we can do' and I refer back to the contract and say they've achieved better in the past. It cuts out all the grey areas.
"I've forged a good relationship with all the cleaning staff, from the guys with the mops to the CEO, and they have a good idea of what Westfield's expectations are and the five-star level of service we want them to give.
"They understand what they can get out from the partnership and they can always tell us we need to make an investment in x-amount of equipment, for example.
"I have a good team underneath me. There are 25 engineers and supervisors. I've allocated a lot of the inspections to two of our team leaders, who do a walk around on a daily basis and carry out weekly checks. Then they sit down and go through the service level agreement and the KPIs, once a week. They look at the car parks, the external areas and the internal areas - such as escalators and glass cleaning - and we take an overall average of their scores."
Tom Gibbons, CEO of Clean Domain, says there is a very close relationship with Westfield, with good communications between both parties, at centre and corporate level.
He believes it's this approach that helped to secure the overall ACE Award. "We have a strong working relationship with Westfield globally, so we have an understanding of their high expectations and standards, especially when it comes to mall presentation and standards of the floor," he says. "It just comes down to having a good relationship and good lines of communication with our client, clearly understanding what they expect and having the ongoing KPIs and review processes in place, to ensure we're continually achieving and raising the benchmark."
Gibbons says the judges of the ACE Awards were impressed by the cleanliness and maintenance of the terrazzo floors in the mall. It was important for Westfield to get the floors up to their high standard.
After analysing the treatment of the floors and their current state, Gibbons says: "We then applied different techniques and examined how the terrazzo responded to different types of emulsion-based polishing methods. We needed to get a feel for which approach was the most appropriate, rather than applying the same method to every shopping centre. Getting an understanding of the floors was important at Westfield Merry Hill. We spent several months seeking the appropriate solution."
A strip and seal process has now been adopted to maintain the polish and cleanliness of the floors and to avoid dirt build-up.
McArthurGlen's Swindon Designer Outlet also won an ACE Award this year. Again the judges commented on the extreme cleanliness and pleasant atmosphere of the malls.
Nick Poole, facilities manager at Swindon Designer Outlet, explains that the high standard is maintained as a result of a number of procedures. Every morning before the centre opens, he and the cleaning manager inspect the entire complex. There are then hourly radio checks by cleaners into the control room to ensure the toilets are up to standard.
"There are regular patrols in the mall for security, cleaning and maintenance. If there are any problems they report immediately to the cleaning manager," says Poole.
At any one time there are 16 members of staff on duty, with the first cleaning team starting at 5am when there is a detailed cleaning specification that must be adhered to.
"All members of cleaning and maintenance work together and help each other out, so there's no battle between teams," Poole explains.
"Once a week an open forum is held so all the teams can voice any concerns and talk through the procedures. McArthurGlen realises that without the cleaning and maintenance teams the centre would not be able to operate. I often thank every team member when a good job has been done."
