Guest Writer

Retention is more important than acquisition

With the massive growth in the hospitality industries, services like housekeeping are often outsourced. But there are things which the service provider should also remember. By Simit Thakur

Cleaning industry is rapidly growing so is the outsourcing of housekeeping in hotels. Most housekeeping companies are signing new contracts with hotels and other business institutions. The phenomenon of changing contracts is moving at the same pace. This is generally because of the gap between client expectations and actual delivery of standards by the service provider. We need to do a regular introspection of the written and unwritten commitments made to the clients and ensure that the client and service provider are complying with agreed terms and conditions. A checklist of the following nature would be a good idea.

• Explore basic terms of contract
• Complying with all the terms of contract on either side
• Revisit and see if the contract is clearly spelled out
• Conduct regular meeting with the clients
• All meetings should be recorded
• Meet the expectations of end users
• Make sure the staff has moral values
• Ensure high grooming standards
• Comply with safety and security norms
• Check condition of equipments at site
• Ensure appropriate stock levels of consumables
• Conduct/practice operational audit by third party
• Ensure regular statutory compliance
• Ensure that regular payment is made by the client.

In order to make the system work successfully, the pricing strategy has to be correct. Sometimes the contracts are awarded on the basis of minimum wages while the expectations from the services provided remain extraordinary. It needs to be spelled out clearly that minimum wages are for the beginners and as one goes up the ladder to become semi-skilled or skilled higher wages will be provided. If not checked it will become a vicious cycle. If the existing company increases the salary of the staff, they will cut corners somewhere else, which may be risky. If the wages are not increased, staff attrition will continue to be high and the client will start questioning the ability of the service provider in the end leading to the change of service providers. This will give way to another lowest category competition to acquire new business. The one who gets it on the lowest basis terms is again going to go through the same cycle. This is neither beneficial for the client nor the service provider, both are entangled in solving day to day issues and are not able focus on bigger and more important issues to take their respective company's vision and mission forward. Hence it is important to negotiate properly, and accept a contract on the basis of its terms and conditions rather than minimum wages. And once it is awarded, the service provider needs to respected who in turn need to value existing contracts rather than running to acquire new ones.

The author is proprietor, Neat Space, a hospitality services company having offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Bangalore