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	<lastBuildDate>Sat, 05 May 2012 20:48:08 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Reaching the Gold Standard in Service</title>
		<link>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=424</link>
		<comments>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=424#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 05 May 2012 20:48:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sharon L. Cowan CBSE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General News!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=424</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Everyone talks about not being able to find good help that will make it past the 90 day probationary period. In spite of the unemployment numbers, some service oriented businesses cannot find good help.  Yet others seem to have few problems attracting and keeping excellent staff members who deliver outstanding service and commitment to customers.
What are the secrets of success for those companies who don&#8217;t seem burdened with high employee turnover?  Let&#8217;s take a lesson or two from the master in setting the Gold Standard in the hospitality industry; The Ritz Carlton!
At the Ritz they have a simply menu for developing people; selection, listening and celebrating. Here&#8217;s how this proven philosophy can be transferred to your cleaning business.
Selection:  Possibly the most important aspect of the entire journey to reaching the Gold Standard in Service;  Ask yourself the following questions:

Do you have a profile of the applicant who has been the ...]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Service at Sea! Business Lessons Learned Part IV</title>
		<link>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=416</link>
		<comments>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=416#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:56:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sharon L. Cowan CBSE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General News!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=416</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[More about service at sea.  Wow is all I can say about the level of service we experienced in the dining rooms and aboard the ship. From the maintenance workers scrubbing the deck floors, to the dining room servers, to the crew who saw to our every need, service is the name of the game aboard a cruise ship.  How do they exude the feeling 24/7.  Simple: They BELIEVE it and they LIVE it.
Service to these folks is not a 7 letter word to which they give lip service.  They live it every moment.  From the smiling faces to the greetings, to the eye contact..there is NO social media to take the place of personal service to their &#8220;guests&#8221;. No emails asking if you are happy with the cruise so far, no texts to see &#8220;how things are&#8221;, no other SM asking for imput as to how they are doing.  ...]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Housekeeping Training at Sea!  Who&#8217;s in charge here?</title>
		<link>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=412</link>
		<comments>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=412#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:37:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sharon L. Cowan CBSE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General News!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=412</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Imagine my shock and dismay when I checked out the cabin on board the cruise ship only to find the shower filled with mold, visible dust on most surfaces and a hair pin on the floor! And that was just the beginning.  With more to come and a stomach for none of it I called housekeeping.  Here I was, their worst nightmare about to do the white glove test.
Now accommodating as the housekeeping staff was and quick to respond to requests I might add, I should not have had to make those calls.  This tells me a lot about the training,  supervision and quality control of the housekeeping department.  This is the weak link in the on board operation.  In all fairness, the time allowed to turnover the rooms gives little room for inefficient or ineffective work. What this means is that supervision has to be increased to meet the demands of fast turnover of cabins.
Is this happening ...]]></description>
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		<title>Service At Sea! Business Lessons Part II</title>
		<link>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=406</link>
		<comments>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=406#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:12:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sharon L. Cowan CBSE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General News!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=406</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So lets talk about Service and making customers feel important.  Have you ever noticed how when you visit the world&#8217;s most reknown theme parks, you are addressed as &#8220;guests&#8221;?  Not customers, but guests.  Think back to all the places you have visited and been called a &#8220;guest&#8221; and you can conger up feelings of welcome (in most cases).  By definition is guest is a patron,  the recipitant of hospitatility or one who pays for hospitality.
Would we think differently  about our clients or customers if we believed they were guests in our business?  Maybe so.  Rather than thinking of them as purchasers of a service that we provide, how about if our mind set included thinking of them as a guest we welcome into our businesses?  After all that is exactly what we are doing.
The welcome we received on the cruise ship from the moment we stepped into the reception area was exceptional.  We knew that DCL valued ...]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>What I Learned About Business From a Week at Sea</title>
		<link>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=402</link>
		<comments>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=402#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:21:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sharon L. Cowan CBSE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General News!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=402</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After a week at sea aboard the Disney Cruise Line, I can tell you that it was a wonderful experience and done with all the magic that is Disney.  From the breezy check in to the quick and easy disembarkation, Disney has developed systems that enable the crew to move thousands of people though the process with relatively little pain. 
The folks at Disney know exactly who their target and secondary markets are and that&#8217;s the first business lesson for every business owner.  Without that knowledge, you are thowing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks.   On board, there were morning, noon and nightime supervised activities for children of every age.  Now this  magical company also knows that their secondary market, the parents, must also have some of their own activities without children.  They have many &#8220;no kid zone&#8221; sections and an adults only dining room.
Again, the magic of the ...]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>What Do Customers REALLY Want?</title>
		<link>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=394</link>
		<comments>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=394#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:21:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sharon L. Cowan CBSE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Commercial Cleaning Help]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[business growth ideas]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Cleaning Business Building]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cleaning business customer service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cleaning business management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Client satisfaction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Commercial Cleaning Training]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer loyalty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[growing my cleaning business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[image in the cleaning business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[janitorial business help]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[janitorial business tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sharon Cowan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sharon L. Cowan CBSE]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=394</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With customers and prospects in today’s marketplace cutting budgets and slashing costs, contractors are faced with ever shrinking profits, lower margins and higher cleaning requirements from customers. It is across the nation and not going away anytime soon.
So what do customers really want from you?  Here are a few tips that will help you be on the winning side every time:

Respect and Recognition. Nothing sounds better to a customer than his or her own name.  Use it throughout your conversations and communications with customers. They love to hear it.
To be listened to with empathy and understanding. Hear what the customer is saying to you. Don’t assume you know what they want. Listen and HEAR, then act.
Satisfaction (find a solution to their problem). Even if you don’t have the solution to the problem, take care of the customer by finding an alternative or someone who can address the problem. You will ...]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Flip This Business!</title>
		<link>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=391</link>
		<comments>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=391#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General News!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=391</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;ve all heard of the popular investment strategy used in the real estate industry that was so popular during the housing &#8220;gold rush&#8221; of a few years back.  It was called: house flipping. An investor would purchase a home at a good price, rehab it, put it back on the market and sell it for a handsome profit.  Great strategy while it lasted.  People all over the country were making a killing doing this.  The timing and other conditions had to be right or the plan would go bust. But the careful investor knew what to look for, which houses to buy, which could be easily renovated and which to walk away from.

That&#8217;s basically what I did when I purchased my cleaning business in the late 80&#8242;s.  I had come from Corporate America and knew that a service business I could grow would be something viable that I could get ...]]></description>
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		<title>Turning A Prospect&#8217;s Pain Into Your Gain!</title>
		<link>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=388</link>
		<comments>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=388#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:57:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General News!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=388</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
The easy of sealing the deal when closing a sale can be summed up in one or 2 words; &#8221;stop the pain&#8221;!  Every prospect you meet has some kind of stress or pain associated with the cleaning of their office space. Otherwise they would not have called you. The cleaning crew did not show up, they missed several trash bins, they forgot to refill the dispensers, they don&#8217;t dust, they don&#8217;t sweep the entry doors, they bring their children, and my all time favorite &#8221; they just don&#8217;t clean&#8221;. You&#8217;ve heard it all, I&#8217;m sure.
So how can you turn their &#8220;pain&#8221; into your gain?  Simple. First identify that pain with questions and a good listening ear. Listen carefully to what your prospect tells you when you are walking through the building or home.  Ask questions that will help you not only price the job accurately, but also give you some insight into the real concerns of the prospect.
Once you ...]]></description>
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		<title>The prospect said to &#8220;fax back the proposal&#8221;.  What&#8217;s wrong with that?</title>
		<link>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=379</link>
		<comments>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=379#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:32:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General News!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=379</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How easy is it to do a walkthrough, prepare a winning price and say &#8220;ok&#8221; when the prospect asks you to &#8221;just fax it back to me&#8221;?
Very easy! Especially if the prospect is a distance from your office AND if you are tired, worn out, burned out etc.
Realize that 2 things are happening when you respond:
1. The prospect is gauging your sincere interest in getting his/her business.
2.  The prospect is gauging exactly how much attention he/she may get from you should you win the account.
When accounts are mid to large size obviously you would not consider a faxed proposal.  When they are smaller, it&#8217;s often very easy to dismiss them as not being worth your time to make another trip to the client to do a presentation with your proposal in hand.
Here then comes the question to ask yourself.  How badly do I want to close this deal? Only you can determine if getting the new business is worth your time, ...]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Do You Have a Business or a J-O-B?</title>
		<link>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=366</link>
		<comments>http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=366#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:52:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sharon L. Cowan CBSE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Commercial Cleaning Help]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General News!]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Residential Cleaning Help]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BSC University]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business growth ideas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business leadership]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[CBSE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cleaning business advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cleaning Business Building]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cleaning business customer service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cleaning business leadership]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Revenue Building with Commercial Cleaning]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://cleaningbusinessconsultinggroup.com/wordpress/?p=366</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Wow, this is a great question! The way  you answer can mean the difference between your success and failure. If you have to think long and hard about your answer, then sit back, grab a cup of coffee and uncover some secrets to your future success.
If you started in this business as many did, cleaning for a living, you probably know the technical side of this business better than most business owners who did not start that way.  Now that you see your business struggling to keep up with the pace of new business, not enough help, employees whose work ethic may be be the same as yours, you find yourself continuing to clean on a regular basis just to keep jobs covered.  You find yourself being pulled back into the field to solve one crisis after another and see no end in sight for this process.  You find that the moment you leave your staff alone, the ...]]></description>
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