Brian Boll, operations director at Jigsaw Cleaning Systems, looks at his relationship with cleaning and what made him fall in love with the industry.
The cleaning industry is an industry with which I have had a long and passionate relationship.
I started working in chemical sales September 1986. The industry at that time was very buoyant, driving forward with new regulations relating to health and safety as well as a re-examining of food hygiene standards.
I did have a realisation that there was a role to play in providing a service to our customers that was above and beyond the selling of goods.
Through this responsibility of care and the correct delivery of these services I needed to learn more about how the cleaning industry connected with their clients and where, as a supplier, I would fit into the circle that completed the supply, demand scenario.
To fall in love with or to continue to enjoy being part of the cleaning industry you must connect with the people as it is the people that can make going to work a pleasure or a pain.
All I have learned in the time I have been connected to both private and governmental cleaning operators I have learned from the coal face, up-front with the job at hand, solving problems for managers tasked with difficult time and financial pressures from very demanding clients.
The satisfaction of being part of the solution is, in a way, what makes the role feel satisfying and makes it more than just a ‘job of work’.
Has my relationship always been a happy one? I do look back on 29 years with rose coloured glasses and can say that on the whole it has been a good relationship but it has been made so by the customers with whom I have built up friendships that have endured over many of these years.
I am now passing on my knowledge to a new generation of cleaners and managers through training, both practical and theoretical, in what has become a more pressurised and financially restricted environment.
