What’s the Number 1 Tip from business leaders? Ask a lot of questions, and always keep that up. It’s how the best of the best in this or any other industry do it. Absorb new information on anything that can help you in optimizing service efficiency and customer relationships, maximize profit margins, and build a great local brand.
That can include everything from better regulating sweeping processes to using the best equipment for the particular job, to improving truck maintenance, to boosting quality management, to improving your bidding process, to cultivating a customer-centric team mindset.
Key Tricks of the Powersweeping Trade
The most valuable tricks of this trade are about managing equipment effectively, tightening operations efficiency, and building lasting relationships with customers and workers. Here are a few important tips for powersweeping management:
Operating Efficiency
There is no corner of operations in which you cannot expect to find some processes, however simple, that can be further simplified. Here are just a few points for improvement:
Regulate sweeping speeds.
Driving too slow during sweeping wastes valuable time, which cuts into profit margins. But, driving too fast causes the sweeper to miss or fail to pick up debris. Set a required sweeping speed range for your drivers. That’s usually between 3–4 to 6–7 mph, depending on the sweeper type, nature of the surface, and other conditions.
Systematize sweeping patterns.
Work with your operators to determine what approach makes the most sense for the type of sweeping and the square areas of surface you’re sweeping. This can be a significant overall team efficiency booster. Set a standard and require everyone to use it. Let it be subject to modifications based on ideas for improvement.
Pay attention to detail.
Consistent top-quality performance is the core of any successful customer retention program. In powersweeping, that means blowing out the corners, crevices between obstacles, and other narrow spots. Clean along curbs, around corners, dumpster corrals, signage, seating spaces, outdoor fixtures, docks, and other spots where debris builds up.
Customer Relationships
There’s a lot of competition for sweeping jobs in major markets these days. B2B customers are smart buyers. With them, what pays off best is to compete in the right ways — performance quality, customer service commitment, consistency, and keeping your promises.
Have a quality management program.
Either call, email, or visit customers after sweeping to ask what they think of the service they received at their property. Maybe send them a few before and after shots of especially improved areas. First-hand service follow-up contact — vs. some yearly general marketing email blast — takes more effort. But it works much better to build strong relationships and generate priceless word of mouth marketing and referrals.
Offer tiered service.
Recommend variable sweeping frequencies to accommodate customers and their customers during busy and slow periods, seasonally, monthly, weekly, and/or daily. Evaluate their needs based on changing traffic volume, weather conditions, and other factors.
Use technology to compete.
Stay on pace with your competition by employing industry-standard GPS tracking systems that can monitor sweeping times at customers’ properties, operators’ driving performance, time spent onsite, driving time, and many other pertinent kinds of data to help you streamline your field and administrative operations and more appropriately price your work.
Sweeper Truck Maintenance Tips
This is where the literal rubber meets the literal road in the powersweeping business. Above all, select the right truck type for the kind of sweeping you plan to do for your customers. Are your customers commercial parking lot owners? Industrial facility operators? Road construction contractors? HOA managers? Figure out whether you will serve them best with a vacuum, mechanical, or regenerative air sweeper and buy the right used or new truck for the job.
Create a maintenance log.
Keep a separate maintenance log for each truck. Document the maintenance performed at the successive intervals of use hours or mileage. This is a critical practice to minimize costly downtime, maximize the life of your truck, and preserve its resale value.
Use a custom maintenance checklist.
Whether you’re using a mechanical sweeper to remove heavier chunks of debris, or a vacuum or regenerative air model to clean up dust and other fine particulates, start with existing lists from industry articles or manufacturers to create your own comprehensive checklist. Use it to perform daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly maintenance based on the specifics of what you do for your customers.
Perform basic daily truck maintenance.
A little daily maintenance goes a long way to reduce inevitable downtime from neglect, which is the costly alternative to taking the time and effort for proper routine care. Clean out the hopper and filters to ensure good suction and slow the march of rust damage. Check the fan and its inlet for buildup to reduce vibration that taxes the bearings and can lead to drive train damage.
Lubricate the truck’s moving parts.
Lubrication is the key to reducing friction and the massive damage and destruction it does to ignored sweeper truck parts. Routinely lubricate bearings, joints, brushes, and other moving parts on the chassis and sweeping system parts to reduce wear and prolong the life of your expensive equipment.
Maintain your truck’s water application system.
The effectiveness of your dust suppression equipment must be reliable. Inspect the components of your water distribution system daily, including filters, nozzles, and hoses, to avoid clogging or malfunctions on a customer’s site and to maintain regulatory compliance.
For More Information
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