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Commercial cash flow
By Fred Geyen
March 22, 2011
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Advantage Cleaning Services Does Commercial Cleaning In Painted Post, N.Y. 14870!!
American actor and comedian Flip Wilson popularized the phrase "What you see is what you get." He meant it to mean that he was exactly as you saw him, with nothing to hide.
That certainly is true in the case of Chavez Restoration and Cleaning, a family operation in Topeka, KS. This Cleanfax reporter verified this by visiting brothers Richard and Daniel Chavez in January.
Chavez Restoration and Cleaning was founded by Trinidad Chavez in 1967, with both sons working in the business at early ages. This obviously close family allowed me to visit, even though the family patriarch had recently passed away.
Other members of the family work in the business as well, including their sister Rachel, their brother Luis and his sons Gabriel and Nick. They are all proud of the family business and heritage they share.
Business lessons
The only knowledge I had about their business before the visit was through their website and what I had known about Richard through his many posts on industry bulletin boards, such as at www.cleanfax.com.
The business looked solid and Richard''s online communications and posts presented him as an informed, knowledgeable and fun business owner. After meeting Daniel, I realize they were both on equal footing in understanding their business.
Now the mission was to truly find out "if you get what you see" in Kansas.
Late Thursday afternoon, Richard and Daniel took me out for a meal. After some introductions and pleasantries, Daniel looked at me and politely asked, "Why are you here?"
I told them that their business seemed to exemplify other successful cleaning businesses, and that I wanted to see first-hand if it ran day-to-day as good as it looked from the outside.
I was also curious to see how earnestly they pursued the commercial market in the middle of everything else they do.
Chavez Restoration and Cleaning is quick to analyze which add-on services are best for their company.
The following is a diary of my visit, and hopefully you can learn something from how this company operates.
A day of analysis
I met Richard at the shop. He''s been there since 7 a.m. Daniel is on his way as he lives farther away in Lawrence, KS.
The 18,000 square foot shop looked great and was broken up into different work areas. Now I would finally see what you "get" with Chavez Restoration and Cleaning.
The first area we looked at was the Oriental rug cleaning area; this is not a major part of the business, but there was certainly dedication to doing it right, including a mechanical lift, forced drying system and a permanent wall-mounted extraction system.
The second area was the upholstery cleaning section, mainly for restoration "pack outs" — it was also used as an area to clean rugs. This area had ample space, with benches to set the upholstery on so it was easier to clean. Later in the day, we would see several sofas being cleaned in this area.
What we did next started to define their business in a way that they may not be able see for themselves, and probably can''t because they''re too close to it.
That definition is culture, work ethic and systems.
If you ask them to show you any one system that they use, they can produce, with hard copies, information on scheduling, bookkeeping, emergency on-call data and much more… but what they are most proud of is that the entire company has a drumbeat that it marches to, seemingly on its own.
For example, at 7:30 a.m. the emergency crew had just returned to the shop from working all night. You could not help but notice that they were still upbeat, excited to talk about what they had done during the night, although they were tired. They actually had smiles on their faces.
Other employees were coming in and getting ready to start the day. All of them were identified and moved right along to the projects that needed to be completed.
Crew leaders were in an office behind us, moving about and getting ready to get things going.
People set up sofas to clean, others were unloading one of the 25 vehicles the business utilizes. Still more people were getting ready in the pack-out area, and trucks were getting ready to start the day of carpet cleaning duties.
The reception area had people in it ready to field telephone calls and receive visiting customers. The place was buzzing.
The heartbeat
I do not know if it was purposeful, but both Richard''s and Daniel''s office sits in the center, or very heart, of the building.
It has windows to the inside of the building, not to the outside, and two doors. They are accessible.
While we were sitting in the office, the day was ending for emergency workers and starting for daytime crews, trucks were being unloaded and people were planning the day — yet there was one thing that really stood out.
It was all happening without Richard and Daniel jumping up and down, telling everyone what to do and where to go. It was actually a great operating system.
They were ready to help and, at times, I''m sure the office becomes frantic, but people were happy and they knew what to do. Their business is a machine, showing the obvious effects of training and commitment.
Some of that training, according to Richard and Daniel, came by way of outside consultants such as Pete Consigli and Chuck Violand. It cost them some money to bring these consultants in, but they know that to be effective they have to continually reach out.
Evidence of commitment
The commitment to doing things right stood out as we took a tour of the facility.
Whether it was trucks, drying equipment, space or chemicals… they purchased what they needed to get the job done.
The place was neat, clean and organized. It all created value for customers. It was easy to see that the customers in this business "get what they see."
Chavez Restoration and Cleaning is the "real deal," like many other cleaning and restoration companies across the country.
They provide real service that the customers deserve.
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Fred Geyen is president of the Geyen Group (www.geyengroup.com). His background includes commercial product sales and program development for residential, commercial and disaster restoration with ServiceMaster. He has a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED-AP) designation and is on the board of directors with the LMCCA. Geyen can be contacted at (612) 799-5111.
