Did you tag a creative name to the blizzard of 2011?
Snowpacolyspe, Snowmageddon, SnOMG, Snoprah
Whintrey? More importantly, how did your building
service contractor react to your name?
By sticking to three of our best practices - preparation,
communication and flawless execution Cardinal Building Maintenance,
Inc was able to continue to provide service throughout the duration
of the past couple of days, as promised. All while without putting
our customers, employees and business at risk.
Monday morning - Strategic in-house operation
meetings were scheduled throughout the day each with their own
specific agenda and timetable.
Monday afternoon - While business went on as
per usual some special accounts were targeted for early cleaning
with the potential threat that they might be closing for a day or
two. This was only available because of excellent cooperation
between management, employees and communication with onsite
contacts.
Tuesday morning - As the threat became imminent
additional precautionary measures were put into effect. First, we
booked 8 hotel rooms for employees needing immediate access to
facilities in order to ensure completion of work but most
importantly personal safety.
Next, our key management and operation staff relocated to the
local Double Tree Hotel for reasonable walking distance to
Cardinal's corporate office to ensure "business as usual" for our
customers during the storm.
As Tuesday turned into Wednesday and the inches turned in feet,
a normal night at work turned into hours of commitment, resiliency
and doing what ever it takes to get the job done. The heroine
tales have poured in from customers, employees and management. We
had employees bunked and fed at hospitals, schools and even a
police station - under their own power of course, overnight snow
plowing expeditions to keep sidewalks safe and parking lots clear,
the snow might have been piling up outside but the trash cans and
dust was not going to pile up inside.
Internal "Badges of Honor" were handed out across our industry
this week and we were extremely satisfied to earn ours.
Through an "after action" review process after the last snowflake
had settled, we performed a self-critique in order to learn and
improve for our customers. Overall we found that we were
successful because we established crystal clear lines of
communication, provided a safe and productive work environment and
exceeded customer expectations.
For those customers that closed your buildings - thank you for
your patience.
For those customers that remained open - thank you for the
challenge.
If your current contractor does not measure up to our standards
or yours, call us for a risk free assessment before the next
emergency comes our way.
We want to thank and acknowledge our Snowstorm Superstars,
because without them and their continued excellence we wouldn't
have been nearly as successful as we were this
week.