Justin Douglas, Founder, and Co-CEOSince the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, several companies and governments have increasingly emphasized maintaining cleanliness standards across workplaces and premises to prevent frequently touched areas from becoming breeding grounds for infections. Needless to say, cleaning and disinfection services have become an essential requirement for businesses today to ensure the safety of their employees. Addressing this growing demand is Corvus Janitorial Systems, a national franchise office cleaning company pioneering in commercial cleaning and franchising since 2004.
Corvus fosters safety and productivity for clients by providing clean, healthy, and safe workplaces. Along with its commercial janitorial services, the company also supports small businesses through the Corvus Janitorial Systems franchise program, fulfilling its mission of “making lives better.” “We are an independently owned, strategic business that is always curious and ready to transform the way cleaning and franchising is done,” mentions Justin Douglas, the Founder and Co-CEO of Corvus.
In conversation with Manage HR, Douglas sheds light on how the company has been at the forefront of offering cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing services to facilities whose seamless operations are critical to the community.
How important are commercial cleaning services, especially over the past year?
We often state internally that cleanliness matters now, more than ever. Historically, janitorial services have been an important part of any organizational operation for keeping facilities tidy and vibrant. But over the past year, the quality of janitorial services has gone beyond just aesthetics to become a necessity in warding off any existential threats to all stakeholders within the workspace. As one of the leading commercial janitorial services companies, our franchisees deliver competency, consistency, and high-quality services to mitigate all health variables that might lead to companies shutting down or keep employees away from their offices.
What are some of the needs that you have recognized in the industry, and how do you address those?
Even though every industry vertical comes with varied requirements, what stands most supreme is serving their stakeholders. Be it an academic institution, a place of worship, or manufacturing facilities; they aspire to do justice to the ultimate needs of their students, clients, and those who are a part of the congregation.
As a company offering commercial cleaning services, we need to be cognizant to all their requirements and understand the customizations our clients are looking for while also maintaining a consultative approach. A big part of how we help our clients is by sitting down and getting to know the individuals in the facility and understanding the building’s flow and dynamics. Our services can be altered according to the facility we serve. For instance, while partnering with a trucking terminal, we found several drivers using the break room, making it a hotspot area requiring more attention than the rest of the terminal. As such, we maintain continuous communication with our clients to identify the high traffic areas and determine the best way to offer high-quality customized cleaning.
As one of the leading commercial janitorial services companies, we deliver competency, consistency, and high-quality services to mitigate all health variables that might lead to companies shutting down or keep employees away from their offices
For more than two decades, office cleaning methodologies haven’t altered in drastic degrees. But in the last year, we have seen a different picture altogether. On a typical nightly service, we can offer more frequency with the type of service and the application of cleaning such as disinfecting or dusting. Nonetheless, the electrostatic spraying methodology has been a true game-changer as well as an industry standard. This cleaning process requires cleaning personnel to use EPA-certified disinfectants into what looks like a high-tech water gun with a charged nozzle. Once the chemical has been loaded, it is sprayed on the area of focus, and the charge of the chemical ensures that it binds to all surfaces and breaks down organic material. This has led to a gradual rise in the demand for electrostatic spraying on a nightly, weekly, or monthly basis, as per client specifications. We are becoming more innovative in keeping our clients safe, healthy, and open, without which there will be a ripple effect on employees, vendors and will only amplify throughout a business.
How do you maintain the safety aspect afte disinfecting a particular facility?
To ensure our clientele’s safety, we only use chemicals and disinfectants that are commercial-grade and recommended by the CDC and other authoritative organizations like the EPA. We also have forms called material safety data sheets (MSDS) that give our clients complete visibility into the materials we use at their facility.
We focus on high-touch points, high-traffic areas, and places where people congregate. These can be anywhere from door handles, light switches, elevator buttons, and appliances in the office break room. We also make concerted efforts to disinfect every entry point in the facility. One of the most important aspects of differentiation for us is that we are not a ‘set and forget’ type of organization. We don’t just meet with our clients, provide cleaning schedules and forget about following up with them. What’s key for us is communication and ongoing iterative customization. Because of the ongoing support, we can build valuable relationships with clients, so much so that we have clients who have stayed with us for more than a decade. We encourage transparency between our point of contact and their point of contact, ensuring all customized needs are met without any hassle. Our company has a recurring model in providing high-impact cleaning where we mostly come in on a nightly basis, driven by organizational necessity. Nonetheless, as opposed to the formulaic historical approach to the frequency of cleaning, several companies now require our services more than once a day to ensure their employees’ and stakeholders’ safety. We also work closely with clients with budgetary constraints as we strongly believe in developing long-term relationships with them.
Please elaborate on how you help small businesses create their own franchises.
We work with two general missions in mind: helping clients stay safe and healthy and assisting franchisees to prevail. We offer a suite of services to our franchisees to guide them on their entrepreneurial journey while also eliminating risk factors associated with having one’s own business. Our company helps take small businesses through sales, marketing, and prospecting, right up to generating marketing collateral
From an operations standpoint, we offer our franchisees business operations training, cleaning training, and time management assistance. We also have a robust indoctrination period of how to run a cleaning company best. Finally, our team of experts is always present to support our franchisees by following our ethos of making lives better.
How does your team help steer Corvus ahead in the future?
We are very fortunate to have an able leadership team committed to following our purpose and values to meet our client’s requirements and develop long-lasting relationships, and of course, an absolutely outstanding community of franchisees. We offer outstanding cleaning services with expertise at budget-friendly pricing, but what we are most proud of is the quality we deliver, the people we have on our team, and the culture that drives excellence with every project we work on. With our dedication and the quality of our teamwork, we are looking to expand to Cleveland, Greenville, South Carolina, Baton Rouge, San Antonio, and Kansas City in the next 18 months.
