Attention to detail
June 1st 2006

After a decade working together as part of Indigo's senior management, John Goodwin, Ian Hotston and James Kenny have launched their own contract cleaning firm. Based in Stansted, Cynergi aims to be the best privately owned firm in the business.

Brendan Coyne reports

Cynergi's founders have over 70 years experience in the cleaning industry. Working together at Indigo for the last 10 years, the three recognised a gap in the market and launched their own company in May.

Aiming to become a £5m plus business within three years, MD John Goodwin says success will be driven by working closely with clients, and paying more attention to detail than can be achieved by the bigger firms.

"What will set us apart from the rest of the market is very high management attention," says Goodwin. "Which is what we always did at Indigo. Customers appreciated it and told us they didn't receive anything like that from other companies – and certainly not the big boys. People knew that they could speak to any of us and we would all know the contract details and solve any problems they might have.

Clients said that is what set us apart: Relationship building and attention to detail are the foundation of Cynergi's philosophy."

Measure twice...

Goodwin says Cynergi aims to gain a reputation not only for 'getting it right first time' but also for continuous improvement throughout the life of the contract and sharing any efficiencies with the customer. "It's about being creative and innovative from the outset. We're looking to spend as much time on site as possible, before during and after the contract is won, so that if there are efficiencies to be made, they are identified as soon as possible. It means taking more time on the quote and the survey but it results in a customised spec rather than something generic. So where some people will quote 20 hours, we may be able to quote 17 hours: By putting in more effort at the beginning, you reap the benefits long term, and the client will thank you for it. I think the industry needs to do that more, because generally, if you go on cheapest price and minimum wage, you get what you are paying for."

Hands on

In terms of staff training, the company's approach is similarly thorough.

"It's about getting on site and showing staff what needs to be done," says operations director, Ian Hotston. It's something I am passionate about: the whole industry has gone mad about ticking boxes but at the end of the day, what the client wants is a clean building rather than a sheaf of papers that says it is. Get the basics right and the rest will follow." He says by taking this approach, and by pinpointing efficiencies within the contact, Cynergi can also pay staff more than the standard minimum wage, and thereby attract the kind of people that fit within the company's profile. "And we will take the time to sit down and interview them, rather than just throw people at a contact because we need an extra body in there."

Open for business

Although technically a new company, Goodwin is confident that the reputations and contacts made at former positions will stand them in good stead. "We know a lot of people in the industry, we've worked very hard for them – and that was represented by the people who attended our launch."

For the meantime, the company is pitching for new business, with all elements of the back office now in place. Goodwin believes commercial office cleaning will make up the bulk of its operations, with retail, industrial and leisure work making up a further forty per cent. And while the company will offer bundled services, Goodwin is keen to emphasise that Cynergi will always be primarily an office cleaning company that can offer other services if required, rather than branching out into facilities management as is currently popular with the larger firms. It is this specific focus, he says, which will allow the company to offer a level of management attention that is "simply not viable at the bigger firms".

"We're passionate about delivering what we say we will," summarises Ian Hotston. "It's hard to get the strength of feeling across but we all gave up very good jobs with nice cars to commit to this and make a success of it. This is our livelihood, which means when we go out there it has to be right. But the fact that we are doing this shows our confidence in taking the opportunity and making a success of it. And there is certainly a good opportunity for us out there. We wouldn't be doing this if there wasn't."

Cynergi donates 5% of its annual profits to charity. Customers can can nominate a charity to receive 5% of all profits generated by their contract. Find out more at: www.cynergi-services.co.uk or use the reader enquiry system.