“OK, guys! We will have only one chance to do this the right way! We have to work fast, and we have to work well! No mistakes, no overlapping! Remember – we have done it before. If we manage to clean the whole room in less than three hours, all the drinks afterwards are on me! Let’s go!”
With that, I gave my carpet cleaning crew the green light to begin the most important job in our professional careers. I had spent the last week in feverish planning, and now was the time to put my skills and expectations to the test.
Let’s rewind the events that led to that speech a few weeks back. As a carpet cleaning company specialising in serving corporate customers, we try to keep our finger on the pulse of large-scale events scheduled in London. So it was no surprise when the news of a massive online marketing and tech conference leaked out that it popped on our radar. One of our brightest customer support staff came rushing into my office and excitedly told me about the event. It was an annual international event held in different spots every year – New York, Tokyo, Paris, and Madrid being some of the previous host cities. There were open lectures, workshops, exclusive meetings, and even gala events for hundreds of people. On this particular occasion, the conference was going to take place in one of London’s premier corporate event centres.
Usually, it would have been the end of that. But by a lucky coincidence, I knew the venue’s managing director. I shot him a quick text, and he responded immediately. The event organisers had not yet chosen a carpet-cleaning contractor and were planning to run an open competition among a few selected companies, picking the best offer. You had to submit a price quote, a detailed plan for approaching the cleaning tasks, and a portfolio of previous large-scale corporate cleaning jobs.
I knew this was not the type of opportunity my company could miss. I quickly searched for more information about the conference and watched YouTube videos from previous years. The event was massive! According to the official newsletter, 250 companies had participated, and over eight thousand people had attended the last conference in New York. It was a three-day non-stop marathon, and the organisers were not going to make any compromises with quality.
I had a brainstorming session with my most experienced carpet-washing technicians to discuss the challenges and how we could gain a competitive advantage. “It would be a mistake to rely only on a lower price. A race to the price bottom is not a positive sign to the customer, especially when we talk about such an event”, said one of my guys, Michael. “I agree”, nodded the most senior of the group, Stan. “Instead, we should come up with something that the companies will not think of. I’ll bet you ten pounds that most other teams will concentrate exclusively on maintenance. But think about the levels of foot traffic and stress on the carpets – thousands of people will be in attendance. Maintenance will not cut it – we must run a hot water extraction on all carpets. But we won’t have the time for a hot water extraction once the conference starts – we must do it pre-emptively. It will make the vacuum cleaning and maintenance much more efficient throughout the event. It is the competitive edge we need, boss.”
It was a brilliant idea! Still, it was just one detail, albeit an important one, in a vast puzzle. We had to sort out the total square footage of the carpet-covered floors and the upholstered seats in the auditoriums; we had to come up with a realistic and comprehensive rundown of how many people and machines we would need for the job; we had to figure out how much time we would need after the end of the day’s schedule to cover all tasks and could we do it (I didn’t want my guys to go home at 2 A.M.). Finally, I had to come up with a competitive offer which at the same time will be worth our effort.
After contacting the organisers, we received the necessary numbers (square feet of carpeting, overall requirements, etc.) and got to work. A carpet cleaner usually covers approximately 1,000 square feet per hour in large corporate areas. However, we expected to bump the number to 1,200 due to the preliminary hot water extraction. In other words, we planned five cleaners to cover 6,000 square feet per hour. With a total of 15,000 square feet of carpets and up to 300 upholstered seats, we could cover the daily task sheet in three hours at maximum effort.
The conference programme opened each day at 10 A.M., and the last event was scheduled to end at 8 P.M. This gave us two options – to start at 7 A.M. and finish before the event opened or to clean in the evening. I knew from experience that the organisers would prefer the second option. Besides, if we were to choose the first, we would be constantly running against an incredibly tight schedule, and even the slightest mistake or hurdle could end in disaster. I was not willing to take the chance, and after discussing it with my team, we all agreed on the evening option.
There was a one-week gap between submitting our offer and the organisers’ decision. We all tried to act cool, but we were on pins and needles. Finally, I received the nervously-awaited email. We had won the job! Stan had been correct all along – no other contractor had offered to perform a preliminary hot water extraction. While it bumped the price a bit, the organisers were impressed with our logic that it would make the in-conference maintenance much more manageable and went with it.
Needless to say, we did fine throughout the event. It was arguably the toughest job we had ever taken, but it was worth it. On the last day of the conference, one of the organisers stopped me in the hallway in front of the main auditorium. We talked briefly, and he mentioned that while the hot water extraction idea was a nice touch, it was not the decisive factor in choosing our offer. “Your package was the most detailed among all entries. We were thoroughly impressed by your breakdown of numbers, and we thought that if you approached planning so comprehensively, you would do an excellent job in cleaning. I am happy you proved us correct.”
A triumph of planning, I thought to myself as I prepared to leave.
