Learning Guide
Customer service
for cleaners
28356 Demonstrate knowledge of customer service
in the cleaning industry
Name:
Workplace:
Issue 1.0
Level 2
2 credits
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Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1
Customers ................................................................................................................................ 2
Customer service ..................................................................................................................... 4
Good customer service ........................................................................................................ 4
Personal presentation and hygiene ..................................................................................... 5
Communicating with customers .......................................................................................... 6
Keeping people safe ............................................................................................................ 7
Maintaining confidentiality ................................................................................................. 7
Cleaning instructions ............................................................................................................... 9
Cleaning schedule .............................................................................................................. 10
Customer service for cleaners (US 28356) Learning Guide © Careerforce – Issue 1.0 | April 2015
Customer service for cleaners (US 28356) Learning Guide © Careerforce – Issue 1.0 | April 2015
Introduction
This learning guide is about providing customer service as a cleaner.
How to use your learning guide
This guide supports your learning and prepares you for the unit
standard assessment.
This guide relates to this unit standard for cleaning at level 2:

28356 Demonstrate knowledge of customer service in the cleaning
industry (2 credits).
This guide is yours to keep. Make it your own by writing notes that help
you remember things, or where you need to find more information.
Follow the tips in the notes column.
You may use highlighter pens to show important information and ideas,
and think about how this information applies to your work.
You might find it helpful to talk to your colleagues or supervisor.
Complete this learning guide before you start the assessment.
What you will learn
This guide will help you to:

understand your customers and their needs.

provide good customer service.
Customer service for cleaners (US 28356) Learning Guide © Careerforce – Issue 1.0 | April 2015
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Customers
For you as a cleaner, a customer is anyone who uses the facilities you
clean. You and your work make a difference to cleanliness and hygiene
for people working in, living in or visiting the place you clean. It also
makes a difference to other staff members and even to you.
An office
There are different types of customers.
Contract customers are the people in the organisation which contracts
your cleaning company to clean their facilities. This includes office
workers, shop staff, and residents and carers in rest homes.
Third party customers are people who use the facilities you clean, such
as visitors or customers.
Internal customers are the people within your cleaning company. They
use the facilities and they benefit from the cleaning that you do. They
may be fellow workers.
Customer service for cleaners (US 28356) Learning Guide © Careerforce – Issue 1.0 | April 2015
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Write
Who are your customers?
Give an example of a contract customer.
Give an example of a third party customer.
Give an example of an internal customer.
What do your customers expect of your work? Talk to a fellow cleaner
about this.
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Customer service
Customer service means taking action to meet customer needs and
customer expectations and what the customer expects. It is about
caring for your customers.
Think about when you are a customer and you go into a shop to buy
something. You expect to leave with what you came for and you expect
polite, friendly, helpful service from the shop assistants you deal with.
Depending upon the situation, you may have other expectations.
For example, you expect fast service from a food drive-through but you
may expect to have to wait in a queue at a food court in a mall. You
expect a food place to be hygienic, the people serving your food to be
clean and tidy, and the food to be hot – unless it is an ice cream parlour.
Some cleaners may have their customers present as they work and may
have to work around these people and their routines. An example
would be a residential care facility or a hospital, or when cleaning a
shopping mall during opening hours.
As a cleaner you may be concerned about disturbing people as you
clean, perhaps by the noise of machines. Cleaning should be completed
with minimum disruption to people who are there.
Some cleaners know that their customers exist but they may not see
them, especially if they are cleaning a building out of work hours.
Good customer service
Good customer service keeps customers as it keeps customers happy.
Happy customers will renew their cleaning contract with your cleaning
company.
Reputation spreads by word of mouth. Satisfied customers talk about
your cleaning organisation to other people. This may bring in new and
more work.
Good customer service also gets customers. The work that you and your
cleaning company do is visible to others, especially in a building that the
public uses. This good work may result in new cleaning contracts.
Poor customer service is equally powerful, with bad news spreading
faster than good news. Poor customer service can mean lost contracts,
contracts which are not renewed, a poor reputation, a loss of business
and a loss of profits.
You have a role to play in customer service, not only with how well you
clean, but being presented tidily, communicating positively with your
customers, keeping people safe and maintaining confidentiality.
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Personal presentation and hygiene
Being clean and tidy at work is important as this can affect health and
safety. You are responsible for the health of yourself and other people.
You may be provided with a uniform and this and the clothes you wear
must be clean and in good order (not ripped or stained).
Even if you don’t often see your customers, it is important that
whenever you are seen at work or you are on your way to work that you
give a good impression.
More info
It’s not just cleaning.
It’s about a healthy
environment.
Looking smart in a clean uniform shows that you understand the
importance of cleanliness. Remember you are representing your
employer and how you look reflects on them.
If you have a name badge, wear it.
Attention to personal hygiene in the workplace reduces the spread of
germs and disease.
Our bodies have over two million sweat glands and these can produce a
lot of sweat each day, especially if we are hot. Sweating can cause bad
or offensive smells as bacteria may be present on the skin, creating
odour.
There are lots of things we can do to keep ourselves clean, including:

using deodorant or antiperspirant each day.

bathing/showering regularly (including washing your hair).

keeping your hair tidy, brushed and tied up or out of the way.

cleaning your teeth.

having clean and trimmed nails.

washing hands regularly.

wearing clean clothes.
Protect yourself by wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). You
may have to wear different equipment each time you clean, depending
on the situation.
Be well presented
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Communicating with customers
You may need to communicate with people in the building, your
workmates or your supervisor.
Usually your supervisor will be the person who communicates with the
people who contract the cleaning services.
Communicating
Your supervisor will tell you who
you communicate with in your
workplace.
You could communicate:

face-to-face and through meetings.

over the phone, by email or text.

by writing messages in a day book.

by using signs to inform people about the cleaning. For example,
using a white board in the toilet which gives the time it was cleaned.
Be polite to other people even if they interrupt/distract you. You may
have to politely tell people that you cannot stop and chat and that you
have to keep moving as you have work to be done by a certain time.
Keep a positive attitude while at work by:

greeting others in a friendly manner (smile).

having a positive mind set.

assisting and helping others.
Respond to requests positively, as long as these are things you do as
part of your job. Remember you should only do those things that are in
your job description.
You have responsibility to clean according to the cleaning instructions
or cleaning schedule. There are limitations on what else you can do.
It can be difficult when you get a request to do something from a
person in the building that is outside the boundaries of what you usually
do in your work role. Explain that you are unable to help with this as it is
not part of your job, and who they should contact to assist them.
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Keeping people safe
You may be working in a place where there are people all around you. It
is important to keep people safe and informed.
If people are in an area that you have to clean, you can handle this in
several ways:

go to another area to clean and come back later.

work around them if possible.

close their doors, before vacuuming outside of their offices.
Make sure you work in a way that keeps the environment safe for
people.
To warn other people about your work, put out a warning sign, cordon
or barrier. Check that the sign is clean and easy to read.
Make sure that you put it in a place where people can read it and where
it will not cause a hazard.
Warning sign
Some of the places you work may be very busy places. Focus on your
work and avoid getting distracted by other things happening, like noise
and activity around you. Being distracted is a safety issue and can be
dangerous and may impact on the work you are doing.
Maintaining confidentiality
You may hear or see personal and medical information about people.
It is important to keep someone’s private information safe. You must
never repeat any information about another person you hear or see at
work to anyone else.
If you see anything with confidential on it while you are cleaning an
office or desk, do not read it.
Customer service for cleaners (US 28356) Learning Guide © Careerforce – Issue 1.0 | April 2015
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Write
Write down three examples of good customer service you can provide.
1
2
3
Customer service for cleaners (US 28356) Learning Guide © Careerforce – Issue 1.0 | April 2015
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Cleaning instructions
Before you start to clean, you need to confirm the cleaning instructions.
When you confirm instructions you need to get up-to-date instructions
for that job and make sure that you understand them correctly.
You may get instructions from the customer or from your supervisor.
The instructions will include the following.

A list of the areas to be cleaned. There may also be a list of areas
that you are asked not to clean.

Types of cleaning to be done, for example, vacuuming, damp wiping,
cleaning hand basins and toilets and so on.

Hours of work.

A schedule of work: this is a list of cleaning tasks to be done. It may
show the order in which the tasks should be done. You may get a
daily or weekly schedule.

Timeframes: how long each task should take.
The customer may have special requirements for cleaning. For example,
polishing hand rails, cleaning glass windows in offices.
Before you start to clean, you need to find out if there are any special
conditions.
You may get instructions on special conditions from the client or from
your supervisor. Special conditions may include any of the following.

Specialised equipment that is to be cleaned. This may include
telephones, computers, or other office equipment.

Security arrangements. This includes how to enter and exit the
building and how to turn off and set security alarms.

Supervision. If you have supervision, someone will come and check
your work to make sure that it is up to the correct standard.

Operation of premises during cleaning. The supervisor will tell you if
people will be working while you are cleaning. There may be special
instructions on areas that you must not enter or must not clean.
If you get a request to do something from a person in the building that
is not what you usually do, explain that you are unable to help with this
as it is not part of your job. You should let your supervisor know about
such requests.
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Cleaning schedule
A cleaning schedule is an agreement between the customer and your
employer about all the different cleaning jobs to be done. The cleaning
schedule will set out your job.
A cleaning schedule includes the following information.

Where to clean and all the different areas that are to be cleaned.
For example, toilets, hallways, offices.

What to clean: all the different cleaning tasks that need to be done
in each area. For example, in the toilets: clean toilets, urinals,
basins, mop floors.

When each of the cleaning tasks must be done. This is sometimes
called the frequency and it could be daily, weekly, as required, or
every 2 hours.

How each cleaning task must be done. This includes the instructions.
Not all cleaning schedules will include detailed instructions.
For example, to clean basins:

using a crème cleaner, clean the inside of the hand basin.

clean around the bottom of the taps with the crème cleaner.

rinse the hand basin to remove the cleaner.

with a damp cloth wipe the taps, exterior surfaces, pipes under the
basin and the vanity unit.

with a dry cloth dry the taps, exterior surfaces, pipes under the
basin and the vanity unit.
Where to clean
What
to clean
Cleaning schedule
When to
clean
How to clean
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Cleaning schedule for the Smith Building
Area
Frequency
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Outside entrance:


Sweep entrance
Take out rubbish
Reception
Dust reception desk
Mop floors
Vacuum carpet
Remove rubbish

















Polish floor with floor scrubber






Vacuum visitors chairs
Stairways:
Sweep stairs
Wipe handrails
Mop stairs





















Offices:
Vacuum carpet
Remove rubbish


Wipe desks
Clean phones
Toilets:
Clean urinals
Clean toilets
Clean basins and taps
Clean door handles
Mop floors





Polish floors with floor scrubber























Office kitchen:
Sweep and mop floors
Wipe bench and sink
Wipe table
Polish floors with floor scrubber










Clean inside and outside of fridge
Customer service for cleaners (US 28356) Learning Guide © Careerforce – Issue 1.0 | April 2015








11
How to read a cleaning schedule
The top rows of the table give the headings.
Where to
clean
When – how
often to clean
Days of
the week
Name of
one area
to clean
Area
Frequency
Mon Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri

















Sat
Reception
What to
clean.
A list of
cleaning
tasks in
one area
Dust reception desk
Mop floors
Vacuum carpet
Remove rubbish
Polish floor with floor
scrubber





Vacuum visitors
chairs

To find the area you want, read down the column.
In this example, we are looking for ‘offices’.
Under the heading ‘offices’ read the list of cleaning tasks for this area.
Stairways:
Sweep stairs
Wipe handrails
Mop stairs
Offices:
What to
clean in
each office.
There are four
cleaning tasks
for offices.
Vacuum carpet
Remove rubbish
Wipe desks
Clean phones
Customer service for cleaners (US 28356) Learning Guide © Careerforce – Issue 1.0 | April 2015
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To find out how often to do each cleaning task, read across each row.
Area
Frequency
Offices:
Vacuum carpet
Remove rubbish
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri










Sat


Wipe desks
Clean phones
In this example, how often would the carpet in the offices have to be
vacuumed?
Area
Frequency
Offices:
Vacuum carpet
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri





Sat
Look for a tick  beside each day of the week. In the table above for
example the carpet has to be vacuumed on Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (but not Saturday). The building isn’t
cleaned on Sunday.
A note about days of the week: In some cleaning schedules, the days of
the week will be written in abbreviation (in short form):
Full word
Abbreviation
Monday
Mon
M
Tuesday
Tue
T
Wednesday
Wed
W
Thursday
Thu
Th
Friday
Fri
F
Saturday
Sat
S
Sunday
Sun
S
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