CAW North West Flanders chooses the power of trust with Cleaning Masters

Assistance with a heart

Since the late 1990s, CAW (Centrum Algemeen Welzijnswerk) has been offering help to people who are struggling. And the organization does so in an accessible and cost-free way. “We have a very wide range of services,” says Jens Jaecques, facility manager at the CAW North-West Flanders. “In short: we offer an easily accessible welcome, we provide appropriate guidance and we focus on prevention. Although that is by no means all. We do this with some 230 people in our organization in North-West Flanders, spread over some 40 buildings.”

Time left for other things

Jens did his internship at CAW and launched his professional career there in 2005. With both experience in active assistance and work “behind the scenes,” he now knows the organization inside and out. “I am currently responsible for everything to do with patrimony. That means all the buildings and everything in them, but also IT and telephony. So that range of duties also includes cooperation with external partners, such as Cleaning Masters.”

That collaboration began in February 2021. “We were looking for a partner who would complement our own cleaning service by cleaning our staff buildings. We did a survey of some of our partners. Who did they clean with and how did the cooperation go? Stability, quality and flexibility were the key words in our search and we found those things all in Cleaning Masters.”

“For us it is important that we can really count on our partner. We still do some cleaning in-house, but the follow-up now requires a lot less time thanks to Cleaning Masters. Cleaning Masters really unburdens us. I no longer have to think “Soon it will be summer again, hopefully no one will get sick. Or what about Christmas?” I don’t have to worry about that now. It gives me extra time for other things. With Cleaning Masters, we have a safety net and we can act quickly in case of internal absences. For a large organization like the CAW, you really need that.”

“There are many cleaning companies out there. The fact that we are extending our contract with Cleaning Masters says something.”

Mutual trust

At the CAW, trust is the key word. Clients want to be welcomed in a safe environment where they receive help in a confidential manner. “That word is often used here and then it is important to live up to it. Say what we do and do what we say. We deal with our clients’ stories and their data in a confidential way. But it also means handling our communications to them in a very open, transparent way. That they know perfectly well what to expect, why we do something and how we do it.”

Jens wants to extend this philosophy to collaborations with his external partners. “That’s not always obvious, especially with new partners. You can have a good relationship with the person in charge, but the people on the work floor have to translate it into their actions. In some buildings the cleaning masters clean before our working hours, but here at the headquarters in Bruges it is also during. We build a relationship of trust with the cleaning masters, we know them and can talk to them well. They will say it right away if something is wrong, they are very approachable.”

“Ultimately, you do let people into your office building. All client information might be locked away safely, but you still let them in where there is a lot of information. Thanks to our trustworthy relationship with Cleaning Masters, we know we don’t have to worry about that.”

A quality label

“It’s important to have a connection with your partners,” Jens continues. “That our partners know what we do here and that we know what to expect. By that I mean, among other things, making good agreements, being sufficiently responsive and communicating transparently. We just started up a new building in Ostend. Cindy (inspector at Cleaning Masters) guided and started the first cleaners there and was there for the first week. You know that if she is there, things will be fine. Cleaning Masters guarantees a quality label to our organization.”

“It’s reassuring to know we’re working with the same sustainable products.”

Ecological products

“Sustainability is very important to us,” Jens says. “But you have to realize it within the context you’re in. At the CAW, we went in the right direction. More ecological and efficient buildings, water taps, solar panels, better insulation, and so on. Can it get any better? Certainly. But we are aware that it is a process and that there is a way to go.”

“With Cleaning Masters, we know we are working with a sustainable partner. I know they work with the same supplier as our in-house cleaning service. So you know you are cleaning with the same products and subscribe to the same philosophy. That’s reassuring for us, it’s basically a quality guarantee. Environmentally friendly products with eco-labels, osmosis to wash the windows, ergonomic materials and techniques, the right way to use the products: the right dosage, the right product for the right surface, … We notice these evolutions, also at Cleaning Masters.”

Reliable, transparent and qualitative

Before the arrival of Cleaning Masters, CAW North-West Flanders had never worked with an external cleaning firm. “Now we can centralize everything. We started with the main building here in Bruges and in the meantime we are already at 5 buildings. If we weren’t satisfied, we wouldn’t do it. There are many cleaning companies. The fact that we are expanding our assignment with Cleaning Masters says something anyway.”

“Cleaning Masters proactively contacts us to find out if everything is going well and what could be improved. I appreciate that. Would we want to change anything about our collaboration? On the contrary, I would even turn it around: what do we definitely not want to change? The output we get today and the flexibility with which we can expand the assignment. We can’t do that with smaller firms. With Cleaning Masters, we can do that under the same umbrella and with the same contact person. In short, for us Cleaning Masters is a reliable, transparent and quality partner.”