Looking forward to Great British Spring Clean Week

It’s Great British Spring Clean Week! In the past, spring cleaning was something that most ‘housewives’ did, sprucing up their houses, making sure everything was sparkly-clean! If you look at the vintage Mrs Beaton’s books, you’ll see how, only a few decades ago, cleanliness at home was seen as the domain of the ‘woman of the house’. Things are very different now for many of us.

The main focus this year is about Spring Cleaning for a Greener Britain. It is all about encouraging communities to come together to help clean the litter that is strewn in many of our beauty spots, beaches and streets. 

Keeping the government’s guidelines for social distancing, the campaign is about encouraging individuals, schools, councils, local groups and businesses to keep local communities clean, green and litter-free. You can find out more detail here.

The Daily Mail and Keep Britain Tidy are joining together to bring together, a million people to pick up a million miles of litter!

In a recent blog, back in April, I talk about how we get ready for spring for our properties - find out more.

However, for me it’s also a time when I can spring clean my business. It’s time to look at internal processes, how we can be more efficient in what we are doing, where possible more sustainable and more productive as a block and property management agent.

Here are five areas to consider to spring clean your business:

1.    Is your WEBSITE working at its best?

Does your website need an update in any way? 

Are there issues ‘behind the scenes’ that can be changed to make the site more visible and easier to use?

Is your website secure? If people visit your site and see a security alert message, they will think twice about staying on your site. Also, if your site isn’t secure, you may be hacked.

Does your website reflect your brand well in terms of style, colour and language?

Can customers find their way around the site well?

Do we need to provide a clearer way for customers to contact us, and give us feedback?

2.    Is your BRAND AWARENESS well exploited?

Is everyone in the business aware of what your brand means and how it should be used?

Do you have a strong and appropriate social media presence?

Do your marketing materials need updating, or do you need to order more?

Are you sharing testimonials?

Are you writing and sharing blogs?

Do you have enough of your branding materials ready printed for new clients?

3.    Are you using TECHNOLOGY efficiently?

Are documents saved securely?

Can people access things easily where needed, and are documents that need to be secure, kept as safe as they can be?

Are you using more paper than you need to?

4.    Now is a good time to check and update your CRM (Customer Relationship Management)– if you have one. If you don’t, is now the time to get one?

After all the changes during these last two years, it is a good time to check that the contacts you have, are still relevant.

Identify which records are no longer required and delete them.

Or outsource for this kind of work.

5.    Do a stationery check for CONSUMABLES.

Include checking that printers work well and you have a good supply of inks, spare batteries, paper, etc.

Run a system check on equipment, so you can spot any potential issues.

Do you have too much of stuff eg. Notebooks and too little of something else which will cause a problem down the line?

If you have everything running efficiently and smoothly in the office, then you will be more productive, and ultimately more profitable, because you won’t be wasting working time sorting out technological problems and other issues.

What will you be ‘spring cleaning’ this week?