Meet Conal Wixted, Managing Director of Wixted Cleaning
As Wixted Cleaning celebrates its 20th year of continuous business, we meet founder and director Conal Wixted to find out about the origins of the business, how things work behind the scenes and what it takes to run a successful cleaning company.
Why did you start Wixted Cleaning?
We started Wixted Cleaning in 2002 after working in the cleaning industry for many years and managing a number of sites around Bedfordshire.
Having spent most of my working life managing cleaning companies and gaining invaluable experience of client needs and how to meet and exceed them, I wanted to run my own cleaning business.
What are the secrets of your 20 successful years in business?
To run a successful cleaning company of any size you need a keen eye for detail and of course to understand what ‘clean’ looks like for your customers.
At the same time, you need skills in client relations, contract negotiation, team selection and management and general business management such as purchasing and finance.
You also need to keep an eye on health and safety legislation – all these things contribute to the company’s steady and secure growth.
Why do you think your customers choose to work with you?
I think the reasons have changed over the years. Today, with 20 years in the business and 150 employees, we know how commercial office cleaning services should be delivered, and have a deep knowledge of differing cleaning requirements across a wide range of sectors.
We’ve also been able to build up a reputation for quality because from the start our philosophy has been to put client service at the very centre of what we do through our Client Care Programme.
How important is value for money in the cleaning industry?
Of course all our clients want good value for money and we aim to deliver it so they have no reason to go elsewhere.
Equally important for our clients is a bespoke cleaning service that’s tailored around their specific needs. This means that our customers are kept happy, and results in the fact that our customer turnover is very low. It’s also key for us as a business to be both profitable and debt free. This has given us a solid platform for success both in the current COVID-affected economic conditions and through the peaks and troughs of the last 20 years.
How would you describe your personal management style?
As Managing Director, I run a short management chain structure which enables fast internal communication on a daily basis with our Operation Managers.
It’s important that our clients have quick and easy ongoing access to senior management, and we encourage them to feed back to us regularly so we can keep standards of quality and customer satisfaction high.
I also ensure that our Area Managers don’t have too many accounts to manage, so they can offer each customer pro-active, quality care.
Finally going back to what I said earlier about ‘value for money’, we know that some of our competitors win contracts by offering rock bottom prices. Often this restricts them to delivering less than what they’ve promised.
We never do this, and I am determined that Wixted Cleaning will continue to maintain our standards, deliver on our promises and keep our customers happy, year after year.
What do you enjoy most about your work at Wixted Cleaning?
I love that I get to meet so many interesting people from such a vast range of industries. I particularly enjoy going to new potential client premises to survey their buildings and understand their cleaning requirements.
It gives me such satisfaction when it all comes together right from the start of the contract through to the completion of the work schedule. It’s also rewarding to hear positive feedback, whether from an employee or client.
Finally, I enjoy working with our team, because I believe the success of any organisation depends largely on the employees themselves. We see every employee as a key part of our team with equal importance in delivering the final service to the client.
What does the future hold for Wixted Cleaning?
Considering the difficulties we’ve faced due to Covid-19, I am feeling very positive about the future.
Throughout the pandemic we have never wavered from our promise to provide professional cleaning services.
Now, as we celebrate our 20th anniversary, I want our clients to know that they can continue to depend on our cleaning services just as they always have. As we continue to grow our business, we are recruiting for further Contract Managers, investing in new vans and always looking for new improvements in what we do.
So all in all, it’s a busy and exciting time!
Next steps
To find out about how Wixted Cleaning can help you with your cleaning requirements, contact us today. Or call us on 01525 406926 for a free quote and for more information on the types of service we can provide.