The cleaning and facility management industry is evolving rapidly, and mobile software solutions are increasingly becoming essential tools for streamlining cleaning operations, scaling efficiency, and improving daily cleaning quality. From scheduling and routes to activity validation to quality control and inventory management, these platforms promise transformative results.

Yet, many organizations find themselves frustrated and underwhelmed when their cleaning software fails to deliver the expected outcomes. The problem often isn't the software itself but the change management associated with onboarding, training and using the data to improve your custodial operations strategy.

This article shares the questions you should be asking as you research potential solutions and technology partners and the seven common points of failure in an implementation.

Questions to Ask During the Sales Cycle

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Before getting into the most common reasons for a technology implementation failure, the key to understanding technology success is evaluating the relationship you will have with the technology provider.

The worst feeling in the world is buying a technology and having the provider “throw the software over the wall” for you to figure out. With any new technology purchase, change management is critical to get a return on investment in your investment. The relationship with your partner and their customer success team will help ensure change management leads to optimization in your processes instead of additional steps that hinders your process.

Any good partner relationship is typically shown in the sales process and here are several questions you can ask to ensure the partner can provide the value you need:

• Past Success: Ask the provider about other similar size organizations they work with? How has the customer’s process changed with the solution? How did they get there?
• On-boarding Process: What is the process and timeline after you sign with the technology provider? How many resources are provided for implementation and training? How long does it take?
• IT Process: What IT requirements does your organization have? Is SSO required? Are there integrations with core systems (such as IT systems or CMMS) that are required for expansion?
• Customer Success: How do they work with you to determine project and technology success? What Key Performance Indicators do they use? How often are these metrics communicated to you and your team?
• Expansion Process: What does a Phase 1 look like? How easy is it to expand usage of the technology? What type of cost considerations would there be?
• Budgeting Process: How does the partner help with aligning with the budgeting and purchasing process? What can they provide to help promote and secure the budget?
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When you purchase a technology, you are also purchasing the partner and their team that will help in making it successful. Technology needs to enable change that can help improve costs, optimize team time and enhance overall performance and the partner team you choose will often impact that just as much as the technology.

Common Reasons for Failure

1. Lack of Clear Goals and Objectives

Many companies adopt cleaning software without clearly defining what they want to achieve. Whether it’s better scheduling, improved compliance reporting, or labor cost savings, starting without specific goals leads to disjointed usage and poor results.

Solution: Before selecting a solution, outline measurable objectives. What problems are you trying to solve? How will you define success? Setting goals upfront provides a roadmap for implementation and enables you to evaluate the partner that aligns to these goals the best.

2. Poor User Adoption

Even the best software is useless if employees and supervisors resist or fail to use it correctly. Poor training, overly complex interfaces, language and technology gaps and lack of user engagement can quickly derail adoption.

Solution: Invest in comprehensive training for all users, from frontline cleaning staff to managers. Choose a user-friendly platform and evaluate the ongoing support provided by them to address questions and challenges.

3. Inadequate Onboarding and Training

Rushed onboarding processes often leave users confused and unable to maximize the software’s capabilities.

Solution: Plan a phased onboarding approach. Start with essential functions and gradually introduce advanced features. Partner with the software vendor for hands-on training sessions and provide detailed documentation for reference.

4. Lack of IT Support Internally and with Partner

Many organizations already use multiple software tools for work order management, occupant feedback and quality assurance. When cleaning software doesn’t integrate well, it creates data silos and operational inefficiencies. In addition, for mobile technology, ensuring that it has proper user connectivity and permissions (such as SSO) can be a huge time saver in discussing upfront.

Solution: Choose software with robust integration capabilities and proper security posture. Ensure it can communicate seamlessly with other systems like CMMS and IT management as well as the proper security permissions such as Single Sign On (SSO).

5. Stale Data without Actionable Insights

Cleaning software can generate incredibly useful data but that data is worthless without making it available in real-time. Without proper analysis and easy to use real-time dashboards, decision-makers struggle to translate this data into meaningful actions that consistently improve the day-to-day operations.

Solution: Focus on KPIs that matter most, such as cleaning compliance rates, task completion times, and resource utilization. Use dashboards and reports to visualize trends and identify areas for improvement. Put the data in the hands of managers and train them to use it to most effectively manage and optimize team performance.

6. Ignoring Feedback from Frontline Users

The people who use the software daily often have valuable insights into its strengths and weaknesses. Organizations that ignore their feedback risk prolonged inefficiencies.

Solution: Create feedback loops where users can report issues and suggest improvements. Act on this feedback to fine-tune workflows and improve user satisfaction. Use mobile cleaning technology as the communication hub that enables custodial staff to be more productive.

7. Insufficient Ongoing Support and Updates

Software needs regular updates and continuous support to keep up with changing business needs and technology advancements.

Solution: Partner with a vendor that offers strong customer support and frequent updates. Maintain an internal champion responsible for overseeing software usage and improvements. Ask providers about their product pipeline and new features/products that are expected to be released. Good products should grow with customers to solve future challenges.

How to Ensure a Successful Implementation

1. Start Small, Scale Gradually: Conduct a Phased Approach for the software with a small team or location before rolling it out organization-wide. This helps identify potential issues early.
2. Engage All Stakeholders Early: Involve cleaning staff, supervisors, and IT teams from the beginning to ensure the software meets everyone’s needs.
3. Measure Progress Continuously: Regularly assess whether the software is meeting your defined objectives. Make adjustments as needed based on data insights and user feedback.
4. Foster a Culture of Continuous Learning: Encourage employees to stay updated on new features and best practices through training sessions and workshops.

Conclusion

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As we enter a time period of budget and hiring constraints for cleaning leaders, cleaning software can be a game-changer for organizations, if implemented thoughtfully and strategically. By setting clear goals, fostering user adoption, and leveraging insights effectively, companies can unlock the full potential of their software investment and transform their cleaning operations for long-term success.