Clock-In and Clean

Featuring - 4 Seasons Services

If you’re like so many of us, the task of cleaning your house from top to bottom is not something you absolutely love...in fact, it’s likely the item on your To Do list that elicits the biggest groan. That is, unless you’re Melissa Campos of 4 Seasons Services in Portland Oregon.

Melissa and partner, Miguel Sandoval, are owners of the growing business, the demand for which has understandably surged during the ongoing pandemic. Offering commercial, residential and biohazard cleaning, plus hauling and disposal services, the homeowners, apartment property managers and businesses in Portland keep 4 Seasons Services and their staff busy doing what they do best.

We all know there’s no such thing as perfection in this world, but there are definitely those who refuse to settle for less than excellence. Melissa, who admits to being a “perfectionist”, sets extremely high standards for herself and her four teams. She learned the value of hard work from her father, who worked in farming and agriculture in North California for many years and, since starting the company with Miguel in 2017, she’s developed protocols for cleaning excellence. She explains that when it comes to cleaning a kitchen, for example, there are countless ways to go about it, with differing results.

Learning from experimentation, Melissa has documented meticulous methods for cleaning everything. And we mean, everything! Over time, Melissa has documented her recommended methods in a staff training/reference manual that includes Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and cleaning procedures for every room type, surface type and type of stain or dirt, including biohazardous substances.The company mission is to deliver consistently high-quality work so staff are expected to learn and follow the 100+ page manual. For this reason, Melissa explains, training is intensive and it takes roughly one year for an employee to become fully competent in all procedures. Based on the fact the company rarely receives customer complaints, the strategy works!

During the pandemic, 4 Seasons Services lost some of its employees due to Covid-related fears so the company is recruiting to expand their ranks. Since employees of the company can’t just grab a bucket, sponge and go to work, the owners look for special people to be part of their team... folks who, like Melissa, love to clean and aren’t faint of heart. After all, they’re not simply vacuuming, cleaning grimy windows and washing floors, but the biohazardous component of their work involves yucky stuff, like blood, vomit and dog waste. All in a day’s work for the crews of 4 Seasons Services!

Commercial crews clock into work with Employee Link at 6 pm, when building staff have left for the day. They clock out about 3 am, when the teams assigned to cleaning apartments or townhouses between rentals start their day. The Employee Link app shows the owners when the multi-family work teams clock-out around 1pm. If you do the math, you’ll note there are roughly only five hours per day when Melissa and Miguel aren’t managing working crews.

To improve business efficiency, the owners needed an app to track billable employee hours, track productivity and workload, calculate gross earnings, manage clients and projects and more. And they needed the app to be simple to use and intuitive for staff. Melissa explains that one of the biggest challenges she faces is staying connected to her remote, mobile crews and keeping on top of changing customer demands, unexpected hiccups and frequent scheduling changes. That’s why the company chose Employee Link and Melissa says “it’s amazing what Employee Link can do”.

Melissa organizes her teams using color coding in the app… for example, the janitorial team is red, light janitorial is blue etc. “I love that I can communicate with different teams in Employee Link; I can send a message to only the janitorial team, to Teams 1 and 2, or to the entire staff using the announcement / messaging feature. My employees, who previously texted me with information, are now used to communicating within the app… I keep all business operations information within Employee Link, making it accessible and convenient.”

The owners also love that they can add photos to job information; for example, the 4 Seasons Services crew often pick up and dispose of furniture items from their multi-family building clients. Melissa adds the client’s photo of the couch, mattress, etc. for removal and attaches it for the Hauling crew in the app, simplifying their work. They know where the items are located and what they’re looking for. Occasionally, items are missing when the crews arrive - they can confirm this by referring to the original photo and send a photo of the remaining items back to the office.

4 Seasons Services’ staff clock in and out of their shifts on Employee Link and simply stop the time clock temporarily during lunch breaks. In addition to providing accurate hours, with staff GPS locations, the app calculates employees’ gross earnings for the pay period. Melissa and Miguel export a PDF summary of payable hours to a third-party payroll provider with one easy click. They can see a breakdown of all tracked time, customized by date, job, and employee and identify which employees have available capacity for other assignments.

The nature of their business is characterized by unexpected change...for example, if the carpet cleaners haven’t completed their work, the 4 Seasons Services crew can’t proceed with their job, as scheduled. “There are lots of moving parts to coordinate”, explains Melissa, “and Employee Link is an amazing help...first, we message the team to alert them to a delay and schedule change and, when we juggle the schedules in the app, staff are automatically notified of next steps for their day”!

When asked why she loves her work, Melissa explains that it allows her to do something she truly enjoys… cleaning! In her early days as a cleaner, she listened to audiobooks while working, allowing her to learn many things while getting her job done. For Melissa, cleaning helps to relieve stress and, for that matter, so does the Employee Link app. Next up for 4 Seasons Services? A new website, currently under construction plus, the eco-friendly cleaning company will soon be launching a line of products online.

At Employee LInk, we’re proud to work with the staff and owners of 4 Seasons Services in Portland. If you own or manage a business with remote, mobile teams, start your free, no obligation trial today and discover why Melissa Campos says:

Find out how Employee Link can transform your mobile team management - start your free, no obligation free trial today.