Cleaning is a serious business, and BIC Services is leading the way
It’s not enough for Australia’s premiere cleaning and environmental services provider to be the best at what they do—they’re working to clean up their industry. Founded in 1989, BIC Services provides integrated cleaning services throughout Australia.
This rapidly expanding company has a truly national footprint, serving commercial, educational, industrial, and health spaces, as well as precinct and open-space contracts. One such contract with Place Management NSW and CBRE has established BIC as the environmental services provider for The Rocks and Darling Harbour. The company is expanding its work in the aged care sector as well.
BIC’s customer focused and performance driven ethos drives them to do more; and do it better at every turn. Take, for example, their founding membership of the Cleaning Accountability Framework, a unique global initiative to ensure fair labour practices in the cleaning industry. As BIC Services CEO Tony Gorgovski explained, “We are committed to improving standards in the industry. We directly employ all of our cleaners so we can ensure they are fairly paid and given the training and equipment they need to work safely and to the highest standards.”
He added, “As a leader in the industry, I feel a personal obligation to support not just our cleaners but every cleaner in the industry. Cleaners perform an essential service, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been frontline workers that have put their safety on the line to make our workplaces safe. Without cleaners, there is no COVID-normal; it’s time we recognise them for the vital role they play in making the world safe.”
The enterprising firm, whose commercial work encompasses waste management, hygiene services, and consumables, established a first-of-its kind training facility. “Our Academy of Excellence contains a variety of surfaces and space types which allow us to deliver our own training in-house and rapidly upskill our service teams,” he noted. “Investing in our people and putting them at the forefront of everything we do means they deliver an excellent service for our clients.”
BIC Services invests heavily in innovation, outpacing competitors through responsiveness, efficiency, and offering best in class customer care. “One example of our investment in innovation is our industry-first, award-nominated Interactive Customer Experience Platform (ICXP). We developed this technology to make our service delivery more customer-centric. It has comfortably achieved this goal, while continuing to evolve and have an impact on all aspects of our service delivery,” he said.
Clients can use BIC’s tablet-based Customer Experience Kiosks or QR-codes to input service requests. The ICXP alerts the closest service team member via a wearable smart device, allowing for instant issue resolution. “Rolling out this technology has allowed us to deliver a far more proactive service,” Gorgovski revealed. “Our customers can also use the technology to leave satisfaction scores; we trend this data over time and use it in our reporting to offer more transparency into our service delivery.”
One of the most exciting aspects of the technology is its heat mapping functionality. Bluetooth beacons and IoT sensors track asset utilisation across buildings and client spaces, and the collected data is used to build asset profiles which show precisely when assets are being used most often. The data profiles are used to create strategic cleaning routes and avoid under- and over-servicing. This is crucial in cutting waste and making services more cost-effective.
“Our ICXP technology has now been rolled out across eight major contracts and clients and was a finalist in the Property Council of Australia's Innovation & Excellence Awards. We’re excited to watch the continued development of this technology, and we know we've only scratched the surface of its potential,” he added. “Our direct-employment model and ICXP will be especially useful in the aged care sector, which needs a highly skilled and stable team of cleaners to ensure spaces are safe for staff, patients, and residents.”
BIC’s commitment to sustainability takes a collaborative approach. “We’re always looking for ways to help our clients reduce waste and increase landfill diversion,” Gorgovski said. “So, the first step in our services is always to audit the current waste management service and find improvements. That could range from simple things like removing under desk bins to reduce waste and waste stream contamination, to introducing waste weighing so businesses have a real sense of how much waste they are producing.”
They also lead the way in waste reporting, and providing meaningful data on everything from organic, landfill, and recycling breakdowns to detail on how much waste is being produced on a tenant-by-tenant and level-by-level basis. On-demand access enables clients to immediately see how much landfill waste they are creating and compare those levels to previous months. It’s just one more demonstration of the company’s commitment to making substantive changes that make life cleaner and healthier for everyone.
“We look after our people, and our people look after our clients, that formula has given us more than 30 years of success, and it's a formula we'll stick to. And we never break a promise. What we promise our clients and our partners is exactly what we deliver—no compromises,” he concluded.
