“No one’s perfect as far as getting it right the first time,” Garland Gay says. “Some are better than others.”
It is an odd admission from the head of a cleaning company, but Gay has built his business around it. Platinum Industrial Cleaning Services works mostly in commercial office space and warehouses, including the offices attached to warehouses, and has also moved into medical work. The company lists apartment make-ready work for move-ins as well. Gay says what sets it apart is what happens after a crew leaves a building.
He calls it a feedback loop. “We’re in constant contact with our customers,” he says, “asking them, hey, can we do this? Would you like this?” If a client wants something done differently, Gay wants to hear it. “We strongly encourage that feedback so they can know that they’re being heard.”
He knows how that sounds. “I know that sounds cliche-ish,” he says, “but we really have systems in place where we can capture that feedback on a routine basis and be responsive to it.”
The company started with a different plan. Gay says the first idea was to partner with one of the major cleaning brands. When that did not work out, they launched on their own and went after their own clients. It is a husband-and-wife business, Gay is a military veteran, and the people they employ are mostly friends of the family.
The company names Gay as general manager, Tiesha Gay as client manager and Damon Gay as operations manager. It works North and Northeast Houston and the surrounding areas.
Gay traces his view of reliability to his military background and, before that, to his mother. “She’s always said a man is his word,” he says. Once you establish that credibility, he adds, people come to know they can depend on you.
He tries to judge his own crews the way a client would. “I always put myself in the shoes of the consumer, right? If I want to pay, I expect the service to be there. I expect you to be there on time, because it’s almost like you’re disregarding what I have to do.”
At least one client noticed the clock. An Airbnb host who hired the crew for a four-plex said in a review that the cleaners showed up on time and moved through the units quickly without letting the quality slip.
Gay leads by example, he says, and he pays for the effort he expects. “I lead by example, but also I incentivize,” he says. He is plain about the bargain. “I’m not going to pay the minimum wage. I’m not going to pay them the lower rank. They’re going to be paid premium wage, but with that I expect premium effort.”