Often in our expert talks, we look for experienced individuals, who have grown as part of the cleaning industry. This month, we spoke to Mr. Ron Segura, Founder and President of Segura & Associates. Ron brings 57 years of experience in all segments of the Cleaning Industry, ten of those years were spent overseeing the cleaning of over 4.5 million square feet of outsourced services for The Walt Disney Company.

With over 20 years of consulting both domestically and internationally Ron has been assisting organisations to perform at maximum efficiencies, while raising the quality of service. He is the author of numerous articles in various trade journals worldwide.

Ron has assisted hundreds of organisations in the reengineering of their operations so that they are able to provide a high quality of service and still meet budgetary requirements. He has assisted organisations such as Tesla, Stryker, Stanford University and The United States Federal Reserve.

Between the years of 2004 and 2007 he helped to develop and implement Green Cleaning Programs, throughout the United States and South America. Ron’s excellent networking abilities has been demonstrated in his founding of the LinkedIn “Janitorial Management Group” with over 15,000 members worldwide.

Ron has been a Speaker and Presenter for Cleaning Organisations throughout the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and this year was a speaker in Australia at the AUSCLEAN Pulire exhibition - Sydney (2013) and the Building Service Contractors International 2013(BSCAI), ISSA Latin America (2017) and Abralimp of Brazil (2017), Guyana (2019). BSCAI Webinar

(2020), and Clean Middle East (2020)

Sounds interesting? 

Well then, let’s learn about Ron’s journey and his learnings in the industry!

How and when did you decide to join the cleaning and hygiene industry?

From an early age, my father did part time work cleaning bars. Over the weekends, I would go and help him. I would always tell him that he was the first incentive based employer because he wouldn’t pay me money but I could keep anything I found on the floor. So the incentive was that I swept every part of the floor. That’s really how I started and then I found that it was a good way to earn some extra money. That’s how I got into window washing and cleaning. After I graduated from high school and went to college for a year, I got back into the cleaning industry and I have to say that I was probably the worst janitor ever. To do something similar every single day wasn’t good for me. From there, I was able to get into some supervisory positions and I never left. I stayed in this industry and it’s my 57th year in it. 

I’ve worked in all segments of this industry - distribution, inhouse operations, contracting, etc. There really isn’t anything that I haven’t done in this industry. 

How have you seen it evolve?

When I first started, for many years (typically in the 60’s and early 70’s) when we did floors, we literally stripped and waxed floors. We would have these big scrubbers and it would take a couple of people to unload the scrubber. We would use steel wool pads and apply wax to the floors. From there, we evolved into floor finishing. This led us to shinier floors. And then the industry implemented floor maintenance programs with high speed buffers. I remember the first buffer minimised having to strip and refinish. Today, we have scrubbers that are able to do a lot more.

For cleaning itself, I’ll use this illustration - we literally cleaned restrooms (including urinals and commodes) with 25% hydrochloric acid. It was the kind that when you applied it, you could feel the fumes coming off. We also used a lot of ammonia. Considering this, it’s a wonder we survived in this industry. There was no risk management and no safety programs. 

From this phase, we went to using milder chemicals that would have a pleasant odour and were slightly milder on the skin. And now look at what we have today. We have products tailor made for different facilities. We have safety protocols in place. This evolution was really pretty good. I remember when I was a manager for a large company. We had just received a notice that we had to send increases to all our customers. In those days, everything wasn’t watched very carefully. You never had the management to cover all aspects. But I was told that the Vice President of Risk Management was going to visit my branch and wanted to meet all the staff. They were going to introduce a series of 5 minutes safety program. Then once a month, you would get together for a branch safety program run. 

Look at the present scenario. We don’t think of doing anything without risk management, safety guidelines and training.  

What do you think are the biggest challenges our cleaning and hygiene industry faces?

Like in every industry, we do not have enough staff to bring onboard. I think the biggest challenge in that area is learning how to attract people. There are skilled people already in our industry but learning how to attract them to our companies is pivotal. We spend a lot of money on our marketing but I don’t see us allocating money to market for staff. 

Even when we get staff, the challenge remains to retain them. The companies that are successful at doing this have really allocated budgets to maintain their people. Within the next couple of years, I think they will get there. 

To me, being in the industry for so long, I think one of the other biggest challenges is to be able to explain what value we bring to our organisations and customers. When I started years ago in the contracting site, the decision makers were usually people in the maintenance department who were least bothered about cleaning. And because we were treated that way, that’s the way we acted. This has changed now. We have started perceiving ourselves as contributors to the marketing of the customers we serve - whether internal or external. 

Coming out of COVID-19, the “invisible people” are not invisible anymore. I think we need to market that. 

What have been your learnings in your illustrious career in the industry?

One of the learnings that I really appreciate is that we always say that we are in a people’s business. The unfortunate part is that the people we are referring to are only customers. Caring for the customers is right but we also ought to care for our staff. Let me give you an example of how I have learnt to really value frontline staff. I was an operations manager for a company and there was an individual on our floor crew. One night I was talking to him and he was telling me about different chemicals - how we should use them, what we should mix, etc. I was surprised and asked him how he knew about this stuff. He said he used to be a chemist back in his country. 

Then it dawned on me that my perception of the frontline workers was the same type of perception that people held when I told them I come from the cleaning industry. From that point on, when it was still pretty early in my career, I really value these frontline workers. There are several frontline workers I have worked with, who have their multi million dollar companies today. People who started off as window washers own giant MNCs today. That is a learning experience I had. 

The other thing is the way I would interact with customers. When you promise something, it is your obligation to make sure that the customer is not just serviced, but satisfied and delighted. I’ve been able to really understand that and pass it on to my clients. If you have a customer, value that customer - do what you say you are going to do, know their business and when you say you are going to be a partner to them, be one. 

Another thing that I have learned from experience is that this is an industry that separates families. The work schedules and commitments are overwhelming. You could be successful in this business and make profits but if you go home and don’t have anybody to share it with, what have you gained?

There are companies that have second and third generation and that’s great. I thought years ago that we will have arrived as an industry when somebody asks what are your kids going to do and we say they are going to be in the cleaning industry. The day we don’t hesitate to answer that question, is the day we will be a proud industry.