The other day, I emailed a client after we’d finished some periodical work. I wanted to know how it went, so I asked: “What do you think? Were you happy with everything?” They replied: “The carpets look awesome, but the toilets…not so much.” Now, there are some cleaners who might have sent a quick boilerplate apology to appease the client and then moved on. But that’s not how we do things at In-Tec. For more than 30 years, we've remained committed to keeping the promises we make to our clients. So, in this case, I drove to the site the next day to figure out what happened. Turns out, we’d cleaned one set of toilets, but the client had checked another. I explained the mix-up and made sure the team sorted it out that night. The next morning, I emailed the client to let them know it was fixed. It’s hard to know if your cleaner is delivering on their promises. You’re busy running your organisation, and you shouldn’t have to second-guess whether the job’s being done properly. But without accountability—real accountability—you’re just hoping for the best. Unfortunately, accountability isn’t automatic. Your cleaners must make the choice to be upfront about how they’re performing, own their mistakes, and fix things quickly when a mistake is made. But too many cleaning companies avoid tough conversations altogether. They hope you won’t notice when something gets missed, and that’s not good enough. And that’s the problem, isn't it? Accountability is rare in the commercial cleaning industry, which is where our conversation begins.