
Contributed by Adam Povlitz, president and CEO of Anago Cleaning Systems
COVID-19 ushered in an era of remorseless uncertainty, and every industry across the nation continues to grapple with how to address the pandemic safely, while making every effort to keep businesses afloat. This has not been easy, and the commercial cleaning sector has its story of challenges to contend with, as well. With that, commercial cleaning is among the very few industries that can survive and perhaps thrive in this new normal as we move forward to either defeat this virus or apply the best practices to live with it while still moving forward.
In the early days of the pandemic, business closures caused widespread damage to the commercial cleaning industry. Many of the businesses served by commercial cleaning closed up; for a time, they did not need regular facility cleaning services. This strangled the commercial cleaning industry in the short term.
Communication was a challenge, as well. Information about the virus and how to combat it was changing by the minute, leaving strategies and protocols in a perpetual holding pattern as new information and advice were announced almost daily. The other challenge was the inconsistency of information coming in from federal, state and local governments, and from leading health and infectious disease control institutes such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).